[URGENT] Need to buy a wifi router tomorrow

n3nimbus

n3nimbus

Disciple
Hello,

So, yes, judging my the title I need to purchase a Wifi Router for my home tomorrow and I need help

A few details and requirements:

Home: 3 BHK - 1500 sq ft - Mumbai

ISP: Local cable net (Intech) - 4 mbps unltd

Devices: PC (will connect via RJ45), 3-4 cellphones and a Wii U

Requirement: My PC is in one corner of the room. There is a small passage which connects to the hall. The passage has the doors to all the three rooms on both its sides with my room being at the end. The wifi must reach the hall mainly so that I can connect to the Wii U.

I have no experience or much info in routers and my cable guy is probably gonna come and configure it at my home so that the internet connects to the PC. To get it running on thr Wii U etc is obviously going to be my lookout as he won't care as long as the net is running

Going through flipkart I landed with 6 choices:

(Price high to low)

1. Asus RT-N56U - INR 7050
2. Netgear WNDR4300 N750 - INR 7000
3. Netgear WNDR3700 V4 - INR 5650
4. Belkin Play Max - INR 5400
5. Asus RT-N53 - INR 5200
6. Netgear WNDR3400 N600 - INR 3350

I practically don't need stuff like parental control, torrent genie, etc. All I need is for everything to run at smooth speeds of 4 mbps, no packet loss, no net disconnection and connectivity to my Wii U and the complete house.
So, do I need to purchase a high-end router worth 7k or will the 3.5k one suffice? Please suggest if you have any other alternatives as well to the above if you think they are better.
 
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Whats the distance from your PC (where I assume the cable connection enters) to the hall? And how many walls in between? Can you run a CAT5 cable from your room to the hall?
 
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Crazy_Eddy said:
Whats the distance from your PC (where I assume the cable connection enters) to the hall? And how many walls in between? Can you run a CAT5 cable from your room to the hall?
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Hello @Crazy_Eddy . The distance between the PC and my hall is 36 feet (18 tiles of 2 feet each. Round off to 40 feet). My PC is situated opposite to the door of the room but a little to the side (so I take it as 1 wall). To the right of the door there is a passage (so 2 walls on either side obviously since its a passage. There are 2 openings in the passage for 2 other rooms). The passage leads straight to the hall and TV. There is no ways I can run a CAT5 cable all the way through my house. So it needs to be WiFi.

The top 3 have the best reviews online, but I think a v4 wndr3700 should be able to do it (just a guess), only thing is that I called Primeabgb and a few other shops at lamington road and they don't have the product, Flipkart has it but they don't know what version of 3700 they have. So they said they will take 48 hours to check if its v4 or some other version. Although if you think I should get the wndr4300 or rt-n56u if their range is more or a lower grade product, let me know.
 
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Netgear WNDR4300 N750 - INR 7000

Using this right now. Get it on Amazon for 5k or Flipkart for 5.2k (v1 Only)

I tried a RT N56 U as well, it could not give the signal range of this router.
 
axeman said:
Netgear WNDR4300 N750 - INR 7000

Using this right now. Get it on Amazon for 5k or Flipkart for 5.2k (v1 Only)

I tried a RT N56 U as well, it could not give the signal range of this router.
Click to expand...

Thanks for input @axeman

Its on Amazon.in for 5,800 and on flip kart for 7000: Links for both:
http://www.amazon.in/Netgear-WNDR43...=UTF8&qid=1410595692&sr=8-1&keywords=wndr4300

http://www.flipkart.com/netgear-wnd...4300&ref=50126c56-c44c-44be-a971-236356ac11a4

I didn't expect this much a price difference! Is the Amazon one selling a lower version/model or something? And where did you get the prices as 5k and 5.2k for wndr4300?

Also, from the reviews I have read, the rt n56u has amazing range while the wndr3700 has a much lower range even on 2.5ghz but a better throughput if you're closer. Although If I can get the wndr4300 on amazon for the price of a wndr3700 its a great deal imo. Just want to confirm that they aren't selling a lower version/model because of such huge a price difference
 
Damn, I've seen so many routers in a month, i'm completely mixed up. Not Netgear. TP Link WDR4300 is my model in current use.

http://www.amazon.in/TP-LINK-TPLINK...e=UTF8&qid=1410599600&sr=8-1&keywords=wdr4300

5198 is what it shows me by tp link.

http://www.flipkart.com/tp-link-tl-wdr4300-n750-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router/p/itmdhcxzbhyszzhz?q=TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router&as=on&as-show=on&otracker=start&as-pos=p_1&pid=RTRDHCXZPWGDJRVH

5200 here by ws retail

RT N56 was a complete failure for me. Signal did not propogate even as much as my earlier buffalo high power. Both the TP links worked, I choose the wdr4300 since meh 3 antennas.
 
axeman said:
Damn, I've seen so many routers in a month, i'm completely mixed up. Not Netgear. TP Link WDR4300 is my model in current use.

http://www.amazon.in/TP-LINK-TPLINK...e=UTF8&qid=1410599600&sr=8-1&keywords=wdr4300

5198 is what it shows me by tp link.

http://www.flipkart.com/tp-link-tl-wdr4300-n750-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router/p/itmdhcxzbhyszzhz?q=TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 N750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router&as=on&as-show=on&otracker=start&as-pos=p_1&pid=RTRDHCXZPWGDJRVH

5200 here by ws retail

RT N56 was a complete failure for me. Signal did not propogate even as much as my earlier buffalo high power. Both the TP links worked, I choose the wdr4300 since meh 3 antennas.
Click to expand...

Haha. But I think Netgear is a more trusted brand and at 5,800 for the wndr4300 its a steal considering Flipkart has it for 7k! I would never have looked at Amazon since almost everything I tried Flipkart has it cheaper. Thanks to you :D

So many duds can be found in routers, its a nightmare. I am sorry the Asus didn't work for you. If I don't get any inputs by today evening I guess I will order the Netgear wndr4300 from Amazon. Hope it does the job.
 
@axeman I got off the phone with a Netgear distributor in Mumbai (got his number from the Netgear customer care folks) and his price is 6.5k and he sound pretty pissed that online (Amazon) is selling it this cheap (since even Flipkart has it at 7k). SO I bought it asap before he influences the price change on Amazon. Hope a N750 servers me well.

Thanks for all your inputs

@Crazy_Eddy I would still like to know your opinion based on our talks above and will this router serve me well
 
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@axeman So I received my router. Took it to my isp provider for the configuration. Every time I disconnect the router (by the switchboard or the switch on the router) I need to re enter all the config. I think it was faulty so returned it to Amazon yesterday. :( The signal btw did not reach my hall TV (just 1 bar). I think I need a crap router worth 3k and a booster worth 3k instead of buying a 6k router or should I go for the TP link 4300?
 
n3nimbus said:
@axeman So I received my router. Took it to my isp provider for the configuration. Every time I disconnect the router (by the switchboard or the switch on the router) I need to re enter all the config. I think it was faulty so returned it to Amazon yesterday. :( The signal btw did not reach my hall TV (just 1 bar). I think I need a crap router worth 3k and a booster worth 3k instead of buying a 6k router or should I go for the TP link 4300?
Click to expand...

One bar or four bar, did youcheck to see what throughput you get. The bar is misleading more often than not.

When you enter the config, did you save and reboot? Or a dedicated save config option? This could have helped.

Repeaters do not give the bandwidth we expect, especially at Wifi N levels, I had two repeaters earlier and best speed I ever saw was 8 Mbps.

You can try out the TP Link if you want to, but you mentioned earlier a aversion to Chinese products as well.
 
@axeman The config was just putting in my username, password and the service name (which is the isp). Clicked on apply. The config is saved even when I close the router but it just doesn't connect to the internet. I tried doing the factory reset (using a ball point pen) and then enter the settings. Didn't check the throughput as the router would just not connect everytime I switched it off, so didn't see a point. I think I should try the TP link one then. Do you live in a 3bhk as well? Does it connect to all places while keeping the router in a room?
 
Consumer routers simply won't have the range you require. 36 feet with I assume 3 walls in between is a tough task. The Netgear WNDR4300 is an N300 2.4GHz router + N450 5GHz router. We tend to get excited with numbers like N750, but if you're only using the 2.4GHz band, its still a regular N300 router.

You need to either set up a repeater config (which will need a bit of positioning adjustment to get the right range - maybe you can draw a layout of your house and possible places where you can place the repeater) or get a high-powered AP like the mikrotik groove.
Another option is forcing your router to function in G mode instead of N mode. G mode will trade speed for better signal range.
 
The TP Link WDR4300 is also a consumer 2.4GHz N300 + 5GHz N450 router. Most routers tend to be limited to about 100~125mW of transmit power on the 2.4GHz band, probably to clear FCC testing. The mikrotik groove in contrast has 500mW of power, which is about 6dbm more, or about 2x the signal range. If axeman has had a better experience with the tp-link then the range should be better, however I would still be very surprised if it was drastically better and crossed 36 ft/3 walls with no issues. Maybe he can mention which other routers he compared this to, so you can get a relative idea about how it performs. However at this point, I would safely say that only a repeater or a high-powered AP would be able to extend your network that far.
If getting a repeater, try to get identical router/repeater models since wifi repeater standards are not really well defined and only the same chipsets/firmware tend to work well together.
 
@Crazy_Eddy
Well I'll go with the repeater option then. I guess have to fit both my repeater and router in the budget of 6k.
So a decent one one flipkart I am looking at is netgear WN3000RP http://www.flipkart.com/netgear-wn3...uter&ref=90c269c4-b7d7-48c9-ae67-945eee94fb4f
Its however only single band.

So now I have two options that I can find
netgear wndr3400 n600 @ INR 3350 http://www.flipkart.com/netgear-wnd...3400&ref=159f085e-8d21-4d78-ba11-3cc10a6cd8ef (although its dual band I suppose I would only need 2.4 band for the wii U so the repeater should be fine) I doubt there are as many devices using the 5ghz band that I own or would come to own.

My next option would be a much cheaper alternative single band wnr2000 n300 @ INR 1700 http://www.flipkart.com/netgear-wnr2000-n300-wireless-without-modem-router/p/itmdz7hnmg4z3v6b?pid=RTRDZ7HG5NQXHHFH&otracker=from-search&srno=t_1&query=wndr n300&ref=a6256712-1473-408b-9c28-9eef205b3522

Which option you think would be good mate since 1 option is double the price of the other? Would the price difference be worth it?
 
Go for a decent router with N300 and plunk in a repeater from Netgear. You should be able to accomdate all in 6K easily.

Also, utilize the 2.5K GV + SBI 2.5K 10% offer to maximize your savings.
 
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