Wireless Networking → Router Suggestions

Hey all,

I need a new router. For the past several years I have had a Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router. It's worked great, but now it is having problems assigning IP addresses to new devices. Given that this router is going on 7 years old, I think it is safe to say I can get a new one.

Normally I wouldn't start a thread like this for such a simple device, but I remember reading how CISCO changed their firmware and TOS which allowed them to view your data transfers, force you to use the cloud and could terminate your cloud services if you downloaded porn or torrents. See for more info: »arstechnica.com/informat ··· service/

Given that the majority of my internet traffic is porn and torrents, this will not work well for me.

So, what are some good routers? I don't need anything special, but remote access services would be nice. I am not opposed to CISCO routers as long as a working non-cloud firmware is readily available.

Thanks!

For what it's worth, here's an update regarding the cloud service (no longer required). »blogs.cisco.com/home/upd ··· cloud-2/

And talked about here »Cisco retreating due to customer pressure apparently.

Ha, at least you're honest.

I've been quite happy with my Netgear WNDR3700 v1 (latest model is the WNDR4000). Not sure if you need dual band or want to spend over $100 bucks on a router though.

Argh I just went through the same thing you did. I had to dump my buffalo g54 because it couldnt keep up with the new 55/10 comcast is offering. The state of consumer routers (hardware quality/reliability) is worse then it ever has been. It doesnt matter which router you look at there are tons of people complaining that their devices failed after a short amount of time. That plus the stupid cloud shit that these vendors are now pushing makes the choices even less.

With that said I just picked up a dlink dir-655. For the most part I am pretty happy with it. There are a lot of features packed into this thing, but unfortunately a lot are undocumented especially those related to ipv6.

The ipv6 settings themselves can be buggy, for example if I switch ipv6 to local only wireless stops working completely... I think for the most part all the latest updates have been related to ipv6 so I am guessing its a work and progress and hopefully all the kinks will be worked out in the next year or so...

Another thing that aggravates me is the ipv6 firewall is disabled by default leaving any consumer who doesnt really know what they are doing completely unprotected..

With that said other then its minor quirks I am pretty happy with and the reviews online seem to resemble my experience. Luckly I dont have ipv6 yet so I can ignore these bugs for now.

I tend to recommend to folks the Asus RT-N16 or Asus RT-N66U (I have experience with the former, as it's what I use at home), and run TomatoUSB on it (instead of the stock Asus firmware); I tend to recommend the Toastman builds, but Shibby's builds are also fine. WAN and LAN ports are all gigE.

The firmware is Linux-based so the IP stack is reliable vs. some strangely-engineered nonsense out of Taiwan. IPv6, port forwarding, CLI (for debugging or troubleshooting things), bandwidth graphs and storing bandwidth usage, etc. are all available. There are entire forums (like www.linksysinfo.org) dedicated to providing support/help with this firmware too.

I don't tend to recommend the Linksys/Cisco stuff any more, nor Netgear, because they keep changing the underlying hardware of the product without actually changing the model number (for example the WNDR3700L is still sold as just that, but there are two very different versions (v1 and v2) which contain substantially different hardware thus behave different and work with some firmwares but not others). They also keep decreasing the flash and RAM on them which sucks. I will admit though that aesthetically they look really nice.

I subscribe to Comcast's "Extreme" tier service (so 50mbit/10mbit, with PowerBoost). I would give you a speedtest result except my Internet connection has been crap for almost 2 weeks now (Comcast problem, not equipment/modem/router problem). Usually my Comcast speedtests result in 64mbit/16mbit.

I should note that I do not use wifi much -- everything I use is wired, except my Nintendo DSi, and that's in no way/shape/form like a laptop. I find wireless generally too unstable/unreliable for my liking.

Thanks for the tip. While I want wireless, I don't need a top of the line router. I only use wireless for guests and occasionally when I want to use my laptop in the living room. Everything else is wired.

I'll start looking at options.