Best Wireless N + Gigabit Router that I can install Tomato on?

[thebeephaha]

I need to replace my WRT54GL with Tomato with a new N router with Gigabit support.

I need really good wireless range as well.

Any suggestions?

Budget must be under $150

 

[mrhuggles]

an old computer with a wirelessN card, and gigabit lan cards?

openWRT has an x86 release, so does dd-wrt, maybe Tomato does too? sorry im not really familiar with it.

 

[thebeephaha]

an old computer with a wirelessN card, and gigabit lan cards?

openWRT has an x86 release, so does dd-wrt, maybe Tomato does too? sorry im not really familiar with it.

Uses too much power otherwise I'd do it.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

What is tomato anyway?

 

[Homeless]

What is tomato anyway?

Custom firmware for routers that have broadcom chips and then some. www.polarcloud.com

 

[newtekie1]

Keep the WRT54GL, add a Gigabit switch and a Wireless N access point?

 

[lemonadesoda]

nt gives good advice... separate your infrastructure for reliability (and to save money) and allow a discrete rather than combined upgrade path. However, you will need 3 wall warts

For ultimate speed, dont let ONE processor (in the router) have to handle internet modem, routing, port forwarding, wireless, WEP, WPA, firewall, multiswitch, and QoS. Let THREE processors handle the workload to avoid bottlenecks.

 

[newtekie1]

you will need 3 wall warts

Thats what a PowerSquid is for, $15 at Home Depot. Not nearly as cool as a PowerGlove, but much more useful.

 

[thebeephaha]

That access point looks pretty nice. For $50 I might as well give it a try.

I already have a Linksys 5 port gigabit switch so I will stick with that for now.

 

[lemonadesoda]

Thats what a PowerSquid is for, $15 at Home Depot. Not nearly as cool as a PowerGlove, but much more useful.

LOL. Doesnt change the fact. 3 warts and more cables.

So you do cable management "inside" the case... and show the pics... w00t... but then your house and under the desk is a freaking spaghetti monster.

 

[mrhuggles]

he is right, that router can handle around 30mbit or so of routed traffic, a gigabit switch would be perfect and behind that, some kind of access point would be sweet, altho... maybe it would be better to get a wireless N router that supports tomato, and replace your current one with that? im guessing that would be the same price and would give you more stability as most soho equipment runs ick... VXWorks or worse, really old linux kernels with really bad configs that crash on too many connections tracked.

yeah maybe thats a good idea, back in the days i was suggesting to people to get avila gateworks routers for this exact reason,when its time to upgrade the WIFI you just switch out the card, and youll always have a good router regardless of what new technology comes along.

EDIT: omfg lemonadesoda, nice avatar.

 

[dutchct]

Keep the WRT54GL, add a Gigabit switch and a Wireless N access point?

sorry to bring back an old thread.

just wondering what the point of the gigabit switch is? can't i plug my wireless n access point directly into my router?

I'm considering this method along with the Netgear WNR3500L

 

[newtekie1]

The gigabit switch is needed because the Original Poster's router wasn't gigabit, and he wanted to upgrade to gigabit. If you already have a gigabit router, or don't want to run a gigabit network, the switch isn't needed.

 

[mrhuggles]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122334&Tpk=WNR3500L

 

[Wile E]

Keep the WRT54GL, add a Gigabit switch and a Wireless N access point?

Won't work. It will still have to pass thru the 54GL for DHCP on the network, therefore will only run at 100Mb, regardless of the switch being 1Gb. Thats from first hand experience. I tried putting a gig switch on a 100Mb router, and my network transfers only went up to 100Mb. You need a managed switch to do what you suggest. Might as well buy the N router with Gb built in at that point.

 

[Mussels]

Wile E: i could be misunderstanding what you're saying, i wish to clarify.

If he hooks up a gigabit switch, any and all machines on that switch will communicate at gigabit speeds. it DOES NOT matter what the speed of the router is, as traffic does not go there - that is the entire point of a switched hub.

If he has a device connected to the router while he's on the gigabit, that will be limited to 100Mb due to the uplink being 100Mb - but he himself will not be.

Best layout: Router, gigabit switch, wireless N connected to giga switch. all PC's connected to the giga switch or wireless.



DHCP only hands out IP addresses, its completely irrelevant to speed, throughput and so on.

 

[newtekie1]

Won't work. It will still have to pass thru the 54GL for DHCP on the network, therefore will only run at 100Mb, regardless of the switch being 1Gb. Thats from first hand experience. I tried putting a gig switch on a 100Mb router, and my network transfers only went up to 100Mb. You need a managed switch to do what you suggest. Might as well buy the N router with Gb built in at that point.

So how does needing to go to the router to get an IP address assinged effect network transfer speeds?

And it will most definitely work, it is the setup I've used for 3 years now(though I use two gigabit switches in different areas of the house). The only network traffic that every hits the router, and hence is limitted to 100Mbps, is internet traffic and the initial DHCP Lease when the computer is first turned on. Any network transfers stay on the 1000Mbps switch, and will transfer at 1000Mbps. And I've got the 120MB/s(limitted by the hard drive) windows file transfers to prove it...

 

[Wile E]

Hmmmm, my D-Link 5 port Gb switch would not give me better than 100Mb transfers when hooked to a 100Mb router. I bought it to bypass the router altogether to get better network transfer speeds, and all computers/components were hooked to the switch, not the router (Aside from the connection from the switch to the router, obviously). I had to upgrade to a Gb router to get better than 100Mb.

 

[Mussels]

Hmmmm, my D-Link 5 port Gb switch would not give me better than 100Mb transfers when hooked to a 100Mb router. I bought it to bypass the router altogether to get better network transfer speeds, and all computers/components were hooked to the switch, not the router (Aside from the connection from the switch to the router, obviously). I had to upgrade to a Gb router to get better than 100Mb.

then obviously something was wrong with your network, outside of the router.

 

[Wile E]

then obviously something was wrong with your network, outside of the router.

Works perfectly fine with the Gb router. That's absolutely the only thing that changed. All wires went in the same place and everything. Identical layout with just a different router. Nothing hooked to the router's ports at all, except the switch, of course.

 

[Mussels]

for example: windows vista limits speeds to ~10MB/s over the network if audio is playing. Even having WMP open (but paused) causes this.

Something like that could have totally screwed up your testing. We are stating with absolute fact, that you do not need a gigabit router to get gigabit speeds - if that was the case, we'd all disable DHCP and use manual IP addresses to get faster speeds.

 

[Wile E]

for example: windows vista limits speeds to ~10MB/s over the network if audio is playing. Even having WMP open (but paused) causes this.

Something like that could have totally screwed up your testing. We are stating with absolute fact, that you do not need a gigabit router to get gigabit speeds - if that was the case, we'd all disable DHCP and use manual IP addresses to get faster speeds.

No, it wasn't a Vista or OS issue. This was with any OS, even linux. Perhaps I have a buggy switch, or my old ZyXel X550 MIMO was somehow incompatible with it? I'm no fool, I know how to perform standardized tests, going to a Gb router was the only thing that fixed it.

 

[Mussels]

yeah, we dont know where the problem lies - we just know that you had a unique one.

 

[Wile E]

That kinda pisses me off. I spent a long time trying to get the switch to work with the 100Mb router. lol

 

[newtekie1]

That kinda pisses me off. I spent a long time trying to get the switch to work with the 100Mb router. lol

There are some switches that will limit all traffic to 100mbps if one port is connected at 100mbps. However, they are not supposed to do this. The proper way is to just limit that port to 100mbps, and the rest still function at 1000mbps.