Want a reliable mid-upper end wireless router

[LoneWolf]

I'm currently using a venerable but decent Buffalo WZR-HP-G300NH in my home, which has served me well both in range and wireless throughput. I'm also using a Buffalo WLI-TX4-AG300N 802.11n dual-band wireless bridge; it has four 10/100 ports built in and makes it easy to plug in my SO's workstation at its location in the house and a Laserjet 2300N. It can use Buffalo's AOSS connect system or be done manually (I'm using Buffalo's currently) and I'm planning on keeping this, as it has been reliable and fast. I also have an older Netgear 10/100 switch plugged into one of the router's gig ports to provide ethernet to my Tivo Premiere XL and my Popcorn Hour content streamer. I also have an HP Mediasmart server plugged into gigabit, along with my own workstation.

I've had a couple dropped connections with the router in the past week that required a reboot and I'm researching a replacement in case this becomes more of an issue. Wireless range and performance are very important, but I also want the following:

Gigabit Ethernet ports (auto-crossover on the ports would be nice)
Port forwarding that works
Dynamic DNS support
VPN support
DHCP IP reservation by MAC address

Reliability is huge. The wireless NICs connecting are usually mobile Intel stuff, but I service laptops for a few people, so it will see a gamut of connections. I'm willing to look anywhere between $80-180 for something that does what I want. I've been happy with D-Link in the past (had their DGL-4300 and loved its GUI and performance) but I'm willing to explore most of the big brands; I'd just like to have it for several years.

I work in IT, and while I've done research, it's hard to gauge reliability in addition to performance. Some of the high-end models I've been interested in (e.g., ASUS' Black Knight) have had reports of people unhappy with port forwarding or VPN issues. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[stevech]

Are you sure it's the router at fault?

 

[LoneWolf]

Do you mean, as opposed to the cable modem? I haven't had a problem there. It's a 2-year old Motorola SB6120 that has also been quite good; I bought it to get out of the monthly charges which were being increased.

I was able to reboot the router (pull power) and have everything come back up without rebooting the cable modem. When it has happened so far, all wireless devices have lost connectivity. I will have to check and see (next time it occurs) if wired devices do the same, though in the past, wired functionality has often remained up when wireless has gone down.

I don't know that there's an issue with the router yet, but I'm laying the groundwork in case it is.

 

[stevech]

"I've had a couple dropped connections with the router in the past week that required a reboot"

Dropped.. on the WiFi side? Or after the fault, does the router's admin pages say the WAN side lacks an IP address as if the DHCP to the modem failed?

 

[sfx2000]

check the AC adapter?

Most common problem I've seen is that the $1 wall wart goes bad...