Looking to buy a good router under $100 for college

This - http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Router-Gigabit-Ethernet-DGND3700/dp/B005276QSQ - is a good modem/router

How many users? What internet speed?

If its just you, you can use a 300mbps modem/router.

Its a 600. Yours is a 450. Faster throughput.

Of the ones you have listed I like the TP-LINK Archer C7 the best. As to your question of speed. First, the 1.75Gbit/ speed is combined 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. And while the router can run both networks at once, any single device can use only the 2.4 or 5Ghz band at a time. So the max you can connect at is on the 5Ghz band at 1300Mbit/s. Ok that is if you have wireless AC capability on your client device. Now that 1300 is max link rate but not throughput. Max throughput is between 50 and 70% or link rate. Lets say this router is very efficient and you can get 70% throughput. So now the throughput is 910Mbit/s. Ok here is where marketing comes in. Wifi is always stated as combined throughput, but Wifi is half duplex. Thus when comparing it to wired Ethernet (like the ports on the back of the router that are full duplex) you have to divide the throughput by two. Thus now your throughput is 455Mbit/s. This number is the max you could expect when downloading or transferring files. So it is still much slower than a wired Gigabit connection.

Yes the type wireless will affect your speed. So max link rate for the Archer C7 is AC 1300Mbit/s. Wireless N would be 450Mbit/s. Anyway those speeds would mainly affect you transfer speeds between devices on your network. As far as connection to the internet, if your ISP gives you 20Mbit/s then you would need a link rate of around 60Mbit. In other words all the routers you listed can do that. So if transferring data between your clients is important than the faster wireless speeds would be good, but if most of the traffic is going over a 20Mbit link to the internet, any modern wireless router can do that.

Been using the Archer C7 since last September and had no issues with it. Quite pleased as a matter of fact. In fact, I used a second one as a wirless bridge connecting my upstairs and downstairs with the 5GHz AC and got about 420Mbps between the two.

V1 of the Archer C7 had some issues connecting with Apple devices and it is well documented on the internet. They finally released a firmware for it in April that seemed to solve the problem. They also released the V2 that you linked. It has aslightly different internal hardware and it doesn't seem to suffer the same problems. If I need an AC router, I would get one without blinking twice. It has roughly twice the range as the D-Link DIR-825 that it replaced and has been nice and stable.

I really haven't used AC for anything and if I did it over again I would probably get a little less expensive wirless N router instead. A good N setup will max out most internet connections, so except for large file transfers between local computers, there's really not much advantage for going AC over N. In fact, because you can use N on the 2.4GHz range where AC is 5GHz only, you will probably get better performance with the N than AC in an environment that is subject to a lot of obstructions like walls, heating ducts, etc.

That NetGear is a good device, too.

Don't get eaten up by smoke and mirrors labelling of network equipment, either. The speeds they rate are just theoretical maximums that no one has ever been able to achieve in the real world. Your best bet is to take whatever # they post and then assume you'll get 25-40% of that, depending on distance, obstructions and settings.

For instance, N300 has a theoretical maximum of 300Mbps. If you have a PC with an adapter that is also N300 capable (less expensive ones are N150) and you are sitting 4 feet away, the adapter in the PC is set to 40MHz (Paired Band Mode) instead of 20MHz and there is no network interference, you will probably max out around 120-140Mbps.

They also market the combined bandwidth potential of both bands. The Archer C7 and NetGear 6300 are dual-band, N450 + AC1300 (2.4GHz N450 + 5GHz 1300). You would have to choose which band you actually use and would be limited to the respective limits of that band.

Be very careful chasing these speeds. The router is only 1/2 your problem. You need to have a matching nic card in your devices. It does you no good to buy 802.11ac unless your nics support 802.11ac or you intend to upgrade your nics also.

Also there is no such thing as ac1750. What they are actually saying is it runs 450 on 2.4g and 1300 on 5g giving 1750. Now maybe later this year when the new version of 802.11ac comes out maybe we will see 1700 on the 5g.

Still be very careful these numbers are some magic lab numbers nobody gets. You seldom get over 100m in the real world on even the best 802.11n devices and the 802.11ac devices claiming 1300 or more most times get 300-400. On top of this it is always tested using only a single client. When you start running multiple users it degrades rapidly....wireless does not share well at all.

If you have price concerns I would stay with tplink it has very good customer support and tends to be cheaper than some of more well known brand names.

Ethernet is a protocol used on wired cables it is completely separate from 802.11n. Many machine have both a wireless network adapter running 802.11 and a ethernet adapter.

If you have the option ethernet will always run faster since unlike wireless it is not a shared media. All ports get their own dedicated connection that can run at 1g transmit and 1g receive...ie 2g all at the same time. Most routers contain a small switch chip in addition to the main router processor. This allows machines in the house to each get 2g...means the total for a 4 port router could be 8g of total throughput. This is only machine to machine though any traffic going to the internet would be limited by the speed you buy from your ISP.. This compared to the 1.3g on wireless which it total UP and DOWN shared between all the machine...and unlike ethernet you never even get the 1.3g. This is the key reason ethernet is much better in all cases.

The speed of your wired connection is going to be completely unrelated to your wireless rating.

Wired connections have a Tbase rating 10/100/1000. The numbers are how many Mbps it should be able to transfer. You don't see much Tbase 10 out there anymore. Tbase 100 is the most common and in reality is more than fast enough for the average home user. Tbase1000 (also known as Gigabit) is getting increasingly cheaper and increasingly common. You'll get Gigabit on most mid to upper level devices these days. You could just got to your Device Manager on your PC's OS, right-click on your Network Adapter and go to the properties and it will tell you what it's rated for.

In theory, those speed numbers should be the equivalent of the wireless numbers that are marketed (n300, ac1450, etc.) but in reality they are not. Wired connections are duplex, meaning you get 100Mbps up and 100Mbps down at the same time. Wireless standards measure the total both ways. In addition, wireless speeds have higher latency and never come close to their actual rated speeds. In general, a wired 100Mbps connection will be more stable and feel quicker than any wireless N connection. There will be ideal cases and setups where you could get faster transfer speed for large files but due to a lot of factors, the wired connection will be superior for almost anything else. No wireless connection, N or AC, will come close to a wired Gigabit connection. By the time wireless speeds catch up, 10Gig wired connections will be common place.

As a general rule, use wired where possible. You'll be happiest that way.

Asus
NetGear
Tp-Link
TrendNet
Buffalo
D-Link
Cisco/Belkin

Those are pretty much the names that swing the biggest bats. Everyone will give you a sob story on a couple of these brand, though. Asus is pretty much the gold standard right now, but you'll pay for it. I don't see anything wrong with that NetGear that you linked earlier but if you wanna save some money and stay with wireless N, you can get some inexpensive NetGear refurbished on Newegg for less than $40. I use these as access points:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122461&cm_re=netgeat_wndr3400-_-33-122-461-_-Product

No gigabit ports, but for your stated purposes I don't see any burning need for them.

You may wanna jump on www.smallnetbuilder.com for more guidance if you feel you need some.

Also you have to know what actually works with your college network!

At my son's school:
Each room had an ethernet feed. There was also WiFi over the whole campus.
Running your own WiFi in your room was not allowed. Why not? Because then they'd have 30 different WiFi sources, all spewing on channel 6, in each and every dorm.

Given the size of college dorm rooms...you probably don't want or need WiFi. Just run a cable, and a switch for multiple devices if needed.