Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum
The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.

Routers and the Buying Thereof

HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking ofDammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
edited November 2008 in Help / Advice Forum
My roommate is moving out in a couple weeks, and she will be taking her wireless router with her. I will need to buy a new one. For me -- and everybody I know -- using a wireless router is a constant struggle with dropped connections, power cycling, and hard resets. Linksys, Netgear, Apple AirPort... from my totally anecdotal experience, no brand seems any more reliable than any other. Are there any good wireless routers out there?

Hachface on

Posts

  • mooshoeporkmooshoepork Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    Belkin N+ is the one I'm buying in a week. I researched a fair bit and settled on this.

    mooshoepork on
    Flickr!
    1_s.jpg2_s.jpg3_s.jpg
  • enderwiggin13enderwiggin13 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I've sworn by the Linksys WRT54G series for many years now. There's all sorts of custom firmware out there to let you turn them into a pretty powerful router and even without that they're solid routers.

    You probably don't need an 802.11N router as you'd need a similar 802.11N wireless receiver in whatever is connecting to it to take advantage of any speed boost. Additionally, 802.11G maxes out at 54Mbps which already is absurdly more bandwidth than your ISP will provide. 802.11N jumps up to a 300Mbps max and would likely only be necessary if you stream HD content to a set-top box or something.

    enderwiggin13 on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • DeathPrawnDeathPrawn Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    enderwiggin13 wrote: »
    I've sworn by the Linksys WRT54G series for many years now. There's all sorts of custom firmware out there to let you turn them into a pretty powerful router and even without that they're solid routers.

    Get a WRT54GL and flash it with either DD-WRT or Tomato.

    DeathPrawn on
    Signature not found.
  • PrecursorPrecursor Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    DeathPrawn wrote: »
    Get a WRT54GL and flash it with either DD-WRT or Tomato.

    Precursor on
    Quashdom.png
  • HachfaceHachface Not the Minister Farrakhan you're thinking of Dammit, Shepard!Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    I've heard about DD-WRT and considered installing it on my roommate's router (I honestly don't think she'd ever notice), but I'm scared to death of bricking it. How easy is it to screw up while installing third party firmware?

    Hachface on
  • enderwiggin13enderwiggin13 Registered User regular
    edited November 2008
    As long as you can manage to not unplug the router while applying the firmware you should be ok.

    Also make sure your electricity bill is paid and no cars plan to crash into utility poles in your vicinity while upgrading. :)

    enderwiggin13 on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Sign In or Register to comment.
Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum