Is there a 2011 winner for N dual-band WiFi router?

[drunkgamer]

Hi All,

In looking back at the routers that have come out this past year, what would you say right now is a great, battle-tested, well-featured router?

For me, router functionality comes first with WiFi functionality close behind. Also, I'm coming off using two DIR-655's which have been great for the most part, but they are bit dated now (both hardware and firmware update cycles).

In trying to comb through reviews, etc. I'm leaning towards the Netgear N900 Dual Band Gigabit router.

Any other candidates I should (or could) consider?

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I found these charts over at SmallNetBuilder which has a ton of great data and benchmarks, but I'm not the most experienced to understand what is meaningful and what is noise They also have WiFi charts...

 

[MtnMan]

I tried the top performing ASUS RT-N56U and when it worked it was great, but it never ran for longer than 8 hours without bricking itself. I couldn't even ping the router from a wired computer. Tried ever version of firmware, same results, would stop responding, and a power cycle was necessary to get it going until the next time...... After a week, it went back for a full refund.

Got a good price on a Cisco E4200 that had been returned and it has performed well, and been very stable. Did have problems with external drive attached, but the latest firmware seems to have corrected that.

With a dozen wireless devices connected, it still streams Netflix without issue. Even my wife's Crickit (programmable paper cutter thingy) is wireless, plus printers, phones, Wii, BD player, laptops, netbooks, etc. wireless performance is not an issue.

Not sure I would cough up full retail for it, but for the $110 I paid, I'm happy

 

[cmetz]

WNDR3700v1 (emphasis: v1), refurb. About $55 on eBay. The v1 has some of the best wireless performance in the real world according to Small Net Builder, and is well supported by OpenWRT and DD-WRT.

The WNDR3700v2 is a hardware rev that makes the wireless performance a bit worse. The WNDR3700v3 is pretty much entirely different hardware (and performance). The WNDR3800 is similar to the v2 but has more RAM I think.

I've had bad experiences with Netgear's customer service and so personally, I would not pay double for a fully new unit with a Netgear warranty (refurb, $55, vs. new unit, $110).

In general, I would personally recommend folks stick to the $50-100 price range. The >$100 routers tend to have the latest and greatest marketing features, which tends not to buy you much more than the mid-priced units in practice while getting you the latest in problems to work out. The mid-priced units tend to have a more "mainstream" and more proven/stable technology blend without cutting too many corners. <$50 and you're starting to get really cheap and have to watch out for those issues.

 

[vailr]

Newegg has the latest version of Apple's Aiport Extreme.
It is a dual-band router, but is sort of expensive at $179.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833101004
Note: both a Windows and a Mac version of their network management software is included.
A Google search should turn up some reviews.

 

[JackMDS]

Networking is Not Sport, complicated situations that are grossly effected by the type of usage and the environment can Not have one overall "Winner".

Buffalo High Power. Only 2.4GHz band - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833162031

Buffalo. High Power. Dual band. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833162047

Asus. Dual band - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320062

Cisco E4200 Refurb. Dual band - http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/Rou...VVviewprod.htm

P.S. While the smallnetbuilder site has a lot of info the user needs to know how to Adjust each unit of information to his/her specific situation.

 

[drunkgamer]

Thanks for the responses.

@JackMDS - While I agree networking is not a sport, I do think you have "best in class" components - in every single category, almost always.

For example I don't think many can argue that the DIR-655 for the first year or two was clearly a best-in-class wifi router at the time. Extremely stable, feature-rich, with great performance and good price.

Of course you mind find 2-3 that could be considered best-in-class with some tradeoffs, and that is all I'm looking for as I might have overlooked some options.

@cmetz: I TOTALLY AGREE! Especially when it comes to things like routers, etc. In fact I've been reading posts (especially this one: http://forum1.netgear.com/showthread.php?t=72198) on the NetGear forums.

A bunch of issues with getting dropped, resetting modem, etc. seems to be getting help from a beta firmware patch, but yeah I rather not have to troubleshoot this and want something somewhat battletested but 'modern'.

The issue with the WNDR3700 is that I'm not interested in buying used or refurb'ed equipment just to get something like v1. Also I want something a little newer if possible.

I might read more reviews on the WNDR3800. I'm sure the WNDR4500 will be great given the specs once they fix a few more kinks (that at least affect some people).

As a whole though, the N900 (WNDR4500) has the best 'overall' reviews/stars of any of them on both Amazon and NewEgg (though on NewEgg the WNDR3700 has many more reviews).

I guess I can try the WNDR4500 and if it doesnt work I can go to the WNDR3700.

 

[gpse]

WNDR3700v2 owner here, great router! If you check netgear forums, a few people have problems with the 4000 series .

 

[woodchuck69]

I just picked up the Apple Airport Extreme Gen 5 after considering the E4200 and WNDR4500. Stability and longevity are what sold me. My WRT54GS Ver 1 couldn't quite handle the Docsis 3 modem trying to stuff 36mbps into a 33mbps max Wan port. I could run the thing for months without a reboot and it appeared that most of the mainstream stuff made now doesn't come close.

 

[drunkgamer]

I'd love to consider the Apple route but frankly, it's like religion. I just can't go that route.

I guess I'll look at using the 3xxx line instead or in parallel with the 4xxx line.

 

[blackangst1]

OP: If you look a few threads down I asked about a replacement for my DIR655. I, too, have spent several days reading, and the Cisco E4200 was my choice.

 

[JackMDS]

BTW, the prevalent "bragging" of many users about their Wireless Routers "Long time without Reboot" is actually one of these variables that involved ancient Myth (snake oil remedies) rather than reality.

Wireless Router are actually mine propriety computers.

Like any other computer their memory collects Garbage (with is known as Gigo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_in,_garbage_out ).

Actually it is a very good idea to voluntary Reboot consumer grade Wireless Routers every other week (or so).

Some Routers even have a configuration that allows automatic reboots at t set time.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Actually it is a very good idea to voluntary Reboot consumer grade Wireless Routers every other week (or so).

Some Routers even have a configuration that allows automatic reboots at t set time.

My Broadcom-based DD-WRT routers are very stable, for literally months on end. I know that you can schedule reboots daily or weekly (or when the WDS watchdog fails), but thus far, I've never needed to do that.

 

[JimmiG]

ASUS RT-N56U or Cisco Linksys E4200. No comparison to the Netgear and D-Link junk.

I went through several of those cheaper routers, but after constant freezes, dropped connections, poor performance etc., decided to actually spend some money on this important piece of equipment.. After reading through reviews, I went with the E4200 for myself and got the Asus for my parents. Both have been working great. You almost forget you're running a wireless connection, except for when you have to copy many GB's across the network. It's still very stable, but a little slow compared to wired gigabit. Also, you can still actually use the connection for other things, were as with the Netgear and D-link junk, the whole connection would become completely useless for the duration of the file transfer.

 

[Bill Brasky]

I recently went with the E4200 as well and have been extremely pleased with it thus far. The range and speeds of the 2.4ghz band have been excellent (don't have a 5.0ghz adapter yet). After about a month of use, I can't think of a single complaint, but I also haven't used the attached hard drive or 5.0ghz features yet. I hear the usb attached hard drive speeds aren't anything to write home about, but that's what a NAS is for anyway!