WiFi Access Point Recommendation

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eitai2001

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Hi there,
You could look at Trendnet TEW-634GRU I have seen good reviews on that. It was available through Kalahari some time back and may still be available.
Netgear N600 will also meet your requirements.

Regards Tim
 
I once installed a TP-Link wifi N router for a client and it locked up often. Recently (the first was 4 months ago) installed 2 of these for clients. So far so good...

Must add that the ports are only 10/100
 
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eitai2001 said:
What do you guys know / think of the Asus RT-N56U?
Click to expand...

That is a damned fine router, but also a bit pricey.

My personal choice would be the http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN12_C1/ ( Esquire has it labelled as the RT-N12, but I can assure you that it is the C1 model )

Covers about 80% more than my previous router did, I went from having three distributed wireless APs down to just one.

The N12C1 is also about 1/3 of the one N56u, with almost all the features.
 
bullzeye.za said:
That is a damned fine router, but also a bit pricey.

My personal choice would be the http://www.asus.com/Networks/Wireless_Routers/RTN12_C1/ ( Esquire has it labelled as the RT-N12, but I can assure you that it is the C1 model )

Covers about 80% more than my previous router did, I went from having three distributed wireless APs down to just one.

The N12C1 is also about 1/3 of the one N56u, with almost all the features.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, but Gigabit Ethernit is a requirement for me as well seeing as I'm connecting various media servers across the house via cable as well :P (the one access point serves my room wirelessly as well as the internet via cable to the next access point (Being this one) which then needs to be strong enough to stream various HD streams plus beam downwards through the floor.

I have found that a small netgear does manage to beam downwards, so that isn't an issue, but I definitely like the multiple bands as the portable devices can connect on 2.4Ghz, and I will get a 5.8GHz USB wi-fi for the laptops :P

If you ask why I haven't used a repeater ... for some reason, the wall between my mom's room and the room with the current router destroys signal (may be the crossed layout design of the bricks perhaps, I don't know). We've tried antenna's, different routers, etc ... we finally settled with putting a cable to their room and putting an access point there.

But Now I want to put the Asus in the current routers place (with an external modem) because of it's load balancing abilities, and put the current router (without using the modem) in their room which will be more than adequate :P

Part of the reason for all of this is digital proofing the rooms. I have been running my media server for a few months now, but only I have been using it. I now plan on placing a client box in my mom's room with XBMC (or similar) installed so she can watch her series that are now automatigically obtained :P. Plus VOIP software needs to run throughout seamlessly (My siblings are all over the world :P)

Personally, I will be probably buying a new place in about a year or so for myself. Once I do that, I plan to kit it out with fibre cabling throughout and dedicated routing boxes with a media server similar to what I have now :D ... But that's a while away ...

Regards

Itai
 
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why don't you try mikrotik RB 751g. has 5 gigabit ports and one of the ports has poe. wifi 802.11b/g/n wireless on-board with ant extender.

it also supports 3g with an usb port.

regards

Sa Wireless Communications PTY (LTD)
 
[email protected] said:
why don't you try mikrotik RB 751g. has 5 gigabit ports and one of the ports has poe. wifi 802.11b/g/n wireless on-board with ant extender.

it also supports 3g with an usb port.

regards

Sa Wireless Communications PTY (LTD)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the recommendation. Gonna go with the Asus because they seem more "Dumb Public" friendly, plus have rave reviews online :P
Also it has a more powerful processor and more RAM which is good for handling the varied traffic through the router :P
 
Been doing more reading on the N56U, and don't think I will get it.

It's now between a D-Link 825, Asus N16 and this Mikrotik 751G.
The first 1 is Dual Band which is nice to have.

I see the Mikrotik apparently has 1W transmit power, that means nothing to me as I don't know what your average router (or the other 2 named here are).

Some Comparative Specs (All specs in order of D-Link 825 / Asus N16 / Mikrotik 751G)

CPU Speed: 680 / 480 / 400
RAM: 64 / 128 / 64
Antenna: ? / 3 x 3dBi (Maybe 4dBi each) / 1 x 2.5 dBi (All are interchaneable)
Transmit Power: ? / ? / 30dBm (1w)

The Asus and D-Link support DDWRT, and the Mikrotik obviously RouterOS level 4.

I'm so confused. The Mikrotik price is excellent though ... eish!

Is the Mikrotik 300Mbps or 150Mbps?
 
Ok, so I got the D-Link 825. The Antenna's are only 2dBi each ... and the Wireless is worse than the 2750U I had running, but the speed is great on the lan side, and the speed in area's with decent signal (Such as my room) is better on the Wi-Fi side.

For example, I watched an episode from my media server with no stutter, whereas the 2750U always gave me a bit of stutter every now and then while watching.

Also, I flashed DD-WRT, but then couldn't get my laptop to connect to the wi-fi, just kept saying cannot connect to network, so flashed the D-Link firmware back and had no issues. DD-WRT showed a transmit power if 19dBi in 2.4Ghz and 13dBi in 5Ghz which is pretty crappy I rate. I tried increasing it in DD-WRT, but it never seemed to change in the Wireless Status check.

I'm going to maybe look at flashing OpenWRT onto the device. Problem is, I have no idea what most of the settings mean :P

Also, if anyone knows where to get higher gain Dual Band Dipole antenna's ... I'm all ears, been struggling to find some. Otherwise, I may just out 2.4Ghz Antenna's on it for now and disable the 5Ghz network.

I might still buy the Mikrotik, either to place in this one's place and move this one to the other end of the network cable, or to put the Mikrotik at the other end ... because I need a Gigabit router on the other end.

Only thing is I prefer the secondary to be able to switch into a bridging mode where it is purely additional ports and WiFi and let the primary DHCP assign IP's.
Can the Mikrotik and DD-WRT or OpenWRT do this?

Regards

Itai
 
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