best router for max range that costs about 100-150

[Nvidiaguy07]

Im selling my WRT54G to a friend, because he wants to use it as a repeater, so instead of just buying the same again, i think its time to upgrade.

I really have no idea which ones are good for what im looking for. Extra features would be nice. I also would like it to work with DDWRT.

 

[Emulex]

buffalo airstation 2.4ghz only (WZR-hp300gn) - comes with a licensed copy of dd-wrt - not the fastest but range and speed are pretty much give:take. now add a pair of +25 dbi yagi's off ebay and bump the power up to 1 watt @150mbps and you can throw some distance. see local laws regarding maximum power output. some classes of ham radio may extend your abilities

 

[Fardringle]

I'm very pleased with the Netgear WNDR-3700 that I purchased recently for one of my clients. It more than doubled the range of the Asus WL-520G that they were using, got a good usable signal into a room that didn't get a signal at all previously (surrounded by aluminum ventilation conduits), plus it supports N connections simultaneously on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. It's at the top of your budget range around $150 depending on where you shop, but it's a VERY good router even without DD-WRT (which it does support if you want to use it).

MaximumPC named it the "best of the best" wireless router in 2009 and 2010. They didn't do a 2011 review that I could find but I suspect it would still top the list based on my experience.

p.s. There is a newer model named WNDR-4000. This is NOT an upgrade from the 3700. It has different radios and antennas which are supposed to improve 5ghz N performance but 2.4ghz performance for G and N clients is significantly worse...

p.s.s. If you get this router, make sure you get a v2, not a v1. The v1 is still a great router, but the v2 has twice as much memory (better for handling large numbers of connections if you do P2P/torrent downloading) and has a much better 5ghz radio.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I was looking at that router earlier, but im put off by some of the mixed reviews. Many people complain of having to reboot it often.

Honestly i do love my wrt54gl, and not sure if im willing to take the risk on something that might not perform as reliably.

about the 25dbi yagi's someone mentioned, is this what your talking about:http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-4GHz-25dbi-Yagi-WLAN-WiFi-Omni-Wireless-RPSMA-Antenna-/280722812447

Would an option be to attach these to my wrt54gl router for extra distance?

 

[Fardringle]

I have seen those same reviews, but honestly, can you find ANY wireless router anywhere that doesn't have some bad reviews (most of which are written by people that just don't know how wireless routers work)? It's true that some routers are just plain bad, but the Netgear 3700 and the Buffalo that Emulex are both very good options.

 

[JackMDS]

High gain very directional Antenna can improve distance between two specific Wireless devices that are in distance but have clear line of sight.

Their use otherwise is useless or very limited.

Cost aside this a very good Wireless Router.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320062

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

going to definitely give one of those two a shot, but now its a tough decisions between which of those to buy.

Any differences/advantages one has over the other?

 

[alkemyst]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/ is a great site for metrics on devices.

Wireless Routers:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view


I went with a E4200 from Cisco for $109 refurbed.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

going to give that WNDR3700 a shot. Worst case scenario is that I'll return it if it acts buggy.

I'm just wondering if im better off flashing DD-WRT or if i should just stick with the stock software.

I plan on using both the 2.4 and 5ghz frequencies, and want to attach a usb hard drive as storage.

I like using DDWRT software, as its the same as the one im used to, but i dont want to risk possibly losing a feature or something like that.

Ive read on that products page that it may encounter problems because of the atheros chip and the driver. It says this:

"This router runs on the AR7161 chip, using the madwifi driver. This driver has known issues that are difficult to troubleshoot, and lead to the router to stop broadcasting SSID after random intervals, depending on client wireless card hardware. There are many ways to resolve this temporarily, but as long as you are using the same cards/hardware the problem will return. Ways of fixing it temporarily include a hard reboot, hitting 'apply settings' on the wireless page, or ifconfig down / ifconfig up the appropriate interface (in this case ath0)."

So which should i go with?

 

[Emulex]

dd-wrt and atheros = 150mbps

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

dd-wrt and atheros = 150mbps

so hold off on the DDWRT?

 

[Emulex]

MAX RANGE or MAX KBPS.

you will get longest range at the lowest bitrate assuming a good point to point setup.

but yeah if you want max speed on atheros - skip dd-wrt - it keeps dropping to 150mbps after a while. the stock Buffalo firmware holds at 300mbps if that matters.