Maximum PC

I know that this is opinion based but I'm about to enter the world of "n". I have four routers in mind and I'd like some user feedback on them if possible.

I'll make the list of routers in order of which I believe to be the best, everyone feel free to add your own opinions because wireless networking just isn't my bag of chips. So here they are:



First: D-Link DGL4500

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I've heard some great things about this router and I've heard some pretty bad things. But first I'll do the pros.

Pros:

"Gamerfuel Technology" which from my understanding of things is like a smart QOS made easier so I can prioritize my network in favor of my gaming for let's say over my younger sister's download of a stupid Justin Beaver song.

Fast port forwarding. This is a huge plus for me because I play a lot of different games and I play a lot of XBox live, and my current NAT is strict and I've followed tons of port forwarding tutorials and none of them ever work for me. For this is just the click of a box and boom all of your ports for that game are open.

Also looks very nice, has many extra ports in the back, a nice LED screen, and dual band technology 2.4Ghz 5Ghz.

Lastly for the pros, it has a pretty high download speed of up to 300Mb/s. But I've seen pictures of this router clocked faster than that.

Cons:

Apparently after firmware 1.13 or 1.15 this router turns into absolute garbage. Drops connections on heavy loads, requires resets multiple times a week if not multiple times a day.

Although it does have dual band technology it is not simultaneous which I read it will actually slow things down because non compatible products 5ghz will not function.

Also a bit pricey, but I feel that if I can downgrade the firmware to the 1.13 state then this is definitely the router I am going to get.





Second: NETGEAR WNDR3700 RangeMax

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... k=wndr3700

Pros:

Blazing fast, clocked at over 400Mb/s download.

DOES HAVE simultaneous dual band operation 2.4Ghz/5Ghz

Also has "Intelligent QOS technology" which is like Gamefuel

Cons:

Currently have an older NETGEAR RangeMax and like I mentioned earlier I just can't port forward that damn thing and that is not something I'm going to deal with any longer.

The QOS technology may not be as easy to follow as the DGL 4500.

Also almost reiterating what I said earlier, but does not have easy port forwarding.





Third: D-Link DIR 655

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 0dir%20655

Haven't heard many bad things about this router either, although it is lacking what some of my routers have.

Pros:

Very reliable, many people have told they've used this router and never had any problems.

Reasonably priced.

Also has Intelligent QOS technology, but once again, I'm not sure how easy it would be to manage it.

Cons:

Slower than the other routers, can almost reach speeds of 260Mb/s download.

Once again the QOS may not be user friendly for a guy like me who doesn't know all too much about wireless networking.

No simple port forwarding.

Absolutely no dual band technology (which could be a Pro depending on the situation)





Fourth: D-Link DIR-855

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... =dir%20855

This router scares me. It has not gotten very good reviews, however it is supposed to be the upgrade to the DGL 4500 from what I understand.

Pros:

Has all of the same features as the DGL4500 and includes simultaneous dual band technology. (Atleast I think it has all of the same features from a few articles I read. They never mentioned "GameFuel" directly but they all did say this was the same exact router with the new simultaneous dual band.

Cons:

Just about every review I've read said that the firmware for this product is horrendous. Not many people are pleased at all and if there is no way to fix it by downgrading to a lower firmware or anything then I am definitely going to steer clear of this router,



I also asked Comcast if their modems would bottleneck my router capabilities and they said that no it shouldn't but sometimes I feel that I know more about computers than the guys that answer the phones there so I'm looking to upgrade my modem as well. Comcast is offering a new modem free of charge just a courtesy upgrade, I can find out what it is called tomorrow and post the information here.

I plan on directly running from the router, through the modem, into my PC, and also running an Ethernet directly to my Xbox as well for the fastest speeds I can get.

If I'm missing anything blatantly important than someone please bring it to my attention, I'm not sure if I'll need a PCI express adapter for Wireless N for my PC but I know that for the laptops in my house hold which benefit much more by buying USB N adapters.

Sorry for the long post, I hope someone here can help me out and I'll give a tl;dr for you guys.

tl;dr:

Getting a new gaming router to enter the world of "N".
Want to find the best and most reliable one.
If the DGL4500 firmware can be downgraded I will get it.
If not I'll probably get the WNDR3700.
I don't like port forwarding, I found it hard on my old NETGEAR router.
It was very frustrating so I don't want to deal with that again.
I'm not sure how easy Intelligent QOS is to use.
Once again I HATE PORT FORWARDING.

Try the Linksys brand. Here are some of the ones that fit your profile. Personally, they are reliable and I've always enjoyed their simplistic interface.

Linksys E3000

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833124388

Thanks for the advice on these routers. The E3000 is probably the router I'd buy if I ended up choosing one of the Linksys because it has simultaneous dual band technology where as the E2000 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833124386) only has selectable dual band. One thing I wouldn't like about this router is that from what I've read on Newegg it has no "Intelligent QOS" technology, and I'm also terrible at port forwarding so I'm not sure how simple that would be using a Linksys. The reason I'm leaning towards the DGL4500 so much is mainly because of the ease of portforwarding on that router. The E3000 and WNDR3400 are tied for my 2nd choice router now but if I can find out that it is possible to download and install an older firmware on the DGL4500 then I'm going to get it. Hopefully have no regrets but if I do then I have no one else to blame but myself.

So does anyone know if it is possible to downgrade to a later firmware on the DGL4500?

I have found the answer to my own question and I hope that this helps anyone with a DGL4500. Yes you can downgrade firmware to 1.15 a nice web-browser guy on the Broadband DSL forum website has a link that does indeed work and installs the 1.15 firmware to your DGL 4500. After installed, you can go to the official D-Link website and install their 1.15 update. I hope this helps some people out, and after reading replies of members who vouched that this does actually work and makes their DGL4500 amazing once again after countless terrible firmware updates.

http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/r ... .2xNA-1.15

I will say use at your own risk, this is not a firmware update that I have made, only found. However, members of the website said that "www23" (the creator of this download) has done a very good job, and does indeed solve all of the DGL 4500 newer firmware problems.

I can tell you for one, setting up Port Forwarding is a lot easier on the Linksys. As for the QOS, you have to turn it on and define it yourself.

I have some first hand experience with Linksys E3000's - for the price or even in general terms I would not recommend them.

Their wireless performance is ok at best - I've seen them drop people sporadically with a load of 10-15 wireless clients.

Honestly for gaming either you HAVE to have a wired connection or latency doesnt matter and any wifi network will do. I'd probably buy one of those old d-link gaming routers with gigabit ports if I were looking now. They had a pretty good rep and router tech hasn't really improved in any revolutionary way over the last few years that I've seen.

I realize that this is an old posting but I wanted to get my fingers dirty on this one. When I returned from Afghanistan December of 2010 I purchased a DLink gaming router. Specifically the 4500 mentioned here. I read the upgrade notes on the D-Link support resources for this and it notes the inability to return to a previous firmware. I'm currently running the latest. For a while there was an issue with the router resetting etc and I haven't the first clue which firmware I started with. Originally I had set my network up with the DLink as a primary off the DOCSIS 3 Modem I purchased (allows for band switching on the cable modem to avoid the congestion that your typical DOCSIS 2 users run into) and I had another LinkSys N router that I....acquired...I Afghanistan. I found myself constantly resetting my router day in and day out. It was rather horrible and I blamed it on my cable company. The cable company would come out, check things out. Replace filters and several other things. I even got myself moved up in their roadside filters to get me in the proper Db range (kinda a good thing!) But in the end I swapped the routers around and ended up using the LinkSys as the primary and the Dlink as the secondary. Long story short.....if you can downgrade firmware....do it.

But I can honestly say that my experience with the Dlink gaming router has been ok. I share folders on my network containing movies I've converted to .VOB myself which end up being roughly 4 gig files and stream them to other computers in my house with direct cable connections on the 1.23NA firmware. Now I'm becoming curious as to the improvements I could expect to see in the earlier versions over the firmwares I've been using since my return from Afghanistan.


DIR-655
I found one of these in the trash oddly enough. I picked it up and hooked a Network drive up to it directly using a standard Cat5E cable and plugged it in to an outlet for wireless sharing content to other soldiers down range. Various things such as freeware programs I get in my MaximumPC CD's that soldiers would find useful but wouldn't have the internet connection to download themselves. This particular Router saw issues when wirelessly transmitting files. Usually capped at about 36 MB/s but often ran around 8-12 MB/s. These transmit rates were found when I would lock everyone out of the network to introduce new content onto the drive. Far as blocking people I simply set up a MAC Address filter and Password and never had any issues with anyone other than those I manually input getting onto the network. I also used a VNC to monitor people who were using my drive (due to the bandwidth restrictions streaming the media off the drive as opposed to downloading it to your computer was a no no) Things such as double clicking an install file for VLC with no other users on the drive would cause horrendous lag in bandwidth and take as long as 15 minutes in testing the connection wirelessly)

I can't speak for the other systems. I hope any that run into the particular post in the future using the search feature (as I have done) found it useful in some way.

I went through this recently myself with the selection of what router to get.

First I would not look at it as a gaming router. There is no such thing. There is not really anything in there for games just things for networking. Point being these things they say enhance gaming are for any traffic and can benefit any traffic.

The router I ended up with was WNDR3700V2. I put OPEN-WRT on it as I did not like the stock software. I have been nothing but pleased. The router is a beast for passing traffic and with the use of OPEN-WRT it becomes a very capable router.

Just my 2 cents.