NA Wireless Router

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
are they all pretty much the same?
Netgear DLink Linksys
what speed (rural area, 10mbps down,need watch netflix etc)
am seeing 54-300.
 
We quit carrying Linksys because they are crap. Netgear and Dlink are good consumer home level routers.

TP-Link is another brand that we have had good luck with. Easy setup and they are fast and have good pricing.

TP-LInk Archer C5 runs ~$105.00 on the interwebs
 
I agree, Linksys overheat. I like Netgear. Go with 802.11AC, as it is backwards compatible and has better range, even for N devices (more power).
 
Be sure to update the firmware to current... they usually come out-of-date.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
are they all pretty much the same?
Netgear DLink Linksys
what speed (rural area, 10mbps down,need watch netflix etc)
am seeing 54-300.
Click to expand...

They're not all the same, but I'm not current on what's good and what's crap right now. They've all fluctuated in quality relative to each other over the years. Current reviews on Amazon are usually a good place to start evaluating. I find their reviews more reliable than most.

Then again, I purchased a TP-LINK router from Amazon that had good reviews, but was such a piece of crap that I had to restrain myself from using it for target practice lest I not be able to return it. Maybe I just got a bad one. I do know that their "24/7" support number wasn't answered -- not even by a robot.

I'd be interested in any current router PIREPs. I'm scheduled from an upgrade in my service from 10/2 to 50/5 this week. Not bad for the middle of nowhere. I'll also be getting basic (local) cable TV service because the upgrade is about $2.00 / month cheaper with the TV service than without it. No one ever said that cable companies were easy to understand...

I will say that my inexpensive Western Digital router that I bought locally as an emergency replacement a year or two ago has been remarkably reliable and fast on the 10/2 connection, and it hasn't barfed on any of the firewalling, port forwarding or other tasks I've asked it to do. It's usually sorting out traffic to and from six to eight devices, including a CentOS server uploading an FFMPEG stream to another server in Chicago, plus heavy Netflix and Prime Video usage in the evenings, plus a few other chores. It hasn't complained even once.

But I do wonder how well it will work with the faster service. If it seems to be sweating under the load, I suppose I'll replace it and retire it to reserve status. I've been looking for an excuse to make the 2+ hour trip to Microcenter anyway.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
They're not all the same, but I'm not current on what's good and what's crap right now. They've all fluctuated in quality relative to each other over the years. Current reviews on Amazon are usually a good place to start evaluating. I find their reviews more reliable than most.

Then again, I purchased a TP-LINK router from Amazon that had good reviews, but was such a piece of crap that I had to restrain myself from using it for target practice lest I not be able to return it. Maybe I just got a bad one. I do know that their "24/7" support number wasn't answered -- not even by a robot.

I'd be interested in any current router PIREPs. I'm scheduled from an upgrade in my service from 10/2 to 50/5 this week. Not bad for the middle of nowhere. I'll also be getting basic (local) cable TV service because the upgrade is about $2.00 / month cheaper with the TV service than without it. No one ever said that cable companies were easy to understand...

I will say that my inexpensive Western Digital router that I bought locally as an emergency replacement a year or two ago has been remarkably reliable and fast on the 10/2 connection, and it hasn't barfed on any of the firewalling, port forwarding or other tasks I've asked it to do. It's usually sorting out traffic to and from six to eight devices, including a CentOS server uploading an FFMPEG stream to another server in Chicago, plus heavy Netflix and Prime Video usage in the evenings, plus a few other chores. It hasn't complained even once.

But I do wonder how well it will work with the faster service. If it seems to be sweating under the load, I suppose I'll replace it and retire it to reserve status. I've been looking for an excuse to make the 2+ hour trip to Microcenter anyway.

Rich
Click to expand...

My shop has had good luck with the TP-Link brand. Granted, i've not tried the 25.00 offerings they have as we mostly carry the AC routers and the "business" class TP-Link equipment and have had good customer reports.

Perhaps you did get a defective unit.
 
pbramlett said:
My shop has had good luck with the TP-Link brand. Granted, i've not tried the 25.00 offerings they have as we mostly carry the AC routers and the "business" class TP-Link equipment and have had good customer reports.

Perhaps you did get a defective unit.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Any recommendations for the needs I described above? Total Internet transfer / month varies between 600 - 800 GB. LAN transfer is minimal except for the video streams (both up and down).

Rich
 
I've got a Linksys router that is about 2 years old and it works fine. I have about 6-7 devices connected to it and use it for streaming Netflix regularly. Simple setup, easy to manage.
 
LevelWing said:
I've got a Linksys router that is about 2 years old and it works fine. I have about 6-7 devices connected to it and use it for streaming Netflix regularly. Simple setup, easy to manage.
Click to expand...

+1. I have had my Linksys much longer than that, and have had little to complain about. Don't plan to change it until I have a good reason to do so.

Dave
 
The guys over at SmallNetBuilder do a good job of testing the bunch and showing where different routers have strengths and weaknesses. With a plethora of wireless devices scattered around my house, I grabbed two Belkins and flashed them to DD-WRT, and they are ethernet connected to an Asus RT-N56U. Two floors covered, wall to wall, with plenty of signal strength. A bit overkill, but most smartphones and tablets are chattering away even when the screen is off. The Asus could handle the 100s of session per device, and the pile of devices (25 clients it tells me - roku, kindle, phones, computers, etc) without crapping itself. Internet is 32/8 and whenever I test I always see full speed.
 
Frankly, I'm largely disappointed. I've tried several Wireless N routers (Netgear, Cisco/Linksys, DLink, 2wire), range extenders, and access points and frankly they all suck.

I'm still trying to find one that isn't a piece of crap. Given the embedded compute power available these days, there's no reason for them to be so horrendously awful.
 
I buy whatever doesn't suck and can run openwrt. I also don't need a wireless router to play router, though... I have a pfsense box doing that
 
The wireless side of my Western Dig router seems to cap out in the high 30's to low 40's speed-wise, which certainly is more than I need. But I'll probably upgrade and keep the current router to replace the current spare. I like having a known-good spare router pre-configured that I can just plug in.

As an aside, I bought the inexpensive Western Dig router locally a year or two ago as a temporary replacement, but it's performed so well that I've kept it in service. I know the reviews on them have been mixed, but mine has been excellent.

I even bought a TP-LINK router that had good reviews (I forget which model it was offhand) and intended to use it as a "permanent" replacement. But apparently it was defective, so I returned it. It wouldn't save its settings. A firmware upgrade didn't solve the problem, either. But I may give them a try again. I'm going to do some research.

Rich
 
mkosmo said:
I buy whatever doesn't suck and can run openwrt. I also don't need a wireless router to play router, though... I have a pfsense box doing that
Click to expand...

I have a sonicwall on the edge at home feeding multiple VLANS into a switch for my VMware lab. For wifi, i have two cisco meraki MR18 APs. One upstairs, one downstairs. The benefit to these APs is they have a third radio that scans for blocked SSIDs and sends disassociate packets to any guest attempting to connect on those SSIDs.
 
RJM62 said:
The wireless side of my Western Dig router seems to cap out in the high 30's to low 40's speed-wise, which certainly is more than I need. But I'll probably upgrade and keep the current router to replace the current spare. I like having a known-good spare router pre-configured that I can just plug in.
Click to expand...

Not sure if you are mix and matching units, when you see high 30's, you mean megabYtes? If so, you are pretty much at the cap of wireless N, 30 MB x 8 bits in a byte = 240 Mb(it).
 
sferguson524 said:
I have a sonicwall on the edge at home feeding multiple VLANS into a switch for my VMware lab. For wifi, i have two cisco meraki MR18 APs. One upstairs, one downstairs. The benefit to these APs is they have a third radio that scans for blocked SSIDs and sends disassociate packets to any guest attempting to connect on those SSIDs.
Click to expand...

+1 for Sonicwall. i have had excellent luck with them. They are kind of at the lower end of business class, but aren't that much more expensive than high end consumer, but seem much more stable. The down side is they can be a bit of a bear to program, if you need more than a default setup.

I have also seen Apple airports that are pretty stable as well.
 
masloki said:
Not sure if you are mix and matching units, when you see high 30's, you mean megabYtes? If so, you are pretty much at the cap of wireless N, 30 MB x 8 bits in a byte = 240 Mb(it).
Click to expand...

Nope, I mean Megabits / second.

Rich
 
Reedster said:
+1 for Sonicwall. i have had excellent luck with them. They are kind of at the lower end of business class, but aren't that much more expensive than high end consumer, but seem much more stable. The down side is they can be a bit of a bear to program, if you need more than a default setup.

I have also seen Apple airports that are pretty stable as well.
Click to expand...

Best part is all the gear was free, as I worked for a Dell/Cisco partner
 
I've heard good things about Ubiquiti.
 
I went through a couple linksys routers over the years. Bought an Apple Airport, and have been problem free ever since. Easy to set up, easy to use, and integrates well with other iOS products. I've since migrated the entire house to Apple hardware.

Via Comcrap cable modem, the hardwired desk top gets 86 mbps downlink and 6 mbps uplink.

My iphone over Wifi through the same router and modem gets 39.4 mbps downlink and 6.37 mbps uplink.

This was just now at 1820 hrs CST in the Houston market.
 
mkosmo said:
They're okay, but can't hold a candle to the Cisco or Aruba options.
Click to expand...
In the commercial/enterprise WiFi AP realm, the Ruckus gear beats the pants off Cisco for high density client situations. I run both brands at my place of employment.
 
Neal Howard said:
In the commercial/enterprise WiFi AP realm, the Ruckus gear beats the pants off Cisco for high density client situations. I run both brands at my place of employment.
Click to expand...
Really? What I've seen from them seemed like nothing more than prettier packaging for the same type of solution... And they struck me as cheap. Maybe a bit more automagic under the hood, but that doesn't really impress me.
 
masloki said:
Not sure if you are mix and matching units, when you see high 30's, you mean megabYtes? If so, you are pretty much at the cap of wireless N, 30 MB x 8 bits in a byte = 240 Mb(it).
Click to expand...

I had some time to do some actual testing and some math, and I am in fact maxing out the router's wireless rated capabilities (actually exceeding them a bit).

The only time it causes a problem is when streaming over the Roku box, which always downloads at the highest rate it can, even when the bitrate is manually overridden in the "secret" menu. That changes the stream selection, but it doesn't change the speed at which it downloads chunks of data. It just does so less often when a lower bitrate is selected. So it doesn't actually "throttle" the connection.

The problem this causes in a nutshell is that it increases the error rate. I also figure that it isn't doing the router any good. But the router works so flawlessly for everything else I need it to do that I'm reluctant to swap it out. It's been entirely trouble-free and has outperformed small-business routers that cost me three times what I paid for it. It also has a lot of settings that I really don't feel like re-creating on a new router.

So I decided to buy a newer Roku box with an Ethernet port instead. I don't care for wireless when wired is an option, anyway, and I have a wired Ethernet jack right behind the TV that the Blu-Ray player was plugged into. The only other device I have that actually needs wireless is my BlackBerry, and that's low-demand. It mainly just checks email. Even my laptop is on a wired connection almost all the time.

While I was on Amazon ordering the Roku, I also ordered an identical router to the one I have that I can configure using a configuration backup from the one already in service. The router is only a consumer-grade Western Dig N600 and is now considered obsolete. I purchased it locally as an inexpensive, "temporary," emergency replacement about two years ago, but left it in service because it works so well. But now that it's officially obsolete, it's dirt cheap (a bit over $20.00 from Amazon), but it still works perfectly well for what I need it to do: except run the Roku box, which will be a non-issue once that's on wired Ethernet.

Having a pre-configured spare is a downtime-prevention strategy. It saves me from a minimum hundred-mile round trip to buy a new one "locally" if the one I have craps out -- and that's assuming that I limit my sources to Wally World, Sam's Club, or Best Buy. To get to and from a "real" computer store like MicroCenter, I'd have to kill the better part of a day in travel.

What I'll probably do is configure and install the new router as soon as it comes in, and use the present one as the spare. It kind of goes against my grain because I've generally avoided consumer-grade stuff in the past. But hey, it works, it's cheap, and having an identical spare reduces downtime to minutes if it fails.

Rich
 
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Funny you mention the spares. I just had a Roku go dark on me and I didn't want to buy another one since wasn't using it all that much. As I was fiddling around in the cabinet, I had the bright idea to try a different wall wart and the roku booted right on up. Makes me think the router I chucked out last year may have had the same issue.
 
Apple at home, Ubiquiti at the office. Neither causes a single problem ever.

If a router/AP can't just sit there and run full data rate all day long, without needing someone to load DD-WRT on it or do anything to it at all, it isn't a router/AP, it's a toy and a joke. Throw it away.

If it does all that and costs four to ten times as much as the competitors who also do it fine, it's a Cisco.
 
I've had 2-3 Linksys routers over the years, and when I think about it, they've all had the same failure mode: Speed drops (especially to the *wired* devices), and I have to power-cycle the router more and more often.

Gonna try something else this time....

Ron Wanttaja
 
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