Wireless broadband router recommendations?

[Coldrider]

Is looking at Belkin N150, but should N300 be the way to go, or another brand, any recommendations or bad experiences, current speed ave is 13 Mbs, are the higher speed routers an overkill for NZ broadband, questions, questions.

[BoristheBiter]

Not 100% sure but i think mine (the one i got from telecom) is 100Mps.
At home though last time i checked it was only getting 18Mps (ADSL2)

[Tank]

I have 802.11n on all my kit at home for the fastest wireless links I can get in the house. If you have the kit you might as well use that over g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

[CookMySock]

"Speed" is not everything with a wireless router. What do you really want from it? Is it just to share the internet with the laptop(s), or do you want to move large files about on the local network?

If it's just for sharing internet, then any speed will do, even an old 11mbit/sec junker.

If you want to move large lumps of multimedia around, then get as fast as you can afford, coz wireless can be really slow when used this way. Often you are better off to plug in if you want to move a couple of gigs to another PC.

Consider also, most domestic/consumer wireless APs have really poor range, and in the next room it will often hiccup, and at the far end of the house it will regularly fall over completely, so look at some of the semi-professional gear such as EnGenius. You get a far more powerful transmitter, better antenna, and most importantly a more sensitive receiver.

http://www.gowifi.co.nz/EnGenius-Networks/View-all-products.html

HTH
Steve

[Coldrider]

Yes really for multiple sharing of the internet in the short term, but would rather buy something futureproofed for video content so I don't have to junk the purchase as a waste of money, although the products become outdated pretty quick anyway.

[Tank]

"Speed" is not everything with a wireless router. What do you really want from it? Is it just to share the internet with the laptop(s), or do you want to move large files about on the local network?

If it's just for sharing internet, then any speed will do, even an old 11mbit/sec junker.

If you want to move large lumps of multimedia around, then get as fast as you can afford, coz wireless can be really slow when used this way. Often you are better off to plug in if you want to move a couple of gigs to another PC.

Consider also, most domestic/consumer wireless APs have really poor range, and in the next room it will often hiccup, and at the far end of the house it will regularly fall over completely, so look at some of the semi-professional gear such as EnGenius. You get a far more powerful transmitter, better antenna, and most importantly a more sensitive receiver.

http://www.gowifi.co.nz/EnGenius-Networks/View-all-products.html

HTH
Steve

Jesus you talk some shit.

the 11mbit clunker will impact browsing speed - esp with a couple of connections.

as for most consumer wireless deices and range - any modern (g or n) generally has plenty of range - FFS - I can use my N connection several houses away (video on skype on smartphone).

I think you will find that there are hundreds of millions of houses that work just fine with quality consumer devices .

[Tank]

to OP.

Any of the 'g' or 'n' devices will probably work just fine - Just stick to the main brands and you are unlikely to go to far wrong. 'n' is the latest - so best for future proofing - but if your laptop is only a 'g' it will work at the speed of the lowest device (in that case the laptop speed).

[Coldrider]

PC will be wired to ehthernet output anyway, and laptop(s) to wireless. The wiki is a good source of info, high speed routers have multiple input/output channels hence where the speed comes from.
Any N router should be fine until HD streaming is required. I was looking at the Belkins as they have a lifetime warranty, geek sites tend to love and hate linksys, but if you believe everything on those sites you'd never buy anything, sales people don't really know much.

[Naki Rat]

Consider the radio frequency used, in particular that it doesn't clash with cordless phone frequencies (e.g. 2.4GHz).

[Coldrider]

Consider the radio frequency used, in particular that it doesn't clash with cordless phone frequencies (e.g. 2.4GHz).Yes ive noticed some can operate on 5GHz, one linksys model can operate on both at the same time, but that is getting up there.

[CookMySock]

Consider the radio frequency used, in particular that it doesn't clash with cordless phone frequencies (e.g. 2.4GHz).Yeah this is really important too. There are three bands in use for portable phones, 1.8HGz, 2.4GHz, and 5.8GHz. I would strongly recommend using 1.8GHz DECT phones - they are well clear of 802.11/a/b/g/n.

If you had some HD TV appliance I doubt you would be streaming to it over a wireless link.

I have lots of wireless stuff (3 APs indoor, one outdoor, one mountain-top) and the actual connection to the internet is always the slowest part. Even shit old 11b 11mbit is fine for just sharing internet, UNLESS someone decides to drag a gig of movie across it.

But at the very least, I would definitely be staying away from consumer junk ala belkin, dlink, linksys etc too many to list - buy a semi-professional one with some nads.

Steve

[Mully]

Heh heh.

Rooter.

[Tank]

If you had some HD TV appliance I doubt you would be streaming to it over a wireless link.


Umm one of the most popular HD TV appliances is Apple TV - and its (you guessed it) wireless. Apple should give you a design job so you can tell them how they keep getting it wrong.

BTW - My sig > your sig.

[BoristheBiter]

Is looking at Belkin N150, but should N300 be the way to go, or another brand, any recommendations or bad experiences, current speed ave is 13 Mbs, are the higher speed routers an overkill for NZ broadband, questions, questions.

I just checked my router last night and its 54Mps, the 100mps is my work one (hard wired).
Home one is the thompson wireless from telecom. have had three laptops running and have had no problems with speed.
even with HD (linked to tv) it buffers as fast as you watch it (slight delay at start).

Like said it will go as fast as the slowest part of the system.
as for future proofing i wouldn't worry too much as for everything in computing "the thing you buy tomorow we be outdated yesterday".

[jonbuoy]

PC will be wired to ehthernet output anyway, and laptop(s) to wireless. The wiki is a good source of info, high speed routers have multiple input/output channels hence where the speed comes from.
Any N router should be fine until HD streaming is required. I was looking at the Belkins as they have a lifetime warranty, geek sites tend to love and hate linksys, but if you believe everything on those sites you'd never buy anything, sales people don't really know much.

The old school Lynksys 54GL´s can be made to do some pretty cool stuff with 3rd party firmware. Lifetime warranty sounds good but you will probably end up upgrading after a couple years anyway. I know a lot of people hate D-Link but I´ve had very little trouble with it, I´m not so much of a Lynksys fan these days.

[CookMySock]

The old school Lynksys 54GL´s can be made to do some pretty cool stuff with 3rd party firmware.Such a pity it had a shit receiver. -65dbm compared -89dbm for modern Atheros is light-years apart. Each 6db doubles your range, and add to that 300mW compared to 30mW is nearly four times the range again. Then there was the farce of "increasing your output powaaarrr" by tickling the firmware, that made it put out lots more power on almost every adjacent channel, but not the current one - sounds like the CB days where every good CBer had a tune-up screwdriver in their pocket or car glovebox, and if you got an extra 0.5watt out of your transmitter the size of your cock doubled. :rolleyes:

In all fairness, the WRT was probably the most hackable wireless hardware ever and was THE cool toy to have at the time.


Steve

[Coldrider]

Yes apparantly there is openware called 'DD-WRT' and 'Tomato' that you can flash to Linksys 54G, WRT160N, some Buffalo and Belkin models that get them singing, but propbably fry them in the long term.
Ironically the linksys 54G with Tomato firmware is pretty popular in the US even now. People buy the fancy stuff and get pissed off with it and just want something robust and simple for $30US.
It is in Wiki how to upgrade firmware.

[Coldrider]

Hardly Normal have Belkin N150 going for $74 so purchased one, at that price I'll load it till it smokes. Easy to set up and encode security, no loss of absorbidant third world country 13Mbs so all is good.
Noels had the N300 for $159 which has a USB port that media can be attched to and used as a server almost, plus alleged 300Mbs internal, but will upgrade when required.