Please help: choosing router for Advanced-N 6205

Anyone,

I just purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad T420s. It has a Centrino Advanced-N 6205 chip.

I'd like to upgrade my ancient router, but I confess that I don't understand all of the features regarding this particular wireless chip. Range is important (we're in a two-story house), and I need to be able to plug in a USB printer for sharing. We also would like to view the laptop screen wirelessly on an HDTV. My wife streams video on her iBook, and I need to work simultaneously from the ThinkPad.

Any specific recommendations would be hugely appreciated. I'm willing to spend over $100 on the router as long as I'm not throwing money away. I'd like to get the best available router without spending needless $ that are beyond the capabilities of this chip.

Thanks very much,

David

 

Netgear WNDR3700 would be my recommendation.
Very good hardware, simultaneous dual band, good firmware and if you're not satisfied with it- (the firmware) you can replace it with third party firmware.

Overall a very good router meaning not very cheap- but within your budget.

 

Thank you... but I'm confused. I looked at the user manual for this model on the Netgear website. It says: "The USB port on the router can be used only to connect USB storage devices... Do not connect... printers... to the router USB port."

One of things I'd like to do is to share a printer over the network via the router (my current router permits this). Should I be looking at a different router than the WNDR3700?

David

 

Most routers do not include an option of sharing a printer via USB as it's a bit tricky (or at least that's what manufacturers claim)
Printer sharing on WNDR3700 is not available in factory firmware but works fine if you use DD-WRT or OpenWRT/Gargoyle.

If you limit yourself to routers that support printer sharing out of the box you'll be left with Linksys E4200 (very good but equally expensive) and Asus RT-N56U (more reasonably priced).

Basically Asus routers are the only ones that tend to have a USB print-server option more often than not, but on the other hand their firmware is usually flaky.

 

Thanks for that information; I wasn't aware of that. I'll modify my expectations!

David

 

You always have the option of third party firmware on some routers of the option of sharing the printer from one computer. This is what i do at home, my desktop is always on so i set it up to share the printer, well i did, it's no longer the case, but only because i ended up not using the feature . It might not be the ideal solution but it works fine for me.

Downloads beat me to the recommendations. The Linksys E3000 is also an option, but only if it is significantly cheaper than the WNDR3700.

 

You may also consider buying a wireless printer - all major printer manufacturers now make wireless printers across all model ranges (usually $10 or so more expensive than the non-wifi model). This gives you the freedom to put the router in a centrally located data closet but have the printer in another more convenient spot in the house. Wireless printers can be had on sale for around $50.