New build

[Tarzanman]

I am about to move from a 2-story townhouse to a 3-story townhouse. My (soon to be former) roommate owns the router, so I need to purchase a wireless router.

Device list:
1. Desktop computer with USB wireless adapter
2. Playstation 3 (usually off)
3. Thinkpad T60 laptop (usually off)
4. Compaq laptop (also usually off)
5. Hp Touchpad (usually on)
6. Galaxy Tab (usually off)
7. Galaxy S and galaxy nexus smartphone (will be using wifi while in the house)
8. HDTV using DLNA (have not purchased yet, but will)
9. Printer (USB connection only)

Ideally I would like to run Cat 5/6 to the desktop, PS3 and HDTV for streaming 720p content, but i do not know whether I will be able/allowed to run it.

Issues I have noticed with the current router (linksys running hyper wrt) are:
-Latency issues after downloading lots of torrents, requiring a reboot (sometimes a hard boot)
-signal strength (though this seems to be more an issue of the devices than the router itself)
-Bandwidth/latency issues when trying to stream a 720p video from the desktop to PS3 (via wireless)

I was eyeing the Netgear WNDR3800, but do not know much about current modern routers.

USB for a printer or network storage is nice, but not necessary. Mostly I want to turn the router on, set the password and not have to worry about it breaking, slowing down, or needing a reboot.

What are your recommendations?

 

[Tarzanman]

Have I not given enough information or something?

 

[sfx2000]

Any current 3-stream router with factory firmware should be able to handle the load you're suggesting... really comes down what you're comfortable with - some like Linksys, some prefer Netgear or D-Link, and others, like myself like Apple and Cradlepoint gear...

 

[Mark Uhde]

Have I not given enough information or something?

It's just not a terribly busy forum. Be nice to people taking their time to help you as a hobby I don't know why sfx is recommending 3x3 MIMO. None of your clients will benefit from it. The biggest thing you need, for torrents, is a large state table. That's what was crashing your old router - the state table was filling up. Honestly, for clients needing a really large state table I use pfSense for a router, and EnGenius WAP's. But, you really don't probably need a huge state table - the old WRT54G was probably set to 4k or less. Look at the router charts on here for maximum concurrent connections, ideally you want one that's just peaking out their testing, but at least 20k or so.

The Airport Extreme is a nice product, but honestly, any router with at least 20k concurrent connections or so should handle your routing. For best performance, you might consider (if you can run Ethernet upstairs) buying an EnGenius EAP350 or other access point and an 802.3af Power over Ethernet injector. Put the router you choose downstairs, and run (with PoE) Cat 5e upstairs and install the AP. Make sure both the router and the AP are on different, non-overlapping channels but share the same SSID and security settings. Your computer will seamlessly roam to the stronger signal, giving you much better coverage and performance, if your environment requires that level of performance. Won't do a darn thing about routing performance though, so make sure your router can meet your needs!

 

[sfx2000]

I don't know why sfx is recommending 3x3 MIMO. None of your clients will benefit from it.

Most 3-stream gear have better radios that benefit all clients - also more RAM and more CPU.

The current stream of 3*3 silicon has implemented many of the "optional" features of 802.11n, such as Low Density Parity Check Codes and Space Time Block Codes, and this makes a big difference, even with older 2*2 and single stream clients... These affect mostly the PHY, but I've also observed that more of the MAC layer enhancements are also implemented - but that is more dependent on the Board Support Package and the OEM implmentation - the PHY enhancements are usually at the chip/driver level...

The Broadcom radios are especially good at this... Marvell and Qualcomm-Atheros are close behind... Ralink is getting better...

 

[Mark Uhde]

Most 3-stream gear have better radios that benefit all clients - also more RAM and more CPU.

The current stream of 3*3 silicon has implemented many of the "optional" features of 802.11n, such as Low Density Parity Check Codes and Space Time Block Codes, and this makes a big difference, even with older 2*2 and single stream clients... These affect mostly the PHY, but I've also observed that more of the MAC layer enhancements are also implemented - but that is more dependent on the Board Support Package and the OEM implmentation - the PHY enhancements are usually at the chip/driver level...

The Broadcom radios are especially good at this... Marvell and Qualcomm-Atheros are close behind... Ralink is getting better...

Great points! Thanks!