Need recommendations on a good wireless n router

[Route44]

Long story short: My trusty wired Linksys G router is - I believe - beginning to fail. I have had it for over six years. About a year and a half ago I bought a TrendNet Access Point to provide wireless throughout my house because everyone has a laptop in my family.

On occasion I would have to reboot the access point but now I am finding in the last six weeks that I have to reboot my router more and more. Perhaps the AP is the cause but I don't think so.

In my research I read a real mixed bag of results when it comes Wireless N Routers so I need some solid advice.

Budget: $100 but would love to purchase for less as long as it is good. Be willing to go $125.

Thanks.

 

[gguerra]

Linksys (Cisco) E2000 if you need dual band (2.4 AND 5.8)or E1000 if you need 1 band (2.4). The E1000 can be had new for about $70.. If you don't mind refurbs check these deals out http://dealnews.com/c114/Computers/Networking/b412/Linksys/

 

[Route44]

I'll look into it. Thanks.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

If Gigabit Ethernet isn't a biggie for you, the Netgear N600 can be had for about 80 bucks, and delivers dual-band wireless n speeds.

 

[SNGX1275]

Tarkus (forum member, and in IRC channel) has the D-Link DIR-655 and really likes it.

I have a Linksys WRT-320N which can be flashed to an E2000 so they are pretty much the same. Mine has been giving me issues where wireless speeds slow to a crawl, and sometimes wired speeds do as well. Rebooting the router fixes it, but I'm not happy that this is happening, and it seems to be occurring frequently now after about 10 months of flawless operation.

 

[Tarkus]

I'm not dead yet!

I got the recommendation from Rick. Yes, the DIR-655 is a good wireless router. Some very nice software features. I have even used the status information to troubleshoot a problem with a Roku box that couldn't connect well, and a setting to correct it. I've used it for over a year without any problems. It's an older model so it is cheap, about $70 at Newegg.

 

[tipstir]

Best to get one of the new Belkin with Mult-beam for MIMO so you can get 6dB instead of the 1.6dB which has been standard. N150 dirt cheap but signal is very strong. I know I use that for Android Tablets and Netbooks that use 802.11G @ 20MHz. If you need 802.11N @ 40MHz then the best one out there that's dirt cheap is TP-LINK Ultra Wireless Router. Tack on 3x TP-LINK 5dBi SMA ANT on it then you have one heck of Wireless Router. I know this because that's what I am using. It sports 20dB / 100mW EIRP, Gig ports with 832KB packet buffer.

 

[Route44]

I just wanted to give you guys an update. Before some you could jump in I took advantage of my local Staples who was having a tremendous sale on a Netgear N600 Dual-Band router plus an additional 20% off coupon. I actually stayed within my budget as well.

So far so good. ALL laptops are now connecting and my son's connects with the 5GHz port; glad I upgraded to the Intel 6230 wireless card.

However, what I have noticed is that I am sometimes getting lag with the wired connections; even with Chrome. FireFox still eats memory in version 6.1 but Chrome doesn't. Page loading will hang. it will happen when I am trying answer posts here at TS.

Pardon my ignorance but can a modem become a bottleneck? It is at least 7 years old, still rock solid, but I am wondering if being so old it chokes the signal connection between it and my new router?

Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Never heard of it, but could be possible I suppose.

 

[DelJo63]

Pardon my ignorance but can a modem become a bottleneck? It is at least 7 years old, still rock solid, but I am wondering if being so old it chokes the signal connection between it and my new router?

never seen that happen. more likely a router failure or highjacking.
a) reload the firmware into the router
b) disable Remote Mgmt (port 8080)
c) change the router admin/pwd

Chrome. FireFox still eats memory in version 6.1 but Chrome doesn't.

that's a seperate problem

However, what I have noticed is that I am sometimes getting lag with the wired connections; Page loading will hang. it will happen when I am trying answer posts here at TS.

stalling durring page loading is most frequently a webserver stalling; here's why:

browser click-->request to server
   server finds page and begins reply
   (http/1.1 replies have a length code in the start of the data)
<----
browser gets the length code and begins reading
calculate newSize = lastsizeRequested - lastSizeRecvd
readAgan(newSize)

this will loop until newSize is zero (or stall when nothing else sent and size >0)

Now TS is(has been stable), so I would suspect some add-on or virus is playing with the data stream.

Suggest running Spybot S&D; Mode->advanced
tools->verify the Winsock stack items are all known