Recommend a good value router with strong WiFi

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timmmay

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Topic # 151453 26-Aug-2014 08:03

A friend of mine has a Netcomm Wireless N 150 router in his lounge. The WiFi signal doesn't reach his bedroom, and his new HP laptop drops off regularly, whereas it's rock solid with my Fritzbox. He's looking for a good value router with a powerful WiFi signal - I suggested a extra WAP but he'd like to replace the router.

I put my Linksys 54GL in, at the default 70mw transmit power it didn't get a signal to their bedroom. When I turned it up to 240mw transmit power it worked well.

Can anyone recommend a good basic router that has powerful WiFi? He doesn't need anything fancy, but the latest version of 802.11 that midrange laptops support would be a good plan.

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Meow
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Reply # 1115639 26-Aug-2014 08:18

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Mikrotik rb951g-2hnd - you can buy it from here: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/coming-soon-new-products/mikrotik-rb951g-2hnd-high-power-802.11n-gigabit-wireless-router.html

1w dual chain WiFi - covers my house no problems (3 stories), a bit more difficult than your standard router to configure but once you learn how to then it is easy.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Coil

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Reply # 1115648 26-Aug-2014 08:47

Michael has the idea.
Most of the time its actually the end device thats the limit. They generally can receive the signal but sending back gets to be an issue.

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timmmay

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Reply # 1115650 26-Aug-2014 08:58

Wow, that thing's a beast! 2W is pretty much overkill when 250mw will do it! Few questions:
- Can you turn the transmit power down?
- I'm tech support, pretty technical but not a networking expert. Will I be able to set it up?

Is there anything that has a bit less power (say 500mw) but more features that could be useful? Alternately something cheaper? That's a decent price but cheaper is always better.

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Oblivian

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Reply # 1115655 26-Aug-2014 09:09

Browse the Gowifi site..

Their stuff is the shiz. Sold to a lot of corporates who don't want to pay the pricing of the Motorolla/Symbol/Cisco systems. Ubiquiti are another not too bad range. But have their own proprietry OS which can 'feel' different to the usual home range if you take it out of out-of-box mode

timmmay

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Reply # 1115660 26-Aug-2014 09:12

The GoWifi site is set up for experts I think. There's no obvious "routers" section, and it's hard to know about which router will have enough transmit power since it's not always listed. I think I'll need suggestions from you guys.

The first suggestion seems pretty good, just making sure I look about first. For example I hear TPLink are good, but no idea about how powerful they are.

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deadlyllama

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Reply # 1115670 26-Aug-2014 09:31

I've got a DIR-645 which has got good range and is extremely cheap these days. It's got some sort of extra-fancy MIMO with lots of antennae. I also have a Mikrotik truenet probe, and the DIR-645 (located in the same cupboard) gets better performance and better range.

timmmay

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Reply # 1115680 26-Aug-2014 09:37

That's not in stock at ascent, which indicates more difficult to get. $70 though, half the price. I have the DIR-615, which works ok, but is being used as a hard wired switch only.

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tigercorp

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Reply # 1115682 26-Aug-2014 09:40

michaelmurfy: Mikrotik rb951g-2hnd - you can buy it from here: http://www.gowifi.co.nz/coming-soon-new-products/mikrotik-rb951g-2hnd-high-power-802.11n-gigabit-wireless-router.html

1w dual chain WiFi - covers my house no problems (3 stories), a bit more difficult than your standard router to configure but once you learn how to then it is easy.

That looks great but can anyone also recommend one that does both 2.4 and 5GHz?

Oblivian

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Reply # 1115685 26-Aug-2014 09:45

timmmay: The GoWifi site is set up for experts I think. There's no obvious "routers" section, and it's hard to know about which router will have enough transmit power since it's not always listed. I think I'll need suggestions from you guys.

The first suggestion seems pretty good, just making sure I look about first. For example I hear TPLink are good, but no idea about how powerful they are.

Say what?

Access points - indoor.

http://www.gowifi.co.nz/access-points-802.11/indoor-wireless-access-points.html

TA-DA!

Not all are 5Ghz however. I have the $70 airRouter - surpasses the signal from my fritz tenfold from the opposite end of the house

timmmay

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Reply # 1115690 26-Aug-2014 09:53

Oblivian:
timmmay: The GoWifi site is set up for experts I think. There's no obvious "routers" section, and it's hard to know about which router will have enough transmit power since it's not always listed. I think I'll need suggestions from you guys.

The first suggestion seems pretty good, just making sure I look about first. For example I hear TPLink are good, but no idea about how powerful they are.

Say what?

Access points - indoor.

http://www.gowifi.co.nz/access-points-802.11/indoor-wireless-access-points.html

TA-DA!

Not all are 5Ghz however. I have the $70 airRouter - surpasses the signal from my fritz tenfold from the opposite end of the house

Ah those are routers and access points, thanks. Still it's difficult to work out which ones are powerful, they all have different ways of expressing their power. 2.4 and 5GHz would be good to have, and I guess I could convince him to keep his router and just buy a WAP.

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Oblivian

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Reply # 1115704 26-Aug-2014 10:15

You need to punch most the figures in a table/calculator. Power on wifi is like audio PMPO vs RMS etc. The figures don't mean much to anyone without working them out.

This table may help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm

Along with the EIRP wiki page.

http://www.cpcstech.com/dbm-to-watt-conversion-information.htm

More or less, 200mW is a good starting point. I have a Saeno (Engenius now) 200mW PCMCIA wifi card that I joined the local mesh P2P network (yobbo) with, and with the help of a 19dB antenna went about 14kms to an antenna on the port hills.
My UB AirRouter is 19dbM - More or less 100mW. The high power version is listed as 400mW

Of course, manufacturer specs may not include any gain lost/earned by the antenna they attach also.

deadlyllama

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Reply # 1115723 26-Aug-2014 10:43

Oblivian:
timmmay: The GoWifi site is set up for experts I think. There's no obvious "routers" section, and it's hard to know about which router will have enough transmit power since it's not always listed. I think I'll need suggestions from you guys.

The first suggestion seems pretty good, just making sure I look about first. For example I hear TPLink are good, but no idea about how powerful they are.

Say what?

Access points - indoor.

http://www.gowifi.co.nz/access-points-802.11/indoor-wireless-access-points.html

TA-DA!

Not all are 5Ghz however. I have the $70 airRouter - surpasses the signal from my fritz tenfold from the opposite end of the house

Well designed gear beats just turning up the power. My DIR-645 provides better performance on 2.4GHz than my old Linksys N610 dual-band router did at 5GHz. And Ubiquiti are known for good engineering.

toyonut

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Reply # 1115779 26-Aug-2014 11:27

Had good success with our Asus DSL-N12E:
http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=MODAS0126&name=ASUS-DSL-N12E-C1-ADSL22+-Wireless-N-300Mbps-Modem-

Pretty cheap, but easy to configure with a lot of options. Gets good coverage too. As someone mentioned before though, it is going to be all about the device on the other end though. If your modem is able to work in the same house and at the same distance, you should be alright, but if the device on the other end cant send data back to the router, you will be out of luck no matter how good the router is.

Had awesome success with these wifi chips if the laptop is the failing point:
http://www.dove.co.nz/products/networking-and-adsl/network-wireless-and-bluetooth/10477

Will support AC as well when that becomes standard.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

timmmay

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Reply # 1115794 26-Aug-2014 11:49

The Asus is 2.4GHz only, like most that've been mentioned. Here's the summary of current options, all of which will replace the existing router AFAIK:
- MikroTik RB951G-2HnD High Power 802.11n Gigabit Wireless Router, $146 delivered. VERY high power 1000mw.30dbm, good brand, gigabit, 2.4GHz only.
- MikroTik RB951Ui-2HnD High Power 802.11n Wireless Router. As above with slightly slower CPU. $122 delivered but out of stock.
- Ubiquiti AirRouter 802.11n Wireless Router, $96 delivered. Great brand, says it's high power but 19dbm is only 79mw.
- Ubiquiti AirRouter High Power 400mW 802.11n, 10/100. $123 delivered. 400mw/26dbm.

I guess either the MikroTik or Ubiquiti High Power would be my pick. Ubiquiti have a great reputation so tempted to recommend that, plus it's cheaper, even though it doesn't do gigabit - doubt my friend needs that. Thoughts?

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nitrotech

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Reply # 1115816 26-Aug-2014 12:58

timmmay: The Asus is 2.4GHz only, like most that've been mentioned. Here's the summary of current options, all of which will replace the existing router AFAIK:
- MikroTik RB951G-2HnD High Power 802.11n Gigabit Wireless Router, $146 delivered. VERY high power 1000mw.30dbm, good brand, gigabit, 2.4GHz only.
- MikroTik RB951Ui-2HnD High Power 802.11n Wireless Router. As above with slightly slower CPU. $122 delivered but out of stock.
- Ubiquiti AirRouter 802.11n Wireless Router, $96 delivered. Great brand, says it's high power but 19dbm is only 79mw.
- Ubiquiti AirRouter High Power 400mW 802.11n, 10/100. $123 delivered. 400mw/26dbm.

I guess either the MikroTik or Ubiquiti High Power would be my pick. Ubiquiti have a great reputation so tempted to recommend that, plus it's cheaper, even though it doesn't do gigabit - doubt my friend needs that. Thoughts?

What are you connecting it to? if you've got something like a draytek 130 for adsl or vdsl then you can use any of these - however the air router does not do vlan tagging on the WAN side so you couldn't use it for UFB without extra hardware whereas the mikrotik can do whatever you want but unless you want to learn router os then it's going to be a pain to configure.

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