help decide on replacement router

S

Sparkynutz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Messages
156
I am complete noob with routers and need a new one. I've had two in my life. An old linksys wired and then a WRT54GL Linksys for many years. Recently the router needs to be shut off and restarted to get half speed net. Usually after a day or less I'm fown to 2mbps or less download speed on my wired connection to desktop and probably slower to phone, but haven't checked. I use netflix daily and it keeps buffering quite often and feel its time for a new router. I'm using charter at like 50mbps or whatever its at now.
I mainly use wifi on phones, a laptop, and 3 Netflix blu ray players along with wired to my desktop.

What would you get if you were me?
I want something simple to use and setup hopefully 1hr or less with hopefully no issues.
And as long range as I can get. I live next to a park and my current router when new worked half way across the park. Was nice for useing laptop there.
I'm thinking-

1. New Linksys WRT54GL since it was good for so long and familiar with it.... drawback its old and slower than rest.

2. Netgear WNDR3700

3. Netgear WNDR3400

4. Netgear WNR3500L

5. TP Link Archer C5 AC1200

Others?
 
Do you have the price flexibility to get a C7?

Don't get another WRT54 anything. They are so slow compared to newer routers. Everything in my house works better since I ditcched mine last year. WRT54s had 4MB RAM and single core 200mhz processors, new routers have 128MB+ And dual core 700+ MHz processors.

I have a Netgear AC router now and it took about 20 seconds to setup, no joke. Everything just works, router tech have come a long way. You can get cheap AC refurbs too:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JRCQRSQ
 
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I'm a stickler for the WNDR3700. It's proven to be solid hardware and very customizable with third-party tools. However, if you need AC for wireless (which at this point you might as well go) then it wouldn't suffice long-term.

Definitely stay away from WRT54 products. They've long outlived themselves hardware wise. What ocellaris means by slow is that whether Wi-Fi or Ethernet connected the routing limit is about 25Mbps on those models. It's that old and came out at a time when that was 4x what the average broadband user had access to.

Just about any newer router in the past 3-4 years will be good for 100Mbps+ no problems.
 
Liger88 said:
I'm a stickler for the WNDR3700. It's proven to be solid hardware and very customizable with third-party tools. However, if you need AC for wireless (which at this point you might as well go) then it wouldn't suffice long-term.

Definitely stay away from WRT54 products. They've long outlived themselves hardware wise. What ocellaris means by slow is that whether Wi-Fi or Ethernet connected the routing limit is about 25Mbps on those models. It's that old and came out at a time when that was 4x what the average broadband user had access to.

Just about any newer router in the past 3-4 years will be good for 100Mbps+ no problems.
Click to expand...

AC = Range extender?
What is typical range on any of the ones I listed or the AC1600?
I don't understand what differences are between these or how to know what to pick.


Budget is about $100, but obviously cheaper is better as long as it doesn't suck range wise or take a crap in a year.
 
AC is the 802.11 wireless standard. The old WRT models were B/G

B being 11MBs
G being 54MBs (where the name WRT54 came from)
N came out after the WRT, and is 450 MBs
AC is the latest standard, and is up to 1300MBs (and maybe more depending on how many antenna it's configured with)

N and AC are backwards compatible to work over two different frequencies - 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. B/G was only 2.4 Ghz. In general, the lower (2.4 Ghz) frequency has better range, but poorer transmission speeds and fewer available channels (more congestion with nearby similar devices). The newer standards get around that a bit by using more antennas, and are more robust at picking the best combination of speed versus range.

That being said, if you are looking at canvasing an area larger than a standard home in WiFi, that's an extenuating circumstance and you should bring it up - there are ways to do it, but a typical home router will only cover around the size of an average home well (interference and all other things withstanding)
 
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Go with the TP-Link Archer C5, it's a good bang for the buck with support for 3rd party firmwares such as OpenWRT. It's the fastest of the bunch too. There's not really a point going for the C7 instead of C5 as someone suggested above.
//Danne
 
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diizzy said:
Go with the TP-Link Archer C5, it's a good bang for the buck with support for 3rd party firmwares such as OpenWRT. It's the fastest of the bunch too. There's not really a point going for the C7 instead of C5 as someone suggested above.
//Danne
Click to expand...

There are apparently two versions of the C5 floating around. TP Links site shows a model with two antennas:

http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=Archer+C5

C5 is fine if someone gets the three antenna version, though the C7 is only $10 more right now on Amazon. All of the C7s in Amazon have been the new V2 model for a while.
 
Speed is my last concern. I've been dealing with 2mbps for many months because its I'm sick of unplugging and restarting everything most of the time. If I'm downloading a big file then I do, otherwise just deal with slow connection.
Main concern really is amount of devices and range.
C7 still best out of my list and suggestions? I'll prolly order sonething this weekend.
Thanks for the great breakdown Brian and input guys.
 
I would use practically anything modern over a WRT54GL... The WRT54GL is garbage today. Just because something was once (fairly) good doesn't mean it still is.
 
There's only one version of C5, two of the C7 and it will not have better range. Also, if you go for the C7 make sure you get v2.
//Danne
 
I think its only a dummy antenna as C5 is only a 2TR2 device while the internals are the same.
//Danne
 
Any updates since this? Haven't ordered yet, will be tonight hoping to find a deal on a c7 if that's still best bang for buck.
 
On the topic of MIMO, let's not forget to point out that MIMO doesn't do terribly much when paired with a non-MIMO client. Even at 3x3, this is only good for one client really, the new 4x4 units are able to split for two 2x2 MIMO streams.

In practice, I haven't been impressed with MIMO in it's current state. Granted, I don't have any AC clients( where MIMO has actually been standardized) so I can't really comment on that.
 
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