mummer43 Posted April 2, 2013 CID Share Posted April 2, 2013 I'm upgrading to RCN's 50mbps internet and I'm in need of a new router. I've been a Linksys fan in the past, but I've been reading lots of negative reviews about their newer products. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougDennis Posted April 3, 2013 CID Share Posted April 3, 2013 I've used Linksys for years but when Cisco got involved things went down hill. Comcast uped my circuit to 60MB (at the modem) but with my Linksys E4200 (Not a cheap one) I was only getting 10 to 18. I replaced it with the lastest and greatest Asus "AC" router and now I'm getting 50+ (TMN) and 30 on my iPad 3 at the other end of the house. CA3LE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pgoodwin1 Posted April 3, 2013 CID Share Posted April 3, 2013 There's a site called SmallNetBuilder that has very good technical reviews by knowledgeable people. This is some research I did about a year ago. I look for products that have less than 20% of their reviews at 1 or 2 stars out of 5. Anything more than that is a red flag to me that something is wrong. Then I calculate a price per performance ratio in $ per star which is an indicator of how much I'm paying for quality. WAN to LAN price/performance - these were the routers with the better price per performance ratio as rated on SmallNetBuilder's site. In order of $/star: ESR9855G EnGenius Multimedia Enhanced Wireless N Gaming Router with Gigabit $20.50/star. $82 Newegg, 4.5 stars/22reviews on Google, 3. 1-2 star reviews 14%, probably not enough reviews to be meaningful. E3200 Cisco High Performance Dual-Band N Router gigabit $27.25/star $109 minus $30 special Amazon 4 stars/142 reviews, 15 1-2 star reviews 11%, 4.5 stars on Google/485 reviews RT-N56U ASUS Black Diamond Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless-N Router $31/star $124, 4 stars/449 reviews, 82. 1-2 stars 18% Airport Extreme Base Station 5th gen, A1408, MD031LL/A, $170, 4.5 stars/135 reviews, 16. 1-2star 12%, 10 1-star $37.78/star WNDR4500 Netgear. N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router $45/star. $180 4 star/160 reviews, 42. 1-2 star. 26% -------------------------------------------------------------------- not ranked in any particular order Product HD Media Router 2000 DIR-827 gigabit D-Link $142. 3.5 stars/6 reviews amazon Product N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4000 Company NETGEAR $126. 3.5 stars/168 reviews, 39 1-star Amazon Product Maximum Performance Wireless-N Router Linksys E4200 gigabit Cisco $159 - $30 gift card special, 3.5 stars/385 reviews/100 one -two star reviews Product 300Mbps Wireless N Router with Gigabit Switch. ESR9850 EnGenius $60 amazon. 3.5 stars/22reviews Product N600 wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router. WNDR3700v2 Netgear. $99 Amazon, 3.5 stars/781, 155. 1-star Product N750 DB Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router F9K1103 Belkin $100 Amazon 3stars/129 reviews, 50 1-2star They not only have good reviews on SmallNetBuilder, but they have some great performance plots of a lot of products. I used their price/performance plots to select routers to go assess for price and user experience/quality (star ratings). There's likely new ones on the plots since a year ago besides the ones I looked at above. Note that the LinkSys E4200 did appear to have some issues, as 100 of the 385 reviews were 1-2 stars. However, that was a year ago, and maybe they've released some firmware updates that fixed their issues. Note that the Cisco E3200 though was rated very good, and one of the best buys at the time. So go figure. I ended up buying the Apple AirPort Extreme which is a great value. People always bad mouth it for being expensive, but it looks very competitive when you start assessing the user experience and quality ratings....one of the top 4 after I got done looking at all of those above. I do have 2 Macs, 2 iPhones, and 2 iPads in the house, so I was really just trying to assure myself that it was worth the investment. It has worked flawlessly for a year. The other ones at the top would likely be very good choices as well, excepting maybe the first one (EnGenius) because at the time it really didn't have enough reviews to be relevant-it likely has a lot more reviews by now. CA3LE 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CA3LE Posted April 3, 2013 CID Share Posted April 3, 2013 I've used Linksys for years but when Cisco got involved things went down hill. Comcast uped my circuit to 60MB (at the modem) but with my Linksys E4200 (Not a cheap one) I was only getting 10 to 18. I replaced it with the lastest and greatest Asus "AC" router and now I'm getting 50+ (TMN) and 30 on my iPad 3 at the other end of the house. That great. Gotta love a result. Definitely had something up with the old Linksys router. By the way... Welcome to TMN! I use a Netgear Dual band N... Personally I'd stick with Netgear or Linksys. They've always done me right. I'd get whatever their latest version is... Just me though. Airport is pretty pimp. I think those are great. Never owned one but I hear nothing but good things. It's Apple, what do you expect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smith6612 Posted April 3, 2013 CID Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Personally Linksys has been the go-to brand for home routers, and they certainly are a look but as mentioned, they have gone downhill since the days of the WRT54G* line (which are pretty much rock solid). The new UFO and now "curved plate" design units aren't bad, but they do leave something to be desired. 3rd party firmware support and Gigabit ports as standard, for one. Netgear and D-Link have been equally placed at #2 on my list. They make decent units, some firmware quirks of course, but I've never had anyone come to me with issues with them minus a few that have had routers suddenly get up and go into a reboot cycle or have the Wi-Fi chip fail too soon. Lately ASUS has made their way into the market so you may wish to really consider taking a look at them. I would avoid Belkin to be honest, though. Maybe they'll change now that they've purchased Linksys from Cisco, but their routers while they work, have never impressed me with specs or longevity. At least the firmware is based on Linux, which is a plus! Ultimately, get any router with Gigabit ports and you'll be golden. Wireless N/Dual band is a plus. Edited April 3, 2013 by Smith6612 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pgoodwin1 Posted April 4, 2013 CID Share Posted April 4, 2013 Here's the SmallNetBuilder charts. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view Using WAN to LAN performance as the comparison factor, Hit the price/performance button. Then pick your price range. And pick some of the models at the top of the chart for performance. Then you can go read their reviews - which are very detailed. These guys are very knowledgeable reviewers. Then go see what the public thinks of them with the star ratings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts