I had a woman who saw me on TV ask me which wireless router she should buy for her home.
First, she asked which consumer router had the best support. Unfortunately, I had to tell her that they all had pretty bad support. Then came the more important question: which one has the best signal?
I have to admit, I hate wireless overall. Things like cordless phones, plumbing and metal beams through your house can play havoc on your signal. I prefer hard wire. But that's just not practical for some people, although if you can swing it, I think you'll save money on service calls and you'll save lots of headaches if you just hard wire.
If you must have wireless, put your wireless router upstairs for the best signal spread. The signal kind of has an umbrella effect, so you get the best results with the router up high.
Anyway, I prefer Netgear as a brand, although their support is at least AMONG the worst, if not THE worst. These guys are bad. You should never call them for support. But their routers are alright, and so's the price (usually).
A good model for everyday usage just so your kid's laptop can get online is the Netgear WGR614. It has worked well for us regularly. Remember these two things, though:
1.) Netgear tech support is awful.
2.) Most consumer-grade wireless routers only last about a-year-and-a-half.
Bear that in mind, and you won't feel like you're getting a raw deal.
Talk soon,
Jay
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2 comments:
I would like to voice my opinion about a great router. If you are a geek like myself you will appreciate the WL-500gP V2 Asus router. This router not only supports Open-WRT, DD-WRT, Tomato, and of course its stock firmware but it allows you to connect drives via USB to the router to act as NAS. It's a bit more expensive than others but only by 20 dollars. The great thing about the Asus router is that even if the firmware is corrupt their software allows you to easily remove and replace it.
Apologies about the second post, I just wanted to be able to be emailed about any follow-up comments and I am too lazy to figure out how to do it properly. :]
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