What router should I buy?

[niffcreature]

I need a new reliable, cost effective wireless router that will hopefully last me a while and will actually allow me to print shipping labels over wireless.

I'll probably buy one of the first recommendations I get. So yeah, give me your best shot.

[tijo]

Netgear WNDR3700
Linksys E4200 v1
Linksys E3000
Asus RT-N56U

Those are the ones i can think of at the top of my head. Aside any requirements, like 450mbps or 300mbps is fine?

[Thierry19]

D-link dir-825? Or the new one the dir-827.
I'm kind of a D-link fan.

@tijo; is there a Linksys E4200 v2 that I should know about?
And while you are in the Netgear you might check for the WNDR4500

[tijo]

The E4200 v2 uses a marvel chip instead of the broadcom one in the v1. The marvell has better performance with a usb drive hooked to the router, but poorer networking performance which is what matters. I'm pretty sure the netgear WNDR4500 has the same marvel chip, but don't quote me on that.

The v2 also theoretically does 450mbps on 2.4GHz, but unless you live in Kuujjuaq, you'll get too much interference so it is a pretty much useless feature.

Also, not a fan of D-Link, but i won't say not to go for one as i don't have any recent experience with D-Link, bad past experience though which is why i avoid them, but the same can be said for other manufacturers by other people.

[niffcreature]

Actually I'm going to take a few to try and diagnose my problems... Maybe I should start a new thread?

I can't print shipping labels over wireless. The connection times out, whether I go through the USPS website, Paypal or Ebay. There is maybe ONE other website I've found that times out. Everything works fine with ethernet plugged into the router.

Any ideas?

[jhl1989]

Cisco Linksys E4200 V2

[niffcreature]

Can I print shipping labels with it??
...Or is my modem the problem? :/

[Geekz]

if it times out in wireless but ok when you're wired then it could be your router or wlan card, does it also happen on a different laptop?

I was looking to buy the E4200 v2, could you guys elaborate some more why it's slower in terms of networking performance or why it's worse than the v1 ?

[H.A.L. 9000]

I'm confused as to what exactly you mean...

You need to print shipping labels... I get that.

Your printer is wireless, correct? And what exact type of printer and router do you have now?

[downloads]

Originally Posted by Geekz

if it times out in wireless but ok when you're wired then it could be your router or wlan card, does it also happen on a different laptop?

I was looking to buy the E4200 v2, could you guys elaborate some more why it's slower in terms of networking performance or why it's worse than the v1 ?

Linksys are very good at making Broadcom based routers. They never made a good router based on any other chipset. When they made routers based on something else they usually made a mess of it.
E4200v2 is based on Marvell main chip that they have never used and in spite of the fact that it is roughly twice as powerful as Broadcom chip in v1 throughput is lower for v2.
It's not as much the throughput itself that it is important as it's surely faster than you connection anyway- but the fact that it probably means that firmware is a bit messy.
Also wireless range on 2.4GHz band is worse than it used to be and there's virtually no chance for 3rd party firmware support.

All in all v2 is more expensive, offers less throughput and wireless range and is something new for Linksys (you're the guinea pig).
It's a lot better if it's meant to be a mini-NAS. Thanks to its NAS-grade main chip it beats any router on the market when it comes to USB transfer speeds.
Other than this particular application it's worse and the price makes it even less appealing.