Help Choosing New Wifi Router

[Trigzuh]

Hello everybody,

I currently use a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router WRT54G2 and have been using it for the past few years. The past year it has continuously been dropping connection throughout the day, and I've finally decided on buying a new router. I tried looking into what the best routers are right now, but everything just seems the same and it's hard to make a decision. I don't mind how much it costs as long as it is worth it.

What I'm looking for:
- Stable/Reliable connection that won't drop
- I play a lot of video games, mainly League of Legends, so losing connection in game is a complete disaster.

- Fast Connection
- I stream a lot of video (YouTube, Twitch, Netflix, etc) and would like a reliable connection for uninterrupted viewing. I know that the actual speed depends on my ISP - I just thought I would include to show that I'm a heavy internet user, if that matters.

Sorry if this isn't in the right place!

Thanks for the help (hopefully!) :]

 

[Emerald]

what is your budget?

 

[burnley14]

Monoprice sells really good stuff on the cheap. One of their wireless routers is linked below. It's a new addition to their collection so it includes all the expected bells and whistles (2.4/5GHz transmission, 300Mbps wireless and 1000Mbps wired speeds, etc.). They have a few other options also.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10521&cs_id=1052102&p_id=10926&seq=1&format=2

 

[Trigzuh]

what is your budget?

As I said, I don't really mind how much it costs as long as the price is warranted. However, if I were to put an ideal max to how much to spend I would say around $150.

 

[Trigzuh]

Monoprice sells really good stuff on the cheap. One of their wireless routers is linked below. It's a new addition to their collection so it includes all the expected bells and whistles (2.4/5GHz transmission, 300Mbps wireless and 1000Mbps wired speeds, etc.). They have a few other options also.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=105&cp_id=10521&cs_id=1052102&p_id=10926&seq=1&format=2

Thank you for the suggestion! I'll definitely look into this brand.

 

[bill001g]

what is your budget?

As I said, I don't really mind how much it costs as long as the price is warranted. However, if I were to put an ideal max to how much to spend I would say around $150.

When you look at spending $150 you can get some of the top of line routers. The most expensive of the more common consumer routers is around $200.

Then again buy 802.11ac doesn't do you a lot of good if the nic cards on your machine do not also do 802.11ac so you many times need to upgrade more stuff. You can get a 802.11ac router from tp-link for $99 if that is your goal.

What you may want to consider is buying a dual band router and also make sure you have dual band nics in your PCs.

Your actual problem is not likely your router. Likely over time you have more and more neighbors competing for the radio bandwidth. It is their interfering signals that many times causes the drops people are seeing. A new fancy router is not going to make the neighbors go away. So the first thing to try is to just change the channels on your existing router. Now this is where dual band comes in. It has more channels in the 5g range you can try to use to avoid the neighbors. Part of the advantage and disadvantage of 5g is that it does not go through walls as well. This means it reduces the signal strength between the rooms of your house but it also does a better job of keeping the neighbors signals out of your house.

....For games you should not use any form of wireless. Even the newest and best models can be interfered with and drop your connection.