Been lagging behind using the older Actiontec MI424WR modem/router Verizon has me chained to - since it's fiber, I have to use their hardware at least as far as the modem to convert the signal once it's at the house. I was walking through Costco & saw a Netgear R6100 for $50 so figured I'd give it a go. Daaaammmnnnn!!!
The numbers attached speak for themselves, and that's a Wifi signal from the 1st floor, the R6100 is up on the 2nd floor. It's been a little flaky on waking up the MacBook, it seems to want to change frequencies (the router has 2.4 GHz & 5 GHz and we can access either) and even tries to get onto the ChromeCast signal for some reason.
Oh, our service is technically only 50/25 so it's doubly impressive. 8)
Router! ... I hardly know her!
:lmao:
I'm in the market for a new router as well. I don't have a nice fancy pipe like fiber, just DSL. My WDR3700 is a fickle bitch, sometimes it's fine, sometimes it constantly drops connection.
I have my eyes on a few different ones but you have to watch the big box stores. They have ones that look exactly like the one you researched but has a different number or letter in the part number. The stores have specially made routers for their stores and at times the specs are different.
That being said, has anyone bought a new one recently? Right now the ASUS RT-AC68P is tops on the list. I don't think I need to spend $300 on some fancy gaming router. I would like at least one USB 3.0 port.
Also, has anyone played around with DD-WRT? My old router supports it so maybe instead of buying one I'll attempt to break mine tonight.
DD-WRT has been iffy since the main guy left last year.
Routers are fickle bitches by nature. I've had both good and bad Netgear, Linksys, Asus etc. But my last 2 Netgears have been shit. I will not buy another one. And I've never found a Belkin that I liked.
I just bought a refurbished Linksys EA6350 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QR6UR2W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00) about a week ago for $49.99 at Amazon. So far no problems.
See, I've had noting but problems with linksys. I've used Netgear almost exclusively and haven't had any issues. I even have a old metal netgear switch that I modded with a window and heatsinks that still works fine. Then again, the one I have now that has issues is a netgear, I think the one you used to have...
I'm going to give DD-WRT a crack tonight and if it all goes to shit I'll order one up.
Yeah that is what I'm talking about. You can order two of the exact same model and one can be shit and the other one might be solid as rock. You can't count on any of them. I think the best thing is to oder one and set it up and test it for a week and if there is anything that isn't perfect RMA it.
The last Netgear I bought was great for 6 months. Then the wireless radio died in it. I still use it as a wired switch so it wasn't a total loss.
A few years back I bought a Linksys EA6400 and it was just plain crap. I traded it out under warranty 3 times, and I never got one that worked right. I ended up getting my money back and buying an ASUS RT-AC66U which has until recently been rock solid.
To me, Linksys went to crap when they sold out/bought Belkin.
At the same time, I set up a Netgear router at my old job, which has also been pretty rock solid.
The AC66U has 2 USB ports, which I think are 3.0 but they could easily be 2.0. I use one to share my laser printer and the other to share a Seagate FreeAgent 1TB drive that hosts a hundred or so .mkvs. They've had a few recent firmware updates that have made it run not as well as before.
When I had it in one room, the angles and whatnot were perfect and it was super strong, but after my son was born and I moved it into my bedroom, the range suffered. I bought an ASUS dual band AC range extender, but it doesn't really help a whole lot... especially at 5 Ghz. I was looking at RT-AC5300 as a replacement because (and don't quote me) I can use my AC66U as a repeater, but with like 2x the strength as my current range extender, plus it gives me additional USB ports and 4 more ethernet connections (half a house away). http://event.asus.com/2012/nw/dummy_ui/en/Advanced_WMode_Content.html
With the amount of devices and streaming we do in our house, we need all the bandwidth we can get.
T-Mobile gave me a great router for free while I use their service. It's an ASUS, no problems here, it does have a USB port.
Been pretty happy with the previously mentioned Netgear R6100, except it hates my Wife's MacBook Air. She'll be on and all of a sudden - no WiFi connection. I can be in the same room & on the same band without a problem but hers drops at random. I've tried a list of things and collected a ton of Connection Reports but out of ideas.
Had trouble with Apple and wifi in our house too. That goes for iPhones and iPads. All the Android, Roku and Kindle Fire stuff works fine.
I have used the Apple airport extreme and basestation for years. Problem free, much easier to navigate around the settings as well compared to other brands in my opinion. Of course you pay the Apple premium. Never had an issue and the only time I have to restart is if there is an update that requires it. Helped a few friends and family with their wifi setup using other brands. While not hard to setup, it is much more intimidating to look at for someone who does not know what they are looking at. Also have found the quality is not the same with a few needing replacement after a year or 2. These would be low end of course, $45 range.
The 66U was in my cart just before I decided to try DD-WRT. I was interested in the USB 3.0 port for file sharing across the network.
Matt, that router is one of the best deals out there if you're a customer. It's a different spec RT-AC66 that you can get for $25.
I ended up installing DD-WRT. The hardest part of that was doing the 30/30/30 reset to rebuild the NVRAM. Otherwise installation couldn't be any easier. The only issue I'm having now is reading up about all the options. It didn't help that I got a new toaster oven and it's manual is a 160 pg PB book and I had to read that. I was kinda hungry.