Need help on picking up a router

What i require

10/100/1000 ports
min of 4, but more are always welcome

802.11 N, yeah i know that are all draft N still...

So now it comes down to what one to get....
D-Link seems to be king of the hill right now but i am not 100% sure what one is best. I am a ***** for new stuff, that why the D-Link 655 is not at my place right now, but am still looking at it.

So I will be moving into my new condo shortly and have about 1200 sq ft to cover. The wiring closet is right by the front door in the center of the place.

So i am looking at the D-Link 655 and also the newer D-Link 825.
The thing that bugs me about the 825 is that it only has two antennas and i am slightly worried about its range. I am basing that on the 625 i installed for my sister at her place as people are saying the range of the 825 is less than the 655. Then comes the 855 that should be around shortly as it is pretty much the beefed up 825, that should fix the range issue.

Now the reason i am thinking the 800 series would be better than the 600 is the mixed mode and 5GHz that i can use with the 800 series. Its an aprtment so the 2.4GHz range is crowded.

So what do you guys think?
D-Link 655
D-Link 825
D-Link 855
Or something i have missed?

are you open to other routers also?

i know some friends with draft N linksys routers with DDWRT that are more than pleased with them.


just depends on what you want to do. for your average person a D-Link should suffice, i'll look at the models when i get a chance and see what kind of a judgment i can make

Any router worth buying supports third party firmware or can be finnessed into doing so. Check dd-wrt's site, or tomato's site. If the router is listed, get it, if not, don't touch it. that being said, any gigabit switch will fill the roll of gigabit in your life. I reccomend netgear due to the lifetime warranty.

JaY_III said:

So i am looking at the D-Link 655 and also the newer D-Link 825.
The thing that bugs me about the 825 is that it only has two antennas and i am slightly worried about its range. I am basing that on the 625 i installed for my sister at her place as people are saying the range of the 825 is less than the 655. Then comes the 855 that should be around shortly as it is pretty much the beefed up 825, that should fix the range issue.

Click to expand...

It is true and false in regards to 825 and range. 655 runs 2.4ghz N and 825 has both 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz N. The 5.0ghz has shorter range, at 2.4ghz 825 and 655 will have same range. It seems all routers have same problem with having shorter range at 5.0ghz N. Plus N networks are still in draft mode which renders not better than G.Otherwise D-link routers are ok but annoying. Like applying certain change require reboot and after reboot router goes to speed test. The usb shareport is nice but it doesn't work with devices that go in to power saving mode.

Trendnet router onsale for 24.99 on newegg today, it supports dd-wrt, has 32mb ram, 4mb rom, perfect for dd-wrt. A lot better than my current... 2mb rom, 8mb ram.

@Aynjell custom firmware isn't really around for draft N products other than some linksys....
Oh and i will next touch a Trendnet router again. They are cheap for a reason.
Also i am in Vancouver Canada, so I wont be buying from newegg
What are you running BTW?

@gangaskan
I am open to others as well.
Linksys was the king of 802.11G, but doesnt seems to be doing so hot at Draft N, so i have mainly been looking at DLink.

@meionm thanks for the range clarification.
Also i dont care about USB.


Grrrrr i hate this.
Why cant thier be a WRT54G of the draft N world with a 1000 switch that I can just buy and know i got a good one.

well, just make sure you get a pair of sunglasses if you get a dlink the DIR i had blinded me, hehe. i didnt mind the dlinks other then you loosing your WAN connection every time you wanted to apply changes. for some reason it does a mini reset, or atleast mine did. making changes off the net was blah at best


i finally broke down and bought a cisco 851W, granted i went down to 100mb, but this router has been up for

uptime is 36 weeks, 2 days, 10 minutes
System returned to ROM by power-on
System restarted at 08:10:32 NewYork Mon Sep 1 2008

Click to expand...

runs like a beast, i wish i had $$ to get a 1800 though

i love the DGL-4500

JaY_III said:

@Aynjell custom firmware isn't really around for draft N products other than some linksys....
Oh and i will next touch a Trendnet router again. They are cheap for a reason.
Also i am in Vancouver Canada, so I wont be buying from newegg
What are you running BTW?

@gangaskan
I am open to others as well.
Linksys was the king of 802.11G, but doesnt seems to be doing so hot at Draft N, so i have mainly been looking at DLink.

@meionm thanks for the range clarification.
Also i dont care about USB.


Grrrrr i hate this.
Why cant thier be a WRT54G of the draft N world with a 1000 switch that I can just buy and know i got a good one.

Click to expand...

The router I bought is hardware compatible with a dlink router, called the DIR-615. In fact people upgrade to the router I linked's firmware because it's linux.

@gangaskan the cisco option is starting to look like a good one.
Only $100 more than the DIR-855, now if only the fiancee would see it that way

@SuperMiguel
Any issues with it?
Its basicly a slower clocked DIR-855. SO i would really like to hear your comments

@Aynjell
Might have to look over that list again and see if i can find something.
Problem for me is, who will ship to Canada from the US so it forces me to buy local most of the time. Not that its normally a problem in Vancouver, as we have pretty much the same stuff, but the tier two and three vendors it can be.

JaY_III said:

@gangaskan the cisco option is starting to look like a good one.
Only $100 more than the DIR-855, now if only the fiancee would see it that way

@SuperMiguel
Any issues with it?
Its basicly a slower clocked DIR-855. SO i would really like to hear your comments

@Aynjell
Might have to look over that list again and see if i can find something.
Problem for me is, who will ship to Canada from the US so it forces me to buy local most of the time. Not that its normally a problem in Vancouver, as we have pretty much the same stuff, but the tier two and three vendors it can be.

Click to expand...

i use it as an AP but before i did it ran like a champ i liked it.. Also whats ur connection speed at?? those cisco 851w wont get u over 15mb keep that in mind..

yeah i know cisco if i dont go high end what is the point....
So in reality its not going to happen.

My cable is 15 Mbps up and 1Mbps down
i really wish they would hurry up and get docsis 3.0 up and running.

Reason i want the 1000 switch is file transfers and my HTPC donsn't have anything on it, its all on another PC. Not that the 100Mbs is a problem, just makes me happy to have more available. I do remote admin all PC's from my main one, and do move files around, and like the 1000MBps.

I might almost just get a switch and make my laptop suffer unless i plug it in untill i can find a router i will be 100% happy with. Just nice to have it all in one box.

Moving to a new place June 2nd and would like a nice clean job done with only 1 box if possible.

Why do all the draft N router still have to suck

JaY_III said:

yeah i know cisco if i dont go high end what is the point....
So in reality its not going to happen.

My cable is 15 Mbps up and 1Mbps down
i really wish they would hurry up and get docsis 3.0 up and running.

Reason i want the 1000 switch is file transfers and my HTPC donsn't have anything on it, its all on another PC. Not that the 100Mbs is a problem, just makes me happy to have more available. I do remote admin all PC's from my main one, and do move files around, and like the 1000MBps.

I might almost just get a switch and make my laptop suffer unless i plug it in untill i can find a router i will be 100% happy with. Just nice to have it all in one box.

Moving to a new place June 2nd and would like a nice clean job done with only 1 box if possible.

Why do all the draft N router still have to suck

Click to expand...

the DGL-4500 doesnt suck

JaY_III said:

yeah i know cisco if i dont go high end what is the point....
So in reality its not going to happen.

Click to expand...

not entirely, my 851W does plenty and its only 300USD i dont think any draft n routers are out ... anywho!

i'm kinda curious as to how you can base that all draft - N routers suck. is this from first hand experience, or reading reviews online?

i just talked to a friend that says his WRT300N (i think he has) is pretty damm solid with DDWRT and he uses mega, however, he did say that speeds were kind of meh off N.


i dont have first hand experience with any N prodcuts so keep that in mind

SuperMiguel said:

the DGL-4500 doesnt suck

Click to expand...

I would say that the key feature of a router is not to reset cause it is getting a lot of traffic.

So the DGL-4500 is not recommended according to CNET


EDIT: I cant believe that newegg only has 3 wired gigabit routers :s


OP" Newegg has a canadian store now too


Gigabit is essential when having more than one PC on a network with a HTPC or Fileserver. My file transfers are HDD limited right now. Using a PC with a 100Mbps ethernet port is like the old days of computing.

Tell the PC what you want to do and go get a cup of coffee while it does it

@SuperMiguel
in a years time I bet that will be the minimal accepted standard.
Also at the same time I were to get that I would be kicking myself if I did not get the DIR-855 as essentially the same but higher clocked with better throughput.
Sorry but I just don't think its a great router, might not fall exactly into the suck category, more like ok. Are you having the dropped connection issue that I have been reading about in various forums?


@gangaskan
They are all draft N
Its if you get 802.11n draft 2.0 or not now. The spec has still not been finalized. Well from what I have used, they are nothing to write home about other than for the marketing team. The rang really isn't all that better and in fact I think its worse. My sister got a DIR-655 after her trusty Linksys WRT54G died after years of service. I got a call right away complaining that the range was poor. Turns out the antennas were not screwed in all the way, so fixing that helped but it still did not match the Linksys. Just like your friend, nothing to write home about in regards to speed. Sure the boys selling adds online would have you believe its night and day, the reality is its just not the case.

@Neur0mancer
You are too kind I think.

Neur0mancer said:

I would say that the key feature of a router is not to reset cause it is getting a lot of traffic.

Click to expand...

I call that an essential feature. Bad experience with trendnet and other cheap routers/switches in the past and can stand that. If it happens once a month that is far too often IMHO.

As for newegg, they have a crappy innovatory and are $$$. The Canadian store is junk and does not sell the same things as the US store. NCIX.com / Anitec.ca / Atic.ca among others is way better for us Canucks on the west coast. Plus you can drive to the store and pick it up.


More I Read on this the more I am not happy with the upgrade from a Linksys WRT54G
Other than the switch, Draft N just doesn't seem to be making me happy. Sigh

Yah I looked at a few a while back and was not thrilled with it. Throughput on them seems to be a little better than G. I preferred wired anyway, Gigabit wired to be precise


I normally shy away from Dlink recommendations, as my personal experiences with them have never been good. (G band devices not detecting networks in an open room 50' apart, router resets when using torrents etc...) However the reviews on the 610 seem to be pretty good and the price has dropped aswell. Probably because of the internal antenna, and that it runs hot. I have no problems modding equipment Range is not good since it is an internal.

I am currently running ICS through a 100Mbit port, to a gigabit switch. the 3 PCs connected to the gigabit switch are all 1000MBps, and communicate very quickly. I picked up the switch for very cheap, it is a Dlink and except for one stupid mistake have had no problems with it (the 5th port is 10/100).

855 looks like your only real option, although it is seriously overpriced because of a useless LCD dispaly. Would be nice if they offered a cheaper alternative without that feature.

Anything with external antenaes can be modded relatively easy to increase range.



A wired gigabit router with wireless N access point will probably be your best bet to get EVERYTHING that you want in a system, it will not be all in one, but the best devices seldom are. One thing I noticed about the N band APs. They claim 300mbit and then use a 100Mb ethernet port to connect. Not sure if these means only 300Mbit theoretically possible between N devices or not, just seems silly to me especially from a marketing standpoint NOT to have a gigabit connection.

That 855 looks like a best, but it reported to not have very good range either.

You can get antennas to increase the range of them fortunately. Something a $300 dollar router should have come with anyway.

@Neur0mancer
Well i am happy to hear I am not alone with the Draft N sucks thinking.

And funny you should mention an access point and I was just thinking the same thing.
As I am not a stranger to making my own antenna or buying them if I must, don't want to have to deal with that nor should I have to when paying $300 for a router.
Linksys set the standard with the WRT54G series years ago, as for why the newer gear has not lived up to that standard is completely unacceptable.

So this pigheaded guy, who also needs it to be Fiancée friendly (pretty) is almost 100% sure the setup will be as follows
Cable-> Linux Box -> 8 port 10/100/1000 switch -> AP point
It will all be shoved into a closet minus the AP point that I think I will mount on the wall in the living room.

So I think its time to check out if my P200MMX with 64MB of RAM still works…
If not maybe my Mini ITX Via C3 Nehemiah 1GHz with 512MB of RAM, can fill the role.
My beloved coyote Linux ( http://coyotelinux.com ) seems to be back up in development so hopefully 4.0 will be realised soon to fill that need.

Anyone had any experience with any other specialty Linux distros meant for firewall routing?

I should have some pics for you guys mid Jun to show off what I have done if your interested.
If I don’t post by then PM me and tell me to stop being so lazy and get that done for you guys.