Three Best Wireless Routers for Around $100 or Less?

[DarrellS]

I believe that's the one that I talked my friend into buying a while back. It was on sale at Bestbuy at the time. Probably the one I would buy if I was in the market for one. It's one of the two that I linked to but I guess the link doesn't work. The other was the 3400 for $20 cheaper.

[p_l]

The Best Buy link doesn't work for me.

I'm trying the Netgear WNDR3700 now and I really like the granular parental controls which allow for blocking certain websites at certain times - exactly what I want.

Problem is, the range isn't as good - no iPad video streaming on the deck, which the Amped, with its external antennas, permitted.

I also brought home a D-Link 835, which I'm not sure even want to unbox after reading the reviews, and an Asus RT-N66U with external antennas which does get good reviews, but when I look through their cool and handy online dummy interface, I can't find any parental control or access restriction setting that allows for blocking certain websites at certain times.

[DarrellS]

Reviews I read on the 3700 back then raved about it's range but it was probably a straight unobstructed view. My friend lives in a double wide trailer and he can play movies from the PC in the back bedroom (computer room) on his laptop (nice laptop) in the living room and pass them through to his TV using an HDMI cable. Not sure how it would work in a two story house though or from the back bedroom to the master bedroom on the far end of the trailer.

[usually_quiet]

and an Asus RT-N66U with external antennas which does get good reviews, but when I look through their cool and handy online dummy interface, I can't find any parental control or access restriction setting that allows for blocking certain websites at certain times.

I checked what the firmware for my own ASUS router allows. The parental controls provided in the standard ASUS router firmware allow completely blocking Internet access at specific times on specific devices. It can't block only individual websites.

You would need to install TomatoUSB or other third party firmware that supports OpenDNS for granular parental controls.

I've tried using the ASUS RT-N16 on the second floor of a 1950's brick house with plaster walls, and got a good signal on the first floor at the opposite end of the house. I never tried to see what kind of signal would be available outside.

[p_l]

The Netgear parental control uses OpenDNS and so far I'm quite pleased with it, used in conjunction with keyword/domain scheduled filtering on the router itself.

What do the access restriction / parental control features look like on TomatoUSB?

[usually_quiet]

The Netgear parental control uses OpenDNS and so far I'm quite pleased with it, used in conjunction with keyword/domain scheduled filtering on the router itself.

What do the access restriction / parental control features look like on TomatoUSB?

I found a link to a screenshot https://forum.videohelp.com/images/imgfiles/MqBDeh.jpg for the parental controls included in some version of Tomato (I don't know which one) at http://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/162i94/router_or_firmware_with_excellent_parental/

As a networking newbie I figured I had a lot to learn before I was ready to try third-party firmware. Since I haven't used TomatoUSB yet, I can't tell you what it is like from personal experience. As with anything based on Linux, there are multiple Tomato forks and mods. TomatoUSB was one, and now it has its own mods.

I found the a post below at http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/tomato-by-shibby-parental-controls-with-opendns.68123/ indicating that Tomato(Shibby) is a TomatoUSB mod that supportd the type of access controls that you want.

I use OpenDNS http://www.opendns.com/ for very reliable (and free) filtering based on website categories. It is very easy to set up Tomato to use OpenDNS, and even update your account via the built in DynDNS client so that you can keep logs and statistics.

This is a guide for flashing the RT-N66U with Shibby's mod of TomatoUSB
http://www.shadowandy.net/2012/03/asus-rt-n66u-tomatousb-firmware-flashing-guide.htm

[p_l]

In case I'm not happy with Tomato on the Asus and I want to return it, I would need to flash the firmware back to its origianl state. How easy is that?

Is this correct, that it's possible to use OpenDNS on the stock Asus firmware?

My experience so far with the Netgear is that Access Restrictions don't block the open-secret trick of adding an s to Facebook's URL,

https://www.facebook.com/

but OpenDNS does block it (without blocking other https URLs). Therefore, I think I'd be happy with anything that allowed me to use OpenDNS, so if the ASUS has better range plus allows for OpenDNS, that might be preferable.

[usually_quiet]

In case I'm not happy with Tomato on the Asus and I want to return it, I would need to flash the firmware back to its origianl state. How easy is that?

Installing third-party firmware voids the warranty, so you would want to restore the original firmware. I haven't tried it, but I believe there is a Restoration Utility that allows re-installing stock ASUS firmware. You would need to research the procedure for your router to decide if it is easy enough and reliable enough. There is a discussion about it here: http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/just-bricked-rtn66u-after-tomato-upload.64827/

Is this correct, that it's possible to use OpenDNS on the stock Asus firmware?

I don't know if you could use that method and only block access some of the time. I don't have a need to control anyone's Internet activities, otherwise I would try it.

[usually_quiet]

If the complications of installing third-party firmware are a problem, have you considered buying a wireless range extender to allow you to use the Netgear WNDR3700?

[p_l]

Good idea, I was thinking of the same, maybe with one of these: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122496 (when they get it back in stock) or http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168045 (Is this one any good? I have an eGenius wireless adapter which works great).

Now, I've been trying Open DNS with the Amped I first got, but unlike the special setup OpenDNS has for Netgear routers, it appears scheduling is not an option using other routers, so it would probably be the same for the Asus, a Linksys, D-Link, etc. Bummer; the Amped has great range.

[usually_quiet]

Good idea, I was thinking of the same, maybe with one of these: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122496 (when they get it back in stock) or http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168045 (Is this one any good? I have an eGenius wireless adapter which works great).

Now, I've been trying Open DNS with the Amped if first got, but unlike the special setup OpenDNS has for Netgear routers, it appears scheduling is not an option using other routers, so it would probably be the same for the Asus, a Linksys, D-Link, etc. Bummer; the Amped has great range.

I just suggested this as an idea. I have no experience with a range extender because so far the ASUS RT-N16 has been providing a pretty good signal (3-4 bars). I did think of one thing. Some of the routers you have been looking at are 2.4/5GHz models, so you will need to consider whether the less expensive 2.4GHz range extenders will still meet everyone's needs if you buy a 2.4/5GHz router.

[Wolfen]

Got an factorydirect near you ? I've had good success and deals with the wireless (Dual band) routers I've purchased there.

[Cauptain]

My 3 old routers (WR741ND) used GARGOYLE FIRMWARE. After 2 years I bought my 3 news routers and just install GARGOYLE DOWNGRADE FIRMWARE to original TPLINK FW.

No problem. Sell boths with last TP-Link firmware.




Claudio

[p_l]

I tried the next model up for the Netgear router, the WNDR4000 N750, hoping its boasted best range would improve iPad video streaming performance out on the deck. Nope. The advertised Faster Wi–Fi Speed of 300 + 450Mbps for combined wireless speeds up to 750Mbps only boosts speed to 450Mbps for the 5GHz frequency, but remains the same 300Mbps as the WNDR3700 for the 2.4 GHz frequency, which is what pretty much all of my dozen or so connected devices use. The iPad apparently also uses 5Ghz but the range is quite limited.

So, what I'm thinking now is why not the best of both worlds - the granular, customizable OpenDNS filters that come with the Netgear WNDR3700 plus the extraordinarily powerful range of the Amped product, but with one of their range extenders rather than their router, so the Amped Wireless SR10000-CA High Power Wireless-N 600mW Smart Range Extender?

I'm going to try it tomorrow, but I have a question first. I've read that extenders/repeaters work correctly when on the same channel as the base router (I'm currently manually on channel 5, which is a relatively less crowded channel in a very crowded environment, according to my inSSIDer readout*):



So the question is this: Do I set my repeater to repeat the same SSID / WPA2 as the the router's, or do I set a new and different SSID / WPA2 passkey on the repeater?




*For lulz, look at what one geek named his girlfriend's(?) SSID on channels 4 through 8 in dark blue.

[p_l]

In the end, this is the setup that is working best for what I want. Facebook (including its https variant, thanks to Netgear's OpenDNS) and other time wasters are automatically blocked during homework time, but become available later in the evening. At bedtime, all child-accessed network devices, including iPads and iPod Touches, are automatically disconnected from the internet, but come back online the next morning. The Amped extended signal now blasts through a crowded local wireless environment and is rock solid everywhere, including for video streaming to the iPad out on the deck, so the WAF is very high.

The folks at Amped answered my last question:

To answer your question, you will need to set the repeater to have a different SSID. The repeater does not support WDS, which is what is needed to do this. If you do give it the same SSID, you will experience constant connection drops, as your computer is trying to figure out which of the networks to connect to.

Thanks to everyone here who helped out.