Wireless Routers
 

So i need to buy a new router, this ones driving me nuts. I live in a basement suite and my landlord has an old dlink that just isnt cutting it (dropping connection ect)

Does anyone have any knowledge about the different ones that are out there right now? I dont know that much about them but im willing to spend a few hundred dollars to get a fast reliable connection to everything in the house.

Thanks for any suggestions!

I use an Asus RT-N65U which is awesome, it's around $140.

I just bought a RT-N66U from ncix a couple weeks ago. Well worth the money, no more connection losses between my apex and my access point.

thanks guys will be looking at that model

This will be cheaper than constantly creating a hotspot with the iphone :mrgreen:

I have a ea4500 linksys JUNK!!!! runs hot, have to use a timer to reboot it everyday even with a fan blowing on it 24/7

Ask the landlord to buy a powerline ethernet adapter..... Should work provided the electrical doesnt end in the breaker box

Tried one of those when i lived at a different complex, wasnt impressed not only from performance, but also the price was close to a new router :\

yikes, linksys was another i looked at but ill prob order an asus next week, ncix has it listed as a top ten seller with mostly positive reviews.

If you buy an Asus router watch out. Some of them have a habit of corrupting firmware when they get a power surge, turned off via the on/off button on the back or get rebooted through the web interface. Get one from NCIX and test it during the first 30 days when you can get an exchange instead of having to send it back to Asus for an RMA.

Suggest staying away from Netgear routers. Set up is easy, but accessing it after words with the password to make changes locks you out.

How would I go abouts quickly testing it?

Personally, I went through numerous routers over a period of a couple years. They would all fail and give me problems after 14 or 18 months. Netgear, Belkin, others. I splurged and bought an Apple Airport base station and haven't looked back. It's been running flawlessly for something like 5 years now. Well worth the money.

Do yourself a favor, before you spend money on new hardware make sure that this one configured properly. On your laptop (or any computer with a WiFi adapter) download and install INSSIDER from this location http://www.metageek.net/support/down...er-for-home%2F

Run it, you will see all of the wireless networks within range of you and what channel they're on. I suspect that most of them will be on channel 6 (which yours is probably on) and they are clobbering your connection. Find the best channel (1, 6, or 11) with the least amount of traffic on it and change your router to that channel, will probably take care of your issues.

Thanks but already tried :\ At my old complex switching channels seemed to help quite abit, but here ive had no luck. Still hoping a new router will be a fix all.

The Airport Extreme doesn't lose connection constantly or get overwhelmed by requests. But the range on it does suck quite a bit. I can't get reliable internet unless I'm within 10 feet of it.

That's weird. Mine is fine in my apartment from the one end it's in to my bedroom 50 feet away through a couple walls. And it worked fine in the the townhouse I used to live in when it was in the basement and I used my laptop on the third floor in the bedroom.

And the new taller airports have even better antenna.

Maybe you have interference from something else? I find my microwave interferes with it a lot.

I have a brand spanking new Airport, the tall version, and I'm not really impressed with its coverage. My house may be a bit bigger than your apartment but with other routers I've had there haven't been any issues.

My microwave only runs when I'm standing in front of it so it's not likely what's causing my issues.

I would try giving it a reboot command from the user interface. If no probs then try cycling the power by the switch on the back. If no probs then disconnect the power cable to simulate a power failure. If the firmware doesn't get corrupted ie you still get internet when it comes back on then it is fine.

Cheers,
Tim

Thanks for the tip!

I looked at the apple airport but decided ill prob stick with the asus.
The RT-N66U is on sale at ncix for 150 bucks until the 25th.

Just hooked up the asus and holy crap this thing is night and day from the old dlink. Great signal strength on all devices even going through multiple walls and a well isolated floor. I got the netgear adapter online but cant log on to the apex for some reason. Maybe because the asus has uses adresses 192.168.1.xxx and the dlink used 192.168.0.xxx....... this might be complicated now because i dont have the actual display controller with my apex system, i have my weekend project.

Figured it out... had to use the Apex Browse Utility to find change the address to 192.168.1.xxx format. You are able to change it by plugging the ethernet cable directly into the computer, phew.

Keep us posted, I'd like to know if the asus maintains a good signal, I'm tired of rebooting my linksys, sometimes 3 times a day.

The ASUS is a rock solid unit with stock firmware. Over the years I've become somewhat of an ASUS fanboy, as all of the hardware has been ultra reliable for me.

Cal_stir, depending on what model Linksys you have, many of the WRT54G series routers are very popular to update with DD-WRT -- it's a 3rd party firmware that turns a crummy router into a not so crummy router. Depending on how techy you are, it may interest you

Mine is not on the compatibility list, but I might try it just before I go out and buy an Asus, then if it crashes, no biggy.
This linksys runs really, really hot, I've got it on a laptop cooling pad that helps a bit.

for most of the routers there is a fix that was mentioned, the channel you are on, get a program like inSSIDer, it will show you all the channels being used in your area and signal strength. for me after 5 years of fighting (and 4 routers later) I finally can watch movies on netflix. I changed my channel, moved the location of my wireless router, went to a more narrow band in the router settings and then finally I changed my wireless protocol from b,g,n to just g.

I did a lot of reading out there and so many routers and adapters don't handle n very well.

now I have 3 routers that are perfectly good, i just didn't know how to apply custom settings before.

Steve

The router works OK, fast and good range compared to my old netgear, but I have to reboot it at least once a day, so I have a timer to do it at night but still have to reboot often.
I googled it and I'm not the only one rebooting this router, a lot of complaints out there.