Timely thread bump. I was just thinking about buying a new router. I’m too busy to run Ethernet so my cable modem (100mbps service) is all the way on one side of the house where my PC is. The WRT54G only gives us 1-2 bars on the other side of the house.
I have an iPad Air 2 (I think) and my wife has an iPhone 6+ so we’d be able to take advantage of ac. It sounds like a Nighthawk is overkill though. At most I’m streaming 720p video over YouTube.
Tim, I’m a network engineer by trade and I could babble on and on about the many upgrades you would get by ditching your WRT54G and going to something like that Nighthawk. Suffice to say:
Better speed, both locally and to the internet. You’re pushing your WRT54G on the WAN side of things to your internet connection.
Better coverage and signal reach.
Better features on the router itself.
Another complete band of signal (5GHz.)
Better signal isolation (less issues with noise and interference.)
Yeah, I’m pretty much just waiting for a sale on a good router now. Maybe Black Friday. If anyone happens to see one, let me know.
(Gotta remember to use the QT3 link too!)
This is the best deal for a high-end router you’ll find, including black friday. It’s essentially an Asus RT-AC68u for $60, $100 less than Amazon.
I’ve been using one myself for over a year. Bulletproof.
Ah, saw that on slickdeals earlier and picked one up, and free shipping apparently also applies to overnight too(!).
Going to have some flashing amusement in my future it looks like.
As a note for others in the market, the original Xbone and PS4 don’t have wireless AC but the new models (S, Slim, Pro) all do.
Wow, a necro from my old thread! The power button on the Asus broke and I was using a toothpick to keep it powered. It also ran really hot when streaming HD movies.
Went with the TP-Link Archer 2600 a few months ago and its been fantastic. Best wireless router I’ve had yet.
On the RT-AC68u? How often were you turning it off? I don’t think I’ve ever turned mine off. Didn’t have heat issues either.
This WRT54G is cutting my download speed from 100 mbps to 25 mbps. I’m using it as a router with a bridged cable modem. Could it really be that slow?
I’d like to make sure the briding process works okay and observe the limitations of this router before I buy a new one.
So turn on your firewall and plug your computer directly into the cable modem, and run a speedtest.
Yeah that’s what makes me wonder about the router. It’s at 75 mbps in that configuration. (It should be 100 mbps and was the other day but I’m not worried about that at the moment.)
Tim, the output of the WAN port on those things will only top 25 Mb on a good day. They were never rated for “wire” speed. That’s what I meant by the new router increasing your speed to the internet, but I should have stated that more clearly.
You want a router with an actual gigabit port rated for decent line speed.
Some additional info:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/search/992-wireless-g-broadband-router
Sorry to bear bad news.
No that’s fine, just wanted to confirm what I was seeing before I bought something. Totally failed to process what you were saying above.
No worries, man. Good luck with whatever hardware you get!
The WRT54G is a old g-router after all. You’re never going to get more than 54/2 = 27mb/s over wireless on it in absolute best case.
It’s positively ancient, at this point.
Wireless I can understand, but I’m surprised it was such a dog on the wired side. I guess they figured if you can’t get more than that out of wireless then why overdesign it for wired.
The WRT54G was originally introduced in 2002!!! And it had a legendary production run, but at its core you’re basically talking about technology that was cutting-edge when Windows XP was a year old.
A lot has changed since then.
I’m only 19 years old so it’s hard for me to put this into perspective after all.
Interesting - the 54GL version does 100MB through its LAN ports alright. But that’s from 2006 (and still made today). There were a ton of G versions with varying cheapness.
Actually using one as a replacement for a spotty N router that the roommates started complaining about (dropping out randomly every half hour on the bad days).