I have a friend who is running some old Dlink gear, one modem, one wireless router, and the router continually loses the wireless settings and jumps back to the ‘default’ SSID and no encryption. She’s asked me for help, but I’m not really in touch with the consumer wireless market nowadays. What do people recommend for a G or N modem/router which doesn’t have firmware as crap as the norm?
I think D-Link router firmware may have improved since your friend’s model. I had a D-Link DGL-4300 for about a year and loved its interface, but it went belly-up for no reason I could fathom a couple of weeks ago (indicator lights all dead, no warning). Others on this forum have recommended that model and I assume that either I killed it or I just had a bad unit. For the past two weeks I’ve been using a Linksys WRT310N which also has a good interface and appears to have solid firmware.
If she’s willing to invest a little more, I think the Airport Extreme Base Station is probably the way to go. I’ll let the router experts explain why if any feel like it (or recommend alternatives).
I should clarify - She really wants the ADSL modem built in to simplify things (1 device instead of 2) and the only requirement for this device is that it work and continue working. No special features or unusually long ranges are needed, which is why if can still be a G device if there’s a good older model out there. This is just for sharing Internet and printing to a shared printer.
And for those who may find the idea of a modem/router a bit inflexible, the vast, overwhelming majority of broadband here is ADSL, so there is no real advantage in a standalone router.