Please recommend a pair of routers that you KNOW can work as one

[zapp22]

I'm really tired of fighting with disparate routers and just need to hear from someone that has two routers which happily work as one, sharing one wan connection to the world. I have roadrunner if it matters. In the past I used dd-wrt on wrt54g/gl. I'm done there and need N-capable routers, and on both ends I need both wired and wireless.

all realworld suggestions greatly appreciated! i need something tried/known.

I Have a single Linksys E1200 router, N/g/b, and by itself its a good little unit for such cheap dollars [with the latest firmware, that is]. but it is woefully range-deficient. If anyone has successfully lashed together two or more of these to cover a broader area, I am all ears. if not, I'll chunk it and get a couple more that do work.

thanks for your advice

 

[2xg]

Hi zap...

My Netgear Dual Band N router works so well for us. There are about a dozen wireless devices, 2 heavy gamers, video streaming going on and all is well for about 4 months now. I can enable wireless bridging and repeating if needed. The wireless coverage is so great, between 4 to 5 bars on all of our wireless devices.

I have also dealt with a Buffalo router, you may use the AP or Client Bridge Mode (which I have enabled) for extended wireless coverage, very reasonable and I also highly recommend it also.

You won't need another router if the above recommendations would work great for you.

 

[zapp22]

2xG - are you saying that either/both of these are 'friendly' to link either to their kind? or to others? Forgive my phobia but reading hours worth of posts in the last two days I see that my experience is quite common - unfriendliness among routers/ap's. I must be able to reach places where I don't have hard/cable infrastructure, and at those spot use either ethernet and/or wifi connectivity to the client devices. my minimum is 2 such spots, three would be better, four luxurious.

I have opened the article you sent, and will be trying again today with my existing items to see if I can make something communicate happily. thanx for that - its written in a way even I can understand

 

[chev65]

I'm really tired of fighting with disparate routers and just need to hear from someone that has two routers which happily work as one, sharing one wan connection to the world. I have roadrunner if it matters. In the past I used dd-wrt on wrt54g/gl. I'm done there and need N-capable routers, and on both ends I need both wired and wireless.

all realworld suggestions greatly appreciated! i need something tried/known.

I Have a single Linksys E1200 router, N/g/b, and by itself its a good little unit for such cheap dollars [with the latest firmware, that is]. but it is woefully range-deficient. If anyone has successfully lashed together two or more of these to cover a broader area, I am all ears. if not, I'll chunk it and get a couple more that do work.

thanks for your advice

I use roadrunner also. As for two routers that work together. Ideally you would use a router and a dedicated access point. Some routers have an access point or bridge mode built in though many do not.

A wireless access point is meant to work with a router and requires minimal configuration adjustments. You just plug it in like a switch using Ethernet cable from the main router. There is a switch on the side for access point or bridge mode. You can set up the access point from it's set up page just like the router.

I use a D-Link DIR-655 for the router and a D-Link DAP-1522 for my access point. Both units work well together and are made to do so. Newegg sells them.

 

[zapp22]

Chev unless I misread, what you're describing is a wired connection between the two. I don't have that luxury so I've got to setup a wireless client-bridged or repeater or somesuch mode. that is the way I had it in the past using dd-wrt wirless G devices. I need that sort of arrangement at full wireless N speed.
Just to get something talking, I setup the arrangement I think you're describing, with an old G router connecting wired lan-port-to-lan-port behind the newer N router and it worked, but reduced throughput anywhere/everywhere/every-connection to under 1mb/s..... not too swift. so that's unusable. there are a lot of moving parts here so the speed fault could be due to just firmware oddities or any number of factors, but that is not the ultimate setup. the right setup is a pair of "N"s happily sharing one wan [rr] connection to the world.

my search continues...:huh:

 

[chev65]

Chev unless I misread, what you're describing is a wired connection between the two. I don't have that luxury so I've got to setup a wireless client-bridged or repeater or somesuch mode. that is the way I had it in the past using dd-wrt wirless G devices. I need that sort of arrangement at full wireless N speed.
Just to get something talking, I setup the arrangement I think you're describing, with an old G router connecting wired lan-port-to-lan-port behind the newer N router and it worked, but reduced throughput anywhere/everywhere/every-connection to under 1mb/s..... not too swift. so that's unusable. there are a lot of moving parts here so the speed fault could be due to just firmware oddities or any number of factors, but that is not the ultimate setup. the right setup is a pair of "N"s happily sharing one wan [rr] connection to the world.

my search continues...:huh:

If you can't run a wire then you can use bridge mode which is like a wireless switch that you can plug into or you can set up a wireless repeater, although many repeaters also require a wire just like an A/P, the only difference being that the A/P can use it's own SSID, password and security rather than piggy backing the settings that the main router is using.

My point was that it's often times better to use a dedicated A/P/bridge or repeater rather than trying to make a router work like one. There is little doubt that using a dedicated access point is the best way to create a wireless access point.

As for the wireless speed of my own access point, I get the full 300Mbps when using the 802.11n Only mode. Using WPA2 and AES encryption which is actually made to work with wireless N really helps to achieve the full potential of wireless N. my A/P is 20 feet across the yard from my wireless USB NIC.

So you can see that your experiment with old G or N routers has nothing to do with what is possible when using the correct hardware. I had no idea that you could not run an Ethernet cable which is the preferred way to set up an access point.

In your case it may be worth using what they call a wireless range extender, which is basically the same as a wireless repeater. There are lots of these around if you Google it.

It won't work as well as an A/P but will extend the range of your router without using a wire. You can see by the reviews that these do not work nearly as well as an access point would. Just depends on where you install it and the number of walls to contend with plus a few other factors. Good luck setting this up no matter what you decide to use.

http://www.ampedwireless.com/products/sr10000.html?gclid=CNHZ1d66nrACFUoGRQodRDrwBQ

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036VO70O/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=wirelessextender-20&camp=213381&creative=390973&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0036VO70O&adid=164QB8FJ4NKVZ47MYZ50&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wirelessrangeextenderreviews.com%2F

 

[zapp22]

Impressive!
so lets talk about speed ....
EDIT.... [removed a bunch of misguided questions]

the best I have ever seen roadrunner in my particular 'hood is about 30mb/s - I can't do much about their infrastructure other than complain
But how do I know, for instance, that my Realtek-powered thinkpad 'n' wifi adapter is a) capable of even achieving 150mbps, and b) that the driver is capable of helping attain full speed.
Secondly, what is the best way to test the router's capability? [wifi, that is]
and if deficient, where do you start, other than reading up on the firmware iterations?

to the original quest: I hit my head against the E1200 a few more times...I'm assuming there is something about the E1200 that does not play well with any subtending routers. There is no "AP"mode offered. I do not know exactly what Bridged Mode means to them as it is not documented, and the postings here and there are that the feature was unsupported in some of the firmware released - i haven't found a soul that claims it even works. similarly can find no posts on anyone making it work with one of its twins, nor anything else in wired-bridge-or-repeat mode. still it does not seem that hard to me.
what I'm doing instead is running two entirely separate nets off two physical ports on the cable modem - a pair of dd-wrt's providing service to my remoter items, and the e1200 playing host to "n" devices. throughput is not impressive, however.
[the 'g' dd-wrt net is slightly outperforming the N... and the N I have set to "N only"]

Chev unless I misread, what you're describing is a wired connection between the two. I don't have that luxury so I've got to setup a wireless client-bridged or repeater or somesuch mode. that is the way I had it in the past using dd-wrt wirless G devices. I need that sort of arrangement at full wireless N speed.
Just to get something talking, I setup the arrangement I think you're describing, with an old G router connecting wired lan-port-to-lan-port behind the newer N router and it worked, but reduced throughput anywhere/everywhere/every-connection to under 1mb/s..... not too swift. so that's unusable. there are a lot of moving parts here so the speed fault could be due to just firmware oddities or any number of factors, but that is not the ultimate setup. the right setup is a pair of "N"s happily sharing one wan [rr] connection to the world.

my search continues...:huh:

If you can't run a wire then you can use bridge mode which is like a wireless switch that you can plug into or you can set up a wireless repeater, although many repeaters also require a wire just like an A/P, the only difference being that the A/P can use it's own SSID, password and security rather than piggy backing the settings that the main router is using.

My point was that it's often times better to use a dedicated A/P/bridge or repeater rather than trying to make a router work like one. There is little doubt that using a dedicated access point is the best way to create a wireless access point.

As for the wireless speed of my own access point, I get the full 300Mbps when using the 802.11n Only mode. Using WPA2 and AES encryption which is actually made to work with wireless N really helps to achieve the full potential of wireless N. my A/P is 20 feet across the yard from my wireless USB NIC.

So you can see that your experiment with old G or N routers has nothing to do with what is possible when using the correct hardware. I had no idea that you could not run an Ethernet cable which is the preferred way to set up an access point.

In your case it may be worth using what they call a wireless range extender, which is basically the same as a wireless repeater. There are lots of these around if you Google it.

It won't work as well as an A/P but will extend the range of your router without using a wire. You can see by the reviews that these do not work nearly as well as an access point would. Just depends on where you install it and the number of walls to contend with plus a few other factors. Good luck setting this up no matter what you decide to use.

Amped Wireless SR10000 High Power Wireless-N 600mW Smart Repeater

Amazon.com: D-Link DAP-1360 Wireless-N Range Extender: Electronics