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Wireless router suggestions

#21
It's not clear to me whether the Airport Extreme can be run from a PC, or only Apple devices. Reading the description and reviews on Amazon, I still can't tell. That's one way Apple makes me nuts....so much of their gear is only designed to work easily with their other gear.

I also admit that I consider Apple to be its own Evil Empire (it causes us no end of headaches at my university and I hate their "every adapter is $30 and we don't use any standard connectors, so there..." approach).

They make great, expensive stuff - if you're a Mac fan.

My experience with Linksys, Belkin and Netgear has all been ultimately frustrating. The Apple Airport Extreme DOES have very good reviews. The ASUS doesn't scare me a bit, as it's not hard to check its security out with the reference info Mike provided.
 
#22
It can be run from a PC. Pretty much any Apple product can. They make great stuff that cost an appropriate amount of money. Airport Extreme is worth every penny. The first one I had I bought used for $75. then I changed to U-Verse and had no use for it. U-Verse makes you use their router (those bastards!!!!). I immediately sold the Airport for $100 cash. A year later I bought the one I use now, again used, for about $100.
 
#23
MJ5150 said:
No, you aren't asking for too much. If you have a Costco nearby and you are a member, get the model they have for sale. Any of the consumer grade devices are going to work for you. I've never had a problem with a Netgear device, the Linksys ones have worked fine for me too.

I'm not sure about 'dual speed', but you do often hear/see/read about 'dual band'. 'Dual band" gives you capability to transmit on the 5 GHz band and also the 2.4 GHz band.

-Mike
Click to expand...

I didn't know they had it at Costco. I will go tonight and while I am there I will check to see if they have hardware for Ooma.
 
#24
We've had a Cisco/Linksys wireless N router for four years now and it's been solid. No issues and good range (the router is downstairs and the Wii U upstairs gets a solid signal).
 
#27
Just got done running a firmware update on my ASUS RT-N66U - really easy to do, very user-friendly software. Never used the AICloud and it's not enabled, never used the USB ports on the router for storage, so no vulnerability there. Thanks to Mike for the note...it pays to update firmware periodically just to keep up security and functionality. It's really easy to forget, though.

I do think it's a good idea to have a dual-band router that handles both 2.4 and 5 GHZ, since wireless equipment for many users is not all new and it's likely that many homes have a mixture of 2.4 and 5 GHZ wireless devices.
 
#29
I have used Linksys (just replaced a WRT-54G), NetGear, D-Link, EnGenius, 2Wire and just recently, installed a Ubiquiti. The EnGenius was a dual-band 2.4/5GHz and they have great signal strength. Their WAPs are great, too. The Ubiquiti AirRouter is small, cheap, came with high praise from another integrator and it's very versatile. Probably has more security features and settings than 90% would use, but it has them. Great signal strength- I drove past the house to make sure the network was up (the client is out of the country) and my iPhone showed full signal strength at the street, more than 50' from the front of the house- the router is on the floor of the 2nd floor bedroom, 14' above and 25' behind the facade.

If you want to future-proof your network, look for something that shows 802.11b/g/n/ac- ac is the new kid on the block.

For those who have problems with WiFi because of distance, building materials, etc- Actiontec, Linksys and other companies make ethernet over powerline adapters- some have one port and others have four. They work. The Actiontec is reasonable and has status lights to show that it's linked and the network speed. If the middle LED is orange, it's running at 54Mb/s and if it's green, it's running at 100Mb/s.
 
#32
fisticuffs said:
It can be run from a PC. Pretty much any Apple product can. They make great stuff that cost an appropriate amount of money. Airport Extreme is worth every penny. The first one I had I bought used for $75. then I changed to U-Verse and had no use for it. U-Verse makes you use their router (those bastards!!!!). I immediately sold the Airport for $100 cash. A year later I bought the one I use now, again used, for about $100.
Click to expand...

I had one ATT DSL gateway go bad (it would power cycle whenever I turned on my laptop, but it was fine when my other computer was using the hard-wired port and no WiFi was connecting)- turned out to be the wall wart, not the gateway. When I called, they said I needed a new one and it would cost $100, so I argued that it's their equipment, regardless of the fact that they want customers to pay for it and she agreed. That's the reason they want the equipment back when it's replaced. I made the point that Time Warner supplies the equipment and if it goes bad, barring physical damage caused by the user or someone in their house, T-W replaces it at no charge. She said it would be replaced at no cost, but obviously, the billing department didn't get the memo, so it took 4 months to get that straightened out. I had a connection problem after I got U-Verse and again, they insisted that I had a bad gateway, even though I told her that I had tested the cabling from top to bottom and tried connecting it at the demarc box, with no success. I guess the logic escaped her. Once again, the billing department failed to remove the charges until I called repeatedly.

You DON'T have to use the ATT box as a router- you can go into the configuration and set it to be used in bridge mode. You could also buy a separate DSL router, as long as you're using their DSL service. If you're using U-Verse, this won't work, AFAIK. I would suggest calling Tech support and ask for a higher tier. They usually want to avoid sending people to the upper tiers, but just be nice and be adamant.

The ATT equipment does work, though. Until it doesn't.
 

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