Broadband Tech > Wireless Networking > What are the best choices for wireless n routers?

What are the best choices for wireless n routers?

I have installed the Cradlepoint MBR95 in a home and it works great. »www.cradlepoint.com/products/sma···g-router

I have had success with the E4200 in one location.

I have successfully used a Vizio »www.vizio.com/accessories/xwr100···ing.html.

I used to avoid D-Link, but this month I had a good experience with a N rated D-Link. I think it was an N150.

I have had trouble with a Belkin needing frequent reboots, so I do not reccomend them.

reply to nfixit2004
smallnet builders is a good source of information to start looking at answers.

reply to nfixit2004
The Cisco Linksys E4200 v1 and the Netgear WNDR 4500 ... either one are good wireless routers.

People run into issues due to miss-matched wireless chip-sets between Clients and Server. Check your Clients for which wireless chip-sets they are using then make a buying decision on which server is the best match for ur clients. If you have a mixed bag of clients all of which use different wireless chip-sets that its obvious that U will have difficulty getting a server to effectively support those clients --- and under those circumstances U make a decision on a unit and hope for the best. Everything will work because there is some minor form of compatibility however compatibility does not guarantee Capability [optimized performance] --- compatibility just guarantees that it will work at some level.

How do U find out which wireless chipset technology is being used on ur clients? email the network adapter [Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, ASUS, D-Link etc.] manufacturer and ask them whose chipset was used in your specific wireless network adapter. Chips sets are make by Ralink, Broadcom, Marvel and Qualcomm. There are some Generic stuff like the Intel wireless chip-sets built-into many laptops that license technology from the aforementioned majors and/or use their own schemes -- i:e: the Intel 6300 was designed by Intel to work with 3x3 systems so in this case a laptop with this particular chiset would work with any server using a 3x3 design --- the level of compatibility and capability is subject to any-ones imagination.

Routers [wired/wireless] are Servers --- Network Adapters [wired/wireless] are Clients.

Best way to avoid mismatches is to buy a brand and stick with its native clients -- i.e: Netgear WNDR4500 as the server and WNDA4100 as its native client.

So the lesson to learn from the above verbal diarrhea is that in the N wireless world Compatibility and Capability are mutually exclusive and very badly misunderstood.
--
David Mozer
IT-Expert on Call
Information Technology for Home and Business

Have a look at the Asus RT series, N12, N16, N56 and the newest N66.
They seem decent (I think most except for N56 are 3rd party friendly - the 16 gets good reviews).
Couldnt pass up an opportunity to give differing advice from Mozerd. But he is right, no use spending money on the latest and greatest if your adaptors dont match to give that optimally tempting performance, primarily in technology (ie a g adaptor with N router) and to a lesser degree chipset. Early days of wifi the same chipset seemed critical for interoperability but less so nowadays.

So much for standards. What a farce. So your saying that MIMO is misused as people are adopting proprietary schemes.

reply to mozerd
That maybe true to intercommunicate between 2 manufacturer's MIMO APs but this is not an issue at all when it comes to AP to client.

reply to nfixit2004
Thanks for the replys guys, Im looking into all the info. now. I been real busy in the last few days thats why Im replying so later.

also from my experience I never had a problem with different router chips and wireless adapter chips working together.

"Good enough" is usually pretty good for most. I have mismatched sets, but I get 45Mbps sustained internet downloads on lapts and tablets. Not, it's not the 54Mbps I get from my wired connections, but good enough for me. I have no interest in doubling the bandwidth either.

I don't do wireless network data transfers, so I don't know how close I'm getting to my 100Mbps ethernet (MoCA 1.x constrained) max. Obviously YMMV, since it seems anything Wi-Fi related is a crap-shoot unless you do what you say and match everything up.

I think you cater to a much more sophisticated clientele.

I think most of the unwashed masses are like me--"How much wireless do I need to max out my internet connection?"

Goober, YOU DO want PERFORMANCE -- in another thread your asking if YOU can get MORE performance!!!

And your 100% wrong -- the majority want PERFORMANCE and RELIABILITY and nothing short of that and want it as cheap as possible. There is nothing sophisticated about that.

lol. I suppose so. But, for me, it's really a game. In reality I don't NEED anything faster than my internet connection.

It's mostly a tweaker mentality. Do I really need to overclock my PCs? Not really, but it's fun to see how far you can go. I guess it's the same thing here.

ITs a bit more than that, there is also an aspect of getting what you paid for as a minimum.......let alone tweaking

I paid $75 for the RT-N16 and $39 for RT-N12/B1 (I'll probably pick up another one for the basement). I don't expect much but I feel like I got a lot out of those items since I increased my throughput by over 100% (over my Belkins that served me well for many years at an even lesser price).

For me, personally, I feel like I've gotten my money's worth.