What is the best wireless router for a tablet ?

[Defender]

Netgear dual band here...I have most devices on the 2.4 band and my iphone and ipad on the 5.  I bought the router a few months back, and wished I had bought the newer AC one.  It was actually a Best Buy clerk who talked me out of buying the AC since not anything I have now can use the other freqs...shouldnt have listened to him, lol.  Mine works fine, but Im sure as soon as I get a newer device that can use the other freqs, Ill upgrade routers again.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I use primarily wired gigabit for my puters, except the laptops, pad and phone. The kind of work I do is half source code files that are tiny, and half large collections of large media files. For local transfer of many gigabytes of media files, I've found that even gigabit is too frustrating slow, and "sneakernet" copying with big hard drives is faster, and even sneakernet copying is crazy slow even with fast computers and drives.

 

My EPB fiber internet connection is nominally 50 mbps up and down, and "speed testing" can sometimes get close to that targeting test sites within TN and adjoining states. The farther away, the slower it gets, and hitting the northeast, california, or vancouver it can get down to 10 mbps or slower.

 

But my use of wireless is just recreational browsing, doesn't need much speed at all.

 

Transferring gigabytes of media files back and forth between victoria canada, which happens a few times per year for work-- I'll set up file sync on big directories and filezilla will work for days 24/7 to sync all the files. If they need to get me data faster than about a 3 or 4 day downtime, they overnight me a hard drive. :)

[Guest TankerHC]

And, I'm saying the difference between N and AC probably doesn't matter when all your traffic is running through an 8MB pipe to the internet as well. Packets are packets. I'll read up on AC one of these days when I get closer to actually using it.

 

Makes a huge difference, Ill make the video and also induce errors, see if I can change your mind.

[mikegideon]

AFIK, any ISP's bandwidth specs are best case, even if you have a hard pipe into their routers. I don't do any local transfers on my network at this point. Even if I do, they're going to run thru a 1gb switched ethernet port to get where they're going. I plan to do some of that in the future. Still thinking N may be fast enough.

[mikegideon]

Makes a huge difference, Ill make the video and also induce errors, see if I can change your mind.

 

I need to set up some network file transfers, and take the ISP out of the loop. I understand that it will slow down as bit error rate increases. That's the beauty of IP... it will usually get there, even with a bunch of packet loss.

[Guest GimpyLeg]

Has anyone ever heard of Ubiquiti (www.ubnt.com)?  Carrier class hardware at consumer prices.  I've been using their products for years without a single hiccup, dropped frame, or reboot.  I have a few spots that I need to bridge a good distance wirelessly (point-to-point, line of sight) and I use the Nanostation series.  Amazon did have them less than $50 a piece.  Anyway, I can "hop" a large distance wirelessly and still use a single ISP connection.  I have also been using their wifi router in one location.  Again, no hiccups, no dropped frames, no reboots.

 

Now, they are not for the faint of heart.  They are carrier class so the wizards and simple setups are not built in, but they do rock!

[Guest Lester Weevils]

AFIK, any ISP's bandwidth specs are best case, even if you have a hard pipe into their routers. I don't do any local transfers on my network at this point. Even if I do, they're going to run thru a 1gb switched ethernet port to get where they're going. I plan to do some of that in the future. Still thinking N may be fast enough.

 

Yep, the more nets the packets have to traverse, the slower it will get. I just did speedtest.net from chatt to Nashville, Atlanta, and Victoria. Very close to the target 50/50 up/down to atlanta and nashville, and about 10 mbps up/down to victoria.

 

EPB offers up to 200 mbps for a price. Maybe faster, can't recall. I don't need it that steenkin fast at the moment, but have a sneaking suspicion that even if I had 200 mbps, it might be more on the order of the same 10 mbps to islandnet in victoria. Dunno how it works though. Maybe it would be a lot faster with a 200 mbps connection (though not bloody likely anywhere close to 200 mbps).

[Guest TankerHC]

Assuming a properly setup network router. (Simultaneous)

 

Headend -> hybrid fiber -> (hub, but not always) -> amp -> tap - modem - router -> device(s)  (This isnt all of it, but enough to demonstrate)

 

steady signal. router N (Up to 900) router AC) up to 1750. As long as you have a steady signal, regardless of what it is, signal can vary N (up to 900) AC (up to 1750)

 

No change in transmission rates except through dynamic rate scaling considering signal strength between router and devices. Upstream - Downstream drops off completely. Router does not stop. Transmission rates between router and devices continues without downstream signal. Major benefit, regardless of upstream - downstream signal, steady (varying transmission rates) between router and devices. Other benefit, access to network devices (Drives and other hardware), lots of others.

 

Assuming a decent network (Up to whatever) Hardwired

 

modem/router - device(s). Signal strength from Headend drops, Drops off completely, your going to the hardware.

 

On a wireless network, you have a wider band of speed. 1Mbps to 1.3Gbps (AC). On wireless Networks, the maximum speed and transfer rates is the same for all devices (Combined)

 

On a wired Network, limited to 10, 11, 100, 10000, 10,000 and it is broken down by device (One device using more bandwidth than another device slows speed on the other device, doesn't happen on wireless, everyone gets the same speed).

 

On wired, your running through copper, giving you the same limitations as old twisted pair POTS. On wireless, "light".

 

Used to be, wireless was your safest bet for security. No longer, with advanced 256 bit encryption (Especially in the AC standard) properly set up, security on wireless networks is better than on wired. (Unless the NSA is after you)

 

The security is (IMO) actually better on a wireless, the old "Garbled message syndrome" has been corrected years ago,  signal strength on AC is 1000 times better than any other router-adapter combo, then there is the fact that all AC routers are Media Centers (Giving you the option to designate bandwidth to individual media devices) and also give you free cloud options, your own personal cloud, in your house. (Mine is connected to a 3TB Seagate Central).

 

One major issue for anyone who purchased an AC Router-adapter combo without looking at the specs. If you purchased an adapter prior to three months ago then your will definitely not be getting the (up to) 1750 transmission rates, because the dumbazzes launched 1750AC router and launched the adapters in USB 2.0, A maximum signal rate of 480, lot of good that did for routers capable of up to 1.3Gbps.

[2.ooohhh]

Has anyone ever heard of Ubiquiti (www.ubnt.com)?  Carrier class hardware at consumer prices.  I've been using their products for years without a single hiccup, dropped frame, or reboot.  I have a few spots that I need to bridge a good distance wirelessly (point-to-point, line of sight) and I use the Nanostation series.  Amazon did have them less than $50 a piece.  Anyway, I can "hop" a large distance wirelessly and still use a single ISP connection.  I have also been using their wifi router in one location.  Again, no hiccups, no dropped frames, no reboots.

 

Now, they are not for the faint of heart.  They are carrier class so the wizards and simple setups are not built in, but they do rock!

 

 

Most muggles' eyes bulge when I tell them I replaced my router's firmware with dd-wrt so I could better configure it to my needs. I don't even want the imagine the calls I would get asking to explain and help configure if they were handed enterprise hardware. Though I do have a major soft spot for xirrus and cisco gear, I try and keep my home networks simpler than that.

[mikegideon]

Most muggles' eyes bulge when I tell them I replaced my router's firmware with dd-wrt so I could better configure it to my needs. I don't even want the imagine the calls I would get asking to explain and help configure if they were handed enterprise hardware. Though I do have a major soft spot for xirrus and cisco gear, I try and keep my home networks simpler than that.

 

I had Cisco gear before I bought the ASUS. It was still working, but the switch was 100Mb, and the WAP was G. It was also a VPN hardware client, so all my machines were visible on the company WAN. Pros and Cons to that setup. Now, ebverything is sitting in a non-routable IP range.

[mikegideon]

 

Used to be, wireless was your safest bet for security. No longer, with advanced 256 bit encryption (Especially in the AC standard) properly set up, security on wireless networks is better than on wired. (Unless the NSA is after you)

 

 

 

You're gonna have to explain that one.

[Guest TankerHC]

You're gonna have to explain that one.

 

 

Happened to reread it, should say "wireless was your LEAST safest bet". Otherwise,  would be saying "Wireles used to be your safest bet, but now wireless is your safest bet"

 

And lll explain further, but to Mike personally, not in the habit of helping potential criminals. Ill message you mike, off the board, then you can comment on how safe home networks are, what you think, etc. Since your an active Engineer, I have to wonder, how can they defeat it.

[mikegideon]

I knew encryption was getting better. That's the result of cheap MIPS, and they get cheaper every day. Still, it's hard to bust into an ethernet cable from a distance. You may be able to listen with fancy gear, but you can't talk to it. We only use wireless when we have to.

[Guest TankerHC]

I knew encryption was getting better. That's the result of cheap MIPS, and they get cheaper every day. Still, it's hard to bust into an ethernet cable from a distance. You may be able to listen with fancy gear, but you can't talk to it. We only use wireless when we have to.

 

Mike did you finish reading. I agree, corporate newtworks, headends with Cisco equipment, etc...hardwired no go. Home networks, different story.

Edited July 18, 2013 by TankerHC