Recommendations for new wireless router for home?

I'm looking to replace my 10 year old Linksys wireless-B router with something new. Can anyone make some suggestions?

Here's the hardware that'll connect to it:

- three laptops, all PC's, including two that are on throughout the day (for work) and one netbook
- an iPad + my wife's iPhone
- a Wii console
- a wireless Bluray player (which I've never used but hope to start using to stream Netflix etc)

I believe my ISP caps my download speed at 10 MB/s (might be 15), upload at 1 MB/s. My current router doesn't get more than 5 MB/s download speed, but I've been told that's because it's an ancient beast that should put be put out of its misery.

I am only vaguely familiar with all the newfangled vocabulary that has popped up in the last 10 years (have no idea what's the difference between wireless N, G, and whatever else; not sure what ipv6 is and whether I need it; ditto for dual band).

So - I'm clueless as to what to buy. I'd like to keep the cost around $100, definitely not more than $200 at the very most.

The two models that struck my interest are the Asus RT-N56U and the Asus RT-N66U, because they seem to get decent reviews and they have an interesting design. But I'm not sure if they're a good choice.

Halp?

tl;dr - any recommendations for a decent wireless router?

 

For around 100$, a WNDR3700 v2 or a Linksys E3200 would work pretty well. If you want to spend more, the Linksys E4200v1 is worth looking at, refurbs are likely to go for ~100$ too.

Those two Asus routers are pretty decent too, the stock firmware is better on the Linksys and Netgears though. Hardware wise the Asus routers do pack similar components to the WNDR3700 and E3200/E4200 depending on the model.

 

Thanks. Is this the Netgear WNDR3700 v2 you're talking about?

Amazon.com: NETGEAR Wireless Router - N600 Dual Band Gigabit (WNDR3700): Electronics

In general, are those Netgear N600 models okay? I think I saw one of those at Costco, but it was likely one of the higher end ones in that line because they tend to sell those at lower prices. Good idea or not?

 

Maybe, there is also a WNDR3700v3 with different hardware that isn't really worth getting in lieu of the WNDR3700v2 and it's not easy to tell which is which. It's the same with the E4200v1 vs the E4200v2, the v2 does NAS functions better, but that's all it does better, from a networking perspective, the v1 is a better performer. This all makes for some very confusing shopping.

 

Tell me about it. Too many options and models.

 

Are you going to purchase in the US?

 

Yes, either online (from Amazon probably) or in the local Best Buy or Fry's.

 

Linksys E4200v1. At that price, it's worth it if you ask me: Amazon.com: Cisco-Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router: Electronics. The RT-N66U is also a pretty good choice if you can find it at a similar price.

I forgot to ask though, do you have any devices that support 5GHz networking?

 

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. Three Windows 7 laptops, an iPad, an iPhone, a wireless-enabled Bluray player are the devices that will regularly connect to the router.

I was actually considering the Asus RT-N66U, as it seems to get pretty good reviews, and also the Asus RT-N56U.

 

If you really were considering a Asus RT-N66U at least get THIS one
the N66U is kinda meh

ALTHOUGH tijo's Linksys is definitely nr 1 on list if you ask me (and tijo obviously )

 

I wouldn't necessarily say #1, but for 100$, it's hard to beat the E4200v1.

 

Arright, so now I'm narrowing it down to 2, the E4200v1 and the Rt-N56U. What makes one better than the other for the average almost-entirely-clueless home user?

 

Linksys E4200 has far better range on 2.4GHz band which always comes in handy.
RT-56U offers batter throughput on 5GHz range (which also sort of translated into a better range since both throughput and range derive from strong signal to a point)

Another point for E4200 is that unlike RT-N56U it offers three streams on 5GHz band as opposed to two streams on RT-N56U.
Again to make it complicated- RT-N56U is as fast with two streams as E4200 is with three so that's not really much of a difference.

Overall E4200 is better on 2.4GHz band as as good as RT-N56U on 5GHz band- that's why I'd buy it.