Advice on new Router
I have a Netgear WNDR3700 right now running OpenWRT firmware, but the 2.4GHZ radio is broken and has been for some time. The 5GHZ radio works well enough. I'm looking to get something new and this time i'd like to find one that has good performance, is reliable, and i'd also like it to have good stock firmware or be compatible (able to load full-featured) with Tomato or OpenWRT (i'd prefer Tomato).
I want it to have 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ radios, i'm not super concerned about it being 802.11AC (future-proofing might be a good idea though) as I don't currently have any compatible devices. I don't want to buy a Belkin or a Linksys, unless Linksys has got their act together as of late, and my budget is minimal, so lets say under $100 (if possible!)
Thank you for any advice you can provide, as I know this is probably a tough ask.
Posted Apr 5, 2014, 5:10 PM UTC
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31436-asus-rt-n56u-black-diamond-dual-band-gigabit-wireless-n-router-reviewed
Asus RT N 56 U.
Less than a hundred.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Dual-Band-Wireless-N-Router-RT-N56U/dp/B0049YQVHE
That is just for info, shop around for price. I have seen them with discounts or rebates at Newegg.
I am so glad you know that, and no, linksys has not gotten their act together at all since being bought out by belkin. Sorry.
ASUS RT-N56U Wireless Router Dual Band N600 Multimedia Ultra Slim Giga...
Price History | Screenshot | /r Stats | FAQ
Thanks for the reply. I'm completely put off by Linksys because almost every one I have owned has broken or started to require hourly resets after 8 months of ownership and the same goes for Belkin too.
Also, they seem to have had a huge number of serious security holes of late.
While they were coding "cisco cloud connect", so that you could share all your searches and private data with linksys (thanks!), security holes were going unfixed. Not a good choice is resource deployment, at least in my opinion.
That is one reason why I recommend Asus: a few years ago, their firmware was a little buggy. They unified the code across their line of routers, and then went through it line by line. They also open sourced it
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31963-asuswrt-merlin-reviewed
And they work with Merlin, feeding him bug fixes, and using his in the stock firmware. The firmware is solid, stable, and reliable.
I have some non techie friends who have asked for recommendations. Set one up in a high use household, and it's been awesome, meaning: no calls about it. Getting to be close to a year I think, and it has just worked.
I didn't know that's what Cisco cloud connect did. I've never used it because I gave up on them a long time ago, but the fact that they're collecting user data on a large scale makes me like them even less than I did before, which is a feat in and of itself.
http://hothardware.com/News/Cisco-Does-Damage-Control-over-Cisco-Connect-Cloud-Fiasco/
Suffice it to say that however Cisco expected the early returns on the platform to go, it was not expecting the amount of blowback it received; apparently, not everyone wants to be forced into opting in to a cloud service, especially one that contained the following in its original Terms of Service:
When you use the Service, we may keep track of certain information related to your use of the Service, including but not limited to
the status and health of your network and networked products;
which apps relating to the Service you are using;
which features you are using within the Service infrastructure;
network traffic (e.g., megabytes per hour);
internet history;
how frequently you encounter errors on the Service system
and other related information (“Other Information”).
No, linksys, I do not want to send you my internet history, since that is none of your effing business. Seriously, no one at linksys said "hey, really, this might piss some people off"?