New Wireless Router

[aknight]

I'm moving into a new apartment and am now going to need to actually buy my first wireless router. I know plenty about setting them up and what not but I was just wondering what models to look at. I'm interested in getting something that is as future proof as possible and has at least 4 ethernet ports as well (preferably gigabit but doesn't have to be). Price isn't a huge problem but I don't want to spend excessivly, somewhere below 100 dollars would be best but I'd like to see some more expensive options as well so I can compare features and such. Range isn't a huge issue but I would like consistant and fast wireless connections. So what would you all suggest getting?

 

[blue68f100]

Are you connecting a laptop with built in wireless? Or are you planing on buying a PCMCI card?

If you don't want high failure rates, look at the bussiness line of routers. But the better ones do not contain built-in wireless. router + AP = best option.

 

[aknight]

I probobly could get by with something like a linksys wrt54g or whatever they are. (That's what I have been using) However I would like to have the ability for it to stream video wirelessly through the apartment; I've seen it b4 and it was not very good (However that may have been due to the codec), and I may in the not so distant future be trying out some High def video too which I know requires a lot of bandwidth. I also have two roomates that will be connecting and although they won't be very taxing (basic internet stuff) I would like to be able to still get good wireless connections for my media center computer, everything else will be wired.

I guess I'm asking if there are any of the draft n routers that I should be looking at or should i stick with just a generic 802.11g router with a 4 port hub built in. And my main goal is to find a reputable one that I won't find a board going bad and that performs well.

Also I'm not opposed to using a router and hooking up an access point but I didn't think it would be the most economical way to do it, I don't forsee more than 4 wireless connections and I already do have a switch I use for my computers (all 8 of them, I like doing distributed computing projects and racking up a power bill)

 

[blue68f100]

Combo routers are the cheapest way to go, but not the best in performance do to limited resources. With minimal markup that add a radio and antenna. The price difference is not enought to buy a single High gain antenna. I woould stay away from any pre 11n and mimo products. Look at the router chart and decide from that. Dlink and Netgear both have some good gigaport routers. If you can get a version 3-4 Linksys WRT54g or even a gs would be good.

 

[fredweston]

The WRT54Gs are good little routers. There's an opensource firmware project for them that you can flash them with to enable a lot more features. It's an "at your own risk" kind of thing though. I have an older Netgear 11g router and it stream DivX just fine. I'm the only one using it though, so you might not have the same results if you had 3 or 4 people using it as well.