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I don't think I've replaced my router in about 5 years.

Could somebody give me a reason why I should?

It runs open-wrt, it does NAT, it does packet switching, it powers on in a few seconds.

What else could your router possibly do for you?

Routers are refrigerators, if they're still keeping things cool, don't touch them.



Wireless 802.11N

Its got plenty of bandwidth for most internet delivered video purposes, without hogging your entire house's bandwidth. Theoretically it could pipe full Blu-Ray streams across your home network though YMMV

I've had an old Linksys WRT54G for years running DD-WRT and thats the reason I'm upgrading.


Further qualification: Dual band models. Run separate channels on 2.4 and 5 GHz. Assuming you have upstream bandwidth and/or local traffic to warrant it. Also, 5 GHz may get you away from interference from neighbors' older equipment (router, or crap-leaky cordless phone or whatever else is noising up the 2.4 band).

(Be careful, though; some equipment has limited support for dual band operation, which you only learn from hard to find fine print or third party online sources. E.g. Only one band at a time. Or degrading all connections to G if any of them are G. Or effective throttling due to an under-powered processor. As a couple of examples I encountered a year or a bit more ago while helping someone buy one.)

As for me, still on my 54GL -- good enough for my limited needs at home.


It is a specialized computer - if the new model is faster and the old one isn't fast enough anymore, you upgrade.




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