Best Budget Wireless Router for Maximum Range

**sachingm** · 24-03-2011

Hi

I'm looking to buy a Wireless router so as to browse internet wirelessly from my Laptop which has a very good range (would be using laptop in bedroom, sitting room and dining room

). I am basically confused about choosing a budget N300 router for best range or whether to go for a decent 802.11g and upgrade antenna or something or use DD-WRT to extend range.

Currently I am confused whether to choose D-link DIR-615 N300 (Rs2500) which has various hardware revisions (C2, D1, E2) or Linksys WRT54GL G (Rs 3500). In both cases, I can upgrade firmware to DD-WRT which supposedly has an option to boost range. Also, in both cases, I think I can upgrade to more powerful antennae. But I have no idea how much real improvement in range will be there if I try these 2 tricks.

Usage:
1) My main priority is only browsing (even 256kbps is ok) and to use in any part of the house - house has 2 floors and around 800sq ft on each floor (so 2 walls will be there between laptop and internet point).
2) Very low priority is for future use of video streaming from some media player.
3) I plan to spend maximum Rs3000 or little more.

Please advise which of the above or any other wireless router will suit me.
Also, is there any site which compares the wireless routers based on coverage distances and quality (with technical reports)?

**Zachary** · 26-03-2011

I would recommend you to go for LINKSYS WRT54GL. These will do the job and then some. I have the wrt54g flashed with dd-wrt and has been running solid for almost 3 years with no dropped connections ever. Very affordable wireless n router. If you're going to be gaming, I'd suggest a Dlink router. One of my friends has one, and the firmware has a lot of recent games listed in their port forwarding section.

**sachingm** · 28-03-2011

Thanks for the reply Zachary.. but the WRT54GL is only 802.11b/g, not N.

DLink has a whole range of wireless routers with different ranges, speeds, features etc. Im not sure that just any dlink will meet my specific need for range