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Cable Router - £120 to spend

redeye_uk

redeye_uk

redeye_uk

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Hi all.

I need to buy a new Wireless Cable router. My current one is a pile of crap (Edimax 6504n) and needs to be replaced.

I have my eye on Linksys as they have served me well in the past, plus they are owned by cisco who pretty much run the internet - so thats gotta be a good thing! :)

I was looking at this one - WRT320N-UK

Then i noticed it has a bigger brother, the WRT610N. Comparing the two on Linksys web site the only differences seem to be the WRT610N has 'Storage Link' and 'Media Optimized Networking'.

Am I right in thinking the 'Storage Link' is just for connecting a NAS or does it have other uses besides this? Also, is 'Media Optimized Networking' just some marketing spiel or does it have real world benefits?

Or does anyone else have a recommendation?
 
I always buy Netgear networking kit but for no other reason than good experience with them and so many people recommend their products.
Having said that the Linksys WRT320N looks very capable and I think you couldn't go wrong with it.
The WRT620N is a lot of cash so you need to decide if you really need the features such as the USB storage link for memory keys/hard drives/media hub etc. and the simultaneous Dual Wireless-N connections.

Here is a quote from the linksys website about the dual wireless.
"The 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands are designed to work separately yet simultaneously, so you can easily customize your ideal configuration – for example, use the 2.4 GHz band to surf, email and print while keeping the less crowded 5 GHz band free for time sensitive traffic like music, gaming and high-definition video. Built-in Media Optimized Networking technology gives time-sensitive traffic priority, so your media can run more smoothly, with fewer interruptions"
 
redeye_uk said:
they are owned by cisco who pretty much run the internet - so thats gotta be a good thing! :)
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No. No. No. No. NOOOOOOOO.

It might not be a bad router but the fact that Cisco own Linksys have nothing to do with it. None of Linksys's routers run IOS or have any other association with their Cisco brethren.
 
The Linksys above is good but the wireless I found to be average range but has excellent 3rd party firmware available for it. I have the DLink 655 now, which does the job and gives a bit better range. Both are stable.
 
tolien said:
No. No. No. No. NOOOOOOOO.

It might not be a bad router but the fact that Cisco own Linksys have nothing to do with it. None of Linksys's routers run IOS or have any other association with their Cisco brethren.
Click to expand...

My bad. there was a certain degree of naivety in what I originally wrote :)

sid said:
I have the linksys WRT54GL with the linux firmware.

Very very good :)
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I had one of these previously, but my brother took it with him when he moved out. It was hard as nails and never skipped a beat. legendary router for its time.

This time round though i want to get something which supports wireless N, has good range, and has the reliability of the old linksys.

mod1fied said:
I have the Dlink DIR-655 - I cannot fault it TBH.
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rexehuk said:
+1 Take it from a guy who has tried MANY routers and had all of them crash on him due the amount of traffic he puts through them. This hasn't died on me once.
Click to expand...

This might fit the bill. I notice OcUK dont stock though? :(
 
rexehuk said:
+1 Take it from a guy who has tried MANY routers and had all of them crash on him due the amount of traffic he puts through them. This hasn't died on me once.
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Oh ok, I'll take it from a guy who doesn't work with corporate networking day in day out.

No, actually, I'll continue to say that the DLINK is turd.
 
paradigm said:
Oh ok, I'll take it from a guy who doesn't work with corporate networking day in day out.

No, actually, I'll continue to say that the DLINK is turd.
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, i seemed to have missed your original post paradigm. What commercial router would you recommend given my budget and requirements?
 
I got a Dlink DIR-655 with my 50Mb, and although it seemed stable, there were not many options to play about with. My advice - Get a WRT54GL. OcUK sell them for about £45
 
Jay said:
I got a Dlink DIR-655 with my 50Mb, and although it seemed stable, there were not many options to play about with. My advice - Get a WRT54GL. OcUK sell them for about £45
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The WRT54GL with Tomato firmware is epic, but it can struggle to maintain 50 megs. If you're on 20 megs or below, get the WRT. If you're not get something with more horsepower imho.
 
What kind of usage does your LAN/WAN get and what speed is your internet?

Ultimately this will be the deciding factor on what router to recommend I guess.

For my 20MB line and ultra heavy usage I needed Gigabit, Wireless N, excellent QOS, the option to have 5GHz N-band in the near future, a very stable WAN<>LAN connection and a router that didn't care how may multiple connections were being done - the only answer really was the Netgear WNDR3700 but it's a bit more than £120!

Oh and it's also getting DDWRT which is in the works.

I had 2x WRT54GL v1.1 on Tomato and OpenWRT but the 54GL wasn't fast enough for my connection on 54G neither did it have the horsepower for multiple connections. I then had a DIR-655 which disconnected every few days on newer firmware, older firmware was fine but new features and bug fixes on newer ones were needed...

I then had the Sitecom 300N XR which is £105 and worked flawlessly for my needs but it died and was replaced under warranty so I bought the WNDR while waiting and could not be bothered to reconfigure it all again so sold the new Sitecom replacement this week in MM :p
 
Umm, tomato, particularly the raf mod, has far, far better qos than ddwrt and pretty much every stock router firmware (manufacturers like to keep them simple) but the 54gl only sarts to have problems once you're approaching 30mb, for a 20/24mb line they're absolutely fine. *If you want to control your line with the 54gl but need n/gigabit then buy a switch and access point (or gigabit/n router) and plus everything into the switch leaving the 54gl to control the line* Simple things... This is my approach, purely because I use the mac limiting in the raf mod.

However, if you do not need mac limiting then the asus RT-N16 (gigabit/n) is the way to go. Partly because it's ram/cpu are so good, partly because there's a tomato build for it. Don't be phased by the beta label, tomato betas tend to be far more stable than final builds of ddwrt :p
 
Well I've had 2 WRT54GL routers like I said fearing the first had aged fairly well and neither would remain stable on my connection requiring reboots running Tomato and then OpenWRT/DDWRT incase it was the firmwares. Not even the D-Link DIR-655 was stable enough but the Sitecom and and WNDR3700 are the only routers that have been absolutely flawless.

The stock Netgear firmware also gives quite a broad range of control for QOS, filtering and hardware utilisation.

Granted the RT-N16 is a bit cheaper but the reviews show it to have poorer wireless performance unless you're close to it compared to the competition.
 
Agreed, but unlike the netgear it's antennas are detachable externals so directional/high gain can always be added, unlike the netgear which can't be altered. Both have flip sides :)

That said, if you had 2 54gls and a 655 with issues I'd have been looking at the modem/line errors. You culd just be incredibly unlucky though :D
 
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