Need a new wireless router

Anders0n · 4 Nov 2008 at 17:00

What's the best wireless router you can get for cable?

We've got a Netgear WGR614v4 atm and the speed leaves a lot to be desired, even when it's on the same floor as the laptop.

Just looking at the site quickly and noticed this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...WPN824 108Mbps RangeMax Wireless Cable Router

Is that any good? What is Wireless-N? Would that work with the existing wireless card in the laptop?

Speed is the main priotity, just want one which is as fast as a cable if possible.

Many thanks!

Skidilliplop · 4 Nov 2008 at 17:17

Wireless N is a new standard ontop of a b and g to support the latest speeds and enhanced features. All the 2.4GHz standards are backwards compatable. (b,g,n)
Though if your cards only run g there's not much point getting anything faster until you replace the cards. It'll only be a waste of money.

Anders0n · 4 Nov 2008 at 19:06

So what's the best of the rest then? would that Netgear I linked to be any good?

Margaret · 4 Nov 2008 at 19:14

I'm quite liking my WRT54GS, put dd-wrt firmware on and working very nice.

I bricked it at first though and nearly threw it away, managed to flash it via tftp luckily!!

www.dd-wrt.com

tolien · 4 Nov 2008 at 19:24

WRT54GL's what you want if you're going to put Tomato/DD-WRT on it.

Margaret · 4 Nov 2008 at 19:32

tolien said:
WRT54GL's what you want if you're going to put Tomato/DD-WRT on it.

Heard others say this, what exactly is the difference? Easier to flash or so?

tolien · 4 Nov 2008 at 19:58

The GL runs linux, the rest run VXWorks. More flash, more memory, significantly easier to flash.

Anders0n · 4 Nov 2008 at 23:00

I just want one I can plug in and it'll be uber fast out of the box, budget isn't really an issue.

tolien · 4 Nov 2008 at 23:17

Define "uber fast" - what adapters have you got?

Anders0n · 5 Nov 2008 at 00:02

Laptop with an internal wireless card, has a,b and g bands I believe, that's it.

Our current router just can't cut it even on the same floor!

Skidilliplop · 5 Nov 2008 at 10:54

I'd Second the linksys GL or GS. I personally have a GSv4 and it's been rock solid for going on 4 years now. Still on default firmware. Though if you plan to host things the GL is better as with linux underneath you can do more clever things with Multiple WAN IPs and host services on the router itself.

tolien · 5 Nov 2008 at 16:40

The third party firmware and extra RAM means the GL will likely be more stable too, bearing in mind it's virtually identical to your GSv4...

spider2003 · 6 Nov 2008 at 13:02

Is the router (WRT54GL) still linux based even in its latest versions?

bledd · 6 Nov 2008 at 13:15

WRT54GL, the 'L' means linux

flash with Tomato firmware

spider2003 · 6 Nov 2008 at 20:18

bledd. said:
WRT54GL, the 'L' means linux

flash with Tomato firmware

Thanks for the reply, bledd. I could not find WRT54GL. I found these models:

WRT54G2
WRV200
WRT150N

Is any of the above compatible with the Tomato firmware?

tolien · 6 Nov 2008 at 22:58

Here.

Some of the firmware should work on the WRT*N routers but it's very patchy, depends on hardware version, and some of the "extra" features (USB storage etc) might or might not work.