Upgrading a DGL-4300 for SOHO, recs please.

[LxMxFxD4]

I've had my DGL-4300 since about 2004 I think and it is a trooper. I had to replace the power block on it once, as it died about 3 years in.

The reason I want to replace it is because I want to watch 720p TV/movies over LAN wifi from home server to my laptop and my apt is just too noisy with external wifi networks for me to do this on 802.11g

I want recs, here are is what i'm looking for in order of priority:

*4+ gigabit lan ports
*Rock stable Wireless N on 2.4ghz band. Huge range isn't needed, but has to go thru a few drywall walls.
*Gamefuel or equivalent QoS scheduling for games.
*Software/interface that allows for monitoring of router cpu/ram usage

Here are my complaints about my DGL-4300:

1. I have found that wifi with DHCP completely dies if my desktop has too many torrents open with too many connections. Its very strange, as nothing changes on the wired connection, just the wireless dies. I presume this is because the cpu or ram is maxed out due to the excessive connections. Rebooting the router fixes it.
2. No ability to monitor its cpu/ram (as far as I know).
3. My laptop can see 55 (!!!) wifi networks from my apt on 2.4ghz. On 802.11g I get about 20Mbit max from this connection, even 5' from it. I'm hoping 802.11n will give me at least double this to my laptop.

I have looked at the d-link dir-655 and it looks nice, as does the dgl-4500 and the Cisco WRT320N. I don't own a single 5ghz device so i'm not sure if I need a router that has it. My main hope is that wireless N would give me at least 40Mbit wifi in the 2.4ghz band. Do you think this is possible and which router would let me do it? I'd ideally like to spend less than $100 here but, I do expect stability.

Thanks

 

[VirtualLarry]

I wouldn't expect 40Mbit of throughput from wireless N. Mine connect at 65Mbit/sec, and I get about half of that in throughput.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

I wouldn't expect 40Mbit of throughput from wireless N. Mine connect at 65Mbit/sec, and I get about half of that in throughput.

I've done a ton of reseach on smallnetbuilder.com and it all depends on the router. The desired routers are, unfortunately, $130 each or so (cisco-linksys e4200 is $160, asus rt-n46u is $130) so I dont really want to pay this much. Lesser routers are available for about $80, e2000 or less. DIR-655 gets good reviews and its $55 to $65.

Haven't made a decision yet, but glad that smallnetbuilder exists, for sure.

 

[ImDonly1]

Not recommending... but just saw that you mentioned the dir-655. It is $55 at newegg right now, fyi. I think it is an good router, not too sure about the firmware though. I think d-link doesn't let you downgrade firmware versions? If you upgrade to a new one and it is working bad for you, you are stuck with it.

Also, I have the dgl 4300 and don't use gamefuel. You just limit the torrent's upload speed. The only time I need QoS is for when I am maxing out my connection download speed through a http download. Gamefuel only does QoS on the upload part. So this makes gamefuel seem kind of useless no?

DD-WRT has much better QoS as far as I know, lets you see cpu/ram use, etc. I would be looking at a DD-wrt router as it seems to fit your needs.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

Not recommending... but just saw that you mentioned the dir-655. It is $55 at newegg right now, fyi. I think it is an good router, not too sure about the firmware though. I think d-link doesn't let you downgrade firmware versions? If you upgrade to a new one and it is working bad for you, you are stuck with it.

Also, I have the dgl 4300 and don't use gamefuel. You just limit the torrent's upload speed. The only time I need QoS is for when I am maxing out my connection download speed through a http download. Gamefuel only does QoS on the upload part. So this makes gamefuel seem kind of useless no?

DD-WRT has much better QoS as far as I know, lets you see cpu/ram use, etc. I would be looking at a DD-wrt router as it seems to fit your needs.

Donny,

Hopefully you see this asap, but what kind of speeds do you see using WPA2 wireless g on your dgl-4300? The whole reason im upgrading is becuse the wireless tops out at about 20Mbit (main reason anyway).

I do use gamefuel and it helps. I wonder if disabling it will increase my wireless speed maybe?

 

[LxMxFxD4]

Actually it appears, after more research, that I am just about getting the theoretical max out of the g band. I turned off gamefuel, upnp and WMM and it seemed to stabilize the stream quite a bit. Gamefull off increased my max thruput while upnp and WMM stabilized it. My min dips were only into the 14mbit range which is probably acceptable. I'll try watching a dvd at full bitrate and see what happens.

 

[ImDonly1]

I stream 720p mkv's from my desktop to my laptop/tv and some work fine. But some with higher bitrate or 1080p will lag like crazy. I just stopped using the wireless for that and bought a trendnet 5 port switch teg-50g (the metal case one). Works perfect now and only cost $25 at newegg (or same price + free shipping at amazon with prime membership).

I think over wireless I got 1.2-2.0 MB/s?

Also, depending on your laptop. I have one with wireless N with intel wireless adapter. Apparently, the intel wireless my laptop has won't do wireless N 150 speeds on the 2.5ghz band anyway. It needs the 5 Ghz band. Might want to check on that for your laptop. Mine has the intel 4965agn adapter.

Also, my desktop to Tv is like 1 room over... so not really far away. I keep my router in my desk out of sight... probably not the best place for signal.

 

[Fardringle]

3. My laptop can see 55 (!!!) wifi networks from my apt on 2.4ghz. On 802.11g I get about 20Mbit max from this connection, even 5' from it. I'm hoping 802.11n will give me at least double this to my laptop.

If this is true, then your best option (if you must use wireless) is to go to the 5ghz band where you won't have all of the interference.

 

[LxMxFxD4]

Yeah over wireless I get between 2MB/sec and 2.75 in the gband on 2.4ghz. I was able to watch a dvd the other night without issue, straight over wireless. I tried watching a relatively low file sized blu-ray (A Scaner darkly, whole movie is only 14GB) and that was a no go. It worked...about 75% of the movie.. but any action scenes or scenes with heavy DTS audio were clearly above the 20Mbit threshhold of the wireless.

I dunno, I don't feel I need to watch bluray on my laptop, just 720 mkvs which are compresed usually anyway. For the time being I think the tweaks I've made have solved this issue and allow me to watch 720p - I'll see if this old 2004 router can hold the line for a while longer. At this point I'd go with the Asus RT-N56U as it looks like a clear winner.