Wireless Networking → Suggestions on Dual Band with NAS Wireless Routers

I am looking for suggestions on currently available DUAL RADIO DUAL RADIO wireless routers.

Must have 5.8G 802.11a and 2.4GHz radios and MUST SUPPORT USE of BOTH RADIOS AT THE SAME TIME.

USB port use as NAS to attach USB HD and use locally and remotely. This feature can NOT REQUIRE ANY SPECIAL SOFTWARE. Using CIFS/DAVFS2 via mount or fstab, or webdavs:// via Konqueror is fine. Samba shares only and WebDavs (Secure) access compatible with Linux, and preferably the HD will be formatted in EXT3 when attached. I don't do windows.

I've seen the various Netgears from the 3700 to the new 4500 and ALL have massive flaws with dropouts on the wireless connections after a few hours to the 4500 which can not handle HP networked printers which I have a house full of and use on the network. So NO NETGEARS. They have not been able to solve one issue with any of their routers in over a year, and their forums are nothing but a bastion of frustrated customers. I love[d] Netgear in the past and have tons of it, but it appears the outsourced junk is that, junk.

VOIP SIP Ports ala the old WGRV615, would be a plus, but not a requirement, I can always stick some stand alone ATA's in.

External antennas with the standard RP-SMA or RP-TNC connectors would be preferred to internal antennas.

Highest power available units ala the Buffalo, but I am not fond of DD-WRT (in re NAS use and setup, unless its been vastly improved upon)

Basically who makes something like the Netgear 3700 to 4500, but NOT Netgears! Ones that work, reliable.

Summary:

Gigabit LAN Ports 4 is fine, but more would be GREAT!
DUAL BAND Radio 5.8G & 2.4G
DUAL USE Radio use both 2.4 & 5.8G at the same time with differing SIDS
USB Port(s) for NAS at minimum, Linux Compatible locally and remotely
VOIP Ports for SIP services (OPTIONAL, but a huge plus)
VLAN
Guest Wireless WLAN
VPN terminations would be a plus, optional.

Standard Router NAT, DHCP, Static, MAC Filtering, MAC IP assignment, port forwarding etc..

WORKING DynDNS client support for multiple domains would be a plus. Another area Netgear can't seem to get right.

External antenna connectors RP-SMA/RP-TNC would be prefered so I can change them out to higher gain (Thanks yes I am aware of the EIRP rules etc..)

Any one have one they like and is reliable?

Thanks!

The Netgear 4500 works with all the HP wired ethernet Printers and insofar as older HP wireless Printers go HP wireless drivers have not kept up so this part is disruptive. However, from a wireless laptop or wireless Desktop connectivity to a wired ethernet connected HP printer should not be a problem. There are far too many HP wireless printers and certainly many of those will not be compatible with the Netgear 4500 -- the same can be said for any other wireless router regardless of who makes the product.

Which model of HP printer are you having issues with?

You could accomplish connecting "older" HP wireless printers to a wireless network by considering the following:

If its for Home use and you will not have more than 12 people connecting to your network get a good quality Router like
the ZyWALL USG 20
Then add 2 wireless access points -- one AP will be for the legacy stuff like older HP wireless printers [a/b/g] like
the HP A7760 Single Radio 802.11a/b/g Access Point
The other AP for your N stuff like
the LINKSYS WAP610N

I would NOT run a NAS off USB -- much better to run NAS off ethernet. USB in Routers are not reliable especially for NAS. Any wireless connected computer can access a ethernet connected NAS --- when configured to properly do so.

»www.us.zyxel.com/Product ··· 856EFECF

but not dual radio. for that have to look at AP class

»www.us.zyxel.com/Product ··· DF70618D

Too bad it doesn't do WDS. It seems like a great router.

Thanks...for the suggestions, but I need to keep this on point.

I am interested in routers, routers only, and routers which match the feature set of the Netgear 3700 to 4500, BUT NOT the Netgears. Adding things like SIP/VOIP would be a plus, but not essential.

The Netgears have had serious firmware issues for over a year now, that Netgear's outsourced ODM/OEM can not correct from dropped wireless links to HP Printers causing WAN access to fail.

HP Printers Kill WAN
»forum1.netgear.com/showt ··· ?t=70465

The never ending try a firmware upgrade spin
»forum1.netgear.com/showt ··· ?t=72020
»forum1.netgear.com/showt ··· ?t=71301

Netgear can't seem to get its ODM/OEM to resolve this with out creating more problems, so I am done waiting for them to try to resolve it. And at $180 for a 4500 I don't need a paperweight. Even a closeout $99 3700 is a rock if its causing network issues.

Other forms of NAS may be the power play, but for the task at hand this will meet the requirement for the task and users it will serve. My LG NAS units are already on the network for other uses. As well as having a router and access points. I have a setup of HE102's (Yes the old ancient Netgear ones) spread around. I am looking to de clutter things. I am keeping a specific HE102 for a dedicated AP as it is with this upgrade. This one is already locked to a few devices only already.

I am really after locating units with the Netgear features, but that work and are reliable.

Thanks.

Airport Extreme.

linksys e4200s are sweat... you can also have a hope in a near future to run dd-wrt on it...

iXNAY on Apple Airport Extreme... That's for Grand Ma's house just to get he connected simple and dumb as they come...

No UPnP. That would be annoying.

As long as you get the older one. The V2 are based on Marvel's chipset.