[Systematic]

Guys,

I'm gonna be upgrading to a 50mbit service this week. My ISP gives a free modem, free wireless router and wireless dongle as part of the upgrade fee.

The free router is a Netgear WRN2000 (not bad, not great either).

I was looking at reviews for the best dual-band routers and the my reasearch has shortlisted the following:

1. D-Link DIR-825 (think it's the same as prebiously mentioned D-LINK)

2. Airport Extreme

3. Linksys WRT600 and WRT610

The Linksys routers - not great according to the end users comments. There is a good balance of the +- comments regarding these particular models.

Without being bias to Linksys, please can you offer your views as to what the best Dual Band router is out there?

FYI - There is something that blows them all out of the water - Cisco Aironet 1250/1252. Problem - $579.99!

I hope this thread helps others too.

Thanks

[Systematic]

bump.

[Blazian]

[phuzi0n]

You want unbiased answers from people in a custom firmware forum... Only one of those brands has supported dual-band models so guess which one people here use.

[KeithB]

dual-radio/dual-band router, inexpensive ($35 to $40), decent signal coverage. Search the WNDR3300 threads here...

[VanillaXtract]

[jtrosky]

And the WNDR3300 is not a true dual-band router... The 2.4Ghz radio is only capable of G speeds (54Mbps). A true dual-band router is capable of N speed on both radios (Dlink DIR825, Linksys WRT600n, 610n, etc).

Personally, if DD-WRT is not a requirement, I love my Dlink DIR-825! So far, it's the best router I've owned. Gigabit AND jumbo frames are support (Linksys 600n/610n do not support Jumbo frames)...

[DoesItMatter]

You better check into commercial routers as well.

There have been other posts about people having bandwidth limit issues using home routers.

I.e. - they can't hit the max megabit limit given by the ISP because the router can't keep up.

If you want pure speed and reliability, you're going to have to spend a little money.

Or possibly put a Gigabit switch on the front end, if you have more than 1 IP available.

I.e. Broadband connect -> Gigabit switch -> PC's and Wireless router.

Or - build a small PC that can run the x86 based DD-WRT with 2 gigabit NICS

Broadband 50mbit -> Gigabit NIC1 (Input) -> Gigabit NIC2 (Output) -> Gigabit Switch -> PC's & Wireless Router

The wireless router will never consume enough bandwidth to bother any wired PC's

Hopefully others comment, but I have seen multiple posts that home based routers, even with DD-WRT, just can't keep up with high bandwidth connections.

[crashfly]

I am not trying to draw flames or criticism here, but you are looking for the "best" dual band router. Without third party testing on which one performs better, then what people will give you is a "biased" opinion on what they think is the 'best' dual band router. So unless there have been extensive tests run to prove which is better, all you will be getting is an opinion.