My quest has begun. After years of battle with my router and with Time Warner Austin, I set out again to the front. Time to buy a new router. Unfortunately, I am keeping Time Warner (bastards have a monopoly on my area, but some day … Your time is coming Time Warner).
Anyway, back to the router issue at hand. I currently have a Linksys BEFW11S4. Over the past couple of years since I … Speak of the devil. I am not kidding. I just lost my connection and had to power cycle the router. Again. Also power cycled the cable modem.
Router features
So, what do I need in a router? I need something that works with what I have now, a mix of wireless G and N devices. I need a router fully loaded for sharing files at home, connecting via vpn to the office, open for gaming and even for an occasional Website that I am hosting at home, etc. and that I can easily administer via a Web interface. Of course I want the best range and the best security available to consumer-level routers. Do I expect too much? We’ll see.
Required features
- Web interface
- VPN
- At least 1 ethernet connection (for Canon MP970 printer)
- At least 1 USB 2.0 connection (for Iomega LDHD250-U external hard drive)
- 1 up connection
- Dual band signals – One signal for surfing and another for streaming
- QoS – Quality of Service is actually a tech term for exactly what it sounds like, a good uninterrupted signal. You can prioritize certain types of traffic, for example, video streaming over Web surfing.
Bonus features
- Integrated cable modem – I’ve seen this but not sure if it works or not with Time Warner (Grrrr, Time Warner)
- Dual SSID – Allows two wireless networks, one public and one private.
Router reviews
Here are the products I looked at worthy of comment.
- AirPort Extreme Base Station
- Motorola SURFboard SBG900 DOCSIS 2.0 Wireless Cable ModemGateway (Black)
- ZyXEL NBG334W 802.11g Dual-SSID
- ZyXEL X550N
- Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router
- D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
As I review each router, I will not discuss every feature. That would take too long. I will discuss the features most relevant in the course of a normal discussion. If a particular required feature is missing, I will stop there in the discussion and call “deal breaker” and move onto the next router review.
AirPort Extreme Base Station
Many people remark on the stability of the AirPort Extreme Base Station from Apple. Plus, it supports having two wireless networks instead of just one like most routers. With two networks, you can have one public network and one private network. Routers that support only one network force you to choose whether to make your network ssid public or private. With dual ssids you can have both. This allows you to setup a guest network for visiting family and friends and have your personal devices/computers on the private network, to prevent guests or neighbors from having access to your shared files, etc. even when they are on your home network. Users on the public network cannot access computers on the private network. But they still have internet access. Cool.
Unfortunately, the AirPort has no admin Web interface. Puzzling. That’s a deal breaker. I need to be able to login to the router, forward ports, etc.
Motorola SURFboard SBG900 DOCSIS 2.0 Wireless Cable ModemGateway (Black)
As I am displeased with Time Warner cable, replacing their cable modem with one built into the router intrigued my interest. Would it work better? I’ll never know. The Motorola router has no WAN uplink and does not support MAC address spoofing. Maybe I would not need either feature but not having them makes me nervous. Maybe with the built-in cable modem I woudn’t need MAC address spoofing? Not sure, just nervous. Deal breaker.
D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
I almost bought this router. Again, some great customer reviews on amazon, but no dual SSID and some other D-Link products sound shoddy with negative custom reviews. While reviews of this particular router were mostly great, it got a bit nervous. Deal breaker.
ZyXEL NBG334W 802.11g Dual-SSID
The ZyXEL router sounds like a great router and the one I would have bought if I were not interested in N technology. I’ll just say it rocks in every other way, and ZyXEL, based on customer reviews at amazon and elsewhere sounds like a great company. But no N support is a deal breaker.
ZyXEL X550N
So, then, you ask, “What about the newer ZyXEL that does have N?” Again, looks like a terrific router but, unfortunately, the new one drops support for dual ssid. Not necessarily a deal breaker, until I found a router that has everything, the Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700.
Netgear Rangemax WNDR3700 Dual Band Wireless-N Gigabit Router
And we finally come to the winner. This router literally has all my requirements and extras. And I found it last, when I about to bite the bullet and buy the D-Link router. Great customer reviews, all the features I could want, and a nice price. I bought it on amazon, then noticed it wasn’t in stock. My mistake. I found it in stock on buy.com at $20 more, but I ordered it anyway. I need it now and the price was still decent and well under other seller’s prices.
Read about The Netgear Rangemax 3700 on Amazon
