Good quality wireless router for sharing a 100/10M line

[Ormu]

I'm looking for a good router which can be used to share a 100/10M line (possibly 100/100M in the future), but I'm a bit confused due to the huge number of devices available...

Some requirements...

• Four or more Gigabit Ethernet ports
• Support for 802.11n, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, preferably at the same time
• Wireless range is not very important, the apartment isn't very large
• Reliable in operation, no overheating, no need for frequent rebooting, high-quality components
• Ability to reserve local IP addresses for specified MAC addresses
  
• (not necessary) Support for many-to-many routing (this is what it was called in a Zyxel manual), e.g.:
  • mac1 -> local_IP1 -> external_IP1
  • mac2 -> local_IP2 -> external_IP2
  • mac3...macN -> local_IP3...local_IPn -> external_IP3
• No Cisco/Linksys
• No BeWan, Telewell, Buffalo, Apple, cheap Zyxels
• Price max. 200 euros (~240USD)
  

I may consider installing DD-WRT but I'd prefer a router that performs well enough without a 3rd-party firmware.

I have thought some D-Link models, mainly DIR-825, DIR-855 (825+extra eye candy?), DSR-250N (enterprise series (reliable?) but low throughput rating?) and DSR-500N (slightly too expensive). DIR-825/855 have performed well in Smallnetbuilder's tests but I didn't find those enterprise-series routers here.

 

[somms]

I'm looking for a good router which can be used to share a 100/10M line (possibly 100/100M in the future), but I'm a bit confused due to the huge number of devices available...

Some requirements...

• Four or more Gigabit Ethernet ports
• Support for 802.11n, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, preferably at the same time
• Wireless range is not very important, the apartment isn't very large
• Reliable in operation, no overheating, no need for frequent rebooting, high-quality components
• Ability to reserve local IP addresses for specified MAC addresses
  
• (not necessary) Support for many-to-many routing (this is what it was called in a Zyxel manual), e.g.:
  • mac1 -> local_IP1 -> external_IP1
  • mac2 -> local_IP2 -> external_IP2
  • mac3...macN -> local_IP3...local_IPn -> external_IP3
• No Cisco/Linksys
• No BeWan, Telewell, Buffalo, Apple, cheap Zyxels
• Price max. 200 euros (~240USD)
  

I may consider installing DD-WRT but I'd prefer a router that performs well enough without a 3rd-party firmware.

I have thought some D-Link models, mainly DIR-825, DIR-855 (825+extra eye candy?), DSR-250N (enterprise series (reliable?) but low throughput rating?) and DSR-500N (slightly too expensive). DIR-825/855 have performed well in Smallnetbuilder's tests but I didn't find those enterprise-series routers here.

I'm having good luck using ASUS RT-N66U running Shibby's tomato firmware: http://tomato.groov.pl/?page_id=78

Supports my 100Mbps FTTH symmetrical connection just fine as shown in my sig!

 

[Ormu]

That looks actually very good. It seems to be supported by both Tomato and DD-WRT. The big heatsink should prevent overheating but a member on another forum told that his one started to make a buzzing sound after a few months of use, which may indicate a capacitor failure.

Do you know if it's capable of "many-to-many" routing (or whatever it's officially called)?

 

[tipstir]

In your case you might have to go with a good Enterprise wired router and enterprise wireless network access point based on 10/100m. You'll need a smart switch in between them if you have more than 4x 10/100m devices. Most wired enterprise rotuers offers you manage switch features to change ports speed and VLAN management. If you need to go that higher.

Otherwise most All-in-one home routers have all sorts of glitches in them, they're just not perfect it's either firmware, hardware or both. You already know already the limits of wireless router.

Just another option to think about. Your spending limit is 240USD or 200 pounds to work with you can buy 10/100 load balance router (enterprise class) and also get a 10/100m Poe based AP for about your limit. Kinda pushing it but it can work. You can't do gig at this price though, but reading you first post you don't seem to want that so 10/100m for you.

 

[stevech]

Opinion.. Home router/switch should be simple to administer (like 0).
Enterprise grade gear is not.

 

[aaronwt]

No need for an Enterprise router for only 100mb/s WAN speed. Even my five year old DGL4500 had no issue with speeds faster than that on the WAN port when I tested it.

I just set up my RT-N56U this past weekend and this weekend I'l be getting my speed upgrade from 35/35 to 150/65 on FiOS.

The RT-N56U costs less than the RT-N66U. In my setup I'm actually getting much better coverage from 2.4GHz on it than I did with my DGL4500 where I used external antennas that were mounted several feet higher. I ended up removing a couple of the APs I was using especially since I can use the guest network feature from the custom firmware. So now I just use two APs(one 2.4Ghz and one 5Ghz) along with the RT-N56U with its concurrent 2.4Ghz and 5GHz radios.

 

[Ormu]

Speed and routing performance surely isn't a problem with home-grade routers but there are other things which an enterprise-grade router may handle better, such as configuration utility and available options, component quality and general reliability.

All low-budget enterprise routers seem to have fairly low throughput ratings and higher performance models are too expensive for me.