Need advice with router upgrade!

[jr88]

Hey everyone, let me start off by saying this is a great forum, I read it all the time. I've always found good tips and advice from others on this forum, and now I have a little problem of my own After a week of router searching with no results, I thought this would be the best place to come.

My current situation:
I have 2 desktops (1 wired, 1 wireless), 2 laptops (both wireless g connected),1 soon to be bought laptop (will be wireless n connected), an Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii in my household. The 360, Wii, PS3 and Wireless desktop are 2 floors below my router. At the moment, I use a Linksys WRT350N gigabit router for all my connections with beta 1.05.8 firmware (its the best firmware that I know of for it). For the most part, its performance is alright. However, the router itself drops connections quite a bit (mostly when I have a game going, of course). Ive given up hope that Linksys will release any new firmware for this product (its been just under a year now with no updates), so I dont think its performance will be improving any time soon.

I currently pay for a 10 Mbps down and 1Mbps up connection and am looking to utilize all of this bandwidth. I would like a reliable router that does not drop connection, and that can handle the 2 floor barrier (a distance of about 20-30 feet). I use P2P quite frequently and would like a router that is good with handling systems running games. I also stream media to my PS3 and 360 (some HD, some SD) and its quite annoying when I watch a movie to only have my connection drop out right at the end. So, Id like this not to happen, lol.

From some research Ive conducted in the past week, Ive narrowed down my choices to the following two routers:
1)D-Link DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Wireless Media Router (A2)
2)D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme Gaming Router

For my situation, which of these two routers would you suggest? If you think neither of these would be good, what router would you suggest? I have a $300 Canadian budget.

I appreciate any help you give me! Thanks!

 

[Q-BZ]

From some research Ive conducted in the past week, Ive narrowed down my choices to the following two routers:
1)D-Link DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Wireless Media Router (A2)

Even I know this one. Costs WAY too much!

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30475/96/

Not worth it.

2)D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme Gaming Router

This is on my short list as well although it's probably a touch on the expensive side as well.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30250/100/

Definitely get the DGL4500 over the DIR855 since they're almost the same anyways except the 4500 is a bit cheaper.

 

[jr88]

Thanks for the quick response, Q-BZ. I have a few questions though.

Do you think that both of these modems would be able to get signal through the 2 floor barrier with reasonable/stronger signal strength compared to my 350N?

Also, since the DGL-4500 is considered a 'gaming' router, do you think it would still be adequate/capable of streaming HD content to my PS3?

If it does have good signal strength and is capable of streaming well, I'll definitely pick it up then.

I did read those reviews and I noticed that the 855 has a few upgraded parts, especially since the A2 version is the version being sold now. (The A1 version was the one reviewed in the review you linked me). Could this possible provide better performance/range?

 

[jdabbs]

Definitely get the DGL4500 over the DIR855 since they're almost the same anyways except the 4500 is a bit cheaper.

The 4500 has either/or dual-band support while the 825/855 can run both simultaneously. If only the 2.4 GHz band is used, you may as well consider the 655.

 

[Q-BZ]

The 4500 has either/or dual-band support while the 825/855 can run both simultaneously. If only the 2.4 GHz band is used, you may as well consider the 655.

From what I've read around here and so on, there doesn't seem to be much upside to that simultaneous dual band feature yet since the 5GHz radios and such continue to be underpowered by the manufacterers.

The 855 really is just still ungodly expensive for what it is.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30475/96/

^^ I know there was one revision since Tim wrote this up but to this day he strikes me as still being unimpressed with this thing at its present price point.

The only matching adapter to this day for it is the USB based DWA 160 and I'm pretty sure that it does not allow for simultaneous dual band operation, although I could be mistaken.

 

[thiggins]

I'm pretty sure that it does not allow for simultaneous dual band operation, although I could be mistaken.

No client will operate in both bands simultaneously.