[UK] Is an "N" router worth it? If so, what do you recommend?


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If you want THE absolute best, then go for Linksys E4200 v2 or ASUS RT-N66U. Both are N900 (450Mbps on N and 450Mbps on G). They are fairly new so availability may be a slight problem.

Not starting a debate but mind telling me why you think the E4200 V2 is better than the V1 - well other than the 450mbps limit on the 2.4Ghz band which nobody will ever get in the real world? It has that 1.2Ghz CPU instead of 480mhz but should matter much as I guess as routing still is almost 700Mbps via the 480mhz CPU so unless you have a 1Gbps network (Lucky Google trial and people in Asia!) Even then though the V2 tested still does about the same or less performance in some cases?

Not saying it's worth it to go hunting down the V1 however as it's not "better" also (unless you want 3rd party support) :)

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^^ There have been issues of E4200 v1 hanging, requiring reboots and having less than expected wireless range. That is the reason they changed it's internals and that was also the reason I chose RT-N56U besides being cheaper.

v2 appears to have fixed all those flaws while bumping up the CPU speed.

Moreover, as stocks of v1 dwindle, only v2 would be available.

The drawbacks of ASUS RT-N56U are:

1. No IPv6 support yet

2. Wireless N & G speeds are 300 & 300 respectively and not 450

3. There are some VPN setup problems.

4. No USB 3 support

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Ok this is a good comment, but what I find remarkable that people (as in this case) tend to forget, that with NEWER technology (G to N) comes advancements in quality and software. I bet you would experience the SAME thing had you bought a newer G router as well.

I was really hyping N when it first came out, until I realized that the technology didn't JUST change protocols.. everything changed, speed of processors, better software (firmware) etc.. just like computers, so you can't really attribute the better quality to just ONE component.. everything gets a "refresh" mostly.

Nope. You are wrong there. Unless I had bought some of the G+ devices that were about for a short while MIMO isn't part of the G standard but is part of N. Had a WRT54GL running tomato and the step up to N was a big improvement for me. Mainly I think due to MIMO (but as I said before your mileage may vary).

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Moved to Internet, Network & Security

Interested as to how this is better suited in the forum you mention as i'm asking the basics about a modem/router - a physical thing which would surely be HARDware (where i put the thread originally), rather than specifically the internet, or the specifics of networking such as settings - i.e. something you can't physically touch.

rijp - thanks for the reply.

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Interested as to how this is better suited in the forum you mention as i'm asking the basics about a modem/router - a physical thing which would surely be HARDware (where i put the thread originally), rather than specifically the internet, or the specifics of networking such as settings - i.e. something you can't physically touch.

rijp - thanks for the reply.

I guess technically you can put a car in hardware forum too. Since a router belongs to a network i figured it's best for it to go here just a car topic - whether about it's engine or the software or it's USB port or replacing it's HDD.

The hardware forum however is more about PCs and their peripherals, PCI cards, USB, RAM, HDD, Video and such. The same applies to talking about your PC's network connection which has to do with your network card. You could probably put it in hardware as well to talk about replacing the card but i'd put in networking instead as maybe the card isn't bad and it's just a windows issue or even if it's bad, you go talk to people that do networking when it comes to network cards :)

Think of it this way, you are at work and your PC stops working - do you call up the Accountant or the IT department (unless like in my case they may be all the same person, LOL). There are plenty of people that could tell you about SSDs and Video cards (Hardware Forum) but they may not know anything about networking and it's gear. The networking people surely will. :)

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I don't mean to state the obvious, and apologies if this has already been mentioned, but have you tried changing the channel of your current router? If it's as close as you say, the signal shouldn't be that bad.

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It highly depends on the client. Most clients only support 150Mbps. My router goes up to 300Mbps and my WiFi card (Intel Ultimate-N) goes up to 450, and I actually reach 200Mbps internal transfer speeds when I'm close to my router. (2.4Ghz)

What do you mean by "clients" ? I have had 2 routers that have 300 & 450, and 450 & 450 - and If Im doing a transfer from my laptop to my desktop (hard-wired) - it will avg. 12 MB/sec - I am simply using the windows explorer transfer window stats. I have never ran a network benchmark as I know its gonna suck - no point in seeing proof of its suckiness.

How are you calculating 200mb/sec ? Regardless - you made my point - the best you have seen is 1/2 what they claim - its all BS

The WNDR4500 and 2 USB3.0 ports & I plugged in a 1TB USB3 HDD & saw the same crap speeds.

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Why do these interesting threads get hijacked or partially deleted when the discussion becomes knowledgable?

Well @ topic starter, let us know what modem router combo you decided as I need to replace the pile of crap DGN1000 ADSL router in my office.

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I'm interested, although 5 pages in i'm not too sure how many will read through the thread to get to this post, so i may as well make it colourful....

For those of you who say you have both a modem AND a router (rather than a modem-router combo) - personally i can't imagine this looking anything other than messy. Can any of you post up a photo of your setup? I just have visions of these things looking messy, which i don't like.

Why do these interesting threads get hijacked or partially deleted when the discussion becomes knowledgable?

Well @ topic starter, let us know what modem router combo you decided as I need to replace the pile of crap DGN1000 ADSL router in my office.

What was deleted/hijacked? I can't have noticed lol.
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Well I use Netgear DGND3300 for ADSL connection. It feeds internet to ASUS RT-N56U router. I use this setup solely because my 2010 MBP and QNAP NAS are Gigabit capable and DGND3300 is megabit only. ASUS router completes my gigabit setup and I achieve 800 Mbps throughput between my devices on CAT6 cable.

There was a thread created to discuss LAN and Wireless speeds and their optimisation and it got deleted partially (No one knows how and why) and everyone lost interest in the discussion.

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I use a Checkpoint (Sofaware) Safe@Office 425W router connected to a D-Link 2650U router-modem in bridge mode.

In December 2011 the router has blocked 277,000 attempt to break into my home network (49,000 from Kuwait, 25,000 attempts from Philippines).

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