Router to replace D-Link DGL-4300

[7earitup]

I am looking at new routers on NewEgg to replace my aging DGL-4300. Here are some of the ones I have been looking at the most:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833124190

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320023

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...tem=33-127-215

I would like to know if these are decent routers that will be a substantial upgrade over my DGL-4300. I am still on the fence on whether or not I want to run DD-WRT or Tomato, but if it means better performance and rock solid stability, then I am definitely interested.

As far as usage scenarios - at the peak times, which is most of the time, the router needs to be able to handle 4 wired computers and 2 wireless computers, all of which are gaming (playing World of Warcraft or something similar).

It seems that the DGL-4300 is getting worn out these days and I need something to better handle all of the traffic going through the modem.


Any help and suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ImDonly1]

The DGL 4300 is a really reliable router. Unless it is breaking, I don't see why you would be replacing it.

In my opinion, while the WRT54GL and the Asus router are always recommended, they are a step below the DGL 4300. It would be a downgrade. They are only popular because of DD-WRT. Compared to the DGL-4300, they lack gigabit ethernet. They WRT54GL has the same amount of RAM and a slower processor than the DGL 4300.

The DIR-655 is good, it has gigabit ethernet, wireless N, etc. But it does not do DD-WRT, the firmware is sometimes a bit flaky or was when it first came out. Not sure how it is now. Haven't really been keeping up with it. Overall, it is a stable router and popular.

I would just keep the DGL 4300 if I was you. I also have one. The only reason I would consider upgrading would be if I could get a better router for cheap. Say $40 and it had gigabit LAN, WAN, wireless N. Dd wrt would be a plus.

 

[7earitup]

The main reason I was looking at upgrading was to get something faster and more capable of handling lots of network traffic. I was unaware however that routers were still so behind in terms of features when compared to the DGL-4300.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I installed a trendnet tew-652brp v1.0 at a friends house. they have 5 wired desktops and one wireless.
lots of gaming, online streaming video, etc. not much in the way of torrents. anyways, it has a 400mhz cpu and 32MB of ram, seems to hold up just fine.

same hardware as dlink dir-615 rev c1.

(I have one of those running dd-wrt, as a wireless repeater. it sometimes goes down for a few minutes, have no idea why exactly. it could be because the router it's repeating goes down, or perhaps because it got overheated and damaged.)

 

[ImDonly1]

Well the WRT54G and Asus routers are wireless G routers and were released around the time the DGL 4300 was. They are not new routers.

I think everyone was going crazy over this router a few days ago
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320038

It was on sale for $77. It has like 128MB RAM (compared to 16MB of the WRT54G and most routers) and a 480Mhz cpu (compared to the wrt54g's 200 Mhz or so). It can also run the mega version of dd-wrt, or tomato I think.

I don't have the rt-n16, so can't comment, but from the hardware it seems like a really good router that can handle a lot of connections. Read some reviews on it from google.

Again, I would stay with the dgl-4300, unless you have money to waste and want wireless N, or gigabit WAN (the dgl-4300 already has gigabit LAN, but not WAN which most people don't need), or the router is breaking, or you want dd-wrt.

 

[7earitup]

That ASUS router looks very nice. I may have to look into it if my current network setup continues pestering me. ~$100 does not look bad considering I paid around $150 for the DGL-4300 back in the day.

 

[sxr7171]

IMHO why get a router with all those features if you don't need it? The print server is unnecessary if you have a wireless printer (~$100) and a media server is unnecessary if you have a NAS or any computer running WMP 12 on the network.

I think the more features they tack on the more chances that the FW chokes on something or another.

I am looking towards maybe a SOHO router that hopefully handles the basics more reliably than consumer routers.

 

[AMDZen]

I know this is an old thread but I'm bumping it because: I have a DGL-4300 router and I was looking into using some kind of WRT setup. DD-WRT and Tomato don't seem to be compatible with this router, is there any firmware that is compatible, that would support VPN over my whole network?

 

[7earitup]

I know this is an old thread but I'm bumping it because: I have a DGL-4300 router and I was looking into using some kind of WRT setup. DD-WRT and Tomato don't seem to be compatible with this router, is there any firmware that is compatible, that would support VPN over my whole network?

Not that I know of. There is no flashable ROM on the DGL-4300.

I ended up buying a Netgear WNDR3700 which can run DD-WRT, OPEN WRT, and Gargoyle.

 

[AMDZen]

Not that I know of. There is no flashable ROM on the DGL-4300.

I ended up buying a Netgear WNDR3700 which can run DD-WRT, OPEN WRT, and Gargoyle.

OK, a couple more questions for you since I don't know that I'm entirely sure what I'm doing.

If I get a VPN account like at strongvpn.com, can I not run my whole network through that VPN via my router? Just one machine routing my single computer through that VPN?

And if I get an IP in lets say, the Netherlands. And I want to remote in to my computer from an outside computer, will there be any complications if I can only route the single computer as opposed to the router?