Which Router is better?

I have this laptop http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220483

But which router would be better? (price is also a factor)

DIR-628 http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10111329&catid=#
DIR-655 http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10082039&catid=

The router would be put in the basement and the laptop in my room is 2 floors above the router. I am leaning towards the DIR-655 because it has "3" antennas but the DIR-628 only has 2 antennas. However, the DIR-628 supposedly has "rangebooster" and "dual-band" listed (what is dual-band and does my laptop work with it?). I just want reliability and really good signal strength with little interference. Which one should I get?

 

I guess it depends for what are you going to use your network.

Here you can see all the specs of Dlink DIR-655(futureshop.ca specification page doesn't cover it well):
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=530

As you can see, the router has 4 Gigabit wired ports. Do you need them? Same goes for all the other xtreme features.
Check the chart below(source: dlink.com) to see the difference between rangebooster and extreme:

Bottom line: the DIR-655 is better in my opinion but if you don't need all the additional features it gives you than go for the cheaper one...

Check this detailed DIR-655 review and this detailed DIR-628 review to learn more about both routers.

 

Id go with the DIR-655 as the 5GHz band won't be able to reach as far as you'd like on the 628. However the performance of the 5GHz band will be better if there is alot of interference. I recently switched from a DIR-655 to a DIR-825 and the difference was night and day in a dorm environment.

 

Id go with the one with the gig lan too. But again, n is likely to be worthless to you if you dont do a lot of lan traffic and only internet traffic.

 

I would go with the DIR-655 also like the above posters have said. My GF just recently bought the same router and her setup is the same as yours. She is so happy and never complains about low signal strength.

Its always better to have compared to not having and wishing you had down the road.

Plus, if you run want to boost up your signal strength even more, you can do some McGyvering and do this.

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

 

I dont know which to recommend, but I can tell you that both are significantly cheaper at BestBuy right now.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/dept.asp?logon=&langid=EN&catid=26015