Wireless Router Recommendations

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pastorsoup

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Feb 18, 2005
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I'm wanting to find the best wireless router available under $75. Is there any brand that is traditionally better than others? Any tips or tricks to get the widest range of coverage. Any info would be appreciated.

~Soup
 
To get the widest coverage, you need to wait for the 802.11n standard to be finalized. There's quite a bit of pre-n stuff out there. As long as you buy all your pre-n stuff from the same manufacturer, you shouldn't have problems. But you can't currently mix and match n class wireless yet as there is no official standard. n-class wireless is based on multiple antennas usually abreviated MIMO.

MIMO should improve the operation of b and g wireless too.

Linksys is pretty good as is NetGear and D-Link, though I'd rate Linksys and Netgear higher than D-Link.

Ideally, all the pre-n class gear should be flashable to upgrade to the finalized standard. Ask if there is such an upgrade path. I don't know if that's possible yet.

There is some risk involved in the purchase of pre-n equipment.

Phil
 
i had to look to see what I'm using...it's a netgear router wpn824 v2 I got from best buy. i was looking for one that had enough range for my two story house. I had a belkin pre-n about a year ago that worked great with super coverage but it kind of just failed one day so i needed to get another. I have no problems with this one. Four lines running into it and one wireless macbook connects to it wonderfully. I agonized over which to get then just bought the in-between price one and it's been fine
 
i have both netgear n linksys router, both are good n easy to setup. have a dlink usb wireless that seems to be quite erratic.
 
I have a Linksys. It was easy to set up and so far ( 6 mo) hasn't given me any problems. Word of advice, if your PC is running Vista, Linksys needs a download so that everything works.
 
IEEE is an engineering standards group. 802.11 is the standard for wireless networking. The letters indicate variations/improvements/revisions in the standard, mostly about the frequencies in use, how fast the wireless connection can be and the range.

More details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/802.11
 
Depends on what you're looking for.

If you want the *ultimate* router, buy the Linsys WRT54GL (probably ~$50) and install DD-WRT.

But if you're not tech savvy, you probably aren't going to find a lot of extra use out of something like that. You're probably good with about anything, but if you go really cheap you stand a good chance of buying something that will have a dead radio in not too long.

Fyi, Linksys is the 'home user' counter part to Cisco, the industry standard pretty much.
 
I have both the Linksys and Apple wireless routers in my home. The Apple supports the pre n standard as well as b & g. Both products have functioned error free over the last 6 months.

good luck
Dan
 
I have been very pleased with my Buffalo wireless router. It was inexpensive and took the DD-WRT with no problem.

Definitely do a little searching to find one that uses DD-WRT.
 
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