Spec me a better Router/Modem/Dongle?

Groog

Groog

Groog

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I have Virgin 50Mb and as such have the modem/router that comes with it.

The Dlink DIR-615 router is crap and most importantly doesn't feature gigabit ethernet.

I am wondering if anyone can suggest a good replacement for it? Is it possible to combine modem and router or do I need to keep the virgin modem as it is a cable service?

The main features I want are Gigabit ethernet to increase the performance of NAS devices and wireless N. Are there any other cool router features I might like?

I also have the wireless N dongle that Virgin provide. Are there superior alternatives to this? I thought the point of wireless N was MIMO. The dongle doesn't seem to have multiple antennas!! What's the point in that?

I'm not looking to buy something on a specific budget, I'm just after some good bang for buck.

As an aside:
The modem is horribly noisy (electromagnetically) and interferes with the audio equipment it is near which annoys me, is this just normal for a modem? I realise there are high speed signals in the modem that cause the noise but it seems like a flaw to emit so much EM noise.

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
You need the Virgin modem to connect to the Virgin network. If yours is causing interference perhaps call up Virgin and see about a replacement. I've not noticed any with mine, maybe it's the audio equipment that's more susceptible to interference?

I agree that the DIR-615 router is crap. I use a Cisco switch (SLM2008) to enable a gigabit ethernet network between computers and it works well.

It's the download performance of the router that's been crap and is steadily getting worse. For example downloaing TDU2 from Steam I was getting a maximum transfer of 500kB/s (4M of the 50M Virgin cable).

When I take the switch and router out of the equation by connecting the modem directly to the network of my PC and rebooting the modem, my speed increases to about 3,363kB/s, 26.9M of my 50M connection. Still not ideal nor constant at that speed (see image below), but I'll put it down to the speed of the TDU2/Steam servers.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

With only the switch removed and the router back in, my download speed dropped to what it was before.

So I too would like to know what routers people recommend.
 
Unless you specifically require dual-band wireless a combination of WZR-HP-G300NH and DD-WRT is absolutely awesome and gives great range
 
Yeah, I'd say my audio equipment is sensitive. I've had a reshuffle of equipment so that the modem is as far as possible from my amp/dac and that seems to be enough to sort that. Although I might wrap foil around it just for fun.

I'm put off by the Dlink 655 purely because it's dlink and this virgin one is terrible.

As for the buffalo router, that looks very nice. Custom firmware floats my boat too!

Does anyone have much experience of dual band? Is it worth it and does it have enough range to be effective when the receiving computer is 2 normal sized rooms away from the router? I'd like to over spec if anything! For example, transferring HD movies wirelessly is painful at the moment (not that I would need to with the NAS in the buffalo router). Would dual band have a significant impact?

Edit: anyone have any opinions on the Asus RT-N56U
http://uk.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=ik8J7ZTvg1uktpab&templete=2
 
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