Decent Router

[poo417]

Hi, I have a two part question. The first is fairly basic. I need a new adsl router. It needs to have gig lan and wireless N. I have gone through a good few routers in the last couple of years. I have used a dlink gaming router which lasted about a year and half. I still have a belikin N router which is sh*t to say the least. I am now using both my BT home hub for adsl and lan and the belkin for wireless.

The second part is I have my htpc downstairs with my ps3. I have got a homeplug but the speeds are not very good and the wireless performance is not very good either. None of the methods are fast enough for 720p+ streaming even normal definition. I was wondering if i could use either homehub or the belkin as some sort of access point downstairs to take advantage of the N performance.

Cheers

 

[newtekie1]

WRT54GL+Wireless N Access Point+Gigabit Switch

 

[mrhuggles]

im running openWRT + X-Wrt whiterussian on a WRT54G v2.0 [one of the ones with 32mb ram]

it not only can last for like years and years but it can go years and years without rebooting [it keeps uptime, it runs a pretty decent linux yay] it performs pretty well too, i guess i can get at least 30mbit or so of routed traffic [maybe more but i don't have anything to test it really im on DSL 7mbit down], traffic across the lan doesn't take alot of cpu so ive seen it get over 12mb/sec between 2 boxes, i don't have many more to test but i figure its probably gonna be at least as good as anything else there.

netgear is supposed to have a router coming out soon or maybe it already did that can run openWRT + X-Wrt but has N support, that will be nice, as far as other software is concerned, tomato is supposed to be good, Ive never ran it and i really don't think any routers it supports have N, DD-WRT is kind of cool, its uhh, well its not as good as openWRT, last i checked you still had to reboot to apply settings ugh, and no package support, i guess if you just need basic router functions no package support wont kill you but me, i like to be able to run packages, lots of fun stuff there

there is at least 1 x86 linux distribution designed for doing this kind of stuff with a computer, you could easily put together an older computer with a wireless card and a bunch of lan ports, that would probably be really good too.

you could always spend more money on SOHO [small office home office] routers that other people suggest... ive seen people dump away > 1000 dollars on those and never be happy with them, they aren't cheap and it doesn't take all that big of a pile of them to add up to some serious cash.

 

[Sasqui]

im running openWRT + X-Wrt whiterussian on a WRT54G v2.0 [one of the ones with 32mb ram]

Amen to that, I've been running mine for 4 years and have NEVER had to reboot it. Got the V2.0 as well. Too bad there's no "N" protocol hack (that I know of)

 

[Marineborn]

your run of the mill linksys should do the trick, no need for a 600 router, or just buy a cheap switch

 

[poo417]

Thanks guys for the info. I had a feeling that it would be Linksys router. Have a freind who works for cisco so may ask him what he cn find lying around!!

Cheers

 

[mrhuggles]

i have a cisco router laying around but i don't have any wan cards for it