Wireless routers that don't suck

[Uncle Erik]

Yeah, I'd also suggest going to third party firmware. I ran one for a couple years without any trouble.

 

[firefox360]

I personally use the Sveasoft WRT54G firmware on my router (believe it's a version 2). It works wonderfully, and allows me to increase signal power up to 251mW versus the standard 28mW. Thats an especially important thing for me, since my house is hell for any wireless signal due to the insulation they use.

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fryguy8 That linksys is probably one of the best units on the market, so if you are having problems with it, you probably need to change channels, get better antennas, or rethink what you are doing with your network. The situation isn't going to improve by getting a different router.

That's what magazine conglomerates would like fellow consumers to beleive, that Linksys are the holy grail(when they are far from)...when I worked tech support Linksys was by far the most problematic router manufacture(mainly the befsr41, I know its wired, but there was another wireless forget the model#), I dunno how many calls I got for sync and no surf and just linksys routers mind you, reboot there router fine, another problem was had to start recomending people to hook there linksys to battery backup (which really isn't a bad idea for everyone to do anyway) For some reason they were loosing there settings like crazy and always calling for config help.

In my experience Netgear and Dlink are the best, I have had my Netgear for 3 years now, both with DSL and Cable and never have had one single issue with it, is an older 802.11 B and I am a good 100 ft from the routher right now (and thats going through numerous walls and the kitchen) and getting a good 70% percent rating on my Cisco aeronet 340...

 

[firefox360]

Quote:

Originally Posted by c0mfortably_numb That's what magazine conglomerates would like fellow consumers to beleive, that Linksys are the holy grail(when they are far from)...when I worked tech support Linksys was by far the most problematic router manufacture(mainly the befsr41, I know its wired, but there was another wireless forget the model#), I dunno how many calls I got for sync and no surf and just linksys routers mind you, reboot there router fine, another problem was had to start recomending people to hook there linksys to battery backup (which really isn't a bad idea for everyone to do anyway) For some reason they were loosing there settings like crazy and always calling for config help. In my experience Netgear and Dlink are the best, I have had my Netgear for 3 years now, both with DSL and Cable and never have had one single issue with it, is an older 802.11 B and I am a good 100 ft from the routher right now (and thats going through numerous walls and the kitchen) and getting a good 70% percent rating on my Cisco aeronet 340...

Adding to that, the reason why the WRT54G has becomed so popular, was because of a flaw in the "Ping" utility within the router I believe, that allowed people to install their hacked firmwares.

 

[Fiola]

ping utility hack? I havent heard anything like that before.

as far as i know, its popular because the firmware is open source,
they used embedded linux for the real time os on the thing, and thus the firmware had to be opened up to the public, in which people disected and added a bunch of stuff to.

There are some very very neat things you could do with the linksys wrt54g series, too bad Linksys decided to kill it off and use vxworks instead for the os for the new versions.

 

[device manager]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiola There are some very very neat things you could do with the linksys wrt54g series, too bad Linksys decided to kill it off and use vxworks instead for the os for the new versions.

It's not dead. The current Linux version is the WRT54GL.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trains are bad I have a Linksys WRT45G, I think, anyway, Bittorrent locks it up under serious anime filching, and even otherwise it likes to drop down to 24mbps and my music on this laptop cuts out even though I'm only 15 feet away in the same room. So, what's a good router?

I was in the same situation as you, I went through several routers, suffice to say, myself and others have found the router that works is the Linksys DGL-4300. Although pricey, it has a great feature list, the only wireless router with 1 gigabyte ethernet (I believe) and elsewise some cool features. It does not have any bittorent problems with me like my linksys & low name company routers did.

 

[Edwood]

I have the D-Link DGL-4300, and it is the best router I have used thus far.

It's interface is overly featured and not very user friendly, but once you figure it out, it's pretty much set it and forget it.

I've played an online game and was letting Bit'T hammer away, and narry a hiccup in the gaming. Wow.

The gigabit ports are a real bonus.

The blue LED's are hella bright, really wish they had toned that one down.

 

[Edwood]

Oh, and be sure to use the program Peer Guardian if you port foward.

 

[JaGWiRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edwood I have the D-Link DGL-4300, and it is the best router I have used thus far. It's interface is overly featured and not very user friendly, but once you figure it out, it's pretty much set it and forget it. I've played an online game and was letting Bit'T hammer away, and narry a hiccup in the gaming. Wow. The gigabit ports are a real bonus. The blue LED's are hella bright, really wish they had toned that one down.

Same, it is the only router which I can bit and game with. Also, this is the ONLY router I have tried yet that was friendly with live, and didn't give me any problems connecting to PDZ matches and stuff.

 

[shuy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fyleow Yes, the Linksys WRT54G V5 really is a lousy router. The WRT54G used to be an excellent router but the newer versions have been pretty bad. I suggest you get the WRT54GL version and try a 3rd party firmware. I've been using DD-WRT with mine and I have never experienced any lockups. I do heavy Bit Torrent and DD-WRT reports having over 1000+ active IP connections. I've never had to power cycle and it is rock solid with great features like quality of service.

good news for V5 owners, u can now use the DD-WRT firmware! i've just flashed it, and it solves many of its problems, including P2P slowdown.

http://www.bitsum.com/openwiking/owb...T54G5%5FCFE#h7

 

[sschell]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shuy good news for V5 owners, u can now use the DD-WRT firmware! i've just flashed it, and it solves many of its problems, including P2P slowdown. http://www.bitsum.com/openwiking/owb...T54G5%5FCFE#h7

Unfortunately, you can only use the "micro" version of the software, since the WRT54G has less RAM, than the WRT54GL. The WRT54G has less RAM because the firmware it ships with requires less than the previous linux-based versions.

Your bittorrent problems seem to be pretty common for people with the WRT54G, judging from other comments I've seen.

Good luck with the new firmware, open source is always a good choice.

 

[sschell]

Sorry, double post.

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaGWiRE I was in the same situation as you, I went through several routers, suffice to say, myself and others have found the router that works is the Linksys DGL-4300. Although pricey, it has a great feature list, the only wireless router with 1 gigabyte ethernet (I believe) and elsewise some cool features. It does not have any bittorent problems with me like my linksys & low name company routers did.

Linksys is not the only gigabyte router...Dlink has one and was the first to the market model# is DGL-4300