What is a good Wireless N Router?

[DodgerKing]

2. Hard wire the PS3 / Dish receiver

Out of curiosity, what functions are available on the Dish receiver via LAN?

On the DirecTV receivers I can access all of my media on my PC, including playing music, viewing pictures, and playing videos from my PC through my receiver, VOD downloads, play recorded material form my DVR through my PC (DirecTV2PC), and some interactive features.

 

[FunkyBoss]

After extensive reviews I did go with the WNDR3700 (thanks primestar31 for mentioning it).

I picked this one up a couple months ago. It's been solid for me, and it's neat having multiple wireless networks from the same router. It's nice to have a guest network so when friends/relatives come over, they can connect to the internet without seeing all my machines at home. I was almost infected by my nephew's machine at x-mas time when he was surfing on my network with his infected laptop (before I got this router) :rant:.

 

[cjwct]

I am on the same cable system as you cjwct, and upgraded to the SB6120 cable modem...

We have DOCSIS 3 in the area now, but honestly I think that my old 5100 modem ran better. It just seemed smoother this one seems to have delays when doing things. In addition now really seeing any better speeds on the D3 modem then I did with the D2 modem.

Hey Scott . . . I'll let you know as soon as I have it up and running for about a week if I have any problems or see any differences

 

[cjwct]

Out of curiosity, what functions are available on the Dish receiver via LAN?

On the DirecTV receivers I can access all of my media on my PC, including playing music, viewing pictures, and playing videos from my PC through my receiver, VOD downloads, play recorded material form my DVR through my PC (DirecTV2PC), and some interactive features.

I am sure others can provide a more accurate answer then I can. I probably do not access any of the features except Dishonline with my DVR . . . be interesting to see other replies . . . maybe I will learn something

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I upgraded to the SB6120 four months ago, and saw a huge increase in performance. It has not as much as hiccuped.

 

[cjwct]

What's a good site that I can do a pre/post wireless speed test with one of my computers?

 

[Brucegrr]

I had a Dlink dir-635 and now I use a dir-655. Works well. Did have some connection issues but the latest firmware update fixed the problem.

 

[goaliebob99]

What's a good site that I can do a pre/post wireless speed test with one of my computers?

Speakeasy.net or speedtest.net I would use a server out of NYC or a major metro area.

 

[cjwct]

Speakeasy.net or speedtest.net I would use a server out of NYC or a major metro area.

Thanks goaliebob . . .

my wireless speed from speedtest.net are:
7.63 mb/s download
5.73 mb/s upload
Location was Granby, MA

my wireless speed from speakeasy.net are
15.77 mb/s download
5.73 mb/s upload
Location was New York, NY

I will have to re-test now when I setup the new modem and router to see if any difference

 

[cjwct]

I am back with an update, but first, Happy Easter everyone!!!

I have had the wireless network running for three days without any drops. I connected my PS3 wirelessly and it is streaming Netflix without any interruptions. Setup was a snap and even the Harmony remote/adapter took less than 2 minutes.

Updated testing numbers are:

my wireless speed from speedtest.net are:
14.63 mb/s download
1.83 mb/s upload
Location was Granby, MA

my wireless speed from speakeasy.net are
15.45 mb/s download
1.87 mb/s upload
Location was New York, NY

Upload speeds decreased.

Download speeds differed: In one case (Granby) download speeds doubled, while in the other (New York), it remained the same.

I am not concerned with upload speed, so that does not matter. I am somewhat surprised NY speed test did not change, but alas, as long as I have constant streaming and no drops like I did before, then I am happy.

 

[cappy29]

I have a question and this seem's to be the thread to post it in.I upgraded my broadband internet service to DOCSIS 3.0 and bought a Motorola surfboard extreme,but i still am using my old router which is a Linksys WRT54GS and saw that i should upgrade to a new router capable of handling my new speed,now when i run a speedtest i didn't notice much if any in my download speed but a increase in my upload,so i wanted to get some more advice to see if this is true about the router.Oh by the way most of my connections are wired except for 1.

 

[mike123abc]

It is very true that the older routers do not do more than 7-10mbit/sec real routing (i.e. NAT/PAT). It is a lot of work for the router. They can work fast device to device on the LAN, hence the speed claims, but when they have to do real work, they slow to a crawl.

I switched to fast cisco routers and use my old wireless router just as a bridge to the LAN, so it goes full speed without having to do any work. I do not reccomend the cisco router (not rebranded linksys, but the real cisco running IOS) for home use, I just use them because I know how to use them from work, and you can pick up some great deals on ebay on real workhorses.

 

[cappy29]

Router.

It is very true that the older routers do not do more than 7-10mbit/sec real routing (i.e. NAT/PAT). It is a lot of work for the router. They can work fast device to device on the LAN, hence the speed claims, but when they have to do real work, they slow to a crawl.

I switched to fast cisco routers and use my old wireless router just as a bridge to the LAN, so it goes full speed without having to do any work. I do not reccomend the cisco router (not rebranded linksys, but the real cisco running IOS) for home use, I just use them because I know how to use them from work, and you can pick up some great deals on ebay on real workhorses.

Thanks for the response,by chance do you have any model#'s for those router's that are good for DOCSIS 3 so i know what to look for if i go the Ebay route.

 

[mike123abc]

Thanks for the response,by chance do you have any model#'s for those router's that are good for DOCSIS 3 so i know what to look for if i go the Ebay route.

If you are going to go the professional Cisco route the 1811 is probably the best bet since the fans are resonably quite. If you have a wiring closet the 3745 is cheaper and faster, but it sounds like a freight train with 6 fans running full speed.

The Cisco route is still $300-400 (1811) $250-$300 (3745) and you really need computer knowledge to know how to program them. The 1811 does have a Cisco Configuration Professional gui front end and the 3745 has SDM (an older GUI), but even so getting a used router to the point where you can use the gui takes work. You have to go in on the serial console line and follow instructions (from cisco) on how to reset back to factory, then you have to hand configure (command line interface) an interface to talk (i.e. give it an IP address) then start up the SSH/HTTP/HTTPS services just to talk to the GUI you run on your computer.

If you have access to all the stuff from work (i.e. the ability to download CPP and SDM), otherwise I do not know where to get them if they are not included with the used router.

The professional Cisco routers are not oriented towards consumers at all. They assume you have someone that is CCNA certified setting it up for your business. I like to program, and it has been a fun adventure, and I can program them pretty easy right now. I have 9 of them now in use at home and in my businesses.

Just be careful not to overpay, you can get new 1811 for $750 and if you get the service contract you get support and software upgrades. The way Cisco works is you buy the router and buy a smartnet contract. You get phone support and repair for the contract (1 or 3 year). If you do not buy the contract you do not get any support, just a limited mail in repair warranty.

http://www.cisco.com/web/partners/downloads/765/tools/quickreference/routerperformance.pdf - comparison chart, note it is the maximum 64 byte packets that can be routed through. 1492 byte packets will of course be much higher numbers.

If you want to pay the big bucks and go new the 891 or the 2901 are good bets for a business budget.

I use a 3745 for the house, but I have it in a basement closet where the noise is contained. With shipping it was $261 from ebay delivered.

 

[terrancelee]

I have an 1841 that I've tried to learn some about. I was able to command line some things finally, after getting it to reset to factory defaults, but I could never get the browser IP to work correctly. It even came with a Sprint HWIC-3G-CDMA plug in card and antenna. No idea what I'd do with that, though. Hopefully I can find more time to learn more about this router and get it working eventually. Would really like to have this as the head end of my network, with some N wireless behind it.

 

[mike123abc]

I have an 1841 that I've tried to learn some about. I was able to command line some things finally, after getting it to reset to factory defaults, but I could never get the browser IP to work correctly. It even came with a Sprint HWIC-3G-CDMA plug in card and antenna. No idea what I'd do with that, though. Hopefully I can find more time to learn more about this router and get it working eventually. Would really like to have this as the head end of my network, with some N wireless behind it.

The Cisco Forum at dslreports.com is really good. They have a FAQ section with sample configurations. Once you get it talking over the LAN you can remote configure them using the CPP GUI.

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/cisco

If you have a smartnet contract you can download the latest GUI and phone support is great (they will spend hours on the phone helping you set up your router, even using remote desktop to talk to your router and help you config it).

 

[diogen]

I haven't used Cisco routers since dial-up times, but suspect they are somewhat similar to their ASA 5xx0 firewalls.
Those have very thorough PDF manuals available for download and the CPP/SDM can actually be found without subscription.
Just like IPSec and SSL clients for many platforms (SSL would need some $100 to license the Essential package if you need more than 2).

Diogen.

 

[goaliebob99]

I have the cisco docis 3.0 modem comcast hands out, its a graphical interface and not command line. I have it hooked up to my linkys gigabit wireless N router w/ ddwrt.

I often get this speeds over 20 megs on wireless N, but connected via hardwire, I see the full 50 megs down and 10 megs up.