Budget N router, WNR2000 or E1000?

[DarkAudit]

If I didn't want to untether my new laptop and get the full speed of my cable internet wirelessly, I would have just stuck with the Linksys WRT54G that has served me well for over 4 years. Mainly through a coin flip and no real discernible difference between the two while browsing the store, I chose the Netgear WNR2000 over the Linksys E1000. Now I'm having second thoughts.

Although the router does what it's there to do, get the internet to my devices as fast bandwidth will allow, I'm getting more and more frustrated with it's molasses-slow interface when I need to check settings or logs. I've come close the last couple of days to just backing it up and swapping it out for the E1000 instead.

My networking needs are simple. Get the internet to and from my devices quickly and reliably. This router does that. It's only when I need to access the router itself do I have issues. I don't have much need for moving data around within the network, and I don't yet have a dedicated device to stream content off my PCs or external storage to the HDTV.

So not only is there any point in switching back to the Linksys brand, would anything be gained by spending a little extra cash and going up a level to something like the E2000 router?

 

[Matt²]

Ok so I don't know a whole lot about N routers but I found something that may be a little helpful...

http://www.reviewgist.com/compare-w...oadband...&compare=Go&p=Netgear+WNR2000&p=&p=

try this and see if it works for you.. you can enter different router types.

If you just need something simple, I'd go for the cheaper one. If you want more features, spend more.

 

[PatrThom]

If you don't care about intranet speeds, I'm surprised you moved up from the Linksys at all. Most consumer connections can't fully saturate even 10% of the max 54Mb/sec that standard 802.11/g gives you. Have you already made sure the firmware on the WNR2000 is up to date (v1.2.3.7 according to their website)? I also wonder if this is the result of trying to do the configuration via WiFi instead of a hardwired connection. Only other big slowdowns I can think of would be security software 'helping' keep you from accessing a possibly untrustworthy website. Nothing in the logs (rejected packets galore, authentication error) to give you any idea?

They both look pretty comparable. Neither one has a 5.8GHz radio (2.4GHz only). The Netgear has SPI capability and a longer warranty, the Linksys has a more widely compatible chipset (Broadcom v. the Netgear's Atheros).

Unless you need to increase you intranet speed or need some special feature, I'd just stick with what you have. Otherwise I'd make sure my next router was one that had a)MIMO and b) 5.8GHz capability, whatever brand it might be.

--Patrick

 

[DarkAudit]

If you don't care about intranet speeds, I'm surprised you moved up from the Linksys at all. Most consumer connections can't fully saturate even 10% of the max 54Mb/sec that standard 802.11/g gives you.

With G, I was maxing out at a sustained 18Mbps from my internet connection, well below what I was getting with a wired connection. Switching to N lets me use every bit of available internet bandwidth wireless or wired.

Web browsing and streaming, and all that comes in fine. It was just the sluggishness of the router config pages themselves that had me annoyed. The firmware is up to date, and otherwise I can't really complain about how it delivers the net to my devices.

 

[PatrThom]

Ah, then I can see the concern. I was assuming you had closer to 6Mb/s to your home. The only other advice I have (without seeing what's going on) is to try a different browser. MSIE is notoriously slow doing Javascript, and if that's all that's going on, it'd be a shame to buy another router if all you need to do is switch to Chrome. This is assuming you're using MSIE, of course. If you're using FireFox, I'd try temporarily disabling add-ons to see if one of them is bogging you down. Either that or try whitelisting your router's IP address in case Windows or some other security thingie is interfering.

--Patrick

 

[GasBandit]

If you don't care about intranet speeds, I'm surprised you moved up from the Linksys at all. Most consumer connections can't fully saturate even 10% of the max 54Mb/sec that standard 802.11/g gives you.

With G, I was maxing out at a sustained 18Mbps from my internet connection, well below what I was getting with a wired connection. Switching to N lets me use every bit of available internet bandwidth wireless or wired.

Web browsing and streaming, and all that comes in fine. It was just the sluggishness of the router config pages themselves that had me annoyed. The firmware is up to date, and otherwise I can't really complain about how it delivers the net to my devices.[/QUOTE]

18Mbps?

18Mbps?!

ONLY 18Mbps?!!