[OFB Cafe] Best Wireless-N Routers

[Donald Spoon]

Timothy Butler wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>     I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on Wireless N routers? There 
> seems to be no consensus on which ones are actually capable of 
> delivering good performance. Some folks say the Linksys wrt610n is at 
> the top, some people say it is hardly usable. Others claim Apple's 
> Airport Extreme offers the best performance, while others again put it 
> at the very bottom. So it goes.
>
>     It seems like concurrent/simultaneous dual-band (which of those 
> terms you use seems to vary by brand) should be faster, but many 
> reports seem to peg the 2.4 GHz models as working better. The most 
> consistently well rated unit is the D-Link DIR-655, although some 
> people also reported it as extremely warm in operation.
>
>     Thoughts?
>
>     Thanks,
>         Tim
>
A while back, I got the "itch" and bought myself a Netgear 3500v1 
"Rangemax Wireless N" 4-port router.  I have been using it for about 9 
months or so, and am happy with it.  Is it the 'best"?  Dunno... I don't 
have the resources to do comparisons ($$), and it is the only one I have 
ever owned (and probably will be the only one until it breaks)!  I 
suspect most others on this list are in the same boat.  I don't see it 
mentioned on many of the "best" lists on a Google Search, but then I am 
quite suspicious of these lists.  I think they are heavily biased if not 
dishonest in that they were paid off to rate something as "best".

Anyway, what attracted me initially was the following:

1.  4 Gigabyte Ethernet ports in addition to a 5th port "input" Ethernet 
port you can hook up to a DSL / Cable modem.
2.  No External Antennas... just a rectangular box that sits on a 
stand.  Supposedly it has 8 "internal" antennas that are optimized on 
the fly to provide best throughput and range.
3.  Dual Band.  (If you absolutely MUST have the fastest throughput, 
stick with single band, (5Ghz) since there is less "noise" from 
competing wireless routers.
4.  Good reviews from the BestBuy customers where I was going to buy it  
"On Sale".  These reviewers tend to be minimally-informed "users" that 
look at raw performance (does it work for me?) rather than all the 
numbers of the techno-geek-engineers.

The best connection speed I have ever had was 150 Mbps, not the 300 max. 
advertised.   Dunno if it is my laptop or the router.  It still is 3X 
faster than my  old "G" wireless setup.  The "N" link speed is more 
sensitive to distance than the old "G" wireless.  I am sitting on a 
floor between my old WRT-55 GS and the new Netgear 3500, so the distance 
is just about 10-12 feet from each.  I don't get any faster hookup with 
the Netgear if I am sitting right next to it.

The Netgear 3500 has a "cool" set of blue flashing leds around the top 
that reminds me of the original Cylons (the ones with the red strobing 
visor).  It can be turned off, since it only reflects the antenna 
activity, and the leds are not required.  My grandson is fascinated with 
it...

The Netgear has all the config options you could ever want.  Built-in 
firewall, VPN support, UPnP, WAPS2 wireless sucurity, DHSP server, 
dynamic DNS support, etc.  I suppose there is something somebody 
somewhere will need and it isn't in there, but I can't think what it 
is...  Of course, all this flexibility makes setup a bit more difficult 
unless you know what all the options are.  Fortunately, the defaults 
seem to work for most cases and the setup program helps a lot.

I now have this Gigabit LAN, with the fastest wireless access available, 
and I still have the 10 Mbps DSL modem link "bottleneck" to the outside 
world.  I can watch movies off my myth server via wireless, but cannot 
d/l anything any faster than I used to be able to do it over the old "G" 
wireless connection.  Can't give any info about using it in a gaming 
environment.

Overall, I am happy with the investment.

Cheers,
-Don Spoon-