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koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

koitsu to Omega

MVM

to Omega

Re: Router Suggestions

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.

Omega
Premium Member
join:2002-07-30
Golden, CO

Omega

Premium Member

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.