What's a good Wireless Router?

[CAC1291]

So I'm currently in the market for a wireless router. At the moment, I'm in a small 10x14 dorm room, but in a few months will hopefully be moving into a slightly larger apartment. I simply need something with decent range and reliability. My school's wired connection is about 60 mb/s, so I'm guessing wireless N will be fine. 

 

Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting this: Linksys E900 Wireless Router for roughly $40 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-E900-Wireless-N300-Router/dp/B007IL764W) but I saw that the E2500 model has dual-band wireless N. I think that means I can connect more devices to it without slowing down internet speeds?

 

I think that may be important when I move into an apartment with at least one other person. I have my desktop, laptop, phone, and tablet connected via wifi, and I don't know if having someone else connect their devices will drastically slow down the connection. I think the speeds comcast offers off-campus aren't quite as fast as the on-campus speeds. 

 

Thanks for your help. 

[dalekphalm]

So I'm currently in the market for a wireless router. At the moment, I'm in a small 10x14 dorm room, but in a few months will hopefully be moving into a slightly larger apartment. I simply need something with decent range and reliability. My school's wired connection is about 60 mb/s, so I'm guessing wireless N will be fine. 

 

Any suggestions? I was thinking of getting this: Linksys E900 Wireless Router for roughly $40 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-E900-Wireless-N300-Router/dp/B007IL764W) but I saw that the E2500 model has dual-band wireless N. I think that means I can connect more devices to it without slowing down internet speeds?

 

I think that may be important when I move into an apartment with at least one other person. I have my desktop, laptop, phone, and tablet connected via wifi, and I don't know if having someone else connect their devices will drastically slow down the connection. I think the speeds comcast offers off-campus aren't quite as fast as the on-campus speeds. 

 

Thanks for your help. 

If you live in Canada or the US, check NCIX.com for good deals. They have Linksys recertified routers for super cheap. I picked up a Linksys E-4200 v1 for $30 (I got 3 year warranty + shipping/taxes for like $50 total).

 

Their current recertified router is the EA-4500 and is very high end:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=87571&vpn=EA4500-RM&manufacture=Linksys&promoid=1195

[Glenwing]

Dual-band or no, all of your devices combined will be capped to what you are pulling from the ISP.  Routers can usually handle multiple times the throughput of what you receive from your ISP so you won't need additional "channels" or "bands" or that sort of thing.  Dual-band allows connection of devices in the 5GHz frequency (rather than the normal 2.4GHz).  5GHz has a bit shorter range but it shouldn't matter in a smaller sized place.  The advantage is that most wireless devices use the 2.4GHz frequency, so 5GHz band will have less interference.  I'm using a D-Link DIR-826L and it seems very good.

[LAwLz]

I think that means I can connect more devices to it without slowing down internet speeds?

It kind of does, but probably not in the way you think it does.

 

With a simultaneous dual band router like the E2500 (please note that not all dual band routers are simultaneous dual band) you can use both the 2.4GHz as well as the 5GHz band at the same time. What this means is that when you start the E2500, you will see two wireless networks, one called "Linksys" or something like that, and one called "Linksys_5GHz" or something like that. The 5GHz band uses the 5GHz radioband to send signals. The drawback is that 5GHz is a bit worse at penetrating solid objects such as walls, but the benefit is that things like microwaves, which uses 2.4GHz, does not cause any interference. The channel width is also bigger on the 5GHz band which can increase the speed, so you usually get higher bandwidth on the 5GHz band than on the 2.4GHz band.

 

Since it has simultaneous dual band, it means that both the 2.4GHz and the 5Ghz band can be used at the same time (which is why you see two networks). With a dual band router which does not have simultaneous dual band, you have to pick if you want 2.4GHz or 5GHz, but not both at the same time.

Wireless is a shared medium, and only half duplex. That means that if you are sending something on your phone wirelessly, then no other device on that network can send at the same time. If they did, then both signals would get jammed and the router wouldn't be able to understand any of them. With simultaneous dual band, one device on the 2.4GHz network and one device on the 5GHz network can send at the same time, since one signal is 2.4GHz, and one signal is 5GHz, so the router can see the difference between them even if they arrive at the same time. That's why you can have more devices on the network without slowing it down with a simultaneous dual band router. So what you could do is make it so that your computer which you want the highest bandwidth on is set to use the 5GHz band, and the rest of your wireless devices are on the 2.4GHz band and have to share the bandwidth.

 

 

Since you're going to live close to a lot of other people with wireless networks, I highly recommend you get a router with simultaneous dual band. The 2.4GHz band will most likely have a lot of interference from the other students networks, microwaves, cordless cellphones and stuff like that, so the 5GHz band will be far more reliable.

If you are going to share a network with another person, then you could make it so that he gets to use the 2.4GHz band, and you get to use the 5GHz band on the router. That way you won't eat up each others bandwidth. If he connects a lot of devices, then his network will be slower, but yours will still be the same speed (at least locally).

[CAC1291]

It kind of does, but probably not in the way you think it does.

 

With a simultaneous dual band router like the E2500 (please note that not all dual band routers are simultaneous dual band) you can use both the 2.4GHz as well as the 5GHz band at the same time. What this means is that when you start the E2500, you will see two wireless networks, one called "Linksys" or something like that, and one called "Linksys_5GHz" or something like that. The 5GHz band uses the 5GHz radioband to send signals. The drawback is that 5GHz is a bit worse at penetrating solid objects such as walls, but the benefit is that things like microwaves, which uses 2.4GHz, does not cause any interference. The channel width is also bigger on the 5GHz band which can increase the speed, so you usually get higher bandwidth on the 5GHz band than on the 2.4GHz band.

 

Since it has simultaneous dual band, it means that both the 2.4GHz and the 5Ghz band can be used at the same time (which is why you see two networks). With a dual band router which does not have simultaneous dual band, you have to pick if you want 2.4GHz or 5GHz, but not both at the same time.

Wireless is a shared medium, and only half duplex. That means that if you are sending something on your phone wirelessly, then no other device on that network can send at the same time. If they did, then both signals would get jammed and the router wouldn't be able to understand any of them. With simultaneous dual band, one device on the 2.4GHz network and one device on the 5GHz network can send at the same time, since one signal is 2.4GHz, and one signal is 5GHz, so the router can see the difference between them even if they arrive at the same time. That's why you can have more devices on the network without slowing it down with a simultaneous dual band router. So what you could do is make it so that your computer which you want the highest bandwidth on is set to use the 5GHz band, and the rest of your wireless devices are on the 2.4GHz band and have to share the bandwidth.

 

 

Since you're going to live close to a lot of other people with wireless networks, I highly recommend you get a router with simultaneous dual band. The 2.4GHz band will most likely have a lot of interference from the other students networks, microwaves, cordless cellphones and stuff like that, so the 5GHz band will be far more reliable.

If you are going to share a network with another person, then you could make it so that he gets to use the 2.4GHz band, and you get to use the 5GHz band on the router. That way you won't eat up each others bandwidth. If he connects a lot of devices, then his network will be slower, but yours will still be the same speed (at least locally).

 

Thanks! I'm going to find the cheapest simultaneous dualband router possible then. Many thanks for the clarification. 

[LAwLz]

Thanks! I'm going to find the cheapest simultaneous dualband router possible then. Many thanks for the clarification. 

You might want to check the bandwidth on them as well. Most if not all simultaneous dual band routers will have at least decent bandwidth, but you might want to be careful anyway and don't just blindly trust that. I recommend 300Mbps + 300Mbps (sometimes called n600) or above.

Wireless is quite inefficient so if the router says 300Mbps, you might only get effectively ~100-150Mbps, which is 10-20MB/s. More than enough to not be bottlenecked by your Internet connection speed, but it will bottleneck you a lot if you transfer a file over the LAN from let's say your laptop to your desktop.