If you wouldn't get a tp link/belkin what make would you recommend?
TP-Link actually make some alright consumer grade stuff.
I'd quite like to be informed as to why they appear to have a bad rep with a couple of users, rather than "I hate them because they're cheap.".
It's not because they're cheap... the cheaper the better!
What I said was... they suffer from the same problems as other cheapy brands. Yes, a lot of their kit works ok... just as it does with Belkin etc. But the amount of problems are higher than kit you pay what i'd class as 'normal' money for... such as overheating, instability, general failures, short lifespan... etc... I'd put them roughly on par with Belkin and Edimax for uselessness... so that's not a good starting point
When it comes to dealing with an RMA, the amount of time you'll have to spend dealing with them isn't even worth returning the kit & you'll end up spending more money in the long run than if you'd just bought a reasonable router to begin with.
I'd had my fair share of issues with Netgear and Linksys, but compared to Belkin, Edimax and TP Link, the problems are like a drop in the ocean.
If I was buying a 300MBPS N adsl2+ router... I'd pick one of these two:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-187-NG&groupid=46&catid=1595&subcat=
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-115-LS&groupid=46&catid=1595&subcat=
Otherwise I'd just go for something like a Netgear DG834GT... cheap, but reliable. I'm still using my ~4-5 year old one as an access point, along with the old Dlink 615... both replacing the fail-hub's wireless at opposite ends of the house.
Neither the DG834GT or 615 are particularly good routers... but they'll keep going for years. From the other brands I've mentioned above, the amount of kit I've seen struggle to even make 1 year or reliable service is astounding.