Gaming router? Need my first REAL router.

[nazedayo]

Hey folks,

I'm sick and tired of my old, crappy $29 netgear router (http://www-mp3.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/netgear_router-300x276.jpg). Here's the quick facts:

Problem: Wireless "hangs up" while playing games like WoW (it disconnects for some reason about 30 minutes into games, so currently I have to get internet via ethernet directly into the wall). The internet blinks in and out, which is also is a problem for work because I need to stay connected via VPN Softoken. Also, internet is much slower on router (20Mbps via wireless vs 35 Mbps directly thru wall).

ISP: Comcast, 35 Mbps.

House: Small studio, with separate bedroom. Not very big: think dorm room + 1 bedroom.

Devices: 1 Macbook Pro (main), 1 Lenovo laptop, 1 Macbook Air, 2 iPhones, 1 iPod.

Wishlist: RELIABLE, FAST internet. For god's sake. Gigabit, simultaneous dual-band is a given I guess. No fancy streaming/NAS features needed, although it would be nice.

Question: What do you recommend? I've gone and read the newbie guide, but some of the products mentioned (like the ASUS RT-N56U) are low on reliability- which is a problem for my gaming.

My family uses a lot of Apple devices, so I checked Airport Express ratings but is surprisingly high on reliability & performance (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31564-apple-airport-extreme-gen-5-reviewed), but I'm not sure (I don't think of Apple as a networking company). It rates high on stability but low on throughput charts (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-charts/view).

Help! And thank you in advance.

 

[thiggins]

First, that's an image of a Linksys router, not a NETGEAR. What are you really currently using?

With 35 Mbps internet service, most current routers won't bottleneck your connection. But check any potential selections' throughput on the Router charts first.

Where are you getting the information on reliability? If your wireless "neighborhood" is a crowded one, no router is really going to help you. You need to either find a quieter channel or move to 5 GHz, if you can stand the reduced range.

The Apple Airport Extremes are generally well regarded and would certainly fix your not-fast-enough-for-wired-internet problem. But if you have a really old 802.11g router, most anything will probably give you a big improvement, if your source of wireless unreliability isn't just too many people competing for too little bandwidth.

 

[nazedayo]

Sorry, typo on the Linksys. And by reliability I meant the bars at the top of the individual router reviews.

Is 6 devices considered "crowded"? I think 5Ghz may be the key; no huge range is required, so that may give me the more constant output I need. I just don't want it "hanging up" in the middle...

 

[thiggins]

Take all user generated reviews with a grain of salt. One person's "unreliable" can be another's "rock solid". You also need to consider the low number of people contributing to that rating. You will get more user feedback over on Amazon or NewEgg.

By crowded, I was referring to how many wireless networks you can see when your devices scan for them. But also if you have many devices in your own home competing for bandwidth, i.e. streaming, downloading, while you are trying to game, that doesn't help either.

 

[NXIL]

Apple Airport Extreme

Hey folks,

ISP: Comcast, 35 Mbps.

Wishlist: RELIABLE, FAST internet. For god's sake. Gigabit, simultaneous dual-band is a given I guess. No fancy streaming/NAS features needed, although it would be nice.

My family uses a lot of Apple devices, so I checked Airport Express ratings but is surprisingly high on reliability & performance (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31564-apple-airport-extreme-gen-5-reviewed), but I'm not sure (I don't think of Apple as a networking company). It rates high on stability but low on throughput charts (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-charts/view).

Hi

The AAE is not listed in the link you posted above, but: read the review.

The AAE really does quite well in its review here. It is solid, stable, reliable.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/31564-apple-airport-extreme-gen-5-reviewed

The reviewer here says it seems overpriced by about thirty bucks: welcome to Apple. You pay extra, but: you get extra. Look at the iPhone. It wiped Blackberry off the face of the earth. (Having a blackberry is now a distinct source of shame: NY Times article link on request....)

The Airport Extreme has plenty of throughput for your needs.

Will last a long time: runs cool. Easy to set up. Set and forget......

 

[NXIL]

Another review of Apple Airport Extreme

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4577/...-and-time-capsule-4th-gen-review-faster-wifi-

First, performance and range is definitely better thanks to more transmit power and the improved sensitivity afforded by newer generation chipsets. Second, the combination of lots of Broadcom in Apple’s hardware lineup (from the iPhone, iPad, and MacBooks, to iMac and Mac Mini) with Broadcom in the access point likely allows for the use of frame bursting or some other packet aggregation technique that speeds things up in some scenarios. It’s another example of how having that complete hardware control can in fact result in some benefit—in this case, faster WiFi.

There’s a stigma that Apple gear is more expensive, and for the 3TB Time Capsule that may be the case, but the Airport Extreme is actually right near where it should be. Take for comparison the Linksys E4200, which is a 2x3:2 device on 2.4GHz, and 3x3:3 on 5GHz, and also Broadcom based. That device runs for $179.99 and features similar functionality including a USB 2.0 port for sharing devices. At $179.00, the Airport Extreme offers full 3x3:3 on both 2.4 and 5GHz, albeit the E4200 does have considerably more Tx power, which we'll investigate in a forthcoming article.

And this:

I guess the reason that I personally use an Airport Extreme (in conjunction with another device for NAT) is that it's really one of a small number of 802.11n dual-band APs I've tried that actually works without locking up, becoming unstable periodically, dropping the session from overheating when being pushed to 100% for hours, or requiring a daily reboot. There are just so many other consumer level 802.11n APs that either fall short or are incredibly frustrating and unreliable. Thus far, I've been using an Airport Extreme Gen 5 and Time Capsule Gen 4 as my primary AP with over 12 devices attached to each one for the greater part of a month without a single instability. It's that kind of stability that really sells it for me, even with 3x3:3 out of the picture.

 

[stevech]

The gamers want low latency to the distant server.
A gamer would never use WiFi as it adds unwanted jitter in latency.
Excluding use of WiFi...
The latency to the distant server is 99.9% dependent on (1) the Internet delays and (2) your ISP's quality of service versus time of day / load.

Any ole router, serving a PC connected by ethernet, will give the same latency as far as the LAN side goes. The WAN side is the Internet crap-shoot. And the busyness of the distant server.