WiFi HD Streaming

[roghero]

I recently just got a Netgear N600 WNDR3400v2 and I have been playing with the idea that I might have spent too much money ($79.99). I want good range(medium sized house), good wireless, wired speed, and I would also like to stream HD to my PS3 and LG Network Media Players. The router is running flawlessly and has a number of features that I thought I needed but no longer needed. I do not need Dual band seeing as the only 5GHz devices I have are two Galaxy S2's and theres no need for them to really be on that band. I thought I needed Readyshare USB device to wifi but I have found I can do that without this router. The only thing justifying this 80 dollar purchase is that it streams HD to my media devices flawlessly as long as there is no heavy traffic in my network. I know there are a number of 300 mbps N routers out there at $40-50 range out there but based on your experiences which ones will stream HD to my devices flawlessly and give me the same performance for at least $30 less or should I stick with what I have?

 

[RealBeast]

Unless you can return it easily for a full refund, stick with what you have and optimize the speed by using it in N only mode, WPA2 security and AES encryption. That is pretty cheap for that router and the good 2.4GHz only routers with gigabit Ethernet cost more like $50-$60 unless on a good sale. Plus you may always decide to use the readyshare.

 

[roghero]

Unless you can return it easily for a full refund, stick with what you have and optimize the speed by using it in N only mode, WPA2 security and AES encryption. That is pretty cheap for that router and the good 2.4GHz only routers with gigabit Ethernet cost more like $50-$60 unless on a good sale. Plus you may always decide to use the readyshare.

I bought it at a local Fry's Electronics so returning it won't be a big deal. It will be store credit though because I returned an original gift to get the router with store credit since I didn't have the card that was used for the original purchase. I don't need gigabit Ethernet I just need a good N router that will stream HD. Do you have any good ones in mind or is any N 300 router under a quality brand going to do the job. Fry's has a whole tier of wireless at routers at 40-50 that are quality brands and are N 300 routers. I also have ps3 media server running in my PC so all my wireless device can use the ,media in my PC with that media server running so ready share is not needed.

 

[RealBeast]

I use a D-Link DIR-655 (N300) that is set to N only WPA2 and AES and get very good speeds, enough to do HD video on most of my connections -- one is pretty far away so I had to go with a cable to it, but the others are fine at around 40Mbps. I don't think that the D-Link is really any cheaper unless on sale though. For other units, I would compare them at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-charts/view

If you haven't had interference problems (I'm out in the countryside so have none, but you can check by running inSSIDer freeware on a laptop to look at 2.4GHz channel use around you), you should be fine with any decent wireless N.