Replacing my router

[Jaspaller]

So my old router has been failing hard for over a year now and I would like to get a new one. The one I have right now is a D-link DI-624 (also known as 'DI-Crashes a lot'). Seems to crash quite frequently which causes me to get disconnected from the internet and whatever game I'm playing at the moment be it PC or Console. No fun when you're playing a game that doesn't allow drop-in/out multiplayer (like Halo). There are several wireless devices that end up being used and it looks like the 624 can't keep up with newer stuff without crashing once in a while.

Give me a hand here guys, I don't have much knowledge when it comes to routers so I'd love to get some thoughts on what I should be looking for and what to avoid. The Apple Airport Extreme has caught my eye due to it's ability to broadcast N and G simultaneously.

[SpikeOtacon]

WRT54GL without question is my go-to. I used the regular 54G for years before it finally died during a power surge. Went through a terrible process of belkins, newer linksys and netgear before I decided to pick up the 54GL. More memory, speed and able to be flashed with a custom firmware for fine-tune control of everything i'll ever need with that router.

It's only a G so if you're looking for futureproofing with an N router it won't do you any good but this has lasted me for years just as the 54G did before it. I'll probably end up buying a spare to have on hand just in case as I can't see myself bothering with any others.

[McLaughlin]

I currently use a DGL 4500. Worked great since I bought it last year. Strong wireless signal everywhere in the house (it's in the basement), and the display is a nice thing to have. Plus it looks awesome. Expensive though.

Before that I had a DIR-655 which also worked well. Before that I had the DI-624 and had most of the same issues as you seem to have had (along with really shitty connectivity in P2P host games like Perfect Dark Zero and Gears of War that no firmware would fix). Other than the DI-624 I haven't had any issues with D-Link.

[Jaspaller]

WRT54GL without question is my go-to. I used the regular 54G for years before it finally died during a power surge. Went through a terrible process of belkins, newer linksys and netgear before I decided to pick up the 54GL. More memory, speed and able to be flashed with a custom firmware for fine-tune control of everything i'll ever need with that router.

It's only a G so if you're looking for futureproofing with an N router it won't do you any good but this has lasted me for years just as the 54G did before it. I'll probably end up buying a spare to have on hand just in case as I can't see myself bothering with any others.

Had I get fed up with my router a year sooner I would probably want that one haha. I did have my eye on it previously but didn't really have the money for it at the time. Simultaneous Dual Band routers are looking nicer the more I look at them. Thanks for your suggestion though but I want one that's able to do N as well as G.

I currently use a DGL 4500. Worked great since I bought it last year. Strong wireless signal everywhere in the house (it's in the basement), and the display is a nice thing to have. Plus it looks awesome. Expensive though.

Before that I had a DIR-655 which also worked well. Before that I had the DI-624 and had most of the same issues as you seem to have had (along with really shitty connectivity in P2P host games like Perfect Dark Zero and Gears of War that no firmware would fix). Other than the DI-624 I haven't had any issues with D-Link.

Do you use the N features are are you using G on this one? Are things like port forwarding and setting up devices for DMZ easy on it?

[McLaughlin]

It's broadcasting a mixed 802.11n, 802.11g and 802.11b signal at the moment, I'm not sure which, if any, of my devices use N, but I think broadcasting in B is probably redundant at this point. It's got a bunch of different broadcasting options (as well as whether to broadcast at 2.4GHz or 5GHz. On 2.4 at the moment).

I don't mess with portforwarding much (I don't use static IPs), but it's got tabs for Special Applications, Virtual Servers, Gaming, and in the Firewall tab there's an option for enabling the DMZ and a text box for entering the IP address of the thing you want to put in the DMZ. Never mucked around with that much either.

[Blitzkommando]

There are some rather nice simultaneous 2.4/5GHz band routers out now. The Linksys E3000 and E4200 come to mind. That said, I've used the DGL 4500 as well and it was a pleasure to work with it and was quite stable. Port forwarding, IP address reservations, and DMZ were all straight forward and easy to set up. It also is one of the few consumer routers I've worked with that doesn't shit a brick when I do massive intranet transfers between machines and devices (massive as in several terabytes in a single constant transfer). It also was able to handle the home network at the time which consisted of around a dozen wireless, mostly N with some G, devices and around the same number of wired devices as well. Netgear and Belkin have never been able to cope with that level of load in my experience even after I tried their N1 Vision router. At my apartment I currently use the Linksys E2000 which works well enough for the handful of devices which are on it though I wouldn't recommend it for anyone prone to large network transfers or higher quantities of devices.

I really did like the DGL 4500 but couldn't justify the massive cost difference for a tiny apartment with such a small number of devices. The idea of a simultaneous dual-band router is extremely appealing though. As it stands not all of my devices are compatible with the 5GHz band which means that, with my current E2000 or even if I had the DGL 4500, I'd be stuck either not having access on those devices or sticking with the oversaturated 2.4GHz band (my apartment building has some 60 or so wireless networks running, with the vast majority being on the 2.4GHz band either 802.11g/n). I figure my next router, when I move out of here, will definitely be a simultaneous dual-band beast as I'll be looking at doing heavy transfers to a local server at that point.

[Jaspaller]

The E3000 was actually what I was thinking of getting. I wanted to get the WRT610N but it seems the E3000 replaced it entirely. I'm just concerned that this one might break easy on it's own. I've had the DI-624 for at least 5 years and I'd love it if the E3000 last just as long without problems.

I'll be pretty much set on buying the E3000 once I look into what the cons are. Thanks for all the input guys.