router comparison question

Offloading HDDs and other functions to remote NAS or servers is increasingly popular
Post Reply
Stephen
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:34 am
Location: Michigan, USA

router comparison question

Post by Stephen » Wed Nov 20, 2013 5:49 pm

I had a Netgear N900 that died on me after a number of years. I got a Netgear R6300v2 on sale, and I am not at all satisfied with it.

I have one wired computer, two wireless laptops, two wireless IPads, two wireless phones. and a wireless kindle fire hdx that are all connected at the same time on occasion (it's a family affair...).

With the N900, everything was fine except we had sporadic dropping of the internet connection, which is why I decided to try a different model. The R6300v2 is much worse in terms of signal strength/range, especially on the 2.4 band.

At this point, I'm considering replacing the R5300v2 with another N900, or going with either the ASUS RT-N66U or the ASUS RT-AC66U. I don't need the ac at this time, but I'm considering it for future proofing.

Does anyone know from direct experience how either or both of the ASUS routers compare with the Netgear N900 in terms of signal strength/range?

Pappnaas
Posts: 726
Joined: Mon May 16, 2011 11:23 am
Location: Germany

Re: router comparison question

Post by Pappnaas » Thu Nov 21, 2013 8:27 am

You could try to disable the buildin wireless and get an access point (or two, for even more coverage), sporting the desired AGNB modes. Some TP-Link modells are cheap to buy and yield reasonable signal strength in return. As a plus you could place the AP at a different location for better spacial coverage, as long as it has a LAN connection to your router.

washu
Posts: 571
Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:20 am
Location: Ottawa

Re: router comparison question

Post by washu » Thu Nov 21, 2013 9:50 am

Is your new router using the same 2.4 GHz channel as the old one? It may have defaulted to a more congested channel than you were on before.

Stephen
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:34 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: router comparison question

Post by Stephen » Thu Nov 21, 2013 5:14 pm

washu wrote:Is your new router using the same 2.4 GHz channel as the old one? It may have defaulted to a more congested channel than you were on before.
Same channel....

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: router comparison question

Post by xan_user » Thu Nov 21, 2013 7:57 pm

Stephen wrote:
washu wrote:Is your new router using the same 2.4 GHz channel as the old one? It may have defaulted to a more congested channel than you were on before.
Same channel....
maybe that channel has become more congested.

keep in mind wifi is a two way street. the connection is only as good as the weakest link. - and thats almost always the device, not the AP.

Stephen
Posts: 305
Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:34 am
Location: Michigan, USA

Re: router comparison question

Post by Stephen » Fri Nov 22, 2013 5:30 pm

xan_user wrote:
Stephen wrote:
washu wrote:Is your new router using the same 2.4 GHz channel as the old one? It may have defaulted to a more congested channel than you were on before.
Same channel....
maybe that channel has become more congested.

keep in mind wifi is a two way street. the connection is only as good as the weakest link. - and thats almost always the device, not the AP.
Tried different channels as well. Same problem.

CA_Steve
Moderator
Posts: 7650
Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2005 4:36 am
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: router comparison question

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:02 pm

I've found this Android Wifi Analyzer app to be useful. A picture is worth a thousand words...

Here's a couple of sites that provide halfway decent reviews of wireless routers.
Smallnetbuilder
Hardware Info

xan_user
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 2269
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 9:09 am
Location: Northern California.

Re: router comparison question

Post by xan_user » Sat Nov 23, 2013 8:36 am

CA_Steve wrote:I've found this Android Wifi Analyzer app to be useful. A picture is worth a thousand words...
great app! one of the few that im happy to pay for. (the free version is fully functional, it just has ads.)

xen
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 243
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:56 am
Location: NH, Netherlands

Re: router comparison question

Post by xen » Sat Jun 28, 2014 3:02 am

Just want to mention that wi-fi can act strange...

I was playing around with this Fonera router that I installed OpenWrt on and opened up two SSIDs (on the same BSSID obviously) one for private LAN and one for public WAN access only.

And before long (actually pretty much immediately) people's mobile devices were logging in and using my internet (neighbours, whatever). And I think I am confusing this with my main router, but it's the same thing regardless.

And I was using a Logitech Squeezebox Touch on the wifi channel of my private SSID. And I don't know what they were doing or what was going on, but as long as I had that public channel open, my Squeezebox refused to work properly. And the moment I turned it off (and kicked those users) it started working properly again.

And it can't have used a different band, at least I don't think so, and maybe that router was just messing up, but if you have like 6 wireless devices all churning away happily on their 802.11n (which I think is a faulty standard, I just know it....), you know...... don't forget to play around with disabling the "n" feature.

edit:

And I just changed "mixed mode b/g/n" to "g only" on my router and it feels physically better immediately, as if (and I am sure that is the case) I can feel the difference in frequency patterns being emitted. And I have never liked the "n", it appears to be a brute-force attempt at gaining more throughput but which comes at the cost of VASTLY higher power emissions. And I do not know about those things but I could check up on that.

Which I would do right away if my power measuring device was not still stuck in my main power loop for the computer :D. And I wish I could interpret its time-counter because there is 480 kWh on the meter :P. Must have run since September? No clue.

Post Reply