[NBLUG/talk] Recommendations for a wireless router?

Grant Bowman grantbow at gmail.com
Wed Mar 24 00:10:05 PDT 2010


I don't know the environment of the person posting originally but here
is what I look for these days.

The type of wifi cards & adapters in use might determine whether an
802.11n router is worthwhile or not.  A fast router with slow wifi
adapters on the computers is often a waste depending on balancing your
price/performance and future needs.  If you can, do string a wire
instead of wifi - it's more secure and MUCH faster.  Right now I use
several Linksys WRT54GL routers (currently $58.54 from Amazon) with
OpenWRT and like them a lot.  I prefer to avoid the DD-WRT violations
of the GPL as explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT

I don't have any hands on experience with other, newer Linksys/Cisco
products.  It seems the upgrade Amazon offers for a Cisco N product is
WRT160NL for $95.81.
http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WRT160NL-Wireless-N-Broadband-Compatible/dp/B0028N6VLE
 The L is in the name but they don't talk about Linux.  This is also
not a dual-band unit, only 2.4 GHz from what I see.  I am glad they
decided to use external antennas again for use with these cheap and
highly effective parabolic reflectors I make from manilla folders and
some aluminum foil.
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

As mentioned prices for N gear have been high and compatibility has
been an issue so far.  The 802.11n spec was published in October,
2009.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009  I hope
companies adjust, compete and that the supply & demand curves will
provide less expensive and more capable consumer products soon.  First
hand reports & firmware compatibility are important.

If you are in a crowded wifi environment, one advantage of a dual-band
N router is that it uses both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands.  The 5 GHz band
can help avoid conflicts, but not all N equipment can use both bands.

One option that I just found is an open source "L" AP/router from
Netgear.  I used to have good luck with Netgear but I now think that
for all companies the price/performance varies with each particular
model.  In this case, Netgear paid a commercial company to create a
website http://www.myopenrouter.com/ to advertise the WNR3500L but
it's not dual-band, only 2.4 GHz.  For dual-band that they ask you to
spend more for the WNR3700.  Both are available from Amazon.  The
WNR3500L is $99.99 and the WNR3700 (no L) is $159.99.

One feature I like is gigabit (1,000 Mbit) ethernet ports.  Most units
have 10/100 Mbit.  For wired uses this can be nice but might not
matter to you.  One feature I see more of is the addition of a USB
port for network storage.  This might be important to you but it isn't
to me.

One thing I'm pretty certain of, there's margins in all the confusion.

Grant



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