In need of a new router. advice and opinions needed.

[Hyperion]

Been using a Netgear RP614v1 router for the past 4+ years and I think this thing is on its last leg. Bit-torrent is now making the router crash, heavy gaming mixed with VOIP apps (IE Ventrilo or Teamspeak) brings it to the point of crashing.


Haven't had any problems with this thing in the 4+ years of its use, and a heavy lightning bolt is what I believe has damaged it. So I need a new one.

Been on the hunt for a new one, and a wireless one this time. Only two routers I've looked at stand out.

The D-Link DGL-4500 and the LINKSYS WRT54GL.

The D-Link's features is what draws me to it, but the ability to use custom firmware on the Linksys (DD-WRT or Tomato) make me want it.


Wanting a wireless router now so I can get rid of some of the extra cords in my house (like for my 360) and if I get a Wii or PS3, boom no need for wires.

I had thought about another Netgear router, but it seems that their wireless ones are a tad....flaky.

What do you guys think? I need a router that can handle bit-torrent and gaming. The D-Link seems to crash with bit-torrent due to overheating from the reviews I've read. I've had two different Linksys routers in the past that turned into nice bricks within a few months of ownership, so I'm leery of going back.

[arenine]

Of those two you listed, it is better to go with the Linksys. For the D-Link, there really isn't a need for four gigabit ethernet ports especially when you plan to use wireless nor are you transferring massive files frequently. Also, 802.11n is still not finalized so it is not wise to get it yet. Overall, you don't need to pay a premium for these two features that you will not likely need.

[Potatochobit]

one company guarantees their wireless N routers to be future compatible or they will replace it free of charge. I dont remember which though.

[Ledgem]

I have a D-Link DGL 4300 and it's a beast. Absolute best router I've ever purchased, and I've gone through four before this one (one was a Linksys WRT54G v1 [ok but couldn't handle BT nicely], one was a Linksys WRT54G v5 [horrible], one was a Linksys mini-router which was quite decent, and one was an Airlink 101 piece of garbage). The DGL does heat up quite a bit more than other routers, but I've never experienced instability with it. For reference I'm in New York and during the summer we have some lovely humidity alongside 90˚F temperatures (the high for us this summer was 92˚F, but last summer we had some hotter days). I don't use an air conditioner, nor did I have any fans running - the router was fine with passive cooling.

I'd stay away from Wireless N at this point since it's still draft. As Potatochobit mentioned, if a company makes a claim about replacing routers for free if they're incompatible, that's different. I believe the company that made that claim was ASUS (maybe Asustek?), and I had no idea that they were making routers before that.

Gigabit ethernet may seem ridiculous right now, but it's the way that technology is going. I wouldn't pay extra for it specifically, but if it's there, it won't hurt you. (The DGL 4300 has gigabit ethernet, and I recently found myself with systems that can make use of it.)

If you go heavy on your net equipment and don't need wireless N support, my recommendation is on the DGL 4300. Strangely, Newegg's listing for it seems to have gone up in price. I picked mine up about two years ago for closer to $70 during a sale. The WRT54GL is nice for its customizability, but I don't know how the internal hardware compares. The DGL 4300 has many, many more options than the WRT54G's vanilla firmware did, that's for sure.

[Hyperion]

Thanks for the replies. Some people on other forums that have the DGL 4300 told me to go after the 4500. Even if I don't use the wireless N, it'll be there if I ever do get something at uses it.

Although, that DGL 4300 does seem nice, and is $40 cheaper.

[SeijiSensei]

I'd only buy a draft-N router if you buy matching wifi adapters from the same manufacturer. If you already have wireless adapters in the client computers, they're likely using "G" and won't take advantage of N speeds.

Remember that all these speed issues apply only to the machines that are behind the router. Your internet connection is almost certainly slower than the 54 Mbit/sec speed of 802.11g, so a draft-N router will have no effect on Internet transfer speeds.

[cyberbeing]

Well I bought a DGL-4300 a couple years back and it was absolutely horrible for bittorrent which ultimately forced me to return it. It kept on rebooting itself for no reason, blocking connections even though I have firewall rules and forwarding set, and the wireless dropped out often. I would have to say it was the worse router I have ever owned and it has made me very weary of making any D-Link purchases in the future.

I have a pretty massive internet connection though (20Mbps/20Mbps) but with that said, I wouldn't buy this router if your connection speed is over 10Mbps or else you will overload the router like I did and run into problems. It probably won't have issues with slower speeds. The DGL-4500 on the other hand shouldn't have the same issue with fast connections considering it has a Gigabit WAN port and excellent WAN-to-LAN throughput.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Hyperion

Thanks for the replies. Some people on other forums that have the DGL 4300 told me to go after the 4500. Even if I don't use the wireless N, it'll be there if I ever do get something at uses it.

The trouble with wireless N at this point is that it's still in the draft stages. It's become usable, but there really is no guarantee that the final version won't introduce incompatibilities with the current draft. As SeijiSensei mentioned, I'd only really go with a draft N router if I had draft N wireless cards from the same manufacturer. At least then you'd know for sure that they should work the way they're intended to. Otherwise, it's a gamble. Sure, the final wireless N standard could be fully compatible with current products... but what if it isn't? Then you'd have to buy another wireless N router later, when you really wanted the abilities of wireless N. I'd say save yourself money for now.

Originally Posted by cyberbeing

Well I bought a DGL-4300 a couple years back and it was absolutely horrible for bittorrent which ultimately forced me to return it. It kept on rebooting itself for no reason, blocking connections even though I have firewall rules and forwarding set, and the wireless dropped out often. I would have to say it was the worse router I have ever owned and it has made me very weary of making any D-Link purchases in the future.

That's very strange, because I've put my DGL-4300 through moderately heavy BitTorrent usage (among other net activities) and it services three computers through the wireless routinely. No issues for me, haven't had to reboot it in well over a year and counting (that's the way routers should be!). If you got it when it was a new product on the market perhaps there were issues with the firmware at the time. That, or perhaps you got a faulty product. It happens. Not to sound like a fanboy, but I'll probably stick with D-Link's higher-end routers (those that are either under the "Gamer Lounge" or "Media Lounge" labels).

I have a pretty massive internet connection though (20Mbps/20Mbps) but with that said, I wouldn't buy this router if your connection speed is over 10Mbps or else you will overload the router like I did and run into problems. It probably won't have issues with slower speeds. The DGL-4500 on the other hand shouldn't have the same issue with fast connections considering it has a Gigabit WAN port and excellent WAN-to-LAN throughput.

From what I understand, what overloads the router isn't so much the speeds that are going through it, but rather the number of connections. BitTorrent is so hard on routers for this reason: you could actively have well over 300 connections at a time, when most routers were probably designed expecting to only handle 20 or less. And again, the DGL-4300 also has gigabit WAN ports, same as the DGL-4500. The only difference between the two is that the DGL-4500 has draft wireless N support and an LCD screen. I'd imagine that the hardware is a bit better, but unfortunately manufacturers don't seem to publish those specifications.

[SeijiSensei]

You might want to take a look at this Slashdot thread on routers.

[cyberbeing]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

If you got it when it was a new product on the market perhaps there were issues with the firmware at the time. That, or perhaps you got a faulty product.

Well it's always possible the firmware was horrible in 2006 (2 years after release) and has gotten massive improvements in the past 2 years but it wasn't faulty because I went through 3 of them all with the same issues. All I know is that my horrible experience gave me a bad impression of D-Link. They should never have kept their product in such a foul state for so long.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

From what I understand, what overloads the router isn't so much the speeds that are going through it, but rather the number of connections. BitTorrent is so hard on routers for this reason: you could actively have well over 300 connections at a time, when most routers were probably designed expecting to only handle 20 or less. And again, the DGL-4300 also has gigabit WAN ports, same as the DGL-4500. The only difference between the two is that the DGL-4500 has draft wireless N support and an LCD screen. I'd imagine that the hardware is a bit better, but unfortunately manufacturers don't seem to publish those specifications.

Both speed and number of connections play a factor, which is why uploading/downloading on bittorrent with hundreds of connections at 20Mbps didn't make the router happy. I ultimately ended up going with a Linksys RV0041 (which has been extremely rock solid and no issues to speak of) along with a Linksys WRT-54g for wireless.

Also the DGL-4300 doesn't have Gigabit WAN, only Gigabit LAN. "1 x 10/100 Auto-Sensing Fast Ethernet WAN Port" as quoted from D-Link's website.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by cyberbeing

Also the DGL-4300 doesn't have Gigabit WAN, only Gigabit LAN. "1 x 10/100 Auto-Sensing Fast Ethernet WAN Port" as quoted from D-Link's website.

Ah I see, you're right then. The WAN port is where you connect your modem to, right? As far as being an internet-facing router that doesn't matter, but I can see how it would make a difference if you're using the router as a bridge on an all-gigabit LAN. Thanks for pointing that out.

[cyberbeing]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Ah I see, you're right then. The WAN port is where you connect your modem to, right? As far as being an internet-facing router that doesn't matter, but I can see how it would make a difference if you're using the router as a bridge on an all-gigabit LAN. Thanks for pointing that out.

The advantage of a Gigabit WAN is that you will get higher routing throughput (>100Mbit) WAN-LAN and LAN-WAN with everything being Gigabit. On a side note after looking around at user reviews for the DGL-4500 it still has some of the same issues I was having with bittorrent on the DGL-4300...

If I were you I would go for one of the linux based Linksys routers where you can use a custom firmware.

If you have an old PC (>200Mhz) lying around you could also make it a SmoothWall or m0n0wall router which would definitely be the cheapest and highest performance option.