My wireless router gave up the ghost

So I've had the thing since 2005, and taken it to Iraq and back. Now I'm looking for a replacement. What all do you guys suggest I look at, I like linksys, but am open to other brands.

Thats the brand my dad uses, and his has lasted for quite a long time. He had another one ( of a different brand) that had to be replaced under warranty 3 times and still never would work right.

not impressed with d-link.

I'm using a Linksys G router and happy.

My early Linksys B that I paid over $100 for always needed to be manually reset. it really was unreliable.

My D-Link G which I bought purely by price (under $30) has been rock steady reliable at running 2 to 4 computers simutainiously for at least 3 years now.

Yeah I've had to reset this one a number of times. Hmmm...lets hear some more

A WRT54GL reflashed with DD-WRT makes an awesome router. I have a WRT54GS that I reflashed with a mini version of that firmware, and it's been rock solid for over a year, not requiring so much as a powercycle, much less a hard reset. The router cost me $70 in 2007.

I also bought a refurb Netgear from my local CompUSA for $20 that I have set up at my parents' house that's been reported to be reliable. I bought it to be flashed with DD-WRT, but the Firmware isn't compatible with its chipset, so I traded their older Linksys for it.

I agree - Linksys WRT52G (or some flavor thereof). Had mine for a year and haven't touched it. My father-in-law's has been running for 3 years, same, never been touched since I set it up for him. Heck, he doesn't even know where it is, just that the air is filled with the magical internets so he can read his email on AOL (yes, seriously, AOL).

My Linksys is working flaslessly for 2 years now. Buy the best one Sam's Club has on the shelf.

I asked my dad and the crappy one he had was made by netgear. Even after 2 replacements it still never worked for more than an hour or so at a time.

I'll also let you guys know that for the most part, tech support is pretty bad with most of these companies. If you're used to the GUI that Linksys uses, then stay with it. I can walk around in that GUI with my eyes closed.

yeah that's part of what I'm looking for too. I can easliy set up my mac filter and whatnot on my linksys.

This may not help you, but I have been flat out AMAZED by the reliability/uptime of the Apple Airport Extreme that I got several months ago. I used to think restarting the router a dozen times a week, pain in the ass setup, and unreliable connections more than 30' away from the router were just things everyone had to live with, but we needed something more reliable to keep a VPN connection up, and heard lots of good things about the Airport Extreme's relaibility and got one. Literally the ONLY time I have had to mess with it in the last few months was when I accidentally knocked the Airport Express that I use for a range extender/music server out of the wall. The Extreme flashed yellow at me and told me it couldnt find the Express on the network, and I found it half hanging out of the wall. Plugged it back in, rebooted, all fixed. I have never owned another router that wasn't a total piece of crap (except for my little Airport Express, but that might not be enough to use as a primary router), this includes a couple Dlinks, a Belkin, an Encore, a Netgear... about half of those went back to the store within 2 weeks after constantly dropping connections.

It may be more money than you want to spend, or you may be one of those people who have a silly aversion to white plastic things with pictures of fruit on them, but nobody can convince me this isn't an awesome router. And the one they sell now is even better than mine, since they upgraded the radio to a simultaneous dual band setup rather than the pick-a-band radio in mine that limits speeds in mixed-mode networks (mine's still faster than my cable connection and it never drops, so I don't really miss the greater potential speed of the new one though).

FYI - When I went Fios they sent me a router that had wireless already built in. I'm not sure how happy you are with your provider but if you switch they may offer wireless as part of your router config.

Well lets see how this Netgear router works out, man I hated the day I was tethered to the wall lol.

Is it even possible that my neighbors wireless went out today is a coincidence :tinfoil hat:

Linksys WRT54GC.. thier mini compact wireless router.. had it over a year now, had to rest it like every 3 or 4 months... considering it runs 24/7, I do not think that is a bad ratio

I've heard nothing but good things about Apple's Airport stuff, but it's just too pricey for me. I just don't think I'd use the features that "justify" the markup over commodity stuff.

So I've got little belkin G that does a good job. It's never really failed in the 3 years I've had it, and it has good range. No complaints... pretty good for a wally-world special.

Xceler8x wrote: FYI - When I went Fios they sent me a router that had wireless already built in. I'm not sure how happy you are with your provider but if you switch they may offer wireless as part of your router config.

I have fios and thier router works great. Mine is made by Actiontec and has range better than my D-link with range extending antena.

Well, I can say not to get a WRT-610N, that thing has not lived up to its specs. Though the N network has been good for streaming movies and live TV, the G tends to just stop transmitting and don't even try to use the USB drive functionality. The recent firmware update hasn't really fixed the problems and looking in the forums a number of people have complained of similar problems.

Tim Baxter wrote: I've heard nothing but good things about Apple's Airport stuff, but it's just too pricey for me. I just don't think I'd use the features that "justify" the markup over commodity stuff.

The Airport Express is a perfectly good budget solution if you don't need an ethernet router. I have used mine as the main wifi router at times while the others were broken, and it works very well, although without the range of the Extreme. We needed the ethernet ports, hard drive connection, etc. that the Extreme gives, so it wasn't a full time solution though.

I don't think the Extreme is really an example of the "Apple tax" though, it stacks up reasonably well against devices with similar features and reliability. If you need what it does, that's what it costs, and it's a reasonable value for what you get. So is the Express, which really compares better against budget consumer routers, just with a different feature set (minus the ethernet ports, add a print and music server).

Ah yes, that was it... I needed ethernet. God knows I have nothing against Apple, but their solution didn't work for me.