I need your suggestions to buy a new Wifi Router

[Nishant]

Incidentally I bought a TD-W8968 today
Would be configuring it in a while. Put in your doubts here and I'll try to clear it to the best of my knowledge.

Something that I got to know while digging information about this router. Try getting version 3 of this router which is supposed to have 2 x 5dBi antennae in lieu of 2 x 3dBi in V1. Also, V3 has an added feature of guest networks.

 

[mahindar]

wow that would be awesome. I will be waiting for your results.

 

[rj27]

Hi friends

Never had any experience with WiFi router. After a search I finally fixed to buy D-Link 2750u. I don't know whether it has any successor later or may be there is any other best router at this same price range. I would like to know your suggestions.
I'm having these devices PC,laptop,Symbian mobile.
Also if you have a D-link 2750u please share your experience.

Since I've the 2750u router I can clear up a few things for you -

- How much speed it gives for File transfer rate between mobile-laptop,mobile-computer and laptop-computer?

Transfer rates between a mobile and a PC/Laptop will completely be dependent upon the mobile you have. On most of the android wireless N phones (except the ones released this year) the transfer speed will be 4-4.5 MBps on 2.4 GHz band. Reason because the mobile phones contains a SISO 1x1(Single In Single antenna) instead of MIMO - 2x2,3x3 (Multi In Multi Out) which is found in most laptops. Hence the mobile phones link @ 72 mbps using 20 MHz bandwidth on 2.4 GHz band while link is 144 mbps on 5 GHz band if you have the dual band phone and router. Remember this is the link rate and the actual transfer rate will be around 40% minimum and 60% maximum. Here D-Link 2750u is a single band 2.4 Ghz router. Your symbian phone wifi specs will be better known to you, so expect a 60% available rate of rated speeds. In case of wireless G expect 20-22 mbps (2.5-3 MBps) speeds.

Between PC-Laptop the bottle neck will be the 100 mbps lan port on router (and probably the pc/laptop if they are old). The transfer rate here would be easily around 10-11 MBps if the laptop has a wifi N-300 card.

On 2 wifi n-300 laptop connected wirelessly expect around 15-18 MBps transfer rate as the max utilization on 2.4 Ghz band espically on this router.

- What is the speed of USB port?

USB speeds are restricted to 2 MBps (16mbps) read/write due to low end processor on these budget routers. Low quality streaming or small file transfer might work bought generally the experience is going to be aweful.

Now about recommendation though you haven't mentioned your ISP still I assume it's BSNL or Airtel, I would recommend the TP-Link 8968 as suggested above as it has a slight edge over 2750u, it's built in E-WAN feature,Slightly better UI and a better support of TP-Link espically when it comes to replacement. But mind you both routers are pretty solid (19-20 difference).

However if lan transfer between clients if important, increase your budget slightly and you'll get a much better setup.

Take a look at this standalone router - DLink AC750 router for around 2500 as this will give much better experience and slight future proof within budget.

For modem purpose in case of DSL connection, choose any of these two - TP-Link 8817 or DLink 2520u

 

[invader]

Will the TP-Link TD-W8968 Wi-fi Router work with BSNL, MTNL, Reliance and Airtel?

Presently, I am on Airtel, so in future if I change my ISP, I don't it to go waste.

 

[Sushubh]

You need an all in one device or just a wireless router?

 

[invader]

All in one device means??

 

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[Sushubh]

modem + router? device that can dial into your isp and also provide wireless connectivity? some of us prefer to keep wireless router separate from the modem.

 

[invader]

Yes, modem+router should be good. Basically, I want to connect all my mobiles+laptop through wifi

 

[mahindar]

@rj27 that was really a very nice and helpful post.
my device specs are.
- Mobile Nokia C6-01(WLAN WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, 256 Mb ram, 660 MHz,Class 4 8GB memory card)
- I have a 2 months old Laptop Acer (WiFi 802.11 b/g/n , 4GB ram, i3 1.8 GHz)
- a PC with 5 years old(2 GB ram,2.2 GHz dual core)
- I'm using a local ISP Vainavi(Skytel)

I hope this information is enough. If you require anything else please ask me.

So according to your experience
1. mobile - laptop/pc (2.5-3 Mbps)
2. Laptop-PC(10-11 Mbps)
3. laptop-laptop(15-18 Mbps)
4. Usb speed of 2 Mbps

I hope all values are in bytes not bits

Is the usb speed is same if i access it from Laptop,mobile?

Thanks for your valuable reply.

 

[rj27]

Since you have an local ISP which will most probably be providing connection through RJ45 lan cable, you should avoid the D-Link 2750u because for RJ45 WAN support it will require firmware flashing. While TP-Link W8968 is also a DSL modem+router combo though it has WAN port support in official firmware. May be you should look for a standalone router in that case.

Also Yes, speeds are in Bytes not bits. Your mobile is rated as wifi-n so should give around 3+ MBps unless the low ram+processor becomes bootleneck which I think is unlikely.

USB speed on both above routers is limited to 2-2.5 MBps for transfer and yes that's the case in all scenario whether you access it from PC/Laptop/Mobile. It can be useful in case you want to copy over a movie or 2 from USB HDD to your phone without the need to turning on PC or Laptop but for other large file transfer purpose it will be too annoying as you'd want to connect the USB HDD directly to the PC/laptop.
This is the case with all budget routers less than 8-10k having USB 2 support. These USB are more suitable for attaching a printer etc.