Wireless Router Recommendation

I am thinking of upgrading my home wireless router, as we are beginning to experience more frequent and longer "slow downs" due to the number of devices attempting to use it. We have several computers (iMacs, MBP, MB Air, one PC), iPads, PS3, iPods, etc in which there seems to be at least 2-3 devices attempting to access the wireless network at the same time.

I am currently using a Linksys WRT54G, and was wondering if any of the newer routers would significantly improve the performance of our network. Two concerns I had were:

1. Getting a router that would work well with Macs, PC's and wireless printers.
2. Ensuring that the router is compatible with my oldest computer, which is a mid 2007 iMac.

In my limited research, I was looking at either an Airport Extreme or a Cisco Linksys E4200.

Can anyone give a recommendation for either of these, or recommend another router if there is a better one I should consider?

As always, thanks in advance for your advice (my only truly trusted resource!).

The WRT54G is a old enough router that will not support the multitude of devices that you have. Also, it's limited to 802.11G at it's best.

I had a WRT54GS that worked OK with a couple of computers and the XBOX 360. When I got a few more devices I found myself with pretty slow speed and of course the routers need to be rebooted often to stay working.

I upgraded to the Airport Extreme and have had no regrets at all. Right now we have 4 computers (2 Mac's and 2 Windows laptops), 2 iPhones, iPad, XBOX360, Canon printer and my Samsung TV all connected to the router over the WiFi. All the devices are 802.11N and work beautifully.

I've not had any slow downs and usually see download speeds settle around 3-4MBps on my iMac..

I can also be streaming Netflix on the TV and doing other things with my devices with no issues.

The Airport Extreme has both the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz antennas and that helps with devices. Also, if you are get all of your devices to be on the same network 802.11G or 802.11N, that'll help the overall performance. If you have a mix of devices, it will tend to slow things down..

So my recommendation is for the Airport Extreme since I have it..

Um, my WRT64GL (Linux Firmware) never once had to be rebooted. My network here has 20+ systems and devices on it and I never ran into issues. Only thing is it's a G router and everything is N. N is a lot faster than G especially if you do any file copy between computers.

I am using a DlinkDIR-655 at the moment and love it, but it's not Dual Band so not up to date. The Dlink 655 has never ever crashed or locked. Not sure about newer Dlink Dual Band routers though. I am HARD on my network and something is going on 24 hours a day. I would never never switched from the WRT54GL but needed N and Gigabit network ports.


That being said, An Apple Airport Extreme is not bad at all and is true Dual Band.

Wow, thanks for those great responses, and fast!!!!!

My concern about Airport is the plethora of problems I seem to see on forums, but I have to remind myself that people usually only report problems on forums, not praises

Razor -- what Canon printer do you have? I actually need to buy another printer as well, and every site seems to recommend a different brand/type! None of mine ever seem to last very long!

dtravis -- so would you say the Airport may be a better choice to upgrade to since it has the N capability?

Thanks again guys, you both have always been incredibly helpful on all my questions/postings!

All new routers have N but to me the one important thing is Dual Band N since everything is going that way. It has a lot more bandwidth also than older N.

There are many N routers out there so it's hard to know what all are capable of. There is a new Netgear that seems to be excellent also and one top Linksys N a friend has is very stable.

On the Airport Extreme, you are correct, you are seeing mostly the bad reviews with people that have issues. You can find complaints with every brand router if you look hard enough. The one thing about the Airport Extreme is it works great with all Apple products as well as everything else. Let me check around on a few other N routers and will get back to you.

Dennis, the version of the WRT54G I had couldn't be changed to anything other than the VxWorks thing it ran..I couldn't run DD-WRT or Tomato or anything which might explain why the thing needed frequently (at least weekly) to keep it chugging along..

I have the Canon MF8380CDW printer. It's the color-laser multi-function printer. The only thing I wish it did was support AirPrint, but I don't believe many or any Canon printer that is reasonably priced supports it.

I did find an application that you can install on a Mac and then enable AirPrint through it, but it's a little unreliable since my printer is set to go to sleep when not being used (like all good printers should) and this software doesn't seem to wake the **** printer up. If I keep the printer running and then AirPrint something it usually works.

Apart from that one feature, everything else about this printer is great..

Raz0rEdge said:

Dennis, the version of the WRT54G I had couldn't be changed to anything other than the VxWorks thing it ran..I couldn't run DD-WRT or Tomato or anything which might explain why the thing needed frequently (at least weekly) to keep it chugging along..

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The GL came with Linux firmware. I bought a G and took it back and found a GL.

Just for informational purposes, did you know DD-WRT was able to get their code to fit that newer WRT54G even with the ROM 1/2 the size? I upgraded one and gave it to a friend as a Wireless Bridge! It works great and is dead stable. I hated when Linksys did that to the G version. They wanted you to purchase the GL!

Oh I didn't know that DD-WRT finally fit into the constrained space of my older router. I, however, did want to move to an all-N network when we moved, so the Airport Extreme was a good fit with what I was trying to get going..

I just read many reviews on both NewEgg and Amazon. Funny thing is the Airport extreme seems to get more positive reviews than anything out there!

This looks promising but it's so new there are no reviews as yet.

Newegg.com - D-Link Wireless N750 Dual-Band Router (DIR-835) Gigabit, QoS, USB SharePort

I read through some reviews on the Airport Extreme, and I noticed some reviewers stated they had to call their cable company to reset the router because it wouldn't work, and others stated that set up was "complicated" due to having to download updated firmware. Would you think this to be typical? Being somewhat "tech ignorant", I need something as close as "Plug and Play" as possible! My primary concern would be my son's new PC laptop, making sure it will be easy to set up.

I had the same router and switched to the Airport Extreme. It was SUPER simple to set up... I had to unplug the modem for a few minutes. Once we added the MBP it was definitely time for an upgrade... as it was, we were already rebooting it daily.

Updating firmware is something you should do with any router brand. People that do not sometimes miss out on important fixes that can fix many issues. That is not an Apple exclusive!

soccerphysio said:

I read through some reviews on the Airport Extreme, and I noticed some reviewers stated they had to call their cable company to reset the router because it wouldn't work, and others stated that set up was "complicated" due to having to download updated firmware. Would you think this to be typical? Being somewhat "tech ignorant", I need something as close as "Plug and Play" as possible! My primary concern would be my son's new PC laptop, making sure it will be easy to set up.

Click to expand...

Not really. The Current crop or Airports and the Apple software are fairly easy to use. That being said, nothing is idiot proof (no offense intended). You do need to have a basic understanding of wired/wireless networking and security to make this work well. Not impossible, or even really difficult. There are instructions on the web.

There will always be firmware updates but those are pretty much download, install, let the Airport reset and you are running again. Never had an issue with that sort of thing.

wireless network

For the past few months, my MAC cannot connect to comcast email. It usually times out before I can get connected. On a rare occasion, I can get to my email but 9.9999 times out of 10 no such luck. Then this weekend we added a Sonos system and we lose the wireless connection about 2-3 times per hour. Does it make sense that its the router when my Dell PC can connect? If so, would the apple extreme help my situation. We have 3 wireless laptops, two ipads, several i devices accessing wifi and a wireless printer, oh and now the sonos system.

Janna M said:

For the past few months, my MAC cannot connect to comcast email. It usually times out before I can get connected. On a rare occasion, I can get to my email but 9.9999 times out of 10 no such luck. Then this weekend we added a Sonos system and we lose the wireless connection about 2-3 times per hour. Does it make sense that its the router when my Dell PC can connect? If so, would the apple extreme help my situation. We have 3 wireless laptops, two ipads, several i devices accessing wifi and a wireless printer, oh and now the sonos system.

Click to expand...

What is your current router? And were you able to connect to the Internet without any problems and only had issues with Comcast e-mail? If so, that's probably a Comcast issue as opposed to a wireless router issue.

When you lose the wireless connection, do all the devices lose it or only specific ones?

I spent the afternoon on the phone with comcast, they said it's got to be MAC, but that doesn't make sense since I can connect to everything except my email. When we lose the connection, its to everything. Right now I have a linksys router.

Comcast always says that when they hear you have a Mac, that's their default response. If all devices lose connection, you might be overwhelming the router, but that should just slow thins down and not kill all connections..

the sonos sound system cuts out but reconnects pretty quickly, that's what made me think it might be interference with the wireless? I can get to the comcast home page, but it can take up to 5 minutes, email just times out? does the apple extreme work with Dell PC's and wireless printers for my home network? Trying to decide if i shoud just hire the geek squad, but I'm not sure how good they are with MAC

When you notice the cutting out is it predominantly the sonos system or are the computers also disconnecting and reconnecting? If its just the sonos then it might be that you have an old 802.11G network and with the number of devices you have you've exhausted the bandwidth and the sonos is pausing while it gets more music to stream.

The Apple Extreme works with all devices. We have 2 iMacs, Dell laptop, 2 iPads,iPhone, Droid 3, XBOX 360, Wii, Samsung TV and a Canon Printer all talking to it.