What's a good router these days?

[scotty]

I'm a network admin during the day, and haven't really kept up on networking products in the home space. Back a couple of years ago, the WRT54's set the standard, but now it seems not so much. I think I've gone through about 3 of them in the past year, and my current one is flaky as hell.

That said, I know there's probably tons of people out there who have never had problems with them, and maybe have had problems with different brands, but perhaps the folks at SNB might be able to recommend a solid product?

I'm a fairly minimal user at home, but I do use wireless, I would like to have a router that offers good wireless coverage and reliability. I'm moving into a new house and I'm looking for a standard 4 port jobby, but I cringe at the idea of getting 'another' WRT54. I know the L's are lauded as a solid product, but I think it's time for me to try something else.

[Brandon]

Good really depends on what you want. I like overkill.. so I use a Cisco ASA 5505 as my router/firewall.

D-link is the brand I try to stick with, I've tried to avoid Linksys from dislike of the old WRT54's. I use a "Trendnet 300Mbps Wireless N Home Router (TEW-632BRP)". I juse recently set up a WRT54G2 for my girlfriend, which is better than I expected. I normally don't look at TrendNet for top of the line stuff, however I was rather impressed by the TEW-632BRP.

Check out this link (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30387/96/) for the cheap roundup. Tim has a good eye when it comes to finding things that are often looked over by most people. I would start there, and work my way up. Figure out what you want, then find a router that has what you want.

-Brandon

[W!reT@p]

Dlink DIR-655 its the best home router I have ever used, great feature set, fast, great wifi coverage and 802.11n for a lil future proofing.

[somms]

Got a pair of WRT160N's flashed with DD-WRT V24 that work great and support OpenVPN.:)

[Foggy_UK]

Firstly... :D Hello to you all ! I like the Draytek range of routers, they are very high end home routers and even SME business class and at a good price. Lots of nice extras you don't tend to get on the average home dsl /cable router. Currently I'm using a 2800VG, which is their ADSL2+ router with VPN, VoIP and wireless. When the 3G mobile networks can get high speed data coverage in my area I'll be looking to add a 3G USB dongle to the router to back up my DSL if it ever goes down, not too meny home routers do this currently. At work we tend to use 2wire routers :rolleyes: for SME's and some home users, they are okay and the parental control :) is easy for the average joe to setup.

[Spock83]

Dlink DIR-655 its the best home router I have ever used, great feature set, fast, great wifi coverage and 802.11n for a lil future proofing.

I have this one. I'm happy user :)

[Bart]

Two choices:

-either the more expensive D-Link range like D-Link DIR-655, or DGL-4500 OR
- (if it may be a bit more expensive) anything by Draytek.

Draytek routers are hands down THE best routers I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Extremely configurable and stable. Their helpdesk is also very helpful. You actually get a meaningful response to your question within hours, which is not really the case with DLink.

[scotty]

Thanks for your help guys. I've been doing some research on the DIR655 and it seems as though everyone has nothing but good things to say about it. Looks like I'll go pick up one of those puppies.

[matthi]

Hey scotty,

I never really liked D-Link, but I always bought the cheap ones, I don't know much about their higher end models.

As for me, I'm standardizing all my equipment to Netgear (have a look at their business series) (switches/router/SSL VPN/..). Personally I feel they have a pretty good quality-price ratio; they offer features found in higher level routers who will cost much more. I'm just a happy customer overall. The only thing a lot of people suffer from is their lack of good support (which I needed once and it takes indeed some time).

Although I never used any of their products, I think Zyxell has some pretty good firewall/ssl solutions.

[thiggins]

I never really liked D-Link, but I always bought the cheap ones, I don't know much about their higher end models.

I seem to hear the "don't like D-Link" a lot. Why was your experience with the ones you bought?

[Bart]

I seem to hear the "don't like D-Link" a lot. Why was your experience with the ones you bought?
I can's speak for Matthi, but my experience with cheaper D-Link routers is they tend to fail quite often and easy, and also need to be rebooted a lot because they seem to loose their connection sometimes (ok, this might have been fixed with firmware updates in the last couple of months/years)

The first D-Link I tried which didn't show these downsides was my DGL-4300 gamerlounge router, a router which was clearly a few steps up the ladder compared to the more regular D-Link routers. I'm still using it today and it's one of my favourite routers ever. IMO it only lacks VPN and jumbo frames support.

For this reason I would have bought the DGL-4500 instantly if it were available in Europe...

[scotty]

You know what though...

I've heard "I don't seem to like XYZ brand" about pretty much every brand. I know lots of people who hate D-link, I know lots who love it and die by it. I personally have always been a bit of a Linksys fan, but now not so much. Netgear for me has always kinda been the cheap alternative, but never really offering anything substantially cheaper and better the Dlink or Linksys. So especially when it comes to Dlink and Linksys, I consider them pretty close. In general, one doesn't really have a substantially better record than the other, which is also indicative that they're pretty close. Basically, I'll buy the particular model the fits the bill and has a solid track record.

[Mythokia]

I've been building my own using open source distributions ever since I went through a whole series of "home" routers from the major vendors that each model all seem to have unique problems of it owns.

I've been using IPCop for about two years but recently switched over to m0n0wall. IPCop seems to be lacking in development and lacks QoS implementation among other features which m0n0wall just does better. The computer is an old P3 450 MHz with 128 MB of RAM and just two 3COM 100 Mbit PCI ethernet cards.

As far as unmanaged switches go, D-Link has been my personal favorite.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Favorite wired router...rock solid stability, fast, Linksys RV0 series. Granted a tad above the average budget for the home user...but it's solid.

I've never found a solid "wireless" router using stock firmware, I've done a ton of the wrt54g series with DD-WRT or Tomato firmware...but they're getting long in the tooth, and barely able to handle some of todays burstable fast cable connections. Luckily DD-WRT is increasing compatibility with newer chipsets.

Never been a fan of DLink in the past..but since their initial DGL series (the 4100/4300)..they've hit some home runs. The DIR-625 and the higher end DIR-655, as well as the DGL4500 series..are doing very well.

As a network consultant myself...I often change out stuff at home frequently....for the past few weeks...I've been running PFSense distro on an old IBM Thinkpad as my primary router...PFSense being top notch in QoS and traffic shaping.

[matthi]

I seem to hear the "don't like D-Link" a lot. Why was your experience with the ones you bought?
Well, I agree with what Bart said. I just don't have any good experience with them; all of a sudden the box fails, so it needs rebooting, and the biggest problem of all (but this is very personal), they have the most ugly/crappy admin/user interface I've ever seen in my life :rolleyes: I'm not trying to get some people all winded up by saying this :) but sometimes, the eye wants something too right?

And I have to agree with YeOldeStonecat about the pfsense (and m0n0wall) open source distro's, they are very capable.

[thiggins]

I've never found a solid "wireless" router using stock firmware...
What problems do you have that are fixed by alternative firmware?

[thiggins]

Scotty you're right that all the vendors take their turn in the barrel. Typically where they screw up is in product / chipset transitions. Case in point is Linksys' transition to Vmware in the WRT54G V5 and later.

Another possible problem source that I keep meaning to do an article on is thermal design. Faster usually means hotter which usually means heatsinking of some sort. But trying to maintain some sort of profit pushes vendors in the direction of saving every penny they can. But hot parts can be a source of unreliability and certainly early failure.

[YeOldeStonecat]

What problems do you have that are fixed by alternative firmware?

"Uptime".

I guess I should backup and take that back....I have had solid wireless units with stock firmware....Sonicwall TZ units, HP ProCurve 420 units, etc.

But from the entry level home grade...spending years deploying many different brands...I can't think of one that hasn't required a "reboot" at some point. Looking to my left at the current Netgear 614 wireless unit I have hanging off of my PFSense unit...about once every 2 weeks it needs a bounce..the wifes workstation downstairs loses its signal..that yellow exclamation mark we all love on the network connection icon. "renew/repair" doesn't do it..have to power cycle the unit. The various Belkins and Linksys (many diff Linksys models) and 3COM units I've had in my house over the years.

I have found the DD-WRT and Tomato have improved them (those models it supports) quite a bit....stability wise. Performance wise? Eh..a whisker...and range can be pushed a bit more (crank up from default 29 to something like 75). But it's stability/uptime that I believe is the biggest improvement.

[scotty]

Well, I just picked up the DIR-655 and have been playing with it for the past hour. Overall, it seems like a nice unit. A few observations:

On the negative side (non of them are strong negatives, barely worth mentioning)
- Slightly less intuitive interface that I would like, but only slightly. Overall it's nicely done. A few nice things here for users that might not be familiar with routers or networking
- Seems as though each and every little settings change needs a reboot.
- Hands DHCP addresses out from the top of the pool (i.e. 192.168.1.199). Somewhat counter-intuitive.
- USB Port only does 1 thing (saves wireless network settings to USB key for use with XP's set-up wizards). Nice if you're a new user, but useless otherwise. No support for any sort of attached storage or printer. No big deal, but seems like a waste of a USB port.

What I've liked
- Good logging support, ability to email logs
- Lots of QoS options
- Admin and User modes in the web interface. Nice if you want to let someone see settings without changing them
- Overall fairly well thought out product.

Looks like it should be a pretty solid router. I'm only using G thus far (supports N), but signal strength seems a bit better already (haven't done much testing here).

[YeOldeStonecat]

and the biggest problem of all (but this is very personal), they have the most ugly/crappy admin/user interface I've ever seen in my life :rolleyes:

Haven't seen "2Wire" brand units yet eh? :p

[Brandon]

2wire makes awful awful products..

We currently have a DSL through AT&T that came with a modem built into a 2wire router. For DAYS I beat my head on the desk trying to figure out why it wouldn't allow connections using Citrix Metaframe. I finally set up an ad-hoc network useing a laptop and an AT&T aircard to do our testing for a week or so.

For internet connections they work great, but otherwise they're more of a pain than it's worth.. Was replaced very quickly with a Cisco ADSL.

Mind you, we use this for testing VPN connections before sending out work at home PC's for VPN users, so when you can't connect, it's rather useless. I beat my head on the desk for a week thinking it was something in the OS build/Windows firewall/Trend Software, so on.

In the words of an old friend "AT&T 2wire makes me want to Spork my eyes out".

[scotty]

Another vote for 2Wire's suckage.

Crappy options, odd user interface, and could never get a Mitel phone to authenticate to the office through it.

TELUS here in Canada gives them out with their accounts.

[dichael]

"Uptime".

I guess I should backup and take that back....I have had solid wireless units with stock firmware....Sonicwall TZ units, HP ProCurve 420 units, etc.

But from the entry level home grade...spending years deploying many different brands...I can't think of one that hasn't required a "reboot" at some point. Looking to my left at the current Netgear 614 wireless unit I have hanging off of my PFSense unit...about once every 2 weeks it needs a bounce..the wifes workstation downstairs loses its signal..that yellow exclamation mark we all love on the network connection icon. "renew/repair" doesn't do it..have to power cycle the unit. The various Belkins and Linksys (many diff Linksys models) and 3COM units I've had in my house over the years.

I have found the DD-WRT and Tomato have improved them (those models it supports) quite a bit....stability wise. Performance wise? Eh..a whisker...and range can be pushed a bit more (crank up from default 29 to something like 75). But it's stability/uptime that I believe is the biggest improvement.

I'm new to the forums myself. Like the site -- great info!

Like the op, I'm also looking for a new wireless router. Stonecat's comments about DD-WRT are something a neophyte like myself gets recommended... often! I was quite surprised that Tim wasn't recommending the same thing too, and would like to hear his opinion on DD-WRT.

As background, I built my house a few years ago and installed cat5 everywhere (~ 25 points) to a home run, but didn't buy any networking components. Now I'm in a situation where I must buy a wireless router (maybe two), a switch, and maybe break down and buy a cable modem (stop renting!). I plan to stream to my hdtv. Based on prior suggestions, I was told to get a Netgear JGS524 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Switch 24, and load DD-WRT to a couple Asus WL-520GU routers (one with DHCP & Firewall off).

I've been told & read that newer N routers won't accept DD-WRT, often fail, and the firmware will likely have poor documentation (or have undocumented features)... in ya'all's opinion, is that generally true, or am I just being overly cautious?

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've been told & read that newer N routers won't accept DD-WRT, often fail, and the firmware will likely have poor documentation (or have undocumented features)... in ya'all's opinion, is that generally true, or am I just being overly cautious?

The compatibility is on the rise....v23 started with a few..it increased with v24. Just something that takes time.

[mpoliver]

Call me a linksys snob, but they've worked just fine for my needs (which I guess would really drive what you need -- recommendations should be based on what you are trying to achieve in your network setup). I've got a WRT54G in a box, a WRT54GX that I am using as an access point (thanks to Tim) to a linksys WRT600N. I haven't had a single one fail in the last 6-7 years (to include my older linksys router that I can't remember the model number to).

I'll never bad-mouth another name brand (and was very tempted to buy the D-Link 4500 instead of the WRT600N) as I haven't tried them, but I think I'm going to stick with what I know...and that is Linksys for now. For what it's worth...

Mike

[thiggins]

Welcome dichael,

I don't have much to say about DD-WRT since I've never had time or need to explore it or any other alternative firmware. My needs and router speed requirements are simple since I have only a 3MB / 512KB ADSL connection and don't use wireless much around my home since it's new construction and has gigabit Ethernet to everywhere that I need it.

So a Linksys BEFSR41 served me well until I decided to put up a WLAN to make it more convenient to use a kitchen notebook that my wife likes to move around. I'm currently using a D-Link DGL-4300, which is working nicely.

Guess I've been lucky, but I've never had a reliability problem with any router that I have used. On the other hand, I don't game or P2P, so I don't stress the router much. Now that I'm using a Roku Netflix box, maybe my experience might change. But so far, no problems at all with the Netflix streaming.

Sounds like you're pretty set with a wired network. What are you going to use wireless for?

[dichael]

Sounds like you're pretty set with a wired network. What are you going to use wireless for?

First, thanks to everybody for the replies :)

I was going to use wireless for two reasons. First, my wife/daughter have laptops (one's a mac) and they want to surf the internet on the couch. Second, I'm thinking about streaming content to my hdtv. From what I understand, this second issue almost requires me to go to 802.11n.

I liked the idea of hooking up the wired connections to a switch for gaming, nas, etc.

[thiggins]

Second, I'm thinking about streaming content to my hdtv. From what I understand, this second issue almost requires me to go to 802.11n.

Do yourself a favor and just use your wired network for HD streaming. Too many ways for things to go wrong to use it over wired if you don't have to.

[Bart]

Do yourself a favor and just use your wired network for HD streaming. Too many ways for things to go wrong to use it over wired if you don't have to.

Agreed. Regular DVD quality wireless streaming works pretty well on most hardware, but HD streaming can be a serious pain.

[scotty]

Agreed. I personally know a few people now who'd tried doing a lot of streaming over HD, and none of them had really great experiences. Video, especially HD, is one of those things that you'll notice every single blip in connectivity. And it's not really that hard to run some new Cat5 anyway, if needed. Short of particular types of buildings that expressly forbid it, you'd be surprised how easy it can be with a few simple tools. Most TV locations would presumably already have Coax, which can make life even easier as you can piggy-back some cat5 by re-running the coax. A friend of mine who's an electrician showed me a few tricks and it's really not that hard. Just a small digression.

[Brandon]

I've never really used HD movies and streaming, so I'm not to sure about all of that. I tend to Xvid for most of my movies when I can just for it's small size. With a loss of 25% quality (You can't see anything differnt with Xvid and 25%) and removing all off the "extras" (DVD sceens, captions, other random junk) reduces most to 1-1.6 gb a movie. This is what I've found to work very well for me.

If you do the rough math, that's still quite a bit for streaming with no extra compression. With a normal stream, on a 1.6 movie (1,600/120), that whittles it down to 222kb/s. Not much, but then it starts to cram buffering in for rewind and fast forward.

Take an HD movie: BluRay compresses to 25Gb, that's a 22Gb movie with no compression, 44-46gb with a duel layer. That (45,000/120) turns into 6.25 Mb/Second (That's megaBYTE, not bits). Perfect wireless does on average 10Mb/second, add in distance, noise, microwave, pull of the earth's.. well, you get the idea.

Take an HDMI cable now, which offers 4.95 Gbps (roughly) bandwith. Really not a good matchup, but you get the idea.

For something of that size, you really want to add a bit more umph to your connection, which in it's current state, wireless doesn't offer.

P.S. Don't flame me for my numbers, just guessing, not real tests!

[Bob]

Brandon,

Since you mentioned you have the "Cisco ASA 5505 as my router/firewall" I have been looking around for something to replace my Netgear FVS318. My question is in regards to the Cisco 5505, on Cisco website it is listed as a security appliance and not under routers. Will the 5505 work as a router also? Can I do away with my current router and just use the Cisco 5505 as a router/firewall as I seem to gather you're doing?

Thanks for your advice in advance.

Bob.

[Zirian]

Hi all,

I thought I won't creat another thread as question I have is simillar: best possible router.

Network: home, mixed (PC's, Mac, NAS)
Purpose: web browsing, P2P, sometimes games online (C&C, Warcraft
etc.)

I think 3 things are important for me: gigabit LAN, ADSL mocem and wireless n. I've searched for long time for such a device and recently Belkin showed his new model for UK market only (where I am): Belkin Vision N1 modem ruoter. Nice looking device, however from administrator point of view - worse then I thought.
After another search I found 2 possible options:

1. buy ADSL modem like Draytek Vigor 110, specification: http://www.broadbandstuff.co.uk/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=49sku=Draytek_Vi gor_110_ADSL_Ethernet_Modem&products_id=1339&osCsid=56765c3cb1f6dc19ddc93564e5730bc8 and router like Apple Extreme Base Station (for here down side is lack of web interface, DynamicDNS, no simultanous working for 2,4 Ghz and 5Ghz radio) or D-Link DIR-655 (only 2.4 Ghz Radio). I thought also about Linksys WRT600N, however it looks like this device is still no in the UK (but prbably will be).

2. try with Draytek Vigor 2820Vn http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2820.html: seems to be good device, loots options, integrated ADSL modem, wireless n (however I don't know if with 5Ghz radio as well), great stability etc. Only one think I don't like in this device - only one Gigabit Lan port. I thought that maybe, to achive Gigabit connections (to transfer all high capacity data) I will buy Gigabit switch, attached it to Gigabit port on router, and then other devices to switch. Should work if I'm right.

What is your opinion? Do you think is worth to go with one of these devices? I will survive the price of Draytek for perfomamce and stability...

Thanks for any advice!

[thiggins]

Zirian,

I suggest you separate out the integrated ADSL and gigabit LAN requirements to widen your options.

Why is draft 11n important? What sort of wireless performance do you need and what are the applications?

[Zirian]

Zirian,

I suggest you separate out the integrated ADSL and gigabit LAN requirements to widen your options.

Why is draft 11n important? What sort of wireless performance do you need and what are the applications?

Currently I use LAN mostly on my MacBook Pro. This is all right, however somethimes could be better to copy largerdata across on Gigabit connection to my NAS. I use samba protocol with it (Synology DS-207 +) which is not so fast. because I will move in the next 3 months, to place where my probabl only option wil be wifi connection, I thought about wireless n as this should give me better performace, range and could let e use my MBP capability.

All my photos, music,multimedia is stored on NAS, as I want to save space on disc and also give chance for other PC users to read my data.

By separate out the integrated ADSL and gigabit LAN - how can I achieve that? Will be right here to go on with separete ADSL modem and router? Or will be ok to go on with Draytek Vigor 2820vn Dual Wan ADSL2/2+ with additional gigabit switch connected to existing one gigabit port in Dratek device?

Than you for any advice!

[thiggins]

If you are currently using gigabit Ethernet to back up large files to your NAS, you are going to be very unhappy substituting any wireless connection. Depending on your home's layout, the distance between the wireless router and media playback device and the bitrate needed, draft 11n can support hi-def video where 802.11g probably won't.

Many people, including myself, have a separate ADSL modem and primary router. I also have a few switches uplinked into the router. These days you don't have to worry about equipment having dedicated "uplink" ports. Ethernet ports are auto MDI/X which means they automatically adjust to the connection that is needed.

Your router doesn't have to have a gigabit LAN, since your Internet connection doesn't support those speeds. Connnect your devices with gigabit Ethernet ports to a gigabit switch, then connect the switch into a LAN port.

[Zirian]

Thank you Tim for help and advice!

Currently I use only Megabit LAN, as I have NETGEAR DG834G, which doesn't support wireless n or gigabit connection.

After my move mostly I will on wireless connection, however sometimes - to copy larger data, gigabit speed would be nice.

I heard also that's better to separate ADSL modem from router. Your advice confirms that. Summarize: I should crate network in order - modem ADLS --> router (with wireless) --> gigabit switch connected to router. The only, one and last question will be - which adls modem, router, switch it's worth to buy? Those I have found or another one?

Thank you once again

[Zirian]

Any suggestion? :)
I thought about D-Link DIR655 with Dratek Vigor 110 ADSL modem router. Any suggestions are welcome :)

Thanks

[thiggins]

I have no suggestion on ADSL modems or routers. The DIR-655 is pretty popular and has decent draft 11n performance. Just don't expect draft 11n to be like gigabit (or even 100 Mbps) Ethernet!
Draft 11n ≠ 100 Mbps Ethernet (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30184/100/)

[Brandon]

Brandon,

Since you mentioned you have the "Cisco ASA 5505 as my router/firewall" I have been looking around for something to replace my Netgear FVS318. My question is in regards to the Cisco 5505, on Cisco website it is listed as a security appliance and not under routers. Will the 5505 work as a router also? Can I do away with my current router and just use the Cisco 5505 as a router/firewall as I seem to gather you're doing?

Thanks for your advice in advance.

Bob.

Sorry it's taken me a while to respond to this.

Yes, it will do all of the standard routing protocols and then some. I wouldn't expect it to be an "amazing" router, as it is a security device, but it will do everything a home user would want, and then some. The only thing it lacks, that kind of urks me, is the option for DHCP reservations.

Aside from that, it can handle more connections/packet routs than a standard Cisco Router. Most cisco routers are "Routers with Firewall options" this is a "Firewall with Router options" meaning it won't do a lot of the big stuff, but it's more than suited for small network routing.

Most routing these days is handled by Layer2 and up switches, the ASA has a built in Layer3. With that said, I wouldn't reccomend it to the faint of heart, as it is a complicated device. It took me several days to get it to a point at which I wanted to use it. Six months later, I'm still tweaking.

[Miner]

I have been researching the same question at the OP. The difference in my case: Not looking for wireless, just wired router, (and I'm not a network admin during the day, so I don't have experience that comes with that).

I've read some recommendations on a Zyxel "P-334 Broadband Router with Firewall". Never paid attention to Zyxel before now. Any opinions on that router and Zyxel's reputation?

[YeOldeStonecat]

I've read some recommendations on a Zyxel "P-334 Broadband Router with Firewall". Never paid attention to Zyxel before now. Any opinions on that router and Zyxel's reputation?

Pretty solid products. Back a few years ago...when Netgear was under "Bay Networks"...their products were solid. Zyxel is somehow related to the same family back then...they appear to have stayed solid..while Netgear sorta branched out on their own and IMO/IMExperience...dropped in quality when they broke out from Bay Networks.

[thiggins]

Pretty solid products. Back a few years ago...when Netgear was under "Bay Networks"...their products were solid. Zyxel is somehow related to the same family back then.

Zyxel actually was the OEM in those days.

[Miner]

Great insights. Anyone have experience with that specific wired router?

I'm finding that using a wired-only router puts one clearly in the minority these days. Seems almost all home users go for a wireless-router. In fact, I haven't found any other wired-only routers targeted for home use (definition: less than $150, with four LAN ports, ... hopefully in the $50 range.) besides two Linksys models -- BEFSR41/81 and BEFSX41, and this one from ZyXEL.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Great insights. Anyone have experience with that specific wired router?

I'm finding that using a wired-only router puts one clearly in the minority these days. Seems almost all home users go for a wireless-router. In fact, I haven't found any other wired-only routers targeted for home use (definition: less than $150, with four LAN ports, ... hopefully in the $50 range.) besides two Linksys models -- BEFSR41/81 and BEFSX41, and this one from ZyXEL.

DLinks DGL-4100 (higher performance), EBR-2310 (basic), and DIR-130

[Miner]

Thanks, have never looked closely at D-Link. An interesting device, a wired-only router with four GiagBit LAN ports.

Still hoping someone with usage/opinion on the ZyXEL P-334 chimes in here.

[bigclaw]

I almost bought a DIR-655 the other day to upgrade my existing network to wireless N. It seemed a very logical choice for me. My local Costco is selling these at $94, which is pretty competitive price-wise, especially considering its liberal return policy and warranty support.

Re-reading the DIR-655 review, however, slowed me down a bit. My home is a townhouse, and I typically see 6 to 8 other base stations in the 2.4GHz range. It seems that the DIR-655 will suffer a lot in performance if there is G traffic on its extension channel, which is pretty hard to avoid in my case.

For this reason, I'm leaning toward the Linksys WRT600N (or 610N) at this point. Unfortunately, it's significantly more expensive than the DIR-655.

What do you guys think?

[thiggins]

What are you looking for by upgrading to draft 11n? If it's speed, how much?
Don't expect range expansion from draft 11n.