Need ideas on new wireless N Band router, for about $50 bucks...

Hey all,

I got my inspiron on the way but we still have an old G band router. So I wanted to ask, what is the best router for the money? Is the E1000 Cisco one a good investment? I will be using it for skype and light gaming as well as word processing and surfing the net. How is the speed difference in a router that has up to 300MPS? Compared to our old one that is like 100MPS? My Notebook has N on the wireless card so I am thinking we'll be getting a new router by the fall, and I am trying to get my head around what we need.

Thanks in advance!

 

I would suggest TP-Link TL-WR1043ND.

 

The best router for some $50 would be TP-Link TL-WR1043ND.
It's based on an Atheros 400MHz CPU (Linksys E1000 is based on Broadcom 300MHz CPU), both are equipped with 32MB RAM and 300mbps Wi-Fi (both achieve almost identical throughputs in the same conditions).
TP-Link has 1000mbps Ethernet as opposed to 100mbps in Linksys and sports a USB port that Linksys doesn't have. TP-Link's antennas are removable/upgradeable which may be useful.

Both routers are supported by 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT or OpenWRT.

EDIT:
note to self- type faster next time.

 

So you like the TP-Link brand? They seem to have good reviews on NewEgg, will look into it. Thank you both for the suggestion. How is speed on the N band compared to other lower bands like B & G?

 

I really liked the TP-Link WR1043ND.
Best router for modders.
Installed OpenWRT on it.
Soldered on a 64MB RAM upgrade from 32MB.
The numerous packages on OpenWRT Repository enables unlimited possibilities.
Best of all: It is dirt cheap for a Gigabit 3T3R Wireless N Router.

 

@weinter
I was thinking about 64MB mod although I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do that myself (I'm a bit wobbly so to speak )
I also tend to think OpenWRT is the best 3rd party option.
If I'm not mistaken you were to post something about your router-mod here. That would be interesting.
Did you test read/write speeds via HDD connected to USB port? (There are tests on OpenWRT website but I wanted a second opinion)

@Pamster

Don't think this router is suitable only for crazy modders and 3rd party firmware folks. Factory firmware is good and stable and the router doesn't require any mods- it's good as it is. It just offers the possibility of squeezing more out of it for only a few $.
Real speed (throughput) of 300mbps is getting close to 80-90mbps in ideal conditions whereas 802.11g with theoretical speed of 54mbps is getting close to 20-25mbps in ideal conditions.

 

Definitely sounds like what we need. Thank you both for sharing your insights with me. It looks like a great solution for us.

 

Some stuff I did:
OpenWRT Linux TCP Tweaks.
Shell Command the Router
(If you are a old time Linux User you probably just need to know the OpenWRT specific binaries the rest are mainly standard Linux Shell Commands)
And of course the RAM Mod.
I will test the SAMBA performance only after getting a externally powered USB HDD but I am not expecting super performance from an embedded system.

 

Neither am I but if I end up using it it's going to be via wireless so I don't need great performance if Wi-Fi is going to limit me to ~10MB/s

 

I also ordered 3X6dbi Antenna to replace the default 3dbi Antenna.
I can get around 10MB/s from my room to the router from the other Room currently.