[RndTbl] wireless N router recommendations?
Adam Thompson
athompso at athompso.net
Fri Sep 3 10:31:46 CDT 2010
[This isn't specifically about 'N' routers, but...]
I've used the Buffalo Technology (www.buffalotech.com) routers a fair bit,
and have been consistently impressed by them. They also tend to get
excellent reviews.
Their "high-power" models give consistently better range than stock
WRT54Gs (for example) *without* burning out the radio.
I found you can get the same range out of a WRT54G simply by turning up
the transmit power and adding a slightly better antenna, but then the
WRT54G burns out within a year.
The Buffalo units (I think) keep the standard Broadcom reference design
that everyone uses, but they add a separate RF amp on the RF output to
boost power and sensitivity. (Yes, that boosts noise as well, but it
doesn't seem to be a problem.)
The unit I've used is the WHR-HP-G54, which among other features can run
modified firmware (DD-WRT, for example) but for simpler cases also has a
physical SWITCH on the back to turn it into an AP. The single antenna
provided was always good enough for my use cases.
Read all about it at
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless/routers-and-access-points/airstation-wireless-g-high-power-router-access-point-whr-hp-g54/.
I don't know of any retail stores carrying it, but it's widely available
online in Canada: http://www.pricebat.ca/search.php?q=WHR-HP-G54, starting
at around $55.
Their 'N' models also (with one exception) can run custom firmware (again,
using DD-WRT as my reference, see
http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/support/router-database for details) but I
don't have any personal experience with those (yet). Following Consumer
Reports' methodology, "reliability is predicted to be better than average
based on this brand's repair history".
-Adam
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