[NBLUG/talk] Recommendations for a wireless router?

[William Tracy]

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 9:01 PM, Lincoln Peters <anfrind at gmail.com> wrote:
> If I'm reading this thread correctly:
>
> 1. Most people recommend either a Linksys WRT54G or an SMC 7004BR
> (more votes for the WRT).

Just make sure that you get a WRT54G* that supports third-party firmware. :-)

> One thing that bugs me, however, is that my first few searches for WRT
> routers all turn up routers that support 802.11b and 802.11g, but none
> of them appear to support 802.11n.  Is there a reason for that?

Then you might want the WRT160NL:
http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRT160NL

It was originally advertised as their new "Open Source" router that
was hacker-friendly. The store no longer prominently advertises it as
Open Source, and disturbingly enough only specifically lists Windows
and OS X support. A quick look on Google suggests that the hardware is
open enough for third parties to write firmware for it, but that the
OpenWRT and Tomato ports are not ready for prime time yet.

My two cents: 802.11n is probably not worth it yet. All the hardware
out right now is both expensive and based on draft versions of the
spec, which means that occasionally certain 802.11n cards will refuse
to talk to certain 802.11n routers (the connection will be silently
downgraded to 802.11g).

-- 
William Tracy
Work: wtracy at cisco.com
Play: afishionado at gmail.com
Cell phone: (805) 704-0917
Internet phone: (707) 206-6441