Need advice on wireless router

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 3:42 pm

my dad wants me to get him a wireless router for his house at the shore. I put in a linsys wr45 or whatever 10 years ago and it never had very good range he had a lot of trouble with it because he would manage to un-program it.....he's on verizon dsl

i wanted him to go with powerline for security but he really wants wireless so that people can use their ipads or what ever when they visit...sigh...I explained that once you give the network key out, it's really not secure anymore .... and that there will be a zillion kids looking for open systems...but his house in the end

. so I'll do it the way he wants.

He will be using on Win7 and one XP laptop.

I haven't bought one of these in years (back in the WPA days).

If you guys could steer my towards a good product and tell me what security/authentication to use, I'd be grateful.

pd my dad is a very low-tech user. He has 2 verizon email accounts and for years thought he had to be at the physical location of the subscription (like his apt.) in order to access that account.

TIA

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 4:16 pm

For best range I'd go with an 802.11g router that has antennas mounted outside the box. N band has poorer range and most N routers have internal antennas which makes it worse, and you certainly don't need N speeds for Internet.

I like D-Link and Asus routers lately. Not so happy with Belkin or the newer Linksys routers.

The old Linksys 54G is also a rock, and it's even more stable if you install the DD-WRT firmware: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833124190

This is another good one and also DD-WRT compatible if you're willing to hack it: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 833320023\

DaMaN · Post by **DaMaN** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 5:03 pm

I have a d-link DIR-655: http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=530

Very Stable and the range is great. i have it located in my office basement and it ranges to the 2nd floor in my house, out to my garage and across the street to my neighbors house. I highly recommend it.

Err · Post by **Err** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:10 pm

I have a Linksys WRT54GS that I'm not using if you want it. It's still running Linksys's firmware. $10 plus shipping sound fair?

It was working fine when I swapped it for a Linksys E3000 from newegg about 3 months ago. I like the new one but it runs hot. I set it up on a couple blocks of wood so air circulates underneath it better.

CaterpillarAssassin · Post by **CaterpillarAssassin** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 7:19 pm

I've had enormous trouble with wireless routers. Needing to reboot all the time, losing settings, etc. I finally decided to go with something a little nicer. I went with a routerboard RB751. It is a bit more trouble to learn and set up than the typical home router, but well worth it. No lock ups, no dropping wireless anymore. Definitely recommend it.

http://www.wlanparts.com/product/RB751U ... B751U-2HND

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:13 am

Thanks all. One more question...his laptop, a decent HP, is about 4-5 years old at this point - what was standard in the receiver department frequency wise then, B or G?

I may have to get the model number from him and look it up...or maybe get usb wireless adapters if I go with the newer stuff...

eGoCeNTRoNiX · Post by **eGoCeNTRoNiX** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:40 am

It will have Wireless G.. most laptops did from around 04'-05' on.. Unless they were really low end..

eGo

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:11 am

Yeah, you'd have to go WAY back for 802.11b only laptops.