November 01, 2006

Best Wireless Router

I bought a 802.11b wireless router last year from Linksys for about $5 after rebate. I know I shouldn't be expecting too much at that price, but now it is crashing 3-4 times a day. This requires me re-booting the router each time by taking out the power cable. Normally it wouldn't be that bad, other than the fact we use Vonage as our phone service. So every time it crashes, our phone goes down.

So yesterday I went out to Staples and bought a Netgear WPN824 v2 Rangemax Wireless Router for $80 with free 512mb USB flash key. I'm pretty happy with it thus far. No crashes yet, the range for wireless connections seems improved. Moreover for whatever reason the wired internet connection on my desktop seems 2-3Xs faster. My only conclusion is the firmware and circuit board on the Linksys was dying causing the problems. You can read and discuss more about routers on our discussion thread.