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Cheap ADSL Holds Up 802.11n Router Design

Posted by kdawson on from the wouldn't-mind-an-isp-price-plunge dept.

sholto writes "Ever wondered why you can't find the perfect 802.11n router? You know, the one with dual band, great range, USB print server and storage? Australian ISPs used to give away modem routers to consumers with expensive ADSL plans, but competition has forced them to drop the plans' prices so low they can't subsidize the boxes any more. D-Link Australia says R&D into N routers is now becalmed in a Catch-22."

1 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. DO NOT WANT: print server, storage, P2P daemon,etc by seanadams.com · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The perfect 802.11n router for me is the one that just acts as a reliable AP and doesn't overheat, crash, drop connections, or have special compatibility problems. How about making it WORK before you add more "value"?

    DDWRT helps but the hardware on the market is just garbage. And it's NOT because it's made of commodity components, but because it's poorly engineered. Best example of this is the horrific power/thermal management on newer Linksys products. Ethernet _switch_ traffic alone is enough to make the whole system overheat and crash no matter what firmware you're running. A competent engineer could have made it work right for the same BOM. I used to make wireless devices and our biggest category of support problems was crappy wireless routers either spontaneously rebooting, or needing to be rebooted. I just can't believe we are still at the same state of reliability as the 802.11b days - actually it seems worse now.

    PS I don't mean to pick on Linksys, it's just that they're the ones I'm most familiar with. Overall the fails seemed to be in proportion to market share although every one had its particular problems.