Help: Finding best 5Ghz Range router

[tilhasbb]

I was setting up my brothers network in his new condo and i was shocked to see EVERY channel was taken. I've never seen so many routers in netstumbler.
Not surprisingly he has stability issues. 2.4Ghz is flooded. He needs a 5Ghz router.

I've just tried with my WRT54GL set at 90mW power with 9dBi boost antenna and it didnt help.

I am searching reviews on Small Net Builder
Please help me decide which one has the best range. He also doesn't need USB or Gigabit on the router. Its a plus but not a requirement.

From my research and budget limitation these seem to be the candidates.
Please help me decide which one is best.

Linksys WRT400N
Linksys WRT320N
BUFFALO WZR-HP-G300NH
Linksys WRT310N
Linksys WRT160NL

 

[somms]

I was setting up my brothers network in his new condo and i was shocked to see EVERY channel was taken. I've never seen so many routers in netstumbler.
Not surprisingly he has stability issues. 2.4Ghz is flooded. He needs a 5Ghz router.

I've just tried with my WRT54GL set at 90mW power with 9dBi boost antenna and it didnt help.

I am searching reviews on Small Net Builder but Mr. Tim Higgins the site reviewer doesn't always include range test with 5Ghz.
Please help me decide which one has the best range. He also doesn't need USB or Gigabit on the router. Its a plus but not a requirement.

From my research and budget limitation these seem to be the candidates.
Please help me decide which one is best.

Linksys WRT400N
Linksys WRT320N
BUFFALO WZR-HP-G300NH
Linksys WRT310N
Linksys WRT160NL

FWIW: Couple of the routers you listed aren't even dual-band (5GHz) capable such as the WRT310N or WRT160NL)

If you really need a 5GHz-capable router, the WRT610N is highly recommended over at the DD-WRT forums and fully capable and much better performing using custom firmware over the less-functional OEM firmware: http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=54216

 

[tilhasbb]

Thanks somms!

I didnt even realize those two routers were only 2.4Ghz. I thought to be Draft-N it would have to run at 2.4Ghz and/or 5Ghz!

The WRT610N is around 160$, well outside my budget since I have to also purchase him a PCI or USB network adapter. while all the others listed are around 80-110$

 

[thiggins]

Simple way to find routers supporting 5GHz is to select the 5 GHz open air and Azimuth charts. The Open Air charts have the more recent models, the Azimuth the older models.

We test 5GHz performance on every router that supports it.

 

[tilhasbb]

Thanks Thiggins.

Is the Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH also only 2.4Ghz !??!?!

Dont they need to have 5Ghz to be Draft-N Certified??

 

[thiggins]

The Buffalo is 2.4GHz only. Buffalo has decided to not sell dual-band routers in the U.S. They think it is too small a market.

Wi-Fi Certification does not require that a product be dual-band for draft N.

The Buffalo review should be up sometime next week.

 

[tilhasbb]

I am only in the market for 5Ghz.
Next time I go. I should take a screen shot of netsumbler. I as horrified.

From your testing what do you think is the best 5Ghz Router?
Should I wait till September for Official N?

Also, recommend any PCI or USB adapters with 5Ghz? I am having such a hard time finding ones that support 5Ghz...

Thanks!

 

[thiggins]

5 GHz performance of all draft 11n routers is disappointing. They have significantly shorter range than in 2.4 GHz. I have none that I would recommend. Use the Wireless Charts to compare them for yourself.

"Official N" will not improve the situation. 5 GHz range won't improve until manufacturers spend a bit more and increase the transmit power.

There are no PCI 5 GHz N adapters. I had good results with the NETGEAR WNDA3100. Not so much with the D-Link DWA-160 original rev. But the DWA-160 B1 was better (used to test the DIR-825).

 

[tilhasbb]

The problem with 2.4Ghz is interference. There are just too many people close to him using 2.4Ghz Routers. From the router to his computer or laptop is less than 50ft !

I was thinking of getting him the Linksys WPC600N with a PCMCIA to PCI.
You think that is better range than the NETGEAR WNDA3100-100NAR ?

 

[tilhasbb]

Hummmm...
After some more digging I find that it has been tested. Getting the Linksys!

Late, Expensive, Worth It?-Link DIR-855 reviewed
Once again, we have the 3T3R Linksys WPC600N client providing some advantage over the 2T2R Netgear WNDA3100 client used with the 855. For both downlink (Figure 18) and uplink (Figure 19), the WPC600N provides significantly more throughput under high signal levels.

Now WRT400N or WRT320N ?

 

[tilhasbb]

I just bought the WRT400N but I was told that the new Apple AirPort Extreme had dual band simutanious link and had amazing range.
He showed me the one apple router had the entire store (best buy) wirelessly which is huge but there are no walls.

Anyone tried the new apple router?

 

[thetoad30]

I currently own one for replacing my D-Link DIR-855 wireless functions, and I can say that it truly is a great router. It does not have SPI firewall, however. Not sure how important that is. But, It runs well and is very simple to configure with a Mac. I have not tried configuring it with a Windows PC, however. If you need me to do that, let me know, and I'll give it a try.

 

[tilhasbb]

What about the range of 5Ghz?

 

[thetoad30]

I find the range of the 5GHz on the Airport Extreme to be more than satisfactory.

Downstairs I get around 5-7 MB/S throughput. Upstairs in my bedroom (somehow harder to get signal to in my townhome even though it's right across the floor from the room with the router) I get roughly the same speeds. In the same room as the router I can sometimes peak around 10 MB/S. These aren't the best speeds in the world but they work for me, and are faster than anything I've ever had on wireless before.

Again, I'll restate my warning: There is no SPI firewall in this router. I'm still not sure how important this would be from a security standpoint, but sometimes every little bit helps.

 

[tilhasbb]

firewall? No need for it.

 

[claykin]

I recently got a Dlink DIR-825 B1. The 5Ghz range is satisfactory with my old Atheros 5004x 5Ghz client. It covers my entire single level house.

That said, Dlink has some bugs to resolve with the B1 version before I'd give it a thumbs up. Currently, poor WLAN - WLAN or WLAN - LAN performance. I cannot get more than 2MB/s throughput using 5Ghz or 2.4Ghz (not n). I've tried every setting imaginable but nada. My 5 year old Netgear dual band got me 3.5MB/s on both 2.4 and 5Ghz. Others on the Dlink forums complain of the same issue.

There's more too, like interop issues with the Microsoft XBOX360 bridge.

The good news is that so far, in about 4 weeks of use, no crashing.....yet! And, the firmware appears to be Linux based so DDWRT may be in its future..

 

[tilhasbb]

Thanks for the input.

I got the Linksys WPC600N with a PCMCIA to PCI.

Range is pure Garbage. My Dell Laptop 6000 with intel 3965 and Dell M1330 with Intel 4965 both with only 2 antennas DESTROY this card.

Sometimes it doesnt even see the router if i select 5Ghz...... Pathetic.

Going to order
NETGEAR WNDA3100

 

[tilhasbb]

A picture is worth a million words.

Its actually not so bad. I reset everything and upgraded the router firmware. Now.

http://img21.imageshack.us/i/wrt400nwpc600.png/

3Bars. 162 Mpgs with 5Ghz and 5 Bars 117 with 2.4Ghz

 

[ToeKnee]

I just bought the WRT400N but I was told that the new Apple AirPort Extreme had dual band simutanious link and had amazing range.
...
Anyone tried the new apple router?

I have one of the latest (simultaneous dual band), getting two more next week, and I have about 14 of the identical-looking, but single radio "either 2.4 Ghz or 5 Ghz but not at the same time" Airport Extremes, some dating back more than two years. I am the network manager at a high school and, lacking the budget for an enterprise solution, I've had to make do with the Apples. But the three-antenna MIMO arrangement really seems to work well at any frequency.

Note that my APs are always in bridge mode, as I have different devices running DHCP, DNS, and and a Peplink multi-WAN router/firewall. I tried out an inexpensive enterprise 802.11g WLAN solution about a year ago and I set the Apples at 5Ghz on a special network for teacher/staff laptops. That part worked *great*, but the low-end enterprise system could not handle the load of the student laptops, so I had to ditch it and go back to the Apples. They really are workhorses, but they lack an enterprise-quality 'dashboard' to tie them all together in an environment like mine-- you can only manage them one at a time with Apple's client software. They also lack any sort of VLAN functionality, which is unfortunate.

For maximum capacity but sacrificing throughput, I've had them all set at 802.11g on 2.4 Ghz only, no 802.11n, during the past school year. Some of them often had over 40 clients with no problems. One time, I underestimated the quantity of laptops being brought into the gymnasium for a special course registration event, and I watched the number of associated laptops on a single Airport Extreme Base Station climb to 99, then I lost contact with it, and a few minutes later, it finally crashed and reset itself. But until the crash, the students were still registering for classes.

This year, in the heaviest use area, I'm going to have two of the new simultaneous dual-band models set up running the same SSID on both bands. My experimentation this summer has show that Apple's claim appears to be true - in the that configuration, the 5 Ghz capable MacBooks do tend to gravitate the 5 Ghz band leaving the iBooks using the 2.4 Ghz radio. Thus, for the chunky, but fair, $150 (edu pricing), you get twice the capacity of the Airport Extremes of old.

That being said, I'd like to see its range compared to the industry heavy-hitters.