[kwlug-disc] Crashing wireless routers

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

My last 3 routers lasted for years without problems, after the first one,
many many years ago, being unstable.

The first was a Zyxel with Wireless G. It did well, until I got a tablet
that would cause the router to crash once it connects.

It was time to upgrade the router anyway, so I bought a new one (Netgear
WNDR3400). That performed really well, apart from its lack of OpenWRT
support.

The current router is DLink DIR-835, with OpenWRT. It is very stable, but
the range for WiFi could be better upstairs.

Rogers provide me with modems that have WiFi in them. My current one is the
second such one. I just disable the residential gateway feature, so the
modem is just a modem.

I do have 2 switches for the wired stuff.

Let me know if you want to try out my Netgear or Zyxel.


On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 12:43 PM, Charles M <chaslinux at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was thinking of building a wired router (pfsense/untangle/smoothwall)
> and only using the wireless router as a wireless access point. Thinking I
> would ditch the two gigabit switches (plastic dlink ones) for a single 8
> port one I saw at Canada Computers (TP-Link I think).
>

Why not get an OpenWRT supported router instead?

>From a previous email, here is what was on the market a few months ago:

D-Link DIR-835
=========
The one I have working at home now
Has 16MB flash, and 128 MB RAM and 1 x USB

Disadvantages: support is in snapshots, which is a moving target, so at
times you may find packages missing.

$90 regular price, on sale now for $80
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/d-link-d-link-dual-band-wireless-n750-gigabit-router-
dir-835-dir-835/10195576.aspx

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/d-link/dir-835

TP-Link WDR-4300
===========
$70
Has 8MB flash, and 128 MB RAM, 2 x USB

The 2 USBs mean that you can have one hard disk attached and configure
minidlna on it for your TV/tablet to stream, and the other USB can have
flash storage for other neat things (which I will cover in the August
presentation)

Less flash RAM than the first one, so may get tight in the future

Many hardware versions though. Some versions have support in the latest
stable version (12.09)

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/tp-link-tp-link-n750-dual-band-wireless-gigabit-router-tl-wdr4300-tl-wdr4300/10219154.aspx

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr4300

TP-Link TL-WDR3600
============
$59
Has 8MB flash, and 128 MB RAM, 2 x USB

Again, the 2 USBs mean same as previous.

Less flash RAM than the first one, so may get tight in the future

All versions seem to have support in latest stable (12.09), which makes it
predictable.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/tp-link-tp-link-wireless-n600-dual-band-gigabit-router-tl-wdr3600-tl-wdr3600/10230126.aspx

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wdr3600

TP-Link TL-WR1043ND
=============
$52
Has 8MB flash, and 32 MB RAM, 1 x USB

Seems not a good price performance ratio, since for less than $10 more you
get double the RAM.

Many hardware versions, with various support.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/tp-link-tp-link-wireless-n-router-tl-wr1043nd-tl-wr1043nd/10157821.aspx

http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr1043nd

-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
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