Which router is right?

edward78

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Jan 31, 2010
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My router died, which would be a good one, should I get 1with DD-WRT or off the shelf good? I am a normal home user, surf, play games & stream sometimes... Wireless would be good also,,,

I had tp-link archer c7`http://www.pcmag.com/review/352074/tp-link-archer-c7-ac1750-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router they seem to like it & I have had no prob. with it until it suddenly died today.... I never used the USB though...
 
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Unless you see a huge number of people complaining about something it is likely one of those random electronic failures. All manufacture have issue from time to time. Then again almost no router maker actually makes their own equipment it is almost all built by foxconn or some other third party.

This is one of those almost impossible to figure out things. Even router with exactly the same model numbers will have revisions in the internal parts and both will be on the shelf at the store and look identical.

This is why large corporate customers buy things like laptops from HP so they can be sure they are exactly identical so they have less support issues. Commercial routers/AP work the same and why you pay so much for them...

Lutfij

Titan
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Ideally if you're comfortable with the router that you previously used, then by all means buy it but I can understand that it might not go well with your recent experience of it's premature death. Speaking of premature, how long has it been in service? it's within warranty period, might want to see if they will honor you with a replacement.

If you're not familiar with DD-WRT then there is no point getting a router that supports DD-WRT. In fact i'd suggest Asus routers since their GUI is akin to the DD-WRT interface and the degree of control.

You forgot to mention a budget and how many wireless devices will connect to it(since you're looking at a wireless router).
 

edward78

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Around $100, the c7 seems to have gotten a good review on PC-Mag, but someone on amazon said it doesn't support HTTPS on the settings page, not sure how long I have had it atleast 2+ years (but its feet did fall off & it overheated) we have 2/3 wireless devices on most times,,,
 
You will have massive disagreement which is "better" between most major brands. Pretty much anyone other than intel does not make the wireless chips they use for their routers or nic cards. If you compare similar routers from various brands many times you will find they use exactly the same chips for all the critical features. The main firmware that make the fundamental things..like data encryption or radio power etc are controlled by a driver provided by the chipset manufacture.

All that is different in most cases is the software interface and if you plan to load third party firmware they quickly become identical.

Now there is a difference in customer service from some companies. Both tplink and asus are extremely proactive to fixing bugs and releasing new software features.

Mostly it is going to be which you like better and can get on sale. Software features only you can decide which are important and which have little value. This is just like the ability to load third party firmware. If you are not going to do it then you do not pay any extra to get a router that can do it.
 

edward78

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The reason I ask, is I had a few Linksys routers get to warm out in the open & the wireless just stopped working (The new thin black ones) & just wanted to know if any had probs. like that...
 
Unless you see a huge number of people complaining about something it is likely one of those random electronic failures. All manufacture have issue from time to time. Then again almost no router maker actually makes their own equipment it is almost all built by foxconn or some other third party.

This is one of those almost impossible to figure out things. Even router with exactly the same model numbers will have revisions in the internal parts and both will be on the shelf at the store and look identical.

This is why large corporate customers buy things like laptops from HP so they can be sure they are exactly identical so they have less support issues. Commercial routers/AP work the same and why you pay so much for them. Even then you can get random failure
 
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