Which router!?


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Had enough of my POS buffalo g300nh - the most recent fw update has crippled the wireless and it won't rollback. Have had to resort to a secondary acces point! So I want a new one - high budget!

Honestly, I've just overloaded my brain today trying to research the best router to get and I've just decided to resort to the experts.

I'm after something robust, reliable, and versatile (third party firmware support - current or future).

So far I've narrowed it down to:

- linksys e4200v1 (seems to be quite difficult to guarantee whether you get a v1 or v2 which are totally different chipsets and specifications. V1 supports ddwrt and V2 does not.

-linksys ea4500 (same as e4200v2 but with this Cisco cloud rubbish that I can't work out what it does.

-netgear wndr4500 (seems like a solid router and ddwrt is in the works!)

-asus rt-n66u (love the looks of this but after reading forums it appears there are lots of issues with the firmware and specifically the Nvram size. Advanced features such as VPN on the firmware have had to be disabled due to various issues. Occurring to reviews on smallnetbuilder though it appears to have the best range/performance! Even if some of the features don't work.)

Honestly so torn. Haven't a clue!

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BlendedFrog beat me to it, there's already at least one thread about "What router should I get?".

re: third party firmware support, you should rule out all current Linksys. None of them support Tomato/DD-WRT & won't support them in the future.

re: the E4200 v1, yes the original model has Tomato support. But you may as well rule that one out, it's almost impossible to get them now with the original Broadcom chipset. Newegg, for example, sells the E4200 v1 but Linksys is packing v2 routers in those boxes, so Newegg is basically shipping you v2 instead of v1. I had to return the last one I ordered from them b/c of this... sucks b/c the original E4200 V1 + Tomato firmware is awesome.

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BlendedFrog beat me to it, there's already at least one thread about "What router should I get?".

re: third party firmware support, you should rule out all current Linksys. None of them support Tomato/DD-WRT & won't support them in the future.

re: the E4200 v1, yes the original model has Tomato support. But you may as well rule that one out, it's almost impossible to get them now with the original Broadcom chipset. Newegg, for example, sells the E4200 v1 but Linksys is packing v2 routers in those boxes, so Newegg is basically shipping you v2 instead of v1. I had to return the last one I ordered from them b/c of this... sucks b/c the original E4200 V1 + Tomato firmware is awesome.

Just been watching a v1 on eBay and it went for ?110 all-in! This is the router I'm really after but put off paying that much for something second hand! Is tomato better than ddwrt?

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Please note the Asus only has 32mb flash memory vs 128 for the netgear.

My netgear haas lasted 6 years with no problems!

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Man!

Something as simple as a router does not take experts to chose, if you know what you're doing and looking for!

There are so many to chose from and all are just about the same, provided they're newer models.

Know SEVERAL people who have had and still have Netgears and never had any issues. It's all in the luck of the draw on how long any piece of electronics last.

I have a Linksys E2000 and it works perfectly and uses Tomato firmware, which blows away DD-WRT!

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cork... agreed...

I also have noticed a couple people that are butthurt about me liking netgear and amped wireless did something and I don't think it was needed. Totally not cool.

also many router problems are ID10T errors... if you take good care of your equipment and are smart enough to properly administrate it then it goes much easier...

if you bork up firmware from your own stupidity or have a crappy ISP don't blame the manufacturer.

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I also have noticed a couple people that are butthurt about me liking netgear

Not sure about their routers as I personally havn't ever owned one, but Netgear make the best switches without a doubt!

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Not sure about their routers as I personally havn't ever owned one, but Netgear make the best switches without a doubt!

I used to have one of those too and it was great as well. Too bad I left it behind by accident in one of the many many moves I've had... I feel soooo terrible about it... One of my biggest regrets ever. it was an 8 port one... managed. I miss it.

Only Linksys product I've had that was decent was a 4 port unmanged switch and how could you mess those up?? LOL.

I plan on getting that new Gigabit Netgear router that just came out. Then I'll turn this WGR614 into a repeater for it as well.

I think the OP needs to give that new Netgear one a try it's packed with features!

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Bought a ASUS RT-N56U last week, excellent range, good sharing capabilities and first and foremost it lives up to my speed requirements (i have 100/10 at home and i get 97/10 on my Wireless connection which is more then i can say about the competition). Plus it was relatively cheap (150$ here in Sweden).

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But on the other hand, i would save my money a bit longer and go for the Netgear R6300, that is if you have devices or planning to buy any that support the ac standard.

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I plan on getting that new Gigabit Netgear router that just came out. Then I'll turn this WGR614 into a repeater for it as well.

The only thing that stopped me from buying that router is the fact the stand can't be removed and it has to stand up-right.

That put me off.

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Hmmmm wierd... cosmetics don't bother me I got a decent sized desk too. I would prefer it to be on a stand or wall mounted actually...

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I was refering to the N900, all the previous models had an addition stand, this one however was attached and couldn't be removed. I now see they have an even newer router which supports Gigabit Wireless AC (R6300)

I like my routers lying flat, I'm picky :p

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Getting a 802.11ac router now is stupid. Currently there are 0.1% of devices that use ac (hell there are still a lot that dont have 802.11n), DD-WRT currently does not support 802.11ac (because there is no routers out there), and the spec is not finalized.

On that last note, there is also WiGig in develop....excuse me FINALIZED........and noone uses it either. So, what is the point?

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Why not get thte E3200 if you are looking at the E4200? It is cheaper and has the same specs (as a matter of fact, the E3200 processor seems to be clocked higher)

If you want to go Netgear (personally dont understand why), their most powerful supported router is the WNDR3800. They have a few more but they are WIP.

Linksys has also been Linksys so.........

I had a Asus and now a TP-Link. The Asus was great and the TP-Link just has a wireless glitch but DD-WRT makes both of them so much better and stable....

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I know you got AMPED WIRELESS! Crisps

..admit it!

But Netgear has got some great features in their routers.

Amped wireless has got a router coming soon that has USB server and dual band out late next month!

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I know you got AMPED WIRELESS! Crisps

..admit it!

But Netgear has got some great features in their routers.

Amped wireless has got a router coming soon that has USB server and dual band out late next month!

Uh...no I didn't. I went with the asus one.

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