Wireless Routers

Discussion in 'Blazers OT Forum' started by BoBoBREWSKI, Dec 28, 2012.

  1. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Messages:
    14,354
    Likes Received:
    5,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    NW
    I have a Cisco Lynksys router that is 4+ years old and isn't cutting it anymore. Our wireless connection is getting worse & worse... especially now that we have more devises using WiFi. We have 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, & 2 Xbox's using WiFi. Our PC is wired. Any recommendations on a good new wireless router? Hopefully less than $100.
    :cheers:
     
  2. ABM

    ABM Happily Married In Music City, USA!

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2008
    Messages:
    31,865
    Likes Received:
    5,785
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    Commercial Real Estate
    Location:
    Nashville, TN
  3. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Messages:
    14,354
    Likes Received:
    5,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    NW
    Thanks, but thats an older router. I'm looking for something new (2012), with the latest & greatest features.
     
  4. ABM

    ABM Happily Married In Music City, USA!

    Joined:
    Sep 12, 2008
    Messages:
    31,865
    Likes Received:
    5,785
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    Commercial Real Estate
    Location:
    Nashville, TN
  5. Haakzilla

    Haakzilla Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2008
    Messages:
    9,460
    Likes Received:
    7,474
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    SEOWebDesignLLC.com
    Location:
    Central Oregon
  6. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    May 24, 2007
    Messages:
    72,978
    Likes Received:
    10,673
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    Never lost a case
    Location:
    Boston Legal
    Apple Airport. Time Capsule has WiFi router built in, but also has network disk storage.

    The thing just works.
     
  7. donkiez

    donkiez Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 17, 2009
    Messages:
    4,235
    Likes Received:
    3,260
    Trophy Points:
    113
    are you sure its the router? Whats your download and upload speeds? Have you done a speed test to compare what your are suppose to get with what you are actually getting? With all those devices its possible that you are just using all your bandwiidth. Also is your network password protected? Your nieghboors could be streaming netflix on your dime.
     
  8. Eastoff

    Eastoff But it was a beginning.

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2009
    Messages:
    16,059
    Likes Received:
    4,034
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Tualatin
    Just a heads up, when you use your microwave, the wifi signal will cut out/weaken
     
  9. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Messages:
    14,354
    Likes Received:
    5,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    NW
    Thanks guys!

    No, I havent done a speed test. I'll try that.
    Yes, its password protected.
     
  10. Haakzilla

    Haakzilla Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 15, 2008
    Messages:
    9,460
    Likes Received:
    7,474
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    SEOWebDesignLLC.com
    Location:
    Central Oregon
  11. Nikolokolus

    Nikolokolus There's always next year

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2008
    Messages:
    30,704
    Likes Received:
    6,198
    Trophy Points:
    113
    When you say you want the "latest and greatest" it's not enough to just get the fastest router out there, if your connected device isn't compliant with the new standard then you're going to need a new wireless card/dongle, etc (or a new device) that can take advantage of all those fancy new bells and whistles. to make a recommendation I'd need to know how many devices you typically connect at once, what networking standard they use (802.11n, 11g, etc.) and if you plan to upgrade your networked devices to newer standards.

    802.11ac is the bleeding edge, but it's not set in stone yet as a standard and the routers available are mostly outside of your budget. If you want something that is still fast but a little older, there are a ton of 802.11n routers floating around out there. I've been using a D-link DIR-655 for several years and it's mostly still chugging along with pretty good load balancing, lots of options, there are also some good dual-band 802.11n routers, but might not fit your budget.

    http://www.amazon.com/Routers-Netwo...d_t=101&pf_rd_p=1416298802&pf_rd_i=2956536011

    For what it's worth, I don't recommend buying a router second-hand, these things typically run 24/7 for years and years and over time heat can wear the internal components out ... which might partially explain your current router's issues.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2013
    BoBoBREWSKI likes this.
  12. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Messages:
    14,354
    Likes Received:
    5,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    NW
  13. porkchopexpress

    porkchopexpress Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 29, 2008
    Messages:
    1,628
    Likes Received:
    60
    Trophy Points:
    48
    I have an Airport Extreme for my router and love it. I use an old Express for airtunes and that works pretty well also. If we ever move to a bigger place it'll be great as a network extender. I would be hesitant about the Extreme's with Time Capsule built in. I was looking into getting one and it seems like they have a fairly high failure rate. This was a few years ago, so it may be better now, but when I was looking it seemed like they all died in about a year (I've had the Extreme 3 or 4 years w/o a problem).
     
  14. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    May 24, 2007
    Messages:
    72,978
    Likes Received:
    10,673
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    Never lost a case
    Location:
    Boston Legal
    I have the time capsule and it's been terrific for 8 months now.
     
  15. ppilot

    ppilot Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2008
    Messages:
    516
    Likes Received:
    12
    Trophy Points:
    18
  16. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Messages:
    14,354
    Likes Received:
    5,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    NW
    SpeedTest results on my iPhone (wifi):
    Download - 14.52 mbps
    Upload - 4.19 mbps
    Ping - 23 ms

    SpeedTest results on my PC (wired):
    Download - 24.56 mbps
    Upload - 3.82 mbps
    Ping - 9 ms
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2013
  17. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    May 24, 2007
    Messages:
    72,978
    Likes Received:
    10,673
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    Never lost a case
    Location:
    Boston Legal
    Seems like it's working. You have a 25MBit connection.

    The iPhone is slower because it is really slow writing to the flash memory doing the download test.

    I'm not seeing anything really wrong...
     
  18. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2008
    Messages:
    14,354
    Likes Received:
    5,868
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    NW
    Hmmm. OK. Thanks!
     
  19. Denny Crane

    Denny Crane It's not even loaded! Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    May 24, 2007
    Messages:
    72,978
    Likes Received:
    10,673
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Occupation:
    Never lost a case
    Location:
    Boston Legal
    If you have a laptop or something you can test speedtest.net over the wifi, it'd be useful.
     
  20. Nikolokolus

    Nikolokolus There's always next year

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2008
    Messages:
    30,704
    Likes Received:
    6,198
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Bobo, your speedtests look fine, but maybe you could describe in more detail what kinds of problems you're having. Are connections dropping in and out? Is video playback choppy?

    I'm also going to assume that your router has a configuration page (usually accessed by typing in the router's address into your browser. e.g.: 192.168.0.1 is a super common default out of the box) sometimes it's worth seeing if there are QOS (quality of service) rules that can be setup to help prioritize certain kinds of web traffic, of if there's a way to load balance network traffic when multiple devices are accessing the network simultaneously. You say that your wifi connection is failing you in some way, have you tried changing the default channel, sometimes other devices in the home (or a neighbors' home) can conflict with your wifi channel -- cordless phones on a 5 GHz connection are prime offenders. Also try and see if there is a firmware update for your router; if there is an update you can usually read the release notes and see if it addresses a particular problem with your current router.

    Here's your product support page:http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-us/support/routers/WRT160N

    (firmware, user forum, etc.)
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2013

Share This Page