tbutler@ofb.biz
Regular Contributor
I'm looking to move from 802.11g into the world of "n" now that I have a MacBook Pro capable of such amazing feats. I'm also adding some gigabit switches to my home office network to speed things up as I look forward to adding a NAS of some sort soon (still hung up on Synology vs. ReadyNAS on that).
So, the problem is this: Part of me is inclined to go with an AirPort Extreme (Winter 2009/simultaneous dual band). But, SNB doesn't seem to have the most recent revision charted out and I've come up with virtually nothing elsewhere to help compare it to other options.
Primarily, I'm considering the Linksys WRT610N and WRT400N as well as the Netgear WNDR3700 as alternatives. (I want simultaneous dual band, since my MBP can do 5 GHz).
I've always been a Linksys guy, but the 610N seems to get such low ratings from users, I've been leaning towards the WRT400N, which looks perfect save for the lack of gigabit networking. But, I'm not entirely clear if that is a problem in the real world (i.e. how likely am I to be able to achieve speeds higher than 100 Mbps over Wi-Fi?). If the lack of gigabit networking on the router could be a bottleneck in transferring data between my MBP and my future NAS, I'd probably want to scratch the 400N...
Given the problems I hear about the 610N, that leaves me with the WNDR3700 and AirPort Extreme. The WNDR3700 is intriguing since it has a 4-port gigabit switch (which is enough to handle the systems located immediately around the router), whereas with the AirPort I'd have to add a gigabit switch to the mix, since its own only has 3 ports. Anyone know of a performance comparison between a current model AirPort Extreme and the WNDR3700?
So, in a long round about way, does anyone have thoughts on what might be best in this scenario? My inclination is either the WRT400N (if I'm unlikely to reach real world speeds over 100 Mbps via Wireless N with current routers) and the AirPort Extreme (if I *am* likely to get over 100 Mbps on wireless N).
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Tim
So, the problem is this: Part of me is inclined to go with an AirPort Extreme (Winter 2009/simultaneous dual band). But, SNB doesn't seem to have the most recent revision charted out and I've come up with virtually nothing elsewhere to help compare it to other options.
Primarily, I'm considering the Linksys WRT610N and WRT400N as well as the Netgear WNDR3700 as alternatives. (I want simultaneous dual band, since my MBP can do 5 GHz).
I've always been a Linksys guy, but the 610N seems to get such low ratings from users, I've been leaning towards the WRT400N, which looks perfect save for the lack of gigabit networking. But, I'm not entirely clear if that is a problem in the real world (i.e. how likely am I to be able to achieve speeds higher than 100 Mbps over Wi-Fi?). If the lack of gigabit networking on the router could be a bottleneck in transferring data between my MBP and my future NAS, I'd probably want to scratch the 400N...
Given the problems I hear about the 610N, that leaves me with the WNDR3700 and AirPort Extreme. The WNDR3700 is intriguing since it has a 4-port gigabit switch (which is enough to handle the systems located immediately around the router), whereas with the AirPort I'd have to add a gigabit switch to the mix, since its own only has 3 ports. Anyone know of a performance comparison between a current model AirPort Extreme and the WNDR3700?
So, in a long round about way, does anyone have thoughts on what might be best in this scenario? My inclination is either the WRT400N (if I'm unlikely to reach real world speeds over 100 Mbps via Wireless N with current routers) and the AirPort Extreme (if I *am* likely to get over 100 Mbps on wireless N).
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Tim