Superhub : Recommend a router to use with SuperHub

[Zoom7000]

I've just signed up for Virgin Media 60MB Broadband (and Phone, although I won't be using it at all except for receiving calls). I've been with BE for my broadband and despite receiving a very decent service, it was practically a no-brainer continuing to pay £32.86/Month for Internet (ADSL2 @ ~10Mbps) & Phone, when VM can offer me up to 60Mb for £32.40/Month (£23.15 for the 1st 6 months).

Anyway, the deed is done. Now, I have read up quite a lot about VM and the common consensus on other forums and VM's own forum is that the SuperHub is a terrible piece of hardware when you try to use it for any form of routing/wireless. I have read the odd posts here and there from the select few that say that they have had no issues with the SuperHub and I hope that I will fall in to this category. However, should I need to purchase a router to use with the SuperHub in modem only mode, does anyone have any recommendations?

Ideally, I'd like a router that supports DD-WRT, I found the custom firmware very useful when I was using VM back in the good old days of 512kbps on my WRT54GS. (Yes, I had a version 1!) Also, I'd like something not too expensive, my friend suggested the Asus RT-N56U, but I'm not sure whether it supports DD-WRT and it costs near £85! A budget of £30-£40 is more manageable for me. 802.11n is a must, Gigabit would be a bonus, but not sure whether I can get it in that price and something with at least 4 ports would be useful, but the primary factor for me would probably be DD-WRT/Tomato support, so I'd be willing to stretch to £50 if I can get something really good.

Any help is much appreciated! (Just noticed looking through my post history, the last time I was here was 2008! And before that was 2006!) :O

[roughbeast]

Going by the general trend of comments regarding the SH my guess is that you will probably be happy with its performance.

If not, you will get as many router suggestions as respondents here.You made your requirements very clear, but you may also wish to think about future-proofing. eg Are you likely to upgrade to 100Mb / 120Mb? If so you will definitely require a gigabit router. My router is a WNDR3700 (v1) and I continue to use it because it outstrips the SH by a mile as a router. However, it is beyond your declared budget.

This list of routers should get you started.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwa...er-charts/view

[Mick Fisher]

Take a look at TP-Link's range of routers. They seem to be the best bang for the buck. They will run DD-WRT, not sure about Tomato. I have never seen a bad review and they have a model in your price range.

Asus will run DD-WRT or Tomato. I have an RT-N16 running Tomato and it kicks ass. However as you fear, probably outside your price range.

[General Maximus]

If it aint broken dont fix it. I also had a wrt54g many many moons ago and loved it and all i have done over the years is continue to upgrade. Stick with Linksys dude.

[nc11]

ASUS RT-N66U, or it's older brother the N56.

[thenry]

for that budget id only advise the cheapest option which is a solid versatile 2.4GHz 'd link 615' for a tenna on ebay. anything else will be a waste of money. put the money leftover in a pot and save up for a high end router in the near future.

[Zoom7000]

Originally Posted by roughbeast

You made your requirements very clear, but you may also wish to think about future-proofing. eg Are you likely to upgrade to 100Mb / 120Mb? If so you will definitely require a gigabit router. My router is a WNDR3700 (v1) and I continue to use it because it outstrips the SH by a mile as a router. However, it is beyond your declared budget.

I do hope to go to 100/120Mb someday, but unfortunately most gigabit routers are as you say, out of my budget range

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

Asus will run DD-WRT or Tomato. I have an RT-N16 running Tomato and it kicks ass. However as you fear, probably outside your price range.

It's on Amazon for £52.02. I'm quite tempted! :P

Originally Posted by General Maximus

If it aint broken dont fix it. I also had a wrt54g many many moons ago and loved it and all i have done over the years is continue to upgrade. Stick with Linksys dude.

lol! The WRT54GS is sitting happily at my parents place doing the routing for them!

Originally Posted by nc11

ASUS RT-N66U, or it's older brother the N56.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I did say those models were way out of my price range!

[adduxi]

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

Asus will run DD-WRT or Tomato. I have an RT-N16 running Tomato and it kicks ass. However as you fear, probably outside your price range.

I can also vouch for this setup, it's the same as mine. Great range for wireless, and the TomatoUSB firmware is pretty good too.
Offhand, the uptime at the moment for my VMNG300/ASUS RT-N16 combo is about 150 days or so .....

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Zoom7000

Thanks for the suggestion, but I did say those models were way out of my price range!

£52 is tempting but £65 is way out of your price range??

(Also the £10 DIR-615 could push about 600Mbps at a stretch, but I bet you're not clever enough to figure out how...)

[Zoom7000]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

£52 is tempting but £65 is way out of your price range??

(Also the £10 DIR-615 could push about 600Mbps at a stretch, but I bet you're not clever enough to figure out how...)

No need for the "not clever enough to figure out how..." insult. I believe this is a public forum that people can come to for help. So if you know something might help someone, why not try to post a solution rather than a sarcastic insult?

As for the £65 being out of my price range, assuming you are referring to the RT-N56/66, not is it £13 more than the stated £52, but again maybe you could be more helpful by stating where you have seen it for £65 because most of the places I have seen it range from £80 upwards.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Zoom7000

So if you know something might help someone, why not try to post a solution rather than a sarcastic insult?

What makes you think I know the solution or that was an insult? Right now nobody in the world has figured it out (or at least not publicly stated it). If you manage, great. If not, I hardly find it insulting to be in the same position as everyone else on the planet.

As for the £65 being out of my price range, assuming you are referring to the RT-N56/66, not is it £13 more than the stated £52, but again maybe you could be more helpful by stating where you have seen it for £65 because most of the places I have seen it range from £80 upwards.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...shop&q=RT-N56U

(Damn it's gone up £4 since I last looked)

[Zoom7000]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...shop&q=RT-N56U

(Damn it's gone up £4 since I last looked)

Actually, when you click that link, it says it costs £76 online (which doesn't include delivery) When you sort the prices in ascending order including delivery the cheapest price is BT Business Direct @ £81.99

[qasdfdsaq]

When I click that link it says £69.37. You've clicked on a different link.

But either way I was off as prices have gone up, but it's still not hugely expensive IMO.

[Jayster]

If you dont mind getting a used unit, it may be worthwhile to check out ebay, I picked up my wndr3700 a few months ago for 40 quid and its been running dd-wrt perfectly ever since. As has also been said the tp-link routers are good value for money only downside being they seem to cheap out on the amount of ram they put in which seems to then limit the devices wan throughput as shown here http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwa...er-charts/view

[qasdfdsaq]

a) They don't cheap out the amount of RAM they put in, they have the same or more RAM compared competitors in the same class
(e.g. TP-Link WR2543ND - 64MB vs Netgear WNDR4000 - 64MB, TP-Link WR1043ND - 32MB vs Netgear WNR3500 - 16MB, TP-Link TL-WR741ND - 32MB vs Linksys WRT120N - 32MB, TP-Link WDR4300 - 128MB, Linksys EA3500 - 64MB)
b) RAM has almost no effect whatsoever on WAN
c) Smallnetbuilder's throughput results are almost universally a load of crap.
d) TP-Link cheap out on processor speed and that does limit WAN throughput. Their firmware is also often based on very old versions of OpenWRT, which doesn't help.