My 6th wireless router
I’m using wireless home routers and Access Points since a very long time, I remember when I paid up to 200€ for an early Linksys 802.11b Access Point. The only problem I have with them, is that they always die horribly after a while. Let’s go back in my router-love history…I had the following products:
- 2x Linksys WAP11: the power supply died and burned the whole PCB. They both lasted 1 year.
- Linksys WAP54G: the power supply also died after a long agony during which the wireless connection was less and less reliable. It lasted 2 years.
- D-Link DI-824VUP+: the wireless connection was never reliable and the supposed PPTP VPN-server function never worked. They stopped to support the product roughly 6 months after it was released. The biggest piece of shit I ever had. It’s still in operation as a purely Ethernet router.
- D-Link DI-524: the wireless part of the router died today. It lasted 2 years. It had a very short signal range too.
Today, I replaced the DI-524 with a brand new ZyXEL NBG334W and god is it better! Simply by looking at the Web interface and the manual, you can tell that this product is in an other class. It’s a real configuration interface, with options you need and you can also access it via Telnet. Forget Linksys’ or D-Link’s Playmobile interface. The signal strength and range are good too.
ZyXEL always had a good reputation, we used a lot of their products at work but I never tried their home products. At around 30€, it’s not that expensive. Note the nice “Guest WLAN” function.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I’m surprised that your kit didn’t come with longer warranties. The first WAP/bridge I got came with a long 5 year warranty…
May 5th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
It was the case for my first WAP11, they changed it 2x before I finally sold the 3rd one :p