Help me decide: ASUS RT-N16 or Netgear WNDR3700?

1

100khz

Disciple
confused.. between these 2 router.. both are priced similar on flipkart.. help me decide..

My considerations:

asus gives me 2 usb ports, i can use 1 for HDD (Nas) and other for 3G with dd-wrt
netgear gives 5ghz band and perhaps more popular with people for other reasons.. dd-wrt is also supported

but may be u guys can help me take decision..

i have 8 wifi and 3 wired devices in my double story home with over 900sq feet area on each floor: total 1800 sq ft. Max distance for router to cover will be 50 feet..

please help

thanks
 
I suspect the Asus may have better signal strength. If you plan to run only 2.4GHz, the Asus is probably the way to go. I have the RTN13 and the 3700, and the basic coverage of the Asus is far better than the Netgear. I prefer the 3700 as a router, plus the overall throughput is better (wired+wireless) than the likes of Asus.

5GHz is extremely important to separate networks properly, and the Netgear fallback is very aggressive so getting more than 150mbps is pretty tricky if you have noisy neighbors. If you do get the Netgear, be sure you will be using the 5GHz band. It works beautifully for me, so much so that I invested in 5GHz devices for almost all my wireless requirements.

For best coverage mount the router high and centrally. If possible near a fan outlet in the ceiling near the center of the house. I have it mounted in my duplex and I never get less than -80dB anywhere in the house including the floor below.
 
cranky said:
I suspect the Asus may have better signal strength. If you plan to run only 2.4GHz, the Asus is probably the way to go. I have the RTN13 and the 3700, and the basic coverage of the Asus is far better than the Netgear. I prefer the 3700 as a router, plus the overall throughput is better (wired+wireless) than the likes of Asus.

5GHz is extremely important to separate networks properly, and the Netgear fallback is very aggressive so getting more than 150mbps is pretty tricky if you have noisy neighbors. If you do get the Netgear, be sure you will be using the 5GHz band. It works beautifully for me, so much so that I invested in 5GHz devices for almost all my wireless requirements.

For best coverage mount the router high and centrally. If possible near a fan outlet in the ceiling near the center of the house. I have it mounted in my duplex and I never get less than -80dB anywhere in the house including the floor below.
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more confused now.. tell me, since u using n13, how practical and good is the HDD streaming via usb port of n13 with dd-wrt or tomato firmware? is that really good and snappy? currently all my family members use a server i have put with 2tb hdd for streaming music, video to their own phones, pcs, laptops, ipad etc.. so i keep a server run 24x7 for this purpose, besides this server is used for torrent download as well..

i wish to use router for this purpose now (perhaps save electricity), n16 can be used for torrents, hdd streaming etc.. with 2 usb ports, i can also hook a 3g dongle.. besides with 3 detachable antennas, planning to upgrade them to 10dbi antenas, i can increase the coverage.. I may construct second floor of my house in future.. so total floor will make my house a 3 storey building.. all these things made me to incline towards n16.. for better coverage..

but 5ghz band is something which makes me incline towards 3700.. besides, everyone says 3700 is better when it comes to its powerful processor and better throughput..

may be my answer lies in increasing my budget and going for Asus RT-N56U (9k) or Asus DSL-N55U (11k).. this will give me 5ghz band at least . but again, rt-n56u is known to not work good with mac systems for streaming and torrent client.. i have mac pro as my workstation.. hmmm

can someone pull my hair please.. need to get this router thing done asap.. help :D

btw, want to restrict to 8k budget at max.. unless absolutely necessary to increase it.. thanks

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babhishek said:
asus rt n 16

how much you buying for? have prices dropped recently?
Click to expand...

getting it for N16
 
My N13 is V1, so no luck with DD-WRT. The inbuilt torrent client does not work at all, forget well enough. Also, it needs rebooting once every three or four days to be able to connect to everything.

The 3700 is far more painless as a router, though it has no torrent client (I asume you can get one through custom firmware, but I'm not interested as my server does all my downloading). It also has issues when you want devices on 2.4GHz and 5GHz to connect to each other after their IPs are refreshed, so a router reboot is required at the time. I don't recall any other occasion where I have had to fiddle with it.

WRT disk access, I didn't try the Asus for streaming, but I use a 1.5TB disk attached to the 3700 for some files (my server is also my media store, this is just a small network cloud). High-bitrate 1080p rips stream just fine over both wired and wireless. I doubt the Asus can reach those speeds. FWIW, the Asus was not able to decently stream anything above 720p video over its wireless connection, even from the hardwired server - let alone the USB port. I don't know how different the N16 would be.

I suspect the 3700 will do everything you want it to do. The 56-U may be slightly better at wireless throughput, but the Netgear may offer better overall throughput and since you have multiple wired devices, it may be the better buy.
 
3700 seems fair.. No asus now.. Btw, saw apple AirPort Extreme, is amazing.. Expensive but great..
Wat would u suggest for my needs, independent of what I think.. Lets say no budget constraints as well.. Plz suggest..

i wish to also look into linksys routers.. Will wait a bit to make good decision with TE help.. Thanks
 
nothing but best.
this airport extreme is nothing but best router.It has gigabit Ethernet ports which I am actively using and through put is just excellent .
through put is around 600-680 Mbps thanks to pure gigabit based Ethernet cable with all 8 pairs connected.thanks to vivek.krishnan

regarding wireless range.
my dad would always complain that he is not getting coverage here and their in our 3 storey building.
now since last two months,I am yet to get his complaint about youtube not working over wifi.

with my latitude laptop with centrino 6300 ultimate,I get full 450 mbps connectivity over wifi and I get range all over building.

previously I was using buffalo dd wrt router 300 nh with two buffalo wcr gn mini routers and now all three are replaced by this one airport extreme.
I wish I had bought this earlier and it would have saved me hours in trouble shooting in dd wrt and frustration of not working you tube and all.

My only wish with this Airport Extreme is couple more gigabit ports.thats it.
 
airport extreme it is then.. will buy it tomorrow.. is there any place to buy this online?

Also, i need a 3g wifi network in my house.. separate from my wired line network. cos mom dad use a lot of youtube time.. can't afford to use 3g for that.. my wired line is not stable (mtnl).. cos no other private ISPs have come in my locality yet.. so with shaky mtnl, i often use reliance 3g for my home office.. can't afford to loose connectivity..

so need to make 2 wifi networks available all the time.. one mtnl and one 3g.. so that i can just switch between the 2 anytime.. so client meetings, imp work stuff on 3g and youtube, downloading etc on mtnl wifi signal..

again, need a 3g router which has good wifi range... any suggestions?
 
3g wifi.
Suggest using asus pocket router.
It does exact same thing as you wish.
I have used it in my pre airport extreme days. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1358055215.227067.jpg
 
This also is retired by apple airport extreme. After this wifi setup, I Never had need for 3g data.
I got bsnl to put fresh wire from distribution box to my home and after that my broadband has become real stable
I use their 1000 unlimited plan.
15 gb at 2mbps and 512kbps after that.
On top of that i get 450 calls on landline.
 
Are you sure that the airport extreme is the best choice ? At 14k there are other dual band options like the N66u and the Cisco EA4500 and 6500

Do check out smallnetbuilder for reviews before deciding
 
Airport extreme is one of hyped product of Apple , at that cost RT-N66U would nail every other router in the market
 
bottle said:
Are you sure that the airport extreme is the best choice ? At 14k there are other dual band options like the N66u and the Cisco EA4500 and 6500

Do check out smallnetbuilder for reviews before deciding
Click to expand...

dinjo said:
Airport extreme is one of hyped product of Apple , at that cost RT-N66U would nail every other router in the market
Click to expand...

airport extreme is 10,600 i guess Shop for Apple Airport Extreme for Mac & Windows PC from iStore India - Apple Premium Reseller

besides, all apple products are considered hyped by everyone.. including me (once upon a time).. but, once u buy them, u fall in love.. same happened with me..

now, u are right that n66u and the likes of it can do more for me..

but, apple perhaps can provide me a better mac systems integration.. i got 2 mac pros, ipad and planning to buy mac book pro in future..

besides, airport extreme has good coverage, throughput and hdd streaming for both pc and mac..

this is all which made me to incline towards apple.. but again, watever TE suggests..

not bought airport yet.. will buy it next weekend perhaps, if get time..
 
100khz said:
airport extreme is 10,600 i guess Shop for Apple Airport Extreme for Mac & Windows PC from iStore India - Apple Premium Reseller
Click to expand...
Competitive price for a dual stream N450, everybody else wants 13k+.

Do you have any devices that can make full use of it. Or can upgrade them to do so. Your mac pc's might be able to use it but the ipad will be single stream only, possibly 40Mhz mode in the 5Ghz, if its a recent model.

100khz said:
besides, all apple products are considered hyped by everyone.. including me (once upon a time).. but, once u buy them, u fall in love.. same happened with me..
Click to expand...
The problem with that is all well & good until those apple products need to communicate with others. Apple keeps its protocol details secret so its harder to integrate them unless you use corresponding apple equipment.

It struck me, a theory btw, as i was going through the comments sections for various routers that the people with the biggest problems had apple products in the chain. They then say this or that router does not work and they want something else. So the router manufacturers get hammered as a result.

100khz said:
but, apple perhaps can provide me a better mac systems integration.. i got 2 mac pros, ipad and planning to buy mac book pro in future..
Click to expand...
This is the key reason i think you should go for the extreme. Do you for instance need 'time machine'. Nobody does that as well as apple can.

Performance wise the dark knight is king but how well will your devices play with it. You need to check out the asus forums to see how people with similar setup as yours are doing. Devices losing the connection etc.

And the apple forums for feedback on the extreme. Though i think it would be less problematic.

100khz said:
i have 8 wifi and 3 wired devices in my double story home with over 900sq feet area on each floor: total 1800 sq ft. Max distance for router to cover will be 50 feet..
Click to expand...
Going by pratik's post i think this should be ok, may need a repeater if there are any dead spots. it all depends on how much data you want to shift through the air. If its just web browsing then that is one thing, streaming video to multiple sites is another. How far apart will the pc's be when doing wireless backups etc. Does wired make sense or not in that case.
 
blr_p said:
This is the key reason i think you should go for the extreme. Do you for instance need 'time machine'. Nobody does that as well as apple can.

Performance wise the dark knight is king but how well will your devices play with it. You need to check out the asus forums to see how people with similar setup as yours are doing. Devices losing the connection etc.

And the apple forums for feedback on the extreme. Though i think it would be less problematic.


Going by pratik's post i think this should be ok, may need a repeater if there are any dead spots. it all depends on how much data you want to shift through the air. If its just web browsing then that is one thing, streaming video to multiple sites is another. How far apart will the pc's be when doing wireless backups etc. Does wired make sense or not in that case.
Click to expand...

thanks for taking out time to write an elaborate answer.. really appreciate it.. i think, any router above or around 10k price is proving to be good for my kind of requirements with 8 wifi and 3 wired devices at home + occasional guests pouring in my 2 story building of 15 by 60 feet dimensions each floor.. router placed in middle of both floors..

with ddwrt though and if i touch 14k budget, i can have 2 usbs, dual concurrent bands and hdd streaming, 3g connection facility + fabulous coverage and throughput in n66 asus.. but 14k is a bit too much right now..

if i have to remain around 10k mark, trying to figure out whats best.. :)
 
dinjo said:
Airport extreme is one of hyped product of Apple , at that cost RT-N66U would nail every other router in the market
Click to expand...

After going through asus then buffalo then dd wrt. Over last 3 yrs,
None of them could deliver flawless youtube streaming on my bsnl broadband at 2mbps.
But apple router can deliver that.

Broadband connection remains same. Client config. Remains same. Only change is wifi router.

Why is that ??

Secondly. I had to reboot router every now and then to fix it. But apple router is on since box was opened.

Why is that ??

Dont enjoy bashing apple and its router.
Its solid product and supported by solid firmware.

If apple products are bought at right price. They are the best.
Its your fault that you do not know where and how to buy apple gear at right price

OP has found quite right price in india. So its pretty good.
 
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