This is my review of what I believe to be the “best wireless N router” on the market today. Just the other day I reviewed what I believe to be the worst wireless N router ever made, so now it’s time I reviewed what I replaced it with.
Background: I’ve been working repairing and upgrading computers for 15 years, and I work online about 12 or more hours per day from my home office. We have a 16 mbit connection to the web, and there are 3 computers, 3 laptops, one netbook, an entertainment PC, an Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and various portable devices connected to the Internet. The router is probably one of the most important pieces of equipment in the entire house, since the Internet is in constant use.
I have used Linksys routers for years. It’s probably force of habit since I worked in corporate IT for 10 years, and that’s always what was used at work, and it’s what you see in all the big box stores. In addition – the company is owned by Cisco – a known industry networking leader.
Years ago I had a Linksys Wireless B router. It worked great, but was too slow. I bought a Microsoft wireless G router online in some clearance sale for $25, and we used that for almost 5 years with no issues. Microsoft no longer makes routers. About a year ago it got to the point where we were having to reset the MS router multiple times per day – so I broke down and bought the Linksys WRT54G wireless G router. It lasted about one year before it died. By “died”, I mean – all the lights won’t even come on anymore.
I usually exclusively buy all my electronics and gadgets online. I haven’t bought anything like that in a big box store like Wal-Mart, Staples, Best But, etc. – in years. My wife and I were out and about shopping when my son called and said the router died. He’s going to school for networking, so when he said it was “dead”, I knew it was. The way we use the Internet – I knew that I had to buy a new router while I was out, or there would be no web access when I returned home.
Grudgingly, I went to Staples because I live in a small town, and I knew they would have the most routers on hand. Since the Linksys WRT54G died after just one year, I knew I didn’t want another Linksys. I also knew that NetGear is usually the bottom of the barrel, so the thought was “let’s try Belkin!”. I bought the best router they have, the Play Max dual band Wireless N router – and as you read in my last review, it was the worst wireless N router money can buy. It was horrible, every page online took 3-5 seconds to load, some never loaded – the router had to be reset all the time, it was complete and utter garbage. My son actually read online at the Belkin web site in their FAQ’s that they recommend rebooting the router every 4 hours for “optimal usage” – WTF is that? When the company making the router says you have to reboot it 6 times a day for best use – you KNOW it’s crap!
How to Pick the best Wireless N Router
If you’re not very technical (or even if you are), I’m going to give you some things you should be looking for when buying a router.
DOES THE ROUTER HAVE…
- are the antennas internal or external? (external are of course better)
- how many antennas does the router have?
- what is the speed of the processor?
- how much memory does it have?
- how much flash memory does it have?
- does it have external connectivity for USB storage and printers?
You may not have thought about it this way – but a router is a miniature computer. It has a CPU, and it has memory. Now – think about this for a second – that means that the more CPU power it has, and the more memory it has, the faster it’s going to work. So you’re not only looking for the wireless N router with the best features, you’re looking for the one with the most POWER.
Comparing Wireless N Routers
Belkin Play Max
- antennas: internal
- CPU: info not found anywhere
- Memory: tech sites list as 64MB
- Flash Memory: tech sites list it as 8MB
- external support: print and USB storage
Linksys WRT320N
- antennas: internal
- CPU: BCM4717A 354MHz
- Memory: 32MB
- Flash Memory: 8MB
- external support: NO
*Note: regardless of pricepoint, antenna, and external support – nearly all Linksys wireless N routers seem to have 32MB memory, 8MB flash, and smaller CPI
NetGear RangeMax
- antennas: internal
- CPU: 680 MHz 32-bit processor
- Memory: 64MB
- Flash Memory: 8MB
- external support: print and USB storage
D-Link Xtreme
- antennas: 3 external
- CPU: 275 Mhz
- Memory: 16MB
- Flash Memory: 4MB
- external support: print and USB storage
Asus RT-N16
- antennas: 3 external
- CPU: Broadcom BCM4718 533MHZ
- Memory: 128MB
- Flash Memory: 32MB
- external support: print and USB storage
My Choice for Best Wireless N Router
If you go buy specs above from the list above, it’s very plain that as far as CPU and memory horsepower, the D-Link is the bottom of the barrel. The next worst would be Linksys. The NetGear has the most powerful processor, but only by a hare (533Mhz vs. 680 Mhz). The Asus has double the memory, and 4 times as much the flash memory. Also – the Asus has 3 external antennas
For those of you who have never heard of the ASUS company (AsusTek), they are primarily known for making motherboards for computers. Those of us that have been building computers for years know that name well, because ASUS has not only always meant quality – but they have long since been the “Cadillac” of motherboard makers. Most “tech guys” know the ASUS name from parts we buy online – again, not a name you would normally see in the “big box” stores.
We purchased the Asus RT-N16 Wireless N router based on the specs above, but also because of the 4-5 star reviews on nearly every site we could find a review on. We paid about $90US, and had it shipped overnight via Amazon Prime.
This is a pic of the router:
When I received the router – I took it out of the box and connected it to my cable modem, and my main computer via hardwire. I brought up the management interface at http://192.168.1.1/. The first thing you need to do is turn off your router while you plugin everything in (remove the battery if it has battery backup – like the comcast routers with VOIP phones). Then turn the cable modem on first, 30 seconds later turn on the router, and then bring up the management interface. I believe the only tweak we really made, was to turn the firewall off. We used WPA2-Personal with a network key, and seconds later – we were up and running!
The difference between our Linksys wireless G, the Belkin Playmax, and the Asus RT-N16 was astounding. With the extra memory and flash (and bigger processer) – web pages load like lightning! After you type a URL and hit enter, just say “BAM!” as fast as you can, and the web page is already loaded.
Now you may think that it’s just this fast from my hard wired computer, but loading YouTube videos and flash-laden pages from a 7 year old 1.0 Ghz Pentium III with 512MB Ram and 40GB hard drive, with a USB Wireless N adapter is just about as fast as the hard wired computer. It’s fast as hell!
This is the fastest router I’ve owned, setup was effortless, and it has the most external antennas and largest horsepower of any wireless N router I could find. I know that wireless N has a broader range, but when I had the Belkin Play Max installed (upstairs), my devices downstairs were connecting to the network with only 1 or 2 bars (out of 5, even though it was wireless N). My ASUS RT-N16 has had consistent 5 bar connections with EVERY device in my home since I installed it from day 1. That’s the best wifi connection hotspot I’ve ever had installed anywhere (and I’ve setup dozens of routers for family, friends, and clients). From now on – Asus is the only wireless router I will buy.
If you like the specs and want to try the ASUS RT-N16, you can buy it on Amazon here:
You can also find it new or used on eBay:
