Wireless N Router Recommendation

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#1 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:46 am

I have (2) machines now out of (5) in the household that are wireless N capable. The other (3) machines are 802.11bg compliant. So I know that I need to run a mixed-mode network, and I also understand that the throughput won't be as good as a green N network. With that said, I am looking for recommendations for a Wireless N router with 4 Ethernet ports, a print server (would be nice but not critical), and one that works very well in a mixed-mode network. The only other out of the ordinary thing I do is I run from a company LAN 8 hours a day via Nortel VPN, so it must support Nortel VPN. Any suggestions? I've had a Linksys WRT54G v3 for years and hate to give it up, but it's time.
the wireless N capable machines I have are;

X61s - Intel 4965
T400 - Intel 5300

killer · #2 Post by **killer** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:12 am

The router I use has N wireless. British Telecom supplied it and it is locked to their broadband system so it wouldn't be much use to you. However, I believe it is made by Thomson so there must be other, unlocked, versions available worldwide.

#3 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:07 pm

If I were in the market for an N-router, I'd go for the dual-band Trendnet TEW-672GR or wait for the brandnew TEW-673GR.

I use a dedicated separate printserver (2x USB2.0 and 1x Parallel) also from Trendnet:
http://trendnet.com/products/proddetail ... P21&cat=46

loyukfai · #4 Post by **loyukfai** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:25 pm

While I don't have any specific model in mind right now, one thing I consider important when buying home routers is whether I can load 3rd-party firmwares, like OpenWrt, on it.

However, it seems that, at the moment, pre-n support under OpenWrt is still considered experimental, and largely depends on what chipset is being utilized on the device.

Back to the topic... : )

Does VPN passthrough suffice your needs? Or you need a router which can also act as an VPN endpoint?

How about keeping your existing 802.11g router and make it an AP connecting to the "n"-router via Ethernet...?

BTW, have you checked out SmallNetBuilder?

#5 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:38 pm

Thanks for the replies. @RBS, I also have a Trendnet Print Server, 2XUSB, that's why I said a build in Print Server was not critical. @loyukfai, all I need is VPN passthrough. The actual VPN runs on a client on my work laptop. Also, you mentioned something interesting ref. using my existing Linksys as an AP. Lets say that I do that, and associate only the bg compliant computers to the AP via MAC filtering or similar. Would that then allow me to dedicate the 'N' compliant machines to the new router so that they'd run at full N speeds without interference?

Stargate199 · #6 Post by **Stargate199** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 1:01 pm

Honestly, I have no clue when the 802.11n will become final. I honestly will not buy a N router before the standard is complete just because you never know what they will change and the device may not support the new changes so newer hardware that has the final standard may not be compatible (yes I know there will be firmware updates, but there is so much you can do with firmware, a lot has to do with hardware).

rek · #7 Post by **rek** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 7:21 pm

I have been happy with my Linksys WRT350N router (they now make a dual 2.4/5GHz band version in the WRT600N). Some of these are also compatible with third party firmware like DD-WRT which significantly increases the capabilities of the router.

That said, I tried 802.11n for a while on some of my equipment (with & without G devices also connected) and found it very underwhelming; so much so that I didn't bother going ahead to upgrade the other machines to 'n' wireless. I figured that for those occasional moments where the speed was really needed (mass file copies etc.) I'll just plug it into a gigabit port for that task.

#8 Post by **Harryc** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:05 pm

@rek, if you ask me, even at 802.11 speeds the bottleneck was never the wireless connection, but rather the Internet connection. These days with Fiber/FIOS and faster, wireless G is a better fit. Most folks don't do a lot of local file xfers, so even wireless N is overkill...basically I think we agree. I just needed to replace an old piece of equipment, and wanted the best choice. With that said, Circuit City is going out of business and I cruised down there today and picked up a Belkin F5D8236-4 N Wireless Router for $72. with tax included. It seems to work fine here. It's not dual band, but lets think about that bottleneck again

In the part of NY I live in, I'll be much older before we even have fiber to the homes. Heck, I didn't even have DSL service until 4 years ago, and cable TV a few years before that.

ajkula66 · #9 Post by **ajkula66** » Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:40 pm

Harryc wrote:

Heck, I didn't even have DSL service until 4 years ago, and cable TV a few years before that.

You lucky man..I still can't get a DSL where I am...so I'm on cable. And my grandchildren (that I have none yet) will have their PhDs before I see FiOS up here...

killer · #10 Post by **killer** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:40 am

Stargate199 wrote:Honestly, I have no clue when the 802.11n will become final. I honestly will not buy a N router before the standard is complete just because you never know what they will change and the device may not support the new changes so newer hardware that has the final standard may not be compatible (yes I know there will be firmware updates, but there is so much you can do with firmware, a lot has to do with hardware).

That's a good point about 802.11n as it is only in draft form at present. One wonders how long before a final decision is made?

killer · #11 Post by **killer** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 6:42 am

Harryc wrote:@rek, if you ask me, even at 802.11 speeds the bottleneck was never the wireless connection, but rather the Internet connection. These days with Fiber/FIOS and faster, wireless G is a better fit. Most folks don't do a lot of local file xfers, so even wireless N is overkill...basically I think we agree. I just needed to replace an old piece of equipment, and wanted the best choice. With that said, Circuit City is going out of business and I cruised down there today and picked up a Belkin F5D8236-4 N Wireless Router for $72. with tax included. It seems to work fine here. It's not dual band, but lets think about that bottleneck again In the part of NY I live in, I'll be much older before we even have fiber to the homes. Heck, I didn't even have DSL service until 4 years ago, and cable TV a few years before that.

I agree that the bottleneck is usually in the internet connection, however 802.11n does give much better range for the wireless bit.

loyukfai · #12 Post by **loyukfai** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:49 am

You may use 2 different SSID - One for the pre-N and another one for the b/g. Then, configure your pre-N router to operate only in "N"-only.

Cheers.

Edit: One more thing, separate the channels used by the 2 routers should help the performance.

#13 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:45 am

Thanks for the tip, I'll try it. One more question. What is the fastest speed I can expect out of a Thinkpad with an Intel 5300agn adapter connected to a 2.4Ghz pre-N router while running WEP (not WPA) ? I believe I should see 130Mbps with WPA, so should I expect to see something less with WEP?

#14 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 1:12 pm

I'd love to take a run out to Circuit-City, but I'm snowed in at the moment.
The Real White Stuff is coming down at about one inch per hour, and the roads have not been cleared

killer · #15 Post by **killer** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 2:12 pm

@Harryc, The most I get out of my wireless connection is 54.0 Mbps ... regardless of whether it is open, WEP, or WPA. With an ethernet cable I get 100 Mbps.

@RealBlackStuff, That's a serious snowfall. Maybe it's time to hunt for your sled.

Edit: Because I typed 56 when I meant 54.

#16 Post by **bill bolton** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:33 pm

Stargate199 wrote:Honestly, I have no clue when the 802.11n will become final.

Its easy to find out.... http://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm

Cheers,

Bill B.

#17 Post by **bill bolton** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 7:47 pm

Harryc wrote:Thanks for the tip, I'll try it. One more question. What is the fastest speed I can expect out of a Thinkpad with an Intel 5300agn adapter connected to a 2.4Ghz pre-N router while running WEP (not WPA) ?

You'll get 54 Mbps maximum, if you use WEP.

I'm using a Linksys WRT600N with WPA2, and run Nortel Contivity VPN connection through it. It works very well, giving reliable 270 Mbps WLAN connections from Intel 4965AGN and 5300AGN cards.

Cheers,

Bill B.

loyukfai · #18 Post by **loyukfai** » Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:30 pm

Harryc wrote:Thanks for the tip, I'll try it. One more question. What is the fastest speed I can expect out of a Thinkpad with an Intel 5300agn adapter connected to a 2.4Ghz pre-N router while running WEP (not WPA) ? I believe I should see 130Mbps with WPA, so should I expect to see something less with WEP?

SmallNetBuilder has done a review of a similar model (F5D8235-4 instead of your F5D8236-4) the other day, and if they share the same characteristics, running under WEP or WPA/TKIP modes degrades the performance quite a bit.

The benchmark wasn't done with a 5800AGN through. Although I don't see much reasons to run the latest wireless gears under WEP while they're often more optimized for WPA/AES.

beGi · #19 Post by **beGi** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:03 am

Harryc wrote:I believe I should see 130Mbps with WPA, so should I expect to see something less with WEP?

Just to remind you, if you care about privacy, don't use WEP because it can be broken within minutes if enough packets are captured

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