Which Router?
 

Hello All, My first post here, So go easy ;)

Ive been through 4 routers in the past month. All of them have been sledge-hammered and sent to Wireless Heaven as they were slightly rubbish (Most of them used), DGN2200, DG834N, N1 Vision and another one Ive forgot. Smashed becuase of one problem: CONSTANT wireless dropouts. I live in an area where theres eight 802.11n networks with 3 bars+ signal, and then eight 802.11g networks. All the 802.11n routers smashed kept disconnecting randomly.

The DG834Gv5 (on 54mbit) works perfectley, no disconnections at all, but its slightly rubbish for NAS.

Ive been looking at Netgear DualBand routers (Such as the DGND3700) which seem interesting. My main laptop supports the 5ghz band, my other stack of devices (I wont bore anyone by listing them) work at 2.4ghz :td:

This brings me to a question:
Which 802.11n router is good for an enviroment with a load of other networks? As I work wirelessley 24/7 365, its important that I have wireless and its reliable, as I work all the time on a Technical Support company, and having unreliable wireless is a nightmare.

Ive looked into the DGND3700, but does anyone know if this will make a difference? 802.11g works solidly, but 802.11n doesnt. 16 Networks may be the cause.


Thanks

Aman

Re: Which Router?
 

apple airport extreem is by far the best router i've ever seen

Re: Which Router?
 

The Airport routers are pretty decent stuff, as are the WNDR300 from Netgear, though I'd say the Airport might have slightly better coverage and slightly worse flexibility.

Re: Which Router?
 

Apple Airport extreme if you just want a dual band router

If you want to add a 1 or 2 TB HD as well then the Apple Time Capsule combines airport extreme with a server grade HD

I have the Time Capsule,it has really good Wireless coverage typically 100 yards in a circle from the TC, it switches bands automatically as a device connects so 2.4 will get a 2.4 channel and 5 will get a 5 channel

The HD is designed to work either Wired or wireless, I use it to back up 2 macs via Time Machine so by using a TC you get a very reliable wireless device and a wireless hard Drive

I have 13 active networks near me (see screen shot) and not once in 2 years have I had any problem with the TC getting interference, the TC or Airport Extreme are a bit more money but quality always is, either of these options will not let you down :cool:

Re: Which Router?
 

Yes, But will they be suitable for full usage and setup with Windows-Based computers? As I like to have full flexability over the network, and I dont have a mac... (Sorry if its a stupid question - I used to think Apple Routers are designed with Macs in mind, with Windows-Pc's just being things that connect onto the network)

Re: Which Router?
 

Well I have a mixed network, 4 apple devices and a Windows PC

My iMac and my Windows 7 PC are connected directly to the TC the others are wireless connections, I can see and access the TC from my Windows PC

I think its the set up that differs on a Widows device, with a Mac we use Airport extreme (part of the OS) to set up the TC

With a windows PC "Airport Extreme for Windows" comes on the DVD of programs included with the TC

The set up Guide for the TC is HERE

Re: Which Router?
 

Sorry, but contrary to Apple's marketing, the Time Capsule does not have a server grade HD in it. It's actually a low-speed eco desktop drive.

Re: Which Router?
 

Wow!!!! :shocked:

Are you saying Apple are misleading customers about this as per their tech spec HERE

I would appreciate your source of information on this, because one of the reasons I purchased my TC was my believe the HD was server grade,

And I will take it up with the Apple Store, if you can give me that information I would be grateful thanks in advance

Re: Which Router?
 

Yes, they are deliberately misleading customers.

See here or here. Notice the dates on the articles, it's been going on for years.

Re: Which Router?
 

Thanks for that

The second article seems to be against the HD in the generation 1 in 2008

The first article is more recent and would be against the generation 3/4 TC but of course with a rider that the opinion is subjective,

I have the generation 3 so that subjective opinion would apply to my TC, I had hopped for a more definitive opinion as there are many Apple critics out there

So I guess I will go with Apple's description as in honesty I have never had one piece of Apple gear that as given me a moments problem, so I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt

The last ten years of my working life was in IT Training, technical writing, and PC and Mac support, and supporting Mac's was a joy so easy, but supporting Windows was the opposite, so I suppose I have a bias

Thanks for the info I appreciate that :cool:

Re: Which Router?
 

The second article might not be about first generation, according to Wikipedia the first generation actually did use a server-grade drive (Seagate Barracuda ES), while the latest (on the first article) uses a WD Green drive. Almost all generations in between have used Hitachi DeskStar drives, yours probably does as well. Note that the "Desk" in Deskstar stands for desktop, not server. That said I've used Deskstar drives in server scenarios for a decade and they've been the most reliable desktop drives I've ever come across.

Still, the manufacturers of the drives themselves (of all but the first generation) explicitly sell these drives as non-server drives, so it's still misleading advertising.

But at the end of the day it depends if yours breaks or not - if it does, it's covered under Apple's warranty regardless of what they put in it. And I expect they're well prepared for supporting people who've used it as a server given it's marketed as a server, and have the support to back it even if the drive manufacturers won't.

Re: Which Router?
 

Yes quality observation

Hopefully I will be fine, appriciatte all your comments :cool: