Wi-Fi Router for max 3K?

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Did not understand this sorry!

See post #15, there's a guy using his previous adsl-wifi-router with tikona. He has an ethernet cable coming into his house like you would with ACT. What he did was convert his existing adsl-wifi router into a switch with wifi. The problem is you may get to connect to just one client or possibly more. Usually act or any isp provides you a connection for one client. You then hook up a router to it to share the line with other devices. Well that guy in the blog claims he can connect his laptop and one mobile device. Not any more. We were wondering whether you could try the same with your ACT connection and see if more clients are allowed or not. And how reliable it is with more than one client. You will be pointing the clients at acts gateway and using dhcp to get an address from act instead of your router. Potentially this means more than public address being assigned to you which would be unusual.

The installation guy said they charge extra for router so I told him I will buy one myself!

If you call up ACT you will hear an announcement telling you their broadband plans and they mention free wifi router with 'select' plans.

Out of stock in flipkart. Any other alternatives?

hmm, it was there last week. Does it have to be from FK only ?

Ah ok. I understand. "Locked into N150" means what?

If you look at the link speed of your mobile it will never exceed 72Mbs, which is N150 in router speak. Even if you get a N450 router, the mobile will never connect at a faster link speed. To benefit from more streams the router provides requires a client that can accept more streams. And with mobile its currently just one stream.

What the latest mobiles do is have ac, which is similar to n450 in terms of speed but its still one stream, thing is ac carries more. But its 5ghz so if you're in the same room or a room away its fine otherwise the speed drops significantly.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Out of stock in flipkart. Any other alternatives?

Check ebay. Even the N13U is available on ebay.

The bridge mode is happening internally in the fiber 'modem as in a adsl-wifi-router. Or setting up a plain adsl-router in bridge mode to bypass the modems's router, turning the modem into an ADSL to ethernet interface and then feeding into a wifi router were the NAT occurs.

There is no NAT taking place with a reverse adsl-router config. Unless you pay ACT to reliably do dhcp for more than one device, but this will be pricey in the long run.

A fiber optic modem is similar to an ADSL modem in that it can perform NAT as well. I meant bridging in the router, not in the fiber optic modem, i.e.: Modem (NAT + DHCP) - Router/switch (bridge). You're on Airtel, so you probably know that Airtel's line engineers by default set up the ADSL modem to perform DHCP duty and bridge your router.
But anyway this is not relevant, since it turns out there isn't actually any fibre optic to the customer's premises and hence no fibre optic modem at the customer's end, its a regular rj45 copper ethernet cable. So yes DHCP is being done by whatever router ACT has installed in the network exchange.

g has a narrower channel width than n which translates into little more range.

Channel width has nothing to do with range.

 

[Doubleseven]

See post #15, there's a guy using his previous adsl-wifi-router with tikona. He has an ethernet cable coming into his house like you would with ACT. What he did was convert his existing adsl-wifi router into a switch with wifi. The problem is you may get to connect to just one client or possibly more. Usually act or any isp provides you a connection for one client. You then hook up a router to it to share the line with other devices. Well that guy in the blog claims he can connect his laptop and one mobile device. Not any more. We were wondering whether you could try the same with your ACT connection and see if more clients are allowed or not. And how reliable it is with more than one client. You will be pointing the clients at acts gateway and using dhcp to get an address from act instead of your router. Potentially this means more than public address being assigned to you which would be unusual.

got it! Thanks for the explanation!

If you call up ACT you will hear an announcement telling you their broadband plans and they mention free wifi router with 'select' plans.

Will check again!

hmm, it was there last week.

The Asus N12-C1 you mean? (Around 1800 bucks). It is there on ebay so I can get it there. Does it satisfy most of my requirements I had mentioned in my first post:
- USB support (ext HDD , dongle) - looks like this is not there
- Tomato or DD-WRT? and other points
Please advice. I will go ahead and buy it today.

hmm, it was there last week.If you look at the link speed of your mobile it will never exceed 72Mbs, which is N150 in router speak. Even if you get a N450 router, the mobile will never connect at a faster link speed. To benefit from more streams the router provides requires a client that can accept more streams. And with mobile its currently just one stream. What the latest mobiles do is have ac, which is similar to n450 in terms of speed but its still one stream, thing is ac carries more. But its 5ghz so if you're in the same room or a room away its fine otherwise the speed drops significantly.

Got it.
Thanks a ton for your support blr_p.[DOUBLEPOST=1395660394][/DOUBLEPOST]

Check ebay. Even the N13U is available on ebay.

Yep. Checked ebay and it is there!

 

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The Asus N12-C1 you mean? (Around 1800 bucks). It is there on ebay so I can get it there. Does it satisfy most of my requirements I had mentioned in my first post:
- USB support (ext HDD , dongle) - looks like this is not there
- Tomato or DD-WRT? and other points
Please advice. I will go ahead and buy it today.

The N13 has everything you want.[DOUBLEPOST=1395665213][/DOUBLEPOST]

Channel width has nothing to do with range.

A Case for Adapting Channel Width in Wireless Networks

when the throughput required is low, moving to a narrower channel increases range and reduces power consumption
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[Doubleseven]

The N13 has everything you want.

N12 you mean?
N13 is not a traditional router. Looks like a wi-fi dongle.

 

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asus n13U, was the std recommend here until stocks ran out on FK. Only place you will find it is on ebay or second hand on the board.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

A Case for Adapting Channel Width in Wireless Networks

when the throughput required is low, moving to a narrower channel increases range and reduces power consumption​

Interesting read. Unfortunately no comparisons with .11n MIMO devices. Judging from the ~3db drop in signal strength between 20 and 40MHz, this might actually end up nullified since N routers have additional antenna(s).
In any case, what I forgot to elaborate was that 802.11n routers also default to the same 20MHz channel width as .11g routers (which is why you also mentioned that N150 communicates at 72Mbps by default). So channel width has nothing to do with the range (because width is the same in this case).

 

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A noob here with regards to router and I need help choosing a Wi-Fi router for a price of around 3K.

What did you go with in the end and how is the performance ?

 

[Doubleseven]

What did you go with in the end and how is the performance ?

Not bought yet. Mostly weekend I will decide and order off. Will keep you posted here!

 

[Doubleseven]

So I have finally come down to 2 choices
1. Asus RN12 C1 - As recommended by blr_p
2. TP LINK TL-MR3420 3G/4G router - http://www.flipkart.com/tp-link-tl-...=b_9&ref=98f7a19e-8ce1-4411-825b-ec2926411547
I am interested in the second because it has 3G/4G support . I am on ACT broadband right now. But if I get a transfer at work etc, I dont want to reinvest in a router after buying one that does not support 3G/4G right now. Secondly, it is just 500 bucks more than the Asus router on flipkart.

But I have a question: is there any difference between the two in terms on performance(assume that I will be on ACT). If the TP Link router is going to suck on ACT broadband (and is not meant for wired), I dont want to pay extra and buy it. I will happily settle with Asus.

 

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Neither have USB ports ?[DOUBLEPOST=1396093988][/DOUBLEPOST]Always check the 3g adapter support page. This is the asus one. Look at india and that is what the N13U router and other asus models can support.

Another point to consider with 3g routers is how portable they are, you might not always get the best signal in the room your computers are attached. So you would need to run an ethernet cable from the area you get best reception to a switch where your wired computers are connected.

 

[Doubleseven]

Neither have USB ports ? Always check the 3g adapter support page. This is the asus one. Look at india and that is what the N13U router and other asus models can support.

The TP-Link router has a USB port. The RT-N12 C1 router (not N13U. ) does not have have an USB port.

Another point to consider with 3g routers is how portable they are, you might not always get the best signal in the room your computers are attached. So you would need to run an ethernet cable from the area you get best reception to a switch where your wired computers are connected.

I wont get good signal/range even if I have wired broadband? I understand that if I am going to rely on a dongle, there might be some range issues. But for ACT broadband on the TP-Link router I had mentioned, will there be range/signal problems when compared to the Asus RT-N12 C1?

Essentially, the USB compatibility is just for the future. Next 2 years, I am going to use ACT broadband only. So based on this, what would you recommended? (barring N13U which costs 1K more than the TP Link router)

 

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The TP-Link router has a USB port. The RT-N12 C1 router (not N13U. ) does not have have an USB port.

Heh, did not see it on the side. So that's for dongles and appears to have a usb 2.0 as well so should handle pendrives and external HDDs but i could not find anything in the setup to configure it. Do we assume is just plug and play ?

I wont get good signal/range even if I have wired broadband?

You will, at least as good as you have presently if not better. This is an N300 router vs the g of your 450BX .

I understand that if I am going to rely on a dongle, there might be some range issues. But for ACT broadband on the TP-Link router I had mentioned, will there be range/signal problems when compared to the Asus RT-N12 C1?

Range will be similar between N12 & this tp-link. ACT will work fine via the WAN port of this TP-Link. If you're happy with a beetel 450BX i cannot imagine this tp-link having problems. Check the dd-wrt website for availability (was down when i checked), it seems this tp-link has an atheros chip which is good. 4MB flashable is lean so you will have basic functionality only with dd-wrt vice the N12U or N13 which have 8MB. Anyway, once you get dd-wrt running you just have to install the minidlna package and you should be able to stream directly from the router and a pendrive or external HDD.

out of the box, it will stream via SMB ie windows sharing and that will eat up more bandwidth than DLNA which works over HTTP.

Essentially, the USB compatibility is just for the future. Next 2 years, I am going to use ACT broadband only. So based on this, what would you recommended? (barring N13U which costs 1K more than the TP Link router)

This tp-link is good enough for what you want. Will be interesting to see how it measures up range wise with your present setup in your last room.

if its 2 years away, then we will already have 4G in India, the tp-link website says 4G compatibility will only be with version 2 of the MR3420. Date v2 came out is 2012, so chances should be good that you will get it.

 

[Doubleseven]

You will, at least as good as you have presently if not better. This is an N300 router vs the g of your 450BX .

Perfect!

Range will be similar between N12 & this tp-link. ACT will work fine via the WAN port of this TP-Link. If you're happy with a beetel 450BX i cannot imagine this tp-link having problems. Check the dd-wrt website for availability (was down when i checked), it seems this tp-link has an atheros chip which is good. 4MB flashable is lean so you will have basic functionality only with dd-wrt vice the N12U or N13 which have 8MB. Anyway, once you get dd-wrt running you just have to install the minidlna package and you should be able to stream directly from the router and a pendrive or external HDD.

v1 of the router (the predecessor) is supported by DD-WRT. But the current one is not. However OpenWRT support is there apparently.

This tp-link is good enough for what you want. Will be interesting to see how it measures up range wise with your present setup in your last room.

Perfect. I will go ahead and buy this. Will circle back with my observations once I get it up and running!

Thanks a ton for your time and help blr_p!!

 

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v1 of the router (the predecessor) is supported by DD-WRT. But the current one is not. However OpenWRT support is there apparently.

This means don't hold your breath given v2 came out around 2012 and in 2014 they're still waiting for a router to be donated. The open wrt version has not been developed beyond the trunk version.

This is the problem with these version numbers, 3rd party firmware exists but for a particular version of that router. At least the vendor did not switch the atheros chipset out for something cheaper.

I don't know whether you will be able to run dlna on this router anytime soon, so windows media player on your laptop will have to do the honours.

Perfect. I will go ahead and buy this. Will circle back with my observations once I get it up and running!

You will get a better signal but speedwise it will be about 25% boost given your clients are the bottleneck.

With the n13u you get dd-wrt along with the 3G. Your choice.