Your Reliable Router of Choice

[myPCTechs]

I am attempting to once and for all gain a clear consensus and find the preferred router of choice amongst tech professionals.

In my career I have met many experienced technicians, and it seems like every single one has a reason to love one router and hate the rest. Personally, I've had nothing but amazing experiences with D-Link routers and have had horrible experiences with Linksys routers. Another tech once swore to be that Netgear was the very best, and considered D-Link to be garbage. And another still that loved Linksys?!?!

In my opinion, a good router should be fast, secure, and reliable. Of those, reliability is the most important aspect in my book. If a router can't perform at a solid level for months without frequent reboots it is garbage. I definitely don't want to install a router to a new client only to have them call me back in a week because their connection is dead.

With that said, vote in this poll and let us know your choice. Imagine you had a small business client, with 10 users on their network, call you tomorrow. They tell you they want to replace their router and ask you to buy the best router on the market. Most importantly, they want you to buy the most RELIABLE router, one that would never go down.

In that scenario which company pops into your mind first?

Cisco
ADTRAN
Trendnet
Linksys
D-Link
Netgear
SONICWALL
ZyXEL

?

 

[ATTech]

Whatever one I can install DD-WRT on.

 

[16k_zx81]

Billion. Not listed.

 

[ATS]

Linksys / Cisco, Netgear. Those are the main ones that I use and I have just gotten used to working with.

 

[cyabro]

Belkin not on the list.

I've used them a lot and never had a problem.

For larger businesses, 10 or more users, I usually go with Draytek.

I think it also depends on what models you use from each brand too.
EG: Here in New Zealand D-Link used to be the brand of choice for most ISPs to send out when you signed up with them. Most of these were the DSL-302 or 502 and they are junk.

 

[iptech]

Draytek Vigor series.

 

[KM@]

I've had problems with some models of Netgear, D-Link, Linksys and Belkin.

For my personal network I'm currently using a Apple Airport Extreme and have had no problems at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Roy]

I think it depends a lot on the model rather than the manufacturer - most of the makes listed have produced the odd lemon.

Personally I like Zyxel - sold P660HW for years and never had a problem with them. Not the most 'fancy' router but very reliable.

 

[KompuKare]

Whatever one I can install DD-WRT on.

Yes DD-WRT or Tomato / TomatoUSB. But I don't think I'd install that firmware for residential clients since they both have too many options and will confuse most people (well actually most people don't even know where to look for their router's config page...) but if someone has a specific requirement I would install that.

Pretty agnostic about brands actually. Been fairly happy with a couple of Buffalos which I installed, and Netgear too. Although lifetime warranty sounds nice, the last Belkin I installed had almost no features whatsoever: not even decent DHCP control.

 

[TLE]

I like Draytek Vigor routers, but for my customers I usually go with either D-Link, Linksys or Netgear.

Personally I like Zyxel - sold P660HW for years and never had a problem with them. Not the most 'fancy' router but very reliable.

I can't think of a worse make that Zyxel, I just find them awkward to use, and unreliable. May just be the few I have come accross.

 

[Arhineus]

In this order:

Businesses: SonicWall; Cisco; Dlink & Linksys

Home Users: Dlink; Linksys

 

[ATTech]

Although lifetime warranty sounds nice, the last Belkin I installed had almost no features whatsoever: not even decent DHCP control.

I had a Belkin and I can never find much use in the warranty: send us the unit and we'll send you a replacement 2 weeks later. What am I supposed to do until then? It amazes me too, the lack of features that come on the installed firmware, although D-Link's I found to be fairly robust in comparison.

I was attracted to lifetime warranties as well, until I found at that it's for the product lifetime, not mine

 

[wimwauters]

In order of workload:
3com
Cisco
self-built

 

[meanderer]

on consumer side, I don't see any difference. I grab whatever cheapest.

 

[PcTek9]

The Truth about Routers...

They get their chips from everywhere...
One manufacturer might have a router built at a chinese plant, and another model built in singapore...
Different Chips...
Different Designers...
...
I guess what I am saying is that every manufacturer has crappy awful models and fantastic wonderful models.

This survey is not very helpful to anyone. What you need to do sir, is ask them WHICH MODEL of router they are getting great service from, and maybe even which ones are crap. Then you will provide useful information for everyone.

 

[bigcuedaddy]

I prefer D-Link. Never had a problem with them. Not a big fan of Linksys.

 

[TopLevelComp]

Cisco, Linksys, D-Link

I've heard good things of Netgear from a few people, I might pick up one of their routers to see how it works.

 

[dipper]

For larger clients Draytek or Cisco. Smaller clients netcomm.

 

[tpcg]

have used linksys mostly some factory and some with tomato firmware, all have worked fine for me.
I am testing some tp-link routers now.

 

[ubuzz]

I have had good success with Netgear. Linksys routers are just about everywhere. No experience with D-Link and some of the others. I recently purchased an EnGenius router to play with.