If I went with Linksys, I would go with E4200, Asus RT-N56 or 16 (like the external antenna) but boo for not having 5GHz suppport.
Why the E4200? I looked at the spec sheet and the hardware specs seem pretty close to the E3000. If we're loading custom firmware then the software capabilities are irrelevant. There's a Tomato port for the E4200 too though.
At some point the Linksys E4200V2 came out. I can't seem to find specs anywhere, I guess my Google skills suck.
I do, however, get the jist that it includes a faster Marvel chip but then loses the ability to handle 3rd party firmware.
I don't need 3rd party firmware. The fanciest things I do are port forwarding and dyndns which are standard in the mfg's firmware. My three year old cheap to begin with router is really crapping out on me now that I have 6-8 devices using it at the same time at all times. I don't see any reason not to just get the E4200V2
I'm still holding out for the RT-N66U, personally. My need to upgrade is not that big, and I don't believe in compromise if I'm going to purchase an electronic.
Well good point. If I end up getting it, I'll let you guys know what I think about it. I'm going to wait a bit first though and read some reviews / get an idea of the hardware it has. V2 isn't something I want to associate with upgrade until I know for sure what they changed.
By the way .. having not read a Thracks post in a while .. I swear your title used to be "Captain Brevity" and now it is just "Brevity." That makes perfect sense.
I purchased the RT-N16 for my business, but I'm still waiting on internet so it's not hooked up yet. My only hope is that it handles QoS better than my Dlink DIR-655 once our phones are hooked up, but I'm sure it will meet our needs for now.
I ended up with the E4200v1 .. I didn't get v2 because v1 was $50 cheaper and had more than enough cpu for my needs and I can throw on the third party firmware in the future should I need it. It's been a dream so far, absolutely no issues on wired or wireless connections. I'm quite happy tossing out recycling the electronic components my old Netgear wnr2000v1 which I was resetting about once per week and was frequently dropping cell phone wireless connections.
i'm using an a4 hardware dlink dir-655 with firmware 1.35na and also an dir-825 dual band. they are fantastic routers though i know the asus routers thrax mentioned supports according to this article: http://semiaccurate.com/2011/02/27/asus-had-some-of-the-best-products-at-ces/ so as good as my router is it can't compare to i quote: "Why is this a standout product? The parts under the hood are what counts, and that starts out with an unspecified 600MHz Broadcom CPU, likely an A8 class part. Asus claims that this is the fastest CPU out there in this class of products, and we believe them. From there, you have 32MB of flash, so if you want to put in customized software, you have plenty of storage space. Best of all, the RT-N66U has a generous 1GB of RAM, another likely candidate for best in class. Why does this matter? Because of how TCP/IP works, or in the case of small routers, doesn’t work. TCP/IP takes up a bit of memory for each open socket, so the more you have open, the more memory you need. When a connection is released, the memory frees up slowly."
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Mt_GoatHead Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin)Icrontian
While Amazon makes it look hopeful SmallNetBuilder says otherwise.
The ASUS RT-N15 is up and running now and it works great. I'm impressed with the interface after updating to the new firmware. Next month, we should be getting our VOIP phones so that will be a great test to see if it can handle the QoS tasks.
As for the D-link routers, I also have a DIR-655 and found that it doesn't handle QoS tasks very well, but other than that it works really well.
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Mt_GoatHead Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin)Icrontian
edited January 2012
Finally good news!
The RT-N66U has been released in at least Australia and Sweeden. The Amazon page I linked to above appears to be in anticipation of a 1/15/2011 release date in the U.S. I am now considering putting in a pre-order tonight. But I have a little voice in my head saying to wait till March and they would likely be cheaper!
Straight_ManGeeky, in my own wayNaples, FLIcrontian
Worthy upgrade from a D-Link DGL-4500? I need some better QoS? Do any routers do downstream QoS?
Now that I have my Cisco Linksys E4200 all configured, I like its Video Stream QoS compared to my older D-Link DIR 655. I also have QoS option turned on in my laptop's wireless adapter config, and the two do not seem to fight much at all.
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Mt_GoatHead Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin)Icrontian
After all the delays and getting more time to research I finally decided on the Netgear WDNR4500 as it has higher throughput than the long awaited Asus RT-N66U. And it has the same hardware except 128 RAM instead of 256 with Tomato support on the way very soon.
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Mt_GoatHead Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin)Icrontian
edited February 2012
I am happy I decided to pull the trigger on the WDNR4500 and not wait on the RT-N66U any longer as I now see that its release had been halted and the new release date put to 02/28/2012.
So far the 4500 is with out a doubt the fastest consumer router I have got my hands on. It was a snap to set up and has excellent coverage, especially for not having external antennas.
Higher throughput in reality or practice, because both are tri-channel/dual-network 450Mbps+450Mbps devices.
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Mt_GoatHead Cheezy KnobPflugerville (north of Austin)Icrontian
edited February 2012
Higher throughput in reality or practice, because both are tri-channel/dual-network 450Mbps+450Mbps devices.
In reality, as tested at smallnetbuilder. Look for the N66U in the #6 spot! It is not by much but it at least tells me they are on equal ground! Both are also in a range where no one at home would ever use that much throughput. I was also very surprised to see how many routers tacked up and how much of a difference there is from top to bottom.
So far I can do everything I need with room to spare at blinding speed since replaceing my previous N draft 2 router with the 4500. I would need to get new adapters for the laptops in the house to get the rest out of the system. But my server, HTPC and desktop are going just as fast as if they were wired with top notch gear.
I got the N56U a month ago. But now I regret not waiting since the RT-AC66U http://www.asus.com/News/rZcy4jXiQPQ5F8YL/ along with the PCE-AC66 and USB-AC53 clients have been announced. While some 802.11ac routers are already out.
Not sure what the release dates are, but torn between waiting for 802.11ac or wiring cat6 throughout the house.
Comments
I do, however, get the jist that it includes a faster Marvel chip but then loses the ability to handle 3rd party firmware.
I don't need 3rd party firmware. The fanciest things I do are port forwarding and dyndns which are standard in the mfg's firmware. My three year old cheap to begin with router is really crapping out on me now that I have 6-8 devices using it at the same time at all times. I don't see any reason not to just get the E4200V2
By the way .. having not read a Thracks post in a while .. I swear your title used to be "Captain Brevity" and now it is just "Brevity." That makes perfect sense.
It's been a dream so far, absolutely no issues on wired or wireless connections. I'm quite happy
tossing outrecycling the electronic components my old Netgear wnr2000v1 which I was resetting about once per week and was frequently dropping cell phone wireless connections.Best of all, the RT-N66U has a generous 1GB of RAM, another likely candidate for best in class. Why does this matter? Because of how TCP/IP works, or in the case of small routers, doesn’t work. TCP/IP takes up a bit of memory for each open socket, so the more you have open, the more memory you need. When a connection is released, the memory frees up slowly."
As for the D-link routers, I also have a DIR-655 and found that it doesn't handle QoS tasks very well, but other than that it works really well.
The RT-N66U has been released in at least Australia and Sweeden. The Amazon page I linked to above appears to be in anticipation of a 1/15/2011 release date in the U.S. I am now considering putting in a pre-order tonight. But I have a little voice in my head saying to wait till March and they would likely be cheaper!
This is about the best I would recomend without spending enough to buy a decent used car.
BTW
I beleive this is a little O/T for the thread.
So far the 4500 is with out a doubt the fastest consumer router I have got my hands on. It was a snap to set up and has excellent coverage, especially for not having external antennas.
So far I can do everything I need with room to spare at blinding speed since replaceing my previous N draft 2 router with the 4500. I would need to get new adapters for the laptops in the house to get the rest out of the system. But my server, HTPC and desktop are going just as fast as if they were wired with top notch gear.
I've had a WRT54GL running Tommato for years, but its starting to drop the wifi regularly and even the LAN occationaly.
Not sure what the release dates are, but torn between waiting for 802.11ac or wiring cat6 throughout the house.