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Gaming router, make a difference?

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Help me pick a router!

Titled changed to "Help me pick a router!"

Ok so I am in need of a new router since my DI-604 is like 10 years old and they stopped making it in 07' if that tells you anything.

I have found a couple that I am interested in on newegg and was wondering if I could get some thoughts on them or maybe some suggestions. Some notes to keep in mind:

  • Try to keep the price under 40 or 50 tops. (US)
  • Looking for wireless/lan connections. Right now we have a Modem>router>wireless router. Would like to simply drop the router and wireless and get an all in one. ;)
  • Good ratings, of course
  • Better than the piece of shit I have now.

If it matters, which I am sure it does. I need something that can support gaming, and downloading. Lots of both. >:D

The two I have been looking at...
Rosewill RNX-N150RT IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g,...

NETGEAR WGR614 Wireless-G Broadband Router 802.11b...
 
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I cant say I've looked into it, but this is what I assume is the case. With network devices, you get what you pay for. If you pay more $$ you typically get a better product. The gaming router is mostly a label for marketing. But it could easily have better parts and be better built, offering better latency and better reliability.

With that said, many many things can cause lag. The ISP could be having a hiccup, could be heavy use in the neighborhood, could be torrents or something sapping his connection.
 
Probably, but the effect will be negligible. Assuming that all equipment is in working order, ping will be directly proportional to the distance to the server.
 
"Gaming routers" tend to have more configuration options (e.g. D-Link Gamer Lounge routers have Gamefuel with allows you to prioritize activity according to port number) but if you don't configure them, it's a whole lot of useless. In short, the answer is no. The internet connection itself is still the greatest limitation.
 
Thank you good sirs!
 
I believe the best thing you can do as far as routers go is find a decent model that is supported by DD-WRT or Tomato, and get rid of the (often terrible) stock firmware. A router with either of those 3rd party firmwares should run very well (if the router is well supported and not limited to some buggy beta release).
 
you must know the TCP and UDP ports that uses every game is long and tedious to find ... But if you do have some benefit even if nothing significant
 
I tend to look at the specs of the router. My E1000, for example, has a 300MHz processor and 32MB RAM. It's a far cry from my old Netgear router, which had a 240MHz processor and 8MB RAM. Even though I was nowhere near saturating my bandwidth, I still lagged because of high network traffic at times. It all depends on your network traffic. If you have a lot of machines frequently accessing the net, you'll want a beefier router. It depends on what kind of programs you're running too. Torrents, for example, can be somewhat demanding, because of the high number of simultaneous connections.
 
Do you share your internet connection with anyone else in your house while you are gaming? If no, then a "gaming router" won't help.

If there are other people using the net at the same time, then QoS (Quality of Service) is a way of the router prioritising which packets are sent first, to avoid delays. This is usually important for VoIP and for gaming. Note that it is a one-way benefit. You can't speed up the packets being sent to you. That is all down to your distance to the server, your ISP service, and what other people in the internet world are up to along those shared lines. A "gaming router" cannot influence any of that!
 
Like Ford said, all they do is packet prioritize when you have multiple people on the same line AND you have to configure it.

Example: Your wife is watching youtube while you play BC2. Under a normal router her movie will run fine while you get lag. However with a gaming router you will still get lag just not as much and her movie may become a lil choppy.

IMO they are useless. Best thing you can do is just get a faster connection.
 
IMO they are useless. Best thing you can do is just get a faster connection.

Max speed on ASDL is related to noise, which is again directionally proportional to distance from your exchange. My speed limit is 7Mbps, even in this supposedly "good part" of London.
 
updated with a new question/subject.
 
I would spend the extra $10 and get a gigabit router.
I occupy decent DL bandwidth for DL and streaming and gaming.
Over my previous non gigabit router, I've never had a crash or need to reset it.
Plenty in the $60 range and some below.
 
And E1000 with Tomato can't be beat for the price. Mine handles everything I do just fine, torrenting and playing games, as well as hosting game/web servers. And they can be picked up for $35, the only thing they lack is Gigabit, which won't really help for anything you asked for, but will help with file transfers between wired machines in your home.
 
And E1000 with Tomato can't be beat for the price. Mine handles everything I do just fine, torrenting and playing games, as well as hosting game/web servers. And they can be picked up for $35, the only thing they lack is Gigabit, which won't really help for anything you asked for, but will help with file transfers between wired machines in your home.

If you can do all of that then it sounds perfect for me! Also, just found it new on Amazon for $22.99! Can't beat that!

Damn it. Thats refurb. New is 49.99. :(
 
Max speed on ASDL is related to noise, which is again directionally proportional to distance from your exchange. My speed limit is 7Mbps, even in this supposedly "good part" of London.

same with me, im in a bad part of london and only 1000m from my exchange and can get 16mb

get something with wwrt or tomato
 
If you can do all of that then it sounds perfect for me! Also, just found it new on Amazon for $22.99! Can't beat that!

Damn it. Thats refurb. New is 49.99. :(

Yeah, I bought the refurb, been working perfectly for about a year now.
 
Yeah, I bought the refurb, been working perfectly for about a year now.

I too simply went with the refurb :)

People were saying that they all had it and couldn't tell the difference between new and refurbished.
 
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