On 08/03/2012 12:12 PM, AJ ONeal wrote: > Since the last time I bought a WRT54G-TM it's dropped from $60 to an > average closer to $30. > > So who's the new kid on the block? Why is this beast no longer in demand? > > The last time I checked the only router that has anything near the specs > that the WRT54G-TM has is the ASUS RT-N16 (which has about 2x the specs for > $90).
i'd never heard of a wrt54g-tm before but a quick search seems to indicate its just a t-mobile branded wrt54gs v3. i've never used one of those before but it is an older model that i'm guessing isn't made anymore. the price drop might be trying to clear old stock. it is a rather old model that has already shared its secrets. as for whats new, i can only really give info on the things that i have looked at and find interesting so here is my view of the landscape right now. there are a variety of newer routers out there that have as good or much better specs. i haven't looked much at the low end myself cause i've wanting higher end features in my devices. the one device in what i consider the low end would be the TP-Link TL-WR1043ND. it has 8MB flash and 32MB ram with gigabit ethernet ports and a 400Mhz processor. it can currently be found on newegg for about $55. on the higher end, there are a variety of routers based off of the atheros ar7161 series that are nice, some of which i've used myself. Netgear WNDR3700 (not v3), WNDR37AV, and WNDR3800 are good ones. the Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H also works well. i believe there's one from d-link that fits in this category as well. these usually have a 680Mhz processor with gigabit ethernet, dual band wireless, 16-32MB of flash, 32-128MB of ram, and a usb port or two. these usually fit in the $80-$120 range. then there are a lot of devices that aren't supported by third party firmwares that have wide varieties of features. there are a variety of newer broadcom based routers that are interesting. as far as i know, all of the new draft-802.11ac routers are broadcom based, such as the Netgear R6200 and R6300. there is also the new western digital (yes the hard drive company) routers that run ubicom chips including 1 with 7 gigabit ports. it might be possible to get the third party firmwares on these with enough time and prodding of the manufacturers for source code. thats just the tip of the iceberg. there are tons of good options out there and i could probably go on for a lot longer. hope that gives you a good start if you are looking for a new device. mike /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
