Which router to get?

Danadcorps

Member
Nov 21, 2003
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So I've read some of the posts here for the past few days and I've limited the choices to the Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, the Asus WL-520gU, the Asus WL-500g Premium v2, and the ZyXEL X550N.

Right now I have a Netgear WNR834M. I am running my pc (wired), my bro's pc (wireless on a WN311T), my bro's laptop, our phone, wireless printer, and XBL (wireless). As it is, the wired works fine for me, but the wireless aspect sucks. I get kicked out of almost every matchmaking game when playing XBL (no joke) and my brother is randomly kicked off of our network (usually for a couple of seconds). These are going to be used for gaming (both Pc's and XBL), p2p (torrents and dc++), and file transfers between the 3 computers.

My computer will remain wired, while everything else (besides the phone) will be wireless. I have seen recommendations for all of these routers from you guys so I was wondering which would be the best one for my situation. The router will be right next to my computer (on top of my desk). Everything else is almost directly one floor up or in the room right next to mine.

All comps are running vista and both pc's are capable of 1000M (I know it only offers a 1.25-1.50x improvement, but that's still something).

Let me know which one you think will be best (btw, I will be installing tomato or DD-WRT on whichever router I get, unless for some reason you recommend otherwise - will need an explanation though).

Also, I live in a townhouse so there are quite a lot of other networks in the area.
 

JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
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If you want to flash the Zxel is out.

Since it seems that you are looking for Power the choices are Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, and the Asus WL-500g Premium v2.

AFAIC I go with the Buffalo its Wireless is more Powerful.
 

ccbadd

Senior member
Jan 19, 2004
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If you are going the route of third party firmware, that leaves the Zyxel out. I know the Netgear you have runs DD-WRT but the radio is definitely crappy.
 

Danadcorps

Member
Nov 21, 2003
149
0
76
Hey, thanks for the info. I looked at another person's thread where he was in the same boat (comparing the Buffalo vs. Asus) and he bought both. I think I will just go with the Buffalo, install tomato, and see how it all goes. My brother recently bought the linksys wrt54gl for his girlfriend's family. I'll have him return that and put in a buffalo as well. Once I learn all that there is to tomato (or enough to do whatever I want to do with it), i'll go over there and put tomato on theirs as well (if they want/need the extra functionality).