New rock-stable wireless router

[Muffe]

I'm looking for a new, rock-stable wireless router. It's for my grandfather, and he needs something that's stable and has good range (the house is old and big). WPA/WPA2-encryption is also required, since it's going to be placed in a city.

The laptop he has is a Apple iBook G4 with Mac OS.

What wireless router do you recommend?

[mips]

I'm looking for a new, rock-stable wireless router. It's for my grandfather, and he needs something that's stable and has good range (the house is old and big). WPA/WPA2-encryption is also required, since it's going to be placed in a city.

The laptop he has is a Apple iBook G4 with Mac OS.

What wireless router do you recommend?

What is your budget ???

[rickyjones]

I've had good luck with most dlink products and linksys products.

Currently my gaming center is using the DGL-4300 Gaming Router from dlink, and it has WPA2. :-)

Cheers!

-Richard

[prizrak]

I had bad luck with Dlink products :)
One router that I hear good things about is Linksys WRT54GL it uses Linux for it's firmware and actually has aftermarket firmware available if you want do that.

[Muffe]

My budget is up to about 200 USD if it's worth the money.

BTW: I'm not going to buy any D-Link products, I have a lot of bad experience with D-Link products.

[mips]

BTW: I'm not going to buy any D-Link products, I have a lot of bad experience with D-Link products.

Wise man !

[n3tfury]

Wise man !

i agree with this. Dlink is horrible in my experience.

the linksys WRT54G series are most excellent. do it.

[mips]

Look at Draytek Vigor 2800G, Billion BiPack, Netgear, Linksys. You can also set up a VPN on some of these for further security.

Best is to search the above devices, find one you like and then go look for user experiences on the net or the manufacturers forums.

[Rotarychainsaw]

+1 for the linksys wrt54gl. Just got one, and its pretty cool.

I got it because of the open source firmwares you can add. So far it has been rock solid, unlike the old netgear. Also, wireless seems to work well. I don't usually use it (4 port hub also in there) but I fired it up on a laptop and it seemed to reach pretty far. I was getting full signal across the house, whic I guess is good because this old house is made of some heavy duty stuff. Also the 3rd party firmwares let you up the power of the wireless anteannaes if your not getting enough range stock.

[Muffe]

I have wondered about the WRT-54GL too... Seems like it's good quality compared to much of the other boxes around...

[imagine]

WRT54GL. It beats every other wireless router in that price range hands down, since it runs Linux and has therefore basically unlimited possibilities (ok the applications have to fit into the physical address space).

[basketcase]

I own 3 WRT54g's, maintain 2 WRT54g's and purchased and sent off 2 WRT54GL's (for a friend in PA) all with sveasoft's firmware (talisman 1.1).

I love linksys products!

Just my .03$

[Scunizi]

For range look at products that support pre-n protocol. Usless if your using a laptop with built-in wifi B/G without an external self defeating adaptor.

[arsenic23]

The best thing about the old WRT54G ver.2 and the newer WRT54GL is you can do just about anything too them.

To give you an idea, using 3rd party firmware, a WRT can be set up to use WDS. We've set up two of these bad boys in an old historic apartment building some of my buddies live in. The thick floors and walls really kill the wireless signal, but we set up one WRT on the top floor and on on the bottom, bridging the same network. Now their signal fills every nook and cranny of that building and they're all able to share the bill on just one Internet connection. I suppose that's not horribly relevant to this post though.

Another example would be my router back at the house. I have a couple acres of swamp for a back yard with a dam at the end. I put the Wi-Fi-Box firmware on my WRT ver.2, increased the power to the antenna by75%, slapped a fan in the sucker, and put larger, higher gain antenna on the thing. So now I can read these forums while I fish. ( I'm not advocating that though, the FCC doesn't smile on people running very mean radio devices. I just live WAY out in the sticks. )

And again, they're horribly stable little boxes. ( Lemme count real quick.... )
I've personally installed/modified at least 14 WRTs for my friends and associates, and I've never heard one complaint about them. Also, I run one here, two at work, and another back home, and the only times I can remember having trouble with them was when I was doing something odd or stressing them beyond what any personal grade router would be able to handle, and I can count those times on one hand.

[vicks]

and with a linksys router you can join fon (www.fon.com (http://www.fon.com))

Actually, you can get a linksys WRT54GL for 25 bucks from them. it's preinstalled with their firmware

[Pugaciov]

Nobody here uses Netgear? I've been using a DG834GT for 5 months now. No problems at all, but to be honest I must say the wireless signal and related security are not very important for me.

[A-star]

WRT54GL. It beats every other wireless router in that price range hands down, since it runs Linux and has therefore basically unlimited possibilities (ok the applications have to fit into the physical address space)..
Second that, best router I ever had.