Netgear WNDR3300 v1 Router

[sep]

I currently have the Netgear WNDR3300 router. I've been using this router for several years now. I really don't have a problem with the router. I want to upgrade to the WNDR4500, but don't know if its worth it.

1. Guest Account
2. Gigabyte Local Ports
3. Better processing

(1) Can I do something with my existing router to provide a guest account?

(2) I currently only have one port plugged in to the Router from my gigabyte switch. I'm guessing all local traffic has to go through here because it's my DHCP Router? Will having the Gb Switch on the router help?

(3) Again, I'm not having an issue that I know of but will the newer router perform better? Locally I watch movies from my server (never had an issue playing). I'm not movinig large files from one machine to another.

The only thing I do notice on my router I can't seem to see the N network. G comes through just fine, but N I can't see. Do I need to disable G before I would see this?

TIA

 

[IGemini]

1) No, not even with the newest software or DD-WRT.

2) Only if your connection to the internet isn't limited by ethernet speeds. With a gigabit switch (and appropriate Gb cables, I'm assuming), your intranet speeds are about as good as they can be.

3) For you, probably not. I use the 3300 but I get issues with large-file transfers or heavy downloads.

I'm assuming you're running stock firmware on your router, which doesn't allow both G and N to operate on the 2.4GHz bandwidth at the same time. To do that you'll need to use DD-WRT.

 

[sep]

I'm assuming you're running stock firmware on your router, which doesn't allow both G and N to operate on the 2.4GHz bandwidth at the same time. To do that you'll need to use DD-WRT.

That's true - I'm running the latest firmware from Netgear.

Can I DD-WRT or Tomato?

Hm...I'm confused then. I have a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Can't I run G on 2.4Ghz and N on Ghz so that I have an option of running both N and G at the sametime?

Does the WNDR4500 allow for G and N to run over the same bandwidth?

 

[IGemini]

You can and I highly encourage running DD-WRT on it, much easier to do than a lot of other routers. I went back to the stock firmware as a test solution for some bandwidth issues, ended up going back to DD-WRT not only because it didn't solve the problem, but I could no longer run G and N @ 2.4 at the same time. Not all N wireless adapters will pick up 5GHz, which is likely the issue you have. I'm not sure what modes the 4500 allows.