Best Wired Router For 2 Gaming PCs?

[Coldkilla]

I have a WRT54GS v.6 router, and virtually every other day, any game I try to play with my brother on his PC on our network kicks one of us off. I'm sick of these disconnects, and constantly having to manually change ports, put in and remember certain command lines, and forced to constantly reset the router in order to play together. Will a new router fix this issue, give more options for us, or make things any easier?

Budget: $200 max. Gaming connections are wired. We do have a laptop & netbook that use wireless but aren't used for gaming.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Have you tried flashing dd-wrt on it?

 

[Coldkilla]

We upgraded the firmware, that's about the extent of my knowledge goes with routers.

 

[thescreensavers]

Have you tried flashing dd-wrt on it?

This

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.ph..._WRT54G#Links_to_v5_and_v6_Flash_Instructions

I would try this first before buying a new router. But anything somewhat decent $50 will work wired.

 

[Coldkilla]

In lamins terms, what does the firmware do that will help?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

The Asus Routers are nice, plus you can install Merlin's custom firmware Link

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

In lamins terms, what does the firmware do that will help?

Firmware is essentially very low level software that interacts directly with the hardware. Flashing DD-WRT onto the WRT54G routers gives you a lot more control and more importantly for your case, rock solid stability. DD-WRT is what has made the WRT54G series legendary. You can still find them for sale brand new on Newegg today. Mine ran straight for 8 years of continuous use until I finally upgraded them.

Make sure you follow the directions closely as you could possibly brick your router when flashing.

 

[Coldkilla]

Firmware is essentially very low level software that interacts directly with the hardware. Flashing DD-WRT onto the WRT54G routers gives you a lot more control and more importantly for your case, rock solid stability. DD-WRT is what has made the WRT54G series legendary. You can still find them for sale brand new on Newegg today. Mine ran straight for 8 years of continuous use until I finally upgraded them.

Make sure you follow the directions closely as you could possibly brick your router when flashing.

I'll do my best. I'm usually one to stray away from potentially bricking things but if its my best option I'll try it. You mentioned upgrading your router, would me upgrading to anything change my results? I'm not suggesting I have to throw money at the problem, but I'm so sick of having these issues crop up over the past 10 years I've had enough and am willing to do anything.

The Asus Routers are nice, plus you can install Merlin's custom firmware Link

Would this be better than the DD-wrt method?

 

[PliotronX]

Give Tomato-Speedmod a whirl. It was faster than DD-WRT for me when I ran it and in cases like BitTorrent, more stable (able to handle >6000 connections with 16Megs of RAM).

 

[Cerb]

The WRT54GS v6 has only 2MB of flash. It's from after they went to using VxWorks on the routers. It can only use the micro version of DD-WRT.

I would just get a $40-50 Asus or Buffalo that can be flashed (and flash the Asus right away, while trying the Buffalo as-is with their customized DD-WRT firmware)

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

I'll do my best. I'm usually one to stray away from potentially bricking things but if its my best option I'll try it. You mentioned upgrading your router, would me upgrading to anything change my results? I'm not suggesting I have to throw money at the problem, but I'm so sick of having these issues crop up over the past 10 years I've had enough and am willing to do anything.



Would this be better than the DD-wrt method?

I upgraded because I got a 100Mbps fiber connection and the WRT54G tops out at around 22Mbps. My new router is a Buffalo WZR-600DHP which comes with DD-WRT out of the box. It works great except the range is a little short and the 5GHz band will cause disconnects if the channel width is set to 40MHz. I've tried the ASUS N66U twice and have had nothing but issues due to the buggy firmware. Not to mention that the "DD-WRT support" they've been advertising is still incomplete.

 

[mfenn]

The WRT54GS v6 has only 2MB of flash. It's from after they went to using VxWorks on the routers. It can only use the micro version of DD-WRT.

Yeah, VxWorks, especially the early versions used on the WRT54GS v6 are absolute trash from a stability point of view. The Linux kernel in DD-WRT is superior in pretty much every way.

The Micro version of DD-WRT still has a surprising amount of stuff in it. Certainly all the basics are in there (port forwarding, upnp, the web UI). I think it's worth a shot. Worst case, the OP has to buy a new router, which is what he was planning to do anyway.

 

[ViRGE]

I wouldn't even worry about firmwares. That router is ancient and has very limited memory. Just get a new router and call it a day.

If your budget is $200, you could always grab an Airport Extreme. To be sure it's overkill for what you're doing, but it's the top of the line for home routers right now and would last you just short of forever.

Otherwise I second the vote for the Asus routers. Just about anything over $50 is going to be good enough, especially if you aren't heavily invested into WiFi.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/ME918/airport-extreme

 

[Coldkilla]

I upgraded because I got a 100Mbps fiber connection and the WRT54G tops out at around 22Mbps. My new router is a Buffalo WZR-600DHP which comes with DD-WRT out of the box.

In order to eliminate any potential issues I like this idea. Don't have to chance bricking my router, already comes with DD-WRT, and the increased flash memory. I'm not sure exactly what causes our inability to game together by one getting booted when the other joins even after changing ports, but if flash memory/instability has anything to do with it - I just want to take every potential cause and throw it out the window.

Would the 600DHP version be suitable for a cable connection?

 

[ViRGE]

In order to eliminate any potential issues I like this idea. Don't have to chance bricking my router, already comes with DD-WRT, and the increased flash memory. I'm not sure exactly what causes our inability to game together by one getting booted when the other joins even after changing ports, but if flash memory/instability has anything to do with it - I just want to take every potential cause and throw it out the window.

It's likely too many connections for the state tracker. Which is actually more a RAM/CPU issue than a Flash issue, but regardless the answer is a newer (more powerful) router.

 

[Biggu]

My boss has the Asus Routers and loves it. Personally I have used the DD-WRT on the WRT54G and it makes a good improvement.