Best 3-antennae N router

[BigJim]

I live in a city in a long narrow concrete townhouse with 3 floors. A trick I like to use is to put the router in the middle floor maybe near the stairwell, then drill holes, and run 5 meter antennae cables extending one antennae down into the bottom floor, and one up to the top floor. I wonder if this is legit. Seems to work. Though those wires ain't cheap.

Can someone recommend a tried-and-true router with solid firmware, 3-antennae, 802.11n. I have 2 TP-1043NR and even with the right firmware, they crash once a week on average. Both the one at home and the one at work. I'd look at ASUS but the 56U doesn't let me access its antennae, and the 66U seems a little new and seems like overkill. I used to have an old WGR-4300 D-link, I swear it ran for 5 years straight without a single hang.

 

[somms]

Very subjective but I get better wireless results using a ASUS RT-66U flashed w/Shibby's Tomato firmware over a Linksys E4200V1...

 

[BigJim]

Maybe I will try Gargoyle on that old 1043NR. Before I put it in the recycling bin. I have been trying "Wifi Analyzer" on my android phone and I am getting -60 to -80 through the concrete without extending the antennae yet. Is that enuf?

Anyway though the problem with the 1043NR has been more that its unstable. Even running stock firmware 3.13.4 Build 110429 Rel.36959n.

 

[stevech]

Very subjective but I get better wireless results using a ASUS RT-66U flashed w/Shibby's Tomato firmware over a Linksys E4200V1...

client to router range for that speed shown was?

 

[claykin]

I can consistently get 116Mb/s down - 108Mb/s up using 5Ghz @ 20 foot distance through one sheetrock wall with my WNDR4500. 10-15% less @ 35 feet.

Same test @ 2.4Ghz is about 20-25% less mostly due to crowded 2.4 @ this location.

Client is Intel 6205 running 15.1 driver.

Btw, I also tested Asus N66U but was not thrilled. 5Ghz speed at close range was similar but fell off fast at distance. 2.4 was a little better than 4500 but again fell off fast at 35 feet +.

At 40 feet and 50 feet tests through 2 sheetrock walls the 4500 was very usable where the Asus was useless. Many people here seem to think the N66U is a great router, but my experience has been very different. Tried 2 units, 3 different firmware versions, tried defaults as well as tinkered with settings. No luck. All this at 2 test locations. One RF quiet and the second quiet at 5G but noisy at 2.4.

Just picked up a second 4500 today and this one seems to work as well as original. No replaceable antennas but I'm not so sure your plan would work anyway. 50 ohm Coax cable at those frequencies has too much loss. You would need to find some thicker ultra low loss cable to even stand a chance.

 

[stevech]

are there USB dongles or USB box-like for multi-stream or just 40MHz mode?

One can simply use a USB extension cable or two, and elevate the USB thing to get better line of sight.

I wonder if/when they'll have USB3 versions of these?

But really, how many people need 100+Mbps from WiFi? Streaming 1080i/1080p on Wifi is most always dropped-frame time- unpleasant to watch, esp. when HD camera pans a busy scene.

If I was going 30 ft, one drywall wall, constantly, I think I'd just run cat 5.

 

[claykin]

But really, how many people need 100+Mbps from WiFi? Streaming 1080i/1080p on Wifi is most always dropped-frame time- unpleasant to watch, esp. when HD camera pans a busy scene.

If I was going 30 ft, one drywall wall, constantly, I think I'd just run cat 5.

You're kidding, right? Not everyone uses Wifi for conencting solely to Internet. LAN users will appreciate 100+Mb/s speeds over Wifi.

I do use wired when appropriate. Unfortunately its not convenient everywhere in my home or office.

 

[BigJim]

Gargoyle firmware seems to have fixed my 1043NR!

http://www.gargoyle-router.com/wiki/doku.php?id=tp-link_tl-wr1043nd

 

[TonyH]

Gargoyle is based on OpenWrt.

 

[stevech]

You're kidding, right? Not everyone uses Wifi for conencting solely to Internet. LAN users will appreciate 100+Mb/s speeds over Wifi.

I do use wired when appropriate. Unfortunately its not convenient everywhere in my home or office.

Yes, wireless/WiFi is the answer to mobility.

Most of need far less than 100Mbps for WiFi - streaming even 1080 is far less than that. And if I was transferring files each being hundreds of megabytes, and doing so often, I don't think I'd be happy with WiFi's reliability or speed as a habit.

But, maybe I'm in the minority.