Wireless Router preferences?

nitzmoff · Oct 2006

Seeing as though polycount's product preferences have never failed me before, I thought I would ask another.

I need a reliable wireless router for my 360 as i don't really want to run a really long ethernet cable from my office to the living room. I plan on snagging an Xbox 360 wireless network adapter (and gah, they aren't cheap...). Anyone know of a good wireless router for gaming? I've never gone wifi so I'm in the dark. Really don't want any hiccups while playing games online.

Thanks as always.

Daz · Oct 2006

I'm no expert, but I literally just bought and installed the Netgear rangemax on sunday, and it works like a dream for me. My BF2142 demo ping was consistently awesome (23).

http://www.netgear.com/Products/RoutersandGateways/RangeMaxWirelessRoutersandGateways.aspx

bearkub · Oct 2006

I have had good luck with both Linksys and Netgear (more so Linksys, lately..). I'd have to do some digging to find model numbers, but I can if you need.

Jarrod1937 · Oct 2006

i kind of dislike wireless routers. wired is the way to go, get an old computer and a switch, install linux and ip-cop on the old computer. install two network cards, one for internet in and one for out, take the out to your switch and then from switch to all pc's. ip cop hasn't failed me yet. right now i have a 100 foot ethernet cable running from out my upstairs window, outside, into the downstairs window and into the guest room where we have an extra pc.
but if do absolutly need to go wireless get a netgear, they tend to be good. at work though we hve had trouble with our d-link routers, so stay clear of them.

Joshua Stubbles · Oct 2006

I use the Linksys WRT45G. Never had a single issue with it, and it's super easy to upgrade the firmware on it. It's got good encryption, and it's easy to setup.

hawken · Oct 2006

Yeah dislike wireless routers. I have a coaxial 1000 meter cable running from my bedroom, through the ceiling of the flat below me, out through their cat-flap, under a tunnel and into my shed. My ping is awesome with the 10mbps card I have.

sonic · Oct 2006

don't skimp by getting a netgear or belkin router. get a linksys wrt54g, you won't regret it. in my days as a computer tech, i saw tons of dead netgear/belkin/dlink routers, and not a single dead linksys router. plus you can upgrade the firmware to the dd-wrt firmware to do all kinds of fancy shit.

rawkstar · Oct 2006

had linksys for awhile at the old apt, it had a speed booster option which "corrupted" the packets... UGH lol so i switched to dlink... which worked like a charm for about a year (i got the base one whatever it is, like $30-40 one) super easy to setup, but eventually died not sure why, so i got another one and its been working great.

MoP · Oct 2006

Linksys is my weapon of choice. Like sonic recommended, I used to have a WRT54G which worked great for several years... now I have an extended range Linksys router, it gives very good coverage and signal!

flaagan · Oct 2006

On my road trip I set up two Linksys wireless routers for family in Seattle and Surrey (Canada). Made sure both didn't have that 'speed booster' crap which I knew would cause issues (as Rockstar has proven my theory). The control panel for it was straightforward enough. Here at home I've got exclusively Netgear hardware, and will be picking up either a wireless router or plain old WAP for our home network, seeing as we've got three laptops here now. I'll probably go with Netgear just to keep it all the same across the board. I like Netgear's control panel as well; both are simple enough to deal with in my opinion.

JKMakowka · Oct 2006

I would look for WPA encryption as WAP is extremely unsecure and can be hacked in a matter of minutes.

bearkub · Oct 2006

A little off topic, does any of yous guys using the WRT54G still have the 3rd party firmware for it?

notman · Oct 2006

I have a netgear it it's got a great range. Unfortunately, I've had it act really goofy on me in the past. After checking their forums, it appears that these issues are pretty common and not getting addressed. For that reason only, I probably won't go with Netgear again, but I do have to say, the signal strength is good and the other issues haven't been acting up for a while now.

I've also had DLink for a regular router (wired) and it worked great. The only reason I replaced it was to go wireless. I replaced it with a SMC wireless, which I chose because of a sale price. SMC sucks and the customer service is worse.... don't go with them.

Linksys is very popular and I've heard great things about their reliability and signal strength. The only problem I've heard is they are often easy to hack (by outsiders).

Bearkub: I don't use linksys, but if you need a link to the firmware, I have a few bookmarked:
* http://h.vu.wifi-box.net/wrt54g/
* http://www.sveasoft.com/content/view/20/1/
* https://sourceforge.net/projects/wifi-box/
* http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php

The first and third may be the same thing, but also probably the one you're refering to.

Gmanx · Oct 2006

I've got a (pretty old) netgear router which has never caused me any problems. Linksys appears to be the 'flava' of choice though..

notman · Oct 2006

Yeah, the old Netgears are supposed to be really good, that's why I chose them... reputation and a great review on the model I purchased. Unfortunately it doesn't trigger open ports correctly and when I first set it up, it kept dropping my port settings. It also kept requiring a reset once a week (It would stop communicating with the modem). The dropped settings stopped happening and I only have to reset the connection/router once every few months. I still can't figure out if the communication problem is the router or the modem though.

bearkub · Oct 2006

awesome. Thanks notman. I lost those links in a reformat and just never got around to searching for them again. Thanks tons, dude.

sinistergfx · Oct 2006

Yep, I use dd-wrt on my WRT54G and it is wonderful.

It's quite the sweet deal, turn a $30 router into a $300 dollar one. I'm really looking forward to more development on the multiple SSIDs feature.

bearkub · Oct 2006

Wow notman, you had the exact same netgear problem I had with the router needing to be reset for no real apparent reason every week. good lord was I glad to get rid of that thing. =P

And here I recommended netgear... momentary lapse of stupid, I suppose.

notman · Oct 2006

lol, we should start a support group

I want to get a linksys to use that firmware (for other needs), but I haven't had the money to do so

nitzmoff · Oct 2006

Thanks for the metric ton of responses. I think I have a far better idea now as to what to get.

hawken · Oct 2006

I had a netgear one, cost about 60 quid on the highstreet.

didn't work at all when I manually configured it, so I reset the whole thing and it worked perfectly.

Now I use mac stuff, just kinda works without getting confused, because I am a luddite.

oXYnary · Oct 2006

Is it the netgear that the newer revisions they cut the memory in half and its not as upgradeable firmware wise? PLus the bandwidth drops quickly?

Wireless Router preferences?

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