Recommend me a router on a 20mb connection

[funkyCable]

Hi,

I'm looking at getting a new router as my current router does not allow me to utilise the full 20mb connection when I use the wireless network but if I wire it I can use the full 20mb.

I will be streaming movies and audio from my pc to my laptop and Xbox360 so I was thinking of maybe getting an N router and then upgrading my PC's usb 11g to N at a later stage.

Could you recommend any routers?

[Pushkar]

I do like the Apple one's, I currently have an Apple Airport - this one is Wireless N although with most routers, your network is only as fast as your slowest ones - so if your running a g adapter or even a b, it will be reflected as only that.

It's a good idea to upgrade your pc's usb to a n-adapter, on the XL package you can get one of those netgear wireless n sticks for just £25 from VM, so that's a decent offer there, the wireless n router is also £25 addon, so if your looking for a cheap one, go for the netgear one from VM.

Back to Apple, I have the Airport Express, it's quite a small piece of kit but so powerful - it supports upto 5ghz wireless N compared to that VM 2.4ghz frequency, so the Apple one is better, but if you have no need for speeds higher than 20mb then you should be okay.

With the Apple ones, you can also network a printer so you can share across the printer, and also wirelessly stream music to the router to connect to a pair of speakers!

They are on the expensive side, with the Express model coming in at £79, while the higher spec one (dual band, so you can run G and N mode and get the best speeds even on older laptops you may have without a N adapter). Setup guest networking and stuff like that comes in at £139.

But as I've mentioned previously, depends on whether your the type of person that will splash the cash for something that will last a while, or just looking to get a cheap medium one to replace every year or so.

[funkyCable]

How good is the one netgear at VM is offering? How good is the usb one they offering too?

[Pushkar]

The USB is a must have in my opinion, it's not bad and for the price your getting a good deal - as for the router, many are having problems with reaching full speed with 50mb, but if you want to be set for the future, possible 50mb upgrade or so, then there are other options to try.

[funkyCable]

Do you know what the model numbers are for them and I'll google to see what other reviews have to say about them.

[AndyCambs]

Originally Posted by funkyCable

Do you know what the model numbers are for them and I'll google to see what other reviews have to say about them.

I already looked !
Netgear WNR2000

[funkyCable]

and the usb?

[AndyCambs]

Originally Posted by funkyCable

and the usb?

I think it's the WN111 by the looks of it.

[CHiLL]

I'd always advise a Linksys WRT router.

[100meg]

Originally Posted by CHiLL

I'd always advise a Linksys WRT router.

I would second that as a better choice that any other router made for home users

as the truth is there all crap and with limited memory or cpu and fold under heavy load eg bitorent maxed

it all ways go for a buissness/ enterprise class router

our a linux box eg say smoothwall if on a budget

[funkyCable]

any specific WRT model?

[CHiLL]

I'd advise this one:

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRT54GL

It allows you to update the routers firmware to TOMATO or DD-WRT. You may not need to, but it can be better for advanced users, for things such as torrenting, gaming, etc.

[funkyCable]

I do like the idea of open source firmware but is it future proof being a G router? Any N routers?

[popper]

if you want "future proof" you could aways go and get a few of these http://www.wifi-stock.com/details/ubiquity_rs.html RouterStation motherboards at 44.66€ and populate seperately at more cost OC, with your choice of (upto3) miniPCi radio's

the key points for this (wireless) router motherboard being the far better grade of CPU onboard than the tat thats inside all so called consumer grade router UK sales such as VM etc sell you (OC its sold,before someone tryed and currect it, what do you think £50 of the £80 installation fee, Plus the initial one months pre-payed 50Mbit VM BB fee OC..., is for), and bigger memory footprint onboard as a generic thing.

OC Atheros MIPS SOC are not your far better industrial grade PPC+Altivec SIMD (powerPC) based router SOC/CPU ,but at 680MHz ,they are more than good enough for your average SOHO/larger home networks for low power use.

although the current and upcoming microPC motherboards are getting there, RouterStation motherboards still seem to have the edge as you get real power and future proofing as long as there are 11n ,Wimax and related mini PCi cards made available for them and the Linux OS drivers to match....

"Over all system configuration

• CPU Atheros AR7161 MIPS 24K running @ 680MHz
  
• MEMORY DDR 64MB
• FLASH SPI 16MB
• Three MINI-PCI Slots supports Type IIIA
• One USB 2.0 Host
• One UART

"
infact the only down side seems to be they are only 10/100 fast ethernet ports, not todays generic 1000/1gig ethernet router ports, your wise to be buying today....


http://wiki.ubnt.com/wiki/index.php/RouterStation
"
RouterStation Software Specs

RouterStation ships with OpenWRT Kamikaze. Ubiquiti only provides limited support for the software, but full support for the hardware.

All documentation for the use of OpenWRT can be found at the following website:
http://downloads.openwrt.org/kamikaze/docs/openwrt.html
Please look forward to a quick setup guide for a single radio setup.
"

its odd though , given the Pro nature of these boards and supplyers, they DONT seem to carry 11n miniPCI radio's or even list them, but we know they exist as they are in a LOT of laptops today... and senao/EnGenius make one or two...

---------- Post added at 12:07 ---------- Previous post was at 11:53 ----------

Originally Posted by CHiLL

I'd advise this one:

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRT54GL

It allows you to update the routers firmware to TOMATO or DD-WRT. You may not need to, but it can be better for advanced users, for things such as torrenting, gaming, etc.

you can advise these old 11G ONLY routers all you want but your NOT ever going to get more than 20Mbit out of them over the wireless connections with uncompressable binary torrent files and the like, more like 15Mbit or less MAX with that low grade CPU/SOC inside.

only upper mid and high range 11N routers with better CPU's (you need to check the real PCB board spec ,forget the brand sticker on the outside) can really cope with the 50Mbit VM and all security options turned on.

but just about all 11N's will manage upto 60Mbit/s (11n to 11n only, with NO 11g/b wirelessly connected) if your careful with your security options, but that takes time to get your head around, and get right, on a place by place install....

[funkyCable]

Hi popper,

I think thats a bit to extreme for me I dont want to be building my own router from scratch. All I want to have is to be able to surf the internet at my full 20mb connection(of course I understand that this would only happen if only one device is turned on and using the connection which is almost 99% chance in my house as its myself and on rare occasions my wife.) and be able to stream my media to my xbox360 and my second laptop from my desktop.

I quiet like the idea of some routers having USB storage slot for external usb HDD or other portal storage. I dont have an external HDD but might get one in the future.

---------- Post added at 15:43 ---------- Previous post was at 15:28 ----------

Sorry just realised that I posted this in the wrong thread. MODs could you move this to the network section?