Wireless Router Reco

adam2434

Planning to install a wireless router at home for connection to existing desktop PC, PS3, PSP, and maybe a laptop and Squeezebox down the road. Might use Cat5/6 for the Squeezebox and will use Cat5/6 for the router to desktop.

Looking for a reco on a basic, reliable, inexpensive router to use with Vista.

Kind of leaning towards a Linksys for around $50 from Amazon. These are older "g" models, but I think that may be good enough for my needs. Not sure if I need "n" capability, unless it's smart for future-proofing.

Any thoughts or experiences to share?

Thanks,

Adam

Kex

I don't use Vista, but I have used both Wireless "b" and Wireless "g", and haven't noticed a big difference really for normal use. They both worked well, and did what they were supposed to. Reception in different rooms has varied in different houses in very unexpected ways though: the only real issues with a dropped, or slow, connection was a house in Santa Monica, but that may have had something to do with the neighbor's giant short band radio antenna in his back yard, or something related to electronics that he was using! No issues whatsoever since. YMMV.

Early B.

Just spend a few more bucks, get "n" and don't worry about it.

I went from a Linksys wireless G to their N and it was a bit faster.

shadowofnight

Range is what made me go N over G....with the G the back 2 bedrooms would be at 40% signal and if I walked to the backyard with the laptop it would drop to 20-30%....going N gave me perfect signal strength anywhere on my property.

adam2434

Thanks for the input.

Does the connected hardware need to have n certification to receive the benefits of an n router?

For example, the PS3 box says b/g, but does not indicate n. I would imagine that my son's PSP is also b/g.

shadowofnight

My PS3 works fantastic with the N router...and I have the PS3 in the living room...quite a ways from the router.

mmadden28

adam2434 wrote: »

Thanks for the input.

Does the connected hardware need to have n certification to receive the benefits of an n router?

For example, the PS3 box says b/g, but does not indicate n. I would imagine that my son's PSP is also b/g.

The n router should be backward compatible to g (and maybe b). If the wireless device is not 'n' you won't get 'n' class features but it will still function as 'g' (or 'b').

Devices that connect to the router via cable - the router simply behave's as a standard switch. If you're concerned about 100Mb/s vs 1000Mb/s keep an eye on that when hunting.

Vista compatability is only required for the drivers on the wireless devices such as a Vista laptop. Its irrelevant if its a hardwired desktop or other device (Squeezebox). The router doesn't care.

bigaudiofanatic

Linksys 802.11n router get on and dont worry about it they are great routers.

MKZ

Make sure to install the firmware with DD-WRT.
Here is the supported hardwares.

edbert

MKZ, what are the benefits of doing this?

MKZ

http://www.techimo.com/forum/networking-internet/185736-dd-wrt-benefits.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT

http://lifehacker.com/software/router/hack-attack-turn-your-60-router-into-a-600-router-178132.php

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3639271

You could also try tomato .
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

edbert

Thank you sir! I need to get on this. I might have to work on that this weekend sometime since we always seem to have sometime of wireless connectivity issues. As a result of those links I also discovered how to stream music to the living room and use my wife's new iPod Touch as the remote! I love the internet.

adam2434

Thanks again to all for the input. I'm now leaning towards the Linksys WRT150N.

Based on the reviews I've been reading, seems like about all routers from all companies have a fairly high percentage of folks who can't get the routers to work, then have horrible helpline experiences.

Are these things pretty straightforward to set up for someone with zero network experience?

mmadden28

adam2434 wrote: »

Thanks again to all for the input. I'm now leaning towards the Linksys WRT150N.

Based on the reviews I've been reading, seems like about all routers from all companies have a fairly high percentage of folks who can't get the routers to work, then have horrible helpline experiences.

Are these things pretty straightforward to set up for someone with zero network experience?

Anymore they should be fairly simple with the wizards and such. Keep in mind its possible the people that they had success and no issues did not post thier experinces. Its the ones that had problems that had to go tothe support sites, etc so you'll likely see more unhappy folks then happy. So the ratio could be skewed.

YMMV, but most of the complexities depend on your ISP and the construction of your house, and the range you are expecting and the support of the remote devices. It can get complex, But actually setting them initially should be straight forward.

adam2434

mmadden28 wrote: »

Anymore they should be fairly simple with the wizards and such. Keep in mind its possible the people that they had success and no issues did not post thier experinces. Its the ones that had problems that had to go tothe support sites, etc so you'll likely see more unhappy folks then happy. So the ratio could be skewed.

Yeah, I was referring to the Amazon and CNET product reviews I been reading for research.

I'm going to just order it and make it work.

MKZ

I bought that WRT150NRM refurbished few weeks ago @frys for $30. It came with brown box but it looks brand new and still have plastic on it. I think still not bad for $40.

I also bought 2 other netgear WNR834B V2 for $25 and WPN824 for $20. They are really nice as well.

http://shop1.frys.com/product/5594970?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=Linksys+WRT150N&x=0&y=0

http://shop1.frys.com/product/4220804

mmadden28

Setting up a roaming setup?

MKZ

Nah, 1 for my wife's parent and others for back up in case I'm mess up playing around and they are cheap. :D

edbert

ha HA!!!! Let me tell you, definitely upload the DD-WRT that MKZ recommends. It turned my 5 year old router into a new machine!

I used this guys page and everything went smoothly. Pages load faster, I get connected wirelessly faster and time will tell if I ever have to reboot the router or not.

Thanks MKZ!!

MKZ

I'm glad it works edbert. There are many rave reviews and tutorials online if you like to explore more.

John30_30

adam2434 wrote: »

Planning to install a wireless router at home for connection to existing desktop PC, PS3, PSP, and maybe a laptop and Squeezebox down the road. Might use Cat5/6 for the Squeezebox and will use Cat5/6 for the router to desktop.

Looking for a reco on a basic, reliable, inexpensive router to use with Vista.

Kind of leaning towards a Linksys for around $50 from Amazon. These are older "g" models, but I think that may be good enough for my needs. Not sure if I need "n" capability, unless it's smart for future-proofing.

Any thoughts or experiences to share?

Thanks,

Adam

The older linksys WRT54 "G" and "GS" are classics in that they're open-source (linux) firmware, therefore hackable. The '1', '1.1', '2' series- whole lotta RAM in those puppies.
There's several communities crazy into that like dd-wrt. Several coders along the way, including dd-wrt's red-headed maniac coder, Brainslayer have totally beefed up the firmware.
Several cool features of that is you can now bump the radio's broadcast strength from the default 28 anywhere up to the max. 255 (which is, however, not recommended as it gets way hot) This, in turn, increases range dramatically.
But the cool thing I like, among many others, is that after flashing them with the correct dd-wrt fw, you can then pair them up to share wireless one as Broadcast AP, the other as both receiver & AP.

edit: holy crap. I get to the last posts, and I have totally redundantified what was said.

adam2434

Got the Linksys WRT150N today from amazon.com.

The set-up wizard was kind of confusing - it indicated that there was no internet connection detected although the router was flashing a connection on its display.

Nonetheless, we detected the network on my son's PSP and my work laptop, entered the encryption key, and were up and running. I had my son (14 years-old) "help" set it up to expose him to the process, although it was my first time setting one up.

This thing works great! We have 100% signal strength running 54 mbps at the far corners of the house (one floor up and one floor down from the router). It seems to be working very well so far.

My son was amazed at how fast pages were loading on his PSP. We had some high-five moments going on, once it was up and running. Very cool!