Router Recommendations

Geod

I'm looking for a new wireless router for my new apartment. I previously had a Linksys WRT54G, but it's wireless signal doesn't reach into my living room and requires random reboots at times. The firmware had been updated on it. So what router would you all recommend? I don't need anything special, just a good wireless router with at least 4 ports on it for under $80.

Also, if you know how good Cox Communications is, let me know. Thanks!

AtomBomb

I'm still using an 802.11b router, so I can't speak to that. As far as Cox goes, I've had really good luck. I've had it for quite awhile now (got it as soon as cable was available) and it's always been reliable and fast. At first it was fast because I think I was the only one in my zip code with it, but after a year or 2 it slowed down slightly. However, they recently did something to up the bandwidth, and it's super fast again. Also, their techs are usually nice and they never try to sell you shit. I used to work for AOL, and we always tried to sell people stuff they didn't need. "Well, it looks like your DSL isn't going to work after all, sorry about the 3 hour hold times, wanna buy some magazines?"

Feral

If a WRT54G didn't reach to your living room, there's little chance any other sub-$100 out-of-the-box router will, either.

You'll need either a signal booster or a better antenna.

Geod

Feral wrote: »

If a WRT54G didn't reach to your living room, there's little chance any other sub-$100 out-of-the-box router will, either.

You'll need either a signal booster or a better antenna.

Well, you'd think a router would be able to send a reliable signal 20 feet or so past maybe 1 wall. Is that too much to ask? My roommates and I theorized that our refrigerator was blocking the signal, but I have no idea.

Feral

Geod wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

If a WRT54G didn't reach to your living room, there's little chance any other sub-$100 out-of-the-box router will, either.

You'll need either a signal booster or a better antenna.

Well, you'd think a router would be able to send a reliable signal 20 feet or so past maybe 1 wall. Is that too much to ask? My roommates and I theorized that our refrigerator was blocking the signal, but I have no idea.

Depends on the composition of the wall.
Edit: and if your fridge was in the way that could have blocked the signal, too.

SeñorAmor

Geod wrote: »

Feral wrote: »

If a WRT54G didn't reach to your living room, there's little chance any other sub-$100 out-of-the-box router will, either.

You'll need either a signal booster or a better antenna.

Well, you'd think a router would be able to send a reliable signal 20 feet or so past maybe 1 wall. Is that too much to ask? My roommates and I theorized that our refrigerator was blocking the signal, but I have no idea.

Wireless G has great speed but horrible range, and it's even worse if you don't have line of sight. $100 says if you drop your router to B, you'll have no connection problems.

gneGne

Yeah, I also need advice on just a good all-round router.

The Cat

I'm using a Belkin with no problems, although it gets a bit warm and occasionally needs a hard reboot to solve a refusal to connect with my laptop after its been sleeping. Dunno what's going on there... anyway, it was AU$70.

The fam are using a D-link which works fine, but I've also heard pretty bad things about them from other sources. Seems like they're a bit of a gamble.

Nocturne

Wow, I'm not going to point fingers or criticize, but I've seen some horrible advice in this forum and I wonder where the hell these ideas come from.

Wireless G is excellent for range and some MIMO G Routers can easily reach 1000 feet.

I've had excellent luck with both This router and this one. You don't have to get them off Newegg as most retail electronics stores will carry them. I tend to prefer those two Netgear ones over the 54mb Linksys (standard or speed booster) due to much better range for around the same price or cheaper.

And range expanders / high gain antennes are usually a huge waste of money with very few (business grade) exceptions. It is usually much more cost and range effective to simply buy a higher range router than either of those.

That's my advice from setting up networks as part of my job, have done hundreds of 'em and used many different routers. The linksys one you have should easily reach a hundred feet or more. My guess is either 1) it's old/broken, which happens often, 2) something is blocking the signal, which the MIMO netgear would take care of.

Geod

Nocturne wrote: »

Wow, I'm not going to point fingers or criticize, but I've seen some horrible advice in this forum and I wonder where the hell these ideas come from.

Wireless G is excellent for range and some MIMO G Routers can easily reach 1000 feet.

I've had excellent luck with both This router and this one. You don't have to get them off Newegg as most retail electronics stores will carry them. I tend to prefer those two Netgear ones over the 54mb Linksys (standard or speed booster) due to much better range for around the same price or cheaper.

And range expanders / high gain antennes are usually a huge waste of money with very few (business grade) exceptions. It is usually much more cost and range effective to simply buy a higher range router than either of those.

That's my advice from setting up networks as part of my job, have done hundreds of 'em and used many different routers. The linksys one you have should easily reach a hundred feet or more. My guess is either 1) it's old/broken, which happens often, 2) something is blocking the signal, which the MIMO netgear would take care of.

Thanks for the advice - I usually buy off of Newegg anyways, but may just grab one at Best Buy for convenience. What do you mean by MIMO though? Which one is that? Thanks.

Nocturne

Geod wrote: »

Nocturne wrote: »

Wow, I'm not going to point fingers or criticize, but I've seen some horrible advice in this forum and I wonder where the hell these ideas come from.

Wireless G is excellent for range and some MIMO G Routers can easily reach 1000 feet.

I've had excellent luck with both This router and this one. You don't have to get them off Newegg as most retail electronics stores will carry them. I tend to prefer those two Netgear ones over the 54mb Linksys (standard or speed booster) due to much better range for around the same price or cheaper.

And range expanders / high gain antennes are usually a huge waste of money with very few (business grade) exceptions. It is usually much more cost and range effective to simply buy a higher range router than either of those.

That's my advice from setting up networks as part of my job, have done hundreds of 'em and used many different routers. The linksys one you have should easily reach a hundred feet or more. My guess is either 1) it's old/broken, which happens often, 2) something is blocking the signal, which the MIMO netgear would take care of.

Thanks for the advice - I usually buy off of Newegg anyways, but may just grab one at Best Buy for convenience. What do you mean by MIMO though? Which one is that? Thanks.

My bad, I thought that MIMO was somewhere in the model description of the second one (the $79 one). MIMO stands for Multiple In Multiple Out technology, basically you have multiple wireless connections coming from multiple antennas for added speed and stability. It's for honing in on signals and hitting dead spots, so should solve your problem. What's funny is that some of the MIMO routers can get transfer speeds many times faster than a 10/100 wired connection.

All major brands have MIMO routers, and actually the Linksys and D-Link ones are pretty damn fine ones, they're just almost twice the price.

AtomBomb

A fridge could definitely block the signal. As far as I know, radio signals can not pass thru sheet metal (which your fridge is, basically). If you were getting a signal with a piece of sheet metal between you and the router before, it was probably because it was bouncing of something else.

I had this problem at work with a G router. Signal was shit or non-existent. Distance was maybe 150'. Couldn't figure it out until I realized there was a 6" iron pipe about 2' from the computer, directly in the path from the computer to the router. I moved the pc a few inches to the left and no more problems. The signal still has to go thru a few layers of drywall, along with maybe 10 bookcases, and a solid wood door, but that just degrades the signal slightly.

BoomShake

I've got myself one of these Buffalo WHR-HP-54G routers. It's got a built in amplifier. Out of the box, these less expensive routers are all so-so, but installing something like dd-wrt firmware instead of the standard crap VASTLY increases performance, speed, and seems to increase signal a bit, as well as adds infinitely more configurable settings, neat features, and diagnostic tools to the router. I once had a shitty netgear router that would always overheat with bittorrent, crash randomly, and have pretty bad signal for a computer that's literally 10 feet away with more or less line of sight. After switching to that Buffalo router with dd-wrt, awesome times have been had.

FunkyWaltDogg

I've got the second Netgear router Nocturne recommended, and it's worked great for me. I can get a great signal 30 feet away through several walls.