[chrisdisregard]

...

[shifuimam]

I've also had crap luck with D-Link's routers. I'm a fan of Belkin, Netgear, and Linksys.

Linksys is overpriced, but if you can find a WRT54G on sale or on eBay for cheap, go for it. I have three and really love them.

The older hardware revisions also allow you to flash them with third-party firmware that gives you a lot of flexibility.

I've also had a Belkin G-router that served me very well for several years before I handed it on to someone else.

[ibook_steve]

And of course, Airport base stations (Express, Extreme, Time Capsule) aren't too shabby either, though they don't have a web interface for configuration, which sucks.

Steve

[shifuimam]

Originally Posted by ibook_steve 

And of course, Airport base stations (Express, Extreme, Time Capsule) aren't too shabby either, though they don't have a web interface for configuration, which sucks.

Steve

I didn't know that until I got my hands on one. It's possibly the biggest reason (aside from price), IMO, not to buy an ABS - having your router's config be entirely reliable on software is just asking for trouble. I much prefer a web-based config that can be accessed remotely.

[steve626]

I think routers nowadays are like commodities. They are mass produced and basically work in most cases. I don't think any brands are worse than others especially, although you sound down on DLink now, but there are plenty of Dlink routers in productive use.

You might want to explore some of the settings on the router to see if your problem can be eliminated. I have used Belkin g and Linksys n-draft routers and both seemed fine, but with the n-draft router I had issues when I tried the highest rate settings for the 802.11n wireless. I constrained the bandwidth in the web-based settings (versus allowing to "auto" try to optimize the speed) and this resulted in a rock solid connection over long distances in all rooms in the house, whereas before there had been intermittent issues. I think this was due to a congested environment with at least 10 strong router signals from nearby houses (these are well separated houses, but n-draft routers have quite a range nowadays). I still have a 130 Mbps connection wireless. In a congested environment, by the way, allowing the router to try for 40 MHz channels may result in an unreliable connection, because the 40 MHz channel extends into adjacent channels and if these are very congested, there will effectively be interference. When I changed this setting, my connections improved a lot.

Linksys, by the way is the same as Cisco, which is the industry leader in routers. When facing an assortment of router brands in the store and not knowing which to pick, I just selected Linksys for that somewhat random reason. I too like the ability to run the browser configuration tools from a computer that is connecting wirelessly to the router.

[ghporter]

First, not all commodities are identical; a LOT of smaller brands have anything from zero to bad reputations, and for a reason. I've heard really bad things about Belkin wireless routers, for example. I have had excellent success with Linksys products, and know people who have had similarly great success with Netgear. D-Link...not so much.

But Linksys is NOT "the same as Cisco." Cisco owns Linksys, and controls the firm, but their hardware is NOT just rebranded Cisco-nor vice versa.

I like earlier versions of the Linksys WRT56G series, and particularly the WRT54GS, which was made with a faster processor and double the RAM and flash ROM. I'm currently using a WAP54G for wireless, connected to my BEFSR41 v3 wired router. This is my second BEFSR41, the earlier one having served for many years before dust and time took their toll on it. I also have a Speedstream wired router, a USRobotics wired router (currently being used for its networked parallel printer port), and a Netgear 5 port switch (a steal when bought at a discount and with a mail in rebate!).

I would recommend a Linksys router because of the Linksys reputation for "just working" and from my extensive personal experience, NOT because they're owned by Cisco-Cisco is responsible for a lot of "cheapening" of Linksys products, plus their "wonderful" offshore tech support.

[milhous]

i'm kind of curious on how the airport extreme base stations are. i've never owned one and i've been using a flashed linksys wrt54g for a while and it works fine except it craps out sometimes and has to be power cycled.

i also have a cisco 871w that's still in the box, but i got because i'm a CCNA and wanted to learn how to configure and use it.

recently, i installed an AE base station at our ceo's summer home and it was a real pleasure to configure and run. the wizard even took into consideration scenarios where it would have to connect to another router before connecting to the internet such as a vonage analog telephone adapter (ATA).

as ibook_steve said, it is weird that it didn't come with a web interface, but i guess having an app on a mac/pc that can auto-discover ae base stations and ae express units and start the setup process is better than initially guessing which wireless network to connect to, or to type 192.168.1.1 in the browser, and enter a password.

[Cold Warrior]

AP Extreme are nice. I own two and they are very stable.