Rock solid wifi routers?

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:31 pm

I've been running a Belkin G+ MIMO for exactly 6 months and it's always been less than perfect but this week it started dropping connections every 5-10 minutes. Not just Wifi but wired connections (my PC is wired since its in the same room as the router and modem). Apparently this is common with this router and Belkin is offering no firmware updates for my model. I could pay shipping to return it by mail to Belkin but then I still have this same POS router. Before the Belkin I had a Netgear that didn't want to work properly after a few months and I had an old Linksys die after a couple years of service.

Without any consideration to cost what is the best router I can get? I hear the old Linksys 54g is solid and actually cheap but I'm also looking at the new WRT330N (draft-N, gigabit ports, game routing).

Post by **obsidian** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 3:24 pm

I own a couple of WRT54GL routers without any problems for quite some time. Highly recommended if you are looking for a G.

However, I have no experience using N or MIMO type routers, so I can't tell you first hand how Linksys N routers stack up.

What really made the WRT54GL routers great was the ability to flash it with third-party firmware. They lowered the memory on the normal WRT54G's (without the L) so that they are difficult/impossible to flash with third party firmware. I'm not sure if you can do that with the Linksys N routers or if any third party firmware for the N's even exist.

Some reviews might help (can't find any on WRT330N but sounds pretty similar to the WRT300N):
http://reviews.cnet.com/Linksys_WRT300N ... 51121.html
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1977263,00.asp
http://review.zdnet.com/Linksys_WRT300N ... 51121.html

Mediocre reviews at best. The last review listed above suggests the Netgear.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 4:56 pm

Take a pick of one of these, then buy it and flash it with DD-wrt, you know you wana...

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:22 pm

until draft N 2.0 is finalized, i wouldn't bother with any pre-N hardware. they've been less than impressive so far.

go with the wrt54GL as obsidian pointed out for both being extremely stable and firmware upgrade friendly.

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:41 pm

Yea the WRT54GL was the one I was thinking about but I couldn't remember the model number. Hopefully our CompUSA has one in stock.

Post by **dzjepp** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:53 pm

I love my WRT54GL w/ DD-WRT except that I can't CONNECT TO TEH XBOX!

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:08 pm

If I can find a WRT54G with a serial number starting with CDFA I can get a WRT54GL for $20 cheaper

Post by **dzjepp** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:11 pm

riddla wrote:even using WPA-PSK?

Eh over wired, but believe me I tried almost everything

Post by **obsidian** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:12 pm

Be careful about buying WRT54G*'s. Older G revisions and the GL will support 3rd party firmware, the latest G revision will not.

Post by **dzjepp** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:14 pm

Actually they have mini flavors of dd-wrt now that support most of the newer wrt54g's if I'm not mistaken (albeit with less features) And more and more support is included in new v24 betas

But still I would rather get the GL if I had to just so I get the full capability of the firmware.

Post by **bitWISE** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 6:21 pm

Shortly after Linksys made the switch to VxWorks, they took notice of the third-party community and released the WRT54GL. The WRT54GL is simply a re-branded version of the WRT54G v4. Linksys admitted that the WRT54GL was not going to be as profitable as the WRT54G. The lower sales volume of the WRT54GL, which is mainly sold online, was the reason for that. The WRT54GL can be compared equally to earlier versions of the WRT54G. We can hope that Linksys will continue to produce the WRT54GL.

bitWISE wrote:...WRT54G with a serial number starting with CDFA...

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:04 pm

dzjepp wrote:Actually they have mini flavors of dd-wrt now that support most of the newer wrt54g's if I'm not mistaken (albeit with less features) And more and more support is included in new v24 betas

But still I would rather get the GL if I had to just so I get the full capability of the firmware.

Odd, i had the same issue then with the flash of 23 SP2 and now with SP3 i dont have it anymore..

a buddy of mine is still having it with his V6 w/SP2.

Bit:
if you are unable to get the GL that you are looking at, check out the Buffalo WHR-HP-AG108. it fully supports DD-wrt and etc.

Post by **bitWISE** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:18 pm

Didn't have any luck finding a "CDFA" around town so I ordered a GL from Amazon.

Post by **Sevensins** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 3:13 am

dzjepp wrote:I love my WRT54GL w/ DD-WRT except that I can't CONNECT TO TEH XBOX!

That is odd. If you have forwarded these ports, I don't know why it doesn't work:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910635
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/908874

I've done it on my router (netgear w/ dlink router as an AP bitch) and my parents (wrt54g, with linksys and dd-wrt firmware) without any problems. I set up static LAN IPs for each device connected.

You might try tversity or newly supported orb.
http://www.tversity.com/home
http://www.orb.com/gamers/xbox.htm

I tried both of those out, but didn't like them because they were more than what I needed.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:13 pm

What exactly is the difference between the WRT54G and the WRT54GL?

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 12:03 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRT54G

Post by **Kills On Site** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:11 am

So does the latest Linksys firmware stop the crashes that happen from keeping the IP addresses from the last 5 days, or will DD-WRT needed to stop that?

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:45 am

ive never had a crashing problem with stock or DD-WRT firmware. more info please.

Post by **Kills On Site** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:00 am

From the Wikipedia article under known issues:

As shipped, the Linksys firmware crashes under heavy peer-to-peer network traffic, such as BitTorrent, eMule or other P2P software. The reason for this crash is that Linux's connection tracking by default keeps track of old connections for five days. This five day limit quickly overwhelms the router's internal memory when there are a high number of network connections, and can only be resolved by power cycling the router. For a detailed tutorial on how to permanently fix this issue on a pre-v5 router, see the uTorrent FAQ.[15] Briefly, it involves installing a 3rd party firmware that alows setting the timeout to lower levels, which drops inactive connections and prevents the crashes.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:03 am

i've fired up utorrent for days on end with stock wrt54GL firmware with no issues. again, i'm on DDWRT now (for 6 months or so) and continue to have no issues. you can schedule reboots if you so desire just to ease your mind though.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:56 am

KOS: yes, it does..

it dosent crash, it uses all of its 524 IP connections and due to the stock settings it keeps the tunnels open for ~3 hours before closing them.. with DD-wrt you are able to up the max connections to 4096 connections and set the UDP/TCP timeout from 1Ms to 350000Ms ( i beleve )

Persionally, i have mine set to 1800 ms, That way msn/xfire/etc dont disconnect due to the router dropping its connection wile giving me the best Torrent performance.

Post by **dzjepp** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:05 am

This is what I use...

Along with Xmit Power 60. I keep the clock lowish at 216 cuz I don't want it to run too hot. I've seen people say that if you get a high clock you should use custom heat sinks on it.

But honestly, with those settings I have no problems with download speeds or bittorrent (I use it on my laptop with wifi). Smooth as butter and the connection never drops.

However I did have to use tcp optimizer on my laptop to change some of the windows settings to get max speed. Not really the routers fault though.

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

imo winxp sucks at finding optimal settings on a stock installation. at least from what i've seen vista manages it a lot better

Post by **Kills On Site** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:20 am

And this DD=WRT is guaranteed to work with the WRT54GL?

I only ask because come August I will be moving into a dorm and need to spend a large sum of money for all my computer stuff. I am trying to spread the cost as much as possible. I need a laptop, wireless router, definately a LCD, and hopefully a new desktop.

Post by **dzjepp** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:37 am

Yes it will, she is what I have.

btw you need 2 computers for school?

Post by **Kills On Site** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 11:06 am

Well State requries a laptop, and I am going to take my desktop and my 360. Aside from the wireless for my laptop I want a router for the extra security, NAT and firewall, because I think that really cuts down on the amount of spyware you get.