the best damn wifi router money can buy!

[NesuD]

I have an RT-n66u and have seen it recommended over the ac66u by others as well. The reasoning generally was the the n66u being a bit older product had more mature firmware available for it. If you are using the RT-n66u there is an enhanced version of the AsusWRT firmware available from a fellow that goes by the handle of RMerlin over at smallnetbuilder.com. He even has his own subforum under the Asus wireless forum there. If you like the AsusWRT firmware but would like to see a few extra features in it take a look at the AsusWRT-merlin build. It sits between AsusWRT and Shibby's TomatoUSB Firmwares for the RT-N66U. I have been running it for about a week and so far seems pretty solid.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

I consider this a good start:

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Ar...troller-Base-System-network-mana/1563490.aspx

Except its aruba...

 

[JackMDS]

I'm very interested in why you recommend the RT-N66U over the RT-AC66U. Is there some issue with the AC?. I was thinking about getting the AC myself so input is welcome...

Because the A in AC66U stands for Not yet agreed upon new standard.

It is an Asus attempt to cash on an undecided future by luring few thousands of Ignorant that are guided more by the social status of being "Early Adopters with Bragging Rights", than the knowledge of Technology.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Because the A in AC66U stands for Not yet agreed upon new standard.

It is an Asus attempt to cash on an undecided future by luring few thousands of Ignornat that are guided more by the social status of being "Early Adopteres Bragging Rights" than knowledge of Technology.

Makes sense. Oh well, I'll wait a few generations then. It's not like my current router is in dire need of replacing...

 

[Wangstang]

I'm gonna bump this one for the weekend. I'm looking at an Airport Extreme for the ease of setup and supposed stability, but if there's something else out there that will provide stability, longevity and not require much more than opening the box and plugging it in, I'd appreciate the heads up.

The one difference I have in prefered requirements/specs compared to the Original Poster of this thread would be that I am in a rural environment where I could use what many might consider "excessive" range abilities or at least the option to add an additional powered antena. If the Airport Extreme had the ability to expand it's antena array, it would probably already be at my house.

Thanks
Wes

 

[JackMDS]

Yap, Airport has these qualities.

""Sadly"" other Wireless routers have these qualities too for half of the price.

 

[bearxor]

I've been through quite a few wireless routers in the past two months and I'm still not happy. Thought I'd settle on a Ubuntu router with a N66 as the access point and the things locked up twice in three weeks. Wireless clients will just slow to a crawl but the one wired computer in the house will be fine. Reboot the access point and everything begins working again.

Very disappointing.

Thinking of swapping for the N65. Wonder if having separate processors for the 2.4 and 5 will help...

 

[ericloewe]

I've been through quite a few wireless routers in the past two months and I'm still not happy. Thought I'd settle on a Ubuntu router with a N66 as the access point and the things locked up twice in three weeks. Wireless clients will just slow to a crawl but the one wired computer in the house will be fine. Reboot the access point and everything begins working again.

Very disappointing.

Thinking of swapping for the N65. Wonder if having separate processors for the 2.4 and 5 will help...

That's odd.

I've been using the RT-N66U as an AP (pretty much replaced my DIR-655, DIR-855 and E4200 v.2) along with a pfSense (FreeBSD) router, and it works like a charm, even with the relatively crappy stock firmware. Best 170€ ever spent on network hardware.

Which firmware are you using?

 

[beginner99]

can anyone suggest 1 for me???

this is what i currently have. and i have to constantly yank the power cord to reset it. coverage has been amazing though.
http://www.amazon.com/Premiertek-POW...erlink+boost+n

i need something super stable because security cams are connected via wifi to it. now i really want something robust. i dont need excellent coverage.

What do you mean by constantly? hourly?daily? weekly?

I have a WNDR3700 for 3 years and it is very stable. However that is under my workload which is 2 ppl surfing internet on 2.4 Ghz and 5 ghz for streaming video.

3 security cams? can be pretty big workload depending on resolution / video quality.

If you want stability and reliability there is nothing around cabling.

 

[bearxor]

That's odd.

I've been using the RT-N66U as an AP (pretty much replaced my DIR-655, DIR-855 and E4200 v.2) along with a pfSense (FreeBSD) router, and it works like a charm, even with the relatively crappy stock firmware. Best 170€ ever spent on network hardware.

Which firmware are you using?

I'm out so I'm not sure because I can't look it up. It's whatever the newest one the auto-update function has. The other side of the problem may be that I have a N66R, which is identical to the U in everything but firmware upgrades, I think.

I replaced a WNDR3700-100NAS which was quite possibly the shittiest router/AP I've ever used, except there wasn't a lot of competition three years ago for multi-stream long range dual band so I felt like I was stuck with it. Now that its died I don't want to "stick with" something.

I moved the device away from actually routing because I thought maybe it couldn't handle the traffic load. That's clearly not the case. It can't handle the wireless load. I have 8 devices on wifi always and during peak at home hours, that can expand to about 15 devices being used in the house at the same time. The big problem is that the vast majority of devices in use are appliances. I can't wire 4 iPhones. I can't wore the two iPads and three touchpads. It just HAS to work and work reliably.

I might do Tomato today. I hate DD-WRT bit used Tomato extensively with my WRT54G an loved it to death. The only thing I worry about is if its a hardware problem or a software problem and my 45-day window to return this thing is closing.

 

[JackMDS]

There is a lot of sub $50 decent 802.11g and 802.11n Wireless Routers.

The best solution is to buy one of these connect it to a wire port on the main Router.

Configure it as an Access Point, set the Wireless on it to a different SSID and Channel (wpa2 can stay the same). Then use it for some of the heavy load Wireless like cameras etc.

 

[ericloewe]

I'm out so I'm not sure because I can't look it up. It's whatever the newest one the auto-update function has. The other side of the problem may be that I have a N66R, which is identical to the U in everything but firmware upgrades, I think.

I replaced a WNDR3700-100NAS which was quite possibly the shittiest router/AP I've ever used, except there wasn't a lot of competition three years ago for multi-stream long range dual band so I felt like I was stuck with it. Now that its died I don't want to "stick with" something.

I moved the device away from actually routing because I thought maybe it couldn't handle the traffic load. That's clearly not the case. It can't handle the wireless load. I have 8 devices on wifi always and during peak at home hours, that can expand to about 15 devices being used in the house at the same time. The big problem is that the vast majority of devices in use are appliances. I can't wire 4 iPhones. I can't wore the two iPads and three touchpads. It just HAS to work and work reliably.

I might do Tomato today. I hate DD-WRT bit used Tomato extensively with my WRT54G an loved it to death. The only thing I worry about is if its a hardware problem or a software problem and my 45-day window to return this thing is closing.

N66R? First time I've heard of it, but general opinion indicates it's an N66U with different (dunno how) firmware. Might be worth it to try the N66U firmware, especially because the auto-updater is mostly broken (just realized mine is stuck on the .112 firmware, despite many updates since).

 

[bearxor]

N66R? First time I've heard of it, but general opinion indicates it's an N66U with different (dunno how) firmware. Might be worth it to try the N66U firmware, especially because the auto-updater is mostly broken (just realized mine is stuck on the .112 firmware, despite many updates since).

Yeah, it's the exact same router, yet somehow differentiated by ASUS. I don't believe the U firmwares will load.

I put Tomato on it. We'll see.

 

[ControlD]

There is a lot of sub $50 decent 802.11g and 802.11n Wireless Routers.

The best solution is to buy one of these connect it to a wire port on the main Router.

Configure it as an Access Point, set the Wireless on it to a different SSID and Channel (wpa2 can stay the same). Then use it for some of the heavy load Wireless like cameras etc.

Do you have a suggestion for a decent < $50 n router that works well as an AP? I am using a Linksys E2000 for such a purpose right now and I am quite underwhelmed by the signal strength. It was a refurb so maybe that explains things but I am looking for something a little better.

 

[Wangstang]

Yap, Airport has these qualities.

""Sadly"" other Wireless routers have these qualities too for half of the price.

Vauge but true...

Feel free to throw a few makes and models out there that would be a better buy than the Airport Express with the ease of setup, longevity, stability and range of the Airport Express right out of the box. Frankly I don't own a single Apple product, I hate their "apple only" closed system business model and I don't want to buy their products...I'm just not sure what else is out there that has the same level ease of setup, longevity, stability and range.

I have some significant things going on in my house hold which makes my personal time very limited and very valuable to me/loved ones so I don't really want to have to jump through the hoops of flashing a new firmware and then learning my way through using the firmware if it's overly complex...nor do I want to have to waste time on the phone explaining to my family that they need to reset the router or having to mess with it when I get home.

I went by one of my local computer supply shops and they had a few variations of several of the TP-Link products available and they were pushing them pretty hard compared to the other products they had in the store.

The TP-link products were in the $50-60.00 range and had the ability to accept remote antenas so if they make solid products, I'm open to using them.

Please throw some makes and models out there to consider.

Thanks
Wes

 

[Wangstang]

Digging up some of JackMDS's old threads I came across sugestions for cisco products.

Jack, what do you think of this model:
http://homestore.cisco.com/en-us/Ro...bit-USB_stcVVproductId149279914VVviewprod.htm

Wes

 

[Synomenon]

If you have the Asus RT-N66U, try out Merlin's firmware from the smallnetbuilder forums.

 

[hclarkjr]

If you have the Asus RT-N66U, try out Merlin's firmware from the smallnetbuilder forums.

do you have one? i just bought one yesterday and am considering flashing to a mod firmware. which one gives the best performance and features? i used tomatoe firmware years ago on a linksys router i had and liked it, i understand there are 4-5 makers of firmware for these.

 

[Synomenon]

I have a RT-N66U flashed with Merlin's latest build. No problems and very happy with the range and speed.

Merlin's firmware is just Asus's firmware with minor changes and fixes. Haven't tried DD-WRT or Tomato yet.

 

[kbp]

I'm very interested in why you recommend the RT-N66U over the RT-AC66U. Is there some issue with the AC?. I was thinking about getting the AC myself so input is welcome...

Not matured yet

 

[hclarkjr]

I have a RT-N66U flashed with Merlin's latest build. No problems and very happy with the range and speed.

Merlin's firmware is just Asus's firmware with minor changes and fixes. Haven't tried DD-WRT or Tomato yet.

just flashed to his latest now, wow lots of options with it

 

[sygyzy]

If I get an ASUS as my main router, will any router do as a bridge/repeater? This is one aspect I don't see covered a lot - how secondary routers act as extenders/bridges. Could I just pick up a WRT54G and flash it with DD-WRT and use it as a secondary?

 

[JackMDS]

If you are using Asus as a source the only guaranty is that some Asus Router swill work, and a chance for other Routers that have similar chipset.

If you flash the Asus with DD-WRT and the bridge/repeater is flashed with DD-WRT too, then any Router that is DD_WRT flashed will work.

In other words, DD-WRT to DD-WRT provides the highset probability that bridge/repeaters will work as they should.

 

[sygyzy]

That makes sense. Thanks JacMDS - I'll get an ASUS and a WRT54G and flash them both with DD-WRT.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you are using Asus as a source the only guaranty is that some Asus Router swill work, and a chance for other Routers that have similar chipset.

If you flash the Asus with DD-WRT and the bridge/repeater is flashed with DD-WRT too, then any Router that is DD_WRT flashed will work.

In other words, DD-WRT to DD-WRT provides the highset probability that bridge/repeaters will work as they should.

It should be noted that WDS support, and to a lesser extent, wireless bridging/repeating, works best when the chipset used by the two routers are the same. Broadcom/Broadcom, or Atheros/Atheros.