WI-FI router reliability
 

My 4th wi-fi router in 4 years is going senile on me. This one stops emitting a signal after 10-45 minutes of usage and needs to be unplugged and replugged to start working again. The last three didn't die with such style as they just stopped working suddenly.

All of the have been Netgear. I'm done with Netgear unless others can comment on the reliability of the wi-fi routers also being crappy. :mad:

Fourth one in four years. Can't be random.

Is your source of power dirty or prone to spikes, surges, ... such as from lightning? Are they operated in an environment where they heat up significantly? These devices receive RF signals, so receipt of some rouge RF signal that is overpowering the filters and circuitry is another possibility. But that is not common. Do you operate any kind of powerful shortwave or citizens band radio in your house? Someone more familiar with RF might help out here.

NetGear
 

Netgear makes the worst products you could buy. Go with a Belkin N1. You won't be sorry.

you're looking at under $100 parts. there may be skimping to keep the price down. pretty much the same with all the rest of the $50 routers. get a router that has a one year warrantee.

were i you, i would invest in a ups with a warning device and turn the warning device on. if it warns a lot, go to radio shack and get a voltage meter. they make a plug in meter that shows voltage between 80 and 150, or so.

we lost the neutral(the white wire) connection into our house. the ups's drove us crazy. got the radio shack volt meter. it frequently ran up to the pin of 150-175 to somewhere very bad.

finally got through to the power company at about 6pm. by 8 pm they had a full crew with backhoe in the front yard. took four days to repair(the break was under a large oak tree). they committed to replace any electrical devices that were destroyed.

I would agree with this as well. Had several Netgear problems which continually dropped signals, stopped working, etc. I switched to Belkin and have had no issues since. In addition, Belkin had a lifetime warranty on their products; at least they did when I purchased my router, I would imagine they still do. If they cannot fix any problem you have over the phone, they will send you a new router.

One other thing
 

For whatever reason, on my computer, I cannot run IE without causing problems on my router. If I use Firefox I NEVER have a router problem but with IE it causes my internet to stop working. Don't know why and never bothered to try and find out.

I disagree. I had problems with my Netgear router until I put in the latest firmware. Since then it has been rock solid. I've had similar experiences with D-Link and Linksys products. I've found that most routers have rather outdated firmware when they leave the box.

I strongly recommend you get the inexpensive Linksys WRT54GL and update it with DD-WRT, Tomato, or other 3rd party firmware. ^

I went from a Netgear 614 (v.1) to the Linksys with DD-WRT and saw major improvement in reliability and speed. I recently added another Linksys (2nd hand) to use it as a wireless repeater in my house. Works like a charm and easy to set up.

I have had DOZENS of Linksys products (including the wrt54g) die, they have consistantly died, for years, wired and wireless :)

I have 3x Belink WIFI products, they have no issues with dying but consistantly disconnect a few times a day, for about 20 seconds and then come back.
DLinks are very stable on wired routing, wifi is decent, overall pretty stable.

And the MOST stable wifi for me has been a tie between a netgear and SMC Barricade, and a moto wifi router when they had them. The moto wifi is the best performing of all but I can't find them anywhere now.

You forgot to include a link to the third party firmware, http://www.linksysinfo.org/forums/index.php. Right?

My current linksys router (has both wired and wireless) is prone to temporarily resetting itself. This causes the VPN I use to access work to drop, requiring manual reconnection, and sometimes one of my Tivos (all are on the wired network) fail to find one of the other Tivos. As another poster said, these things are under $100, so I have low expectations. I'd probably spend up to $500 if I could be assured of something more reliable.

Second the motion. I usually use Netgear (and have had good luck), but the GL with Tomato firmware is just fantastic.

Plus, I can run SSH tunnels to the router and surf the web from my home connection when at an office that blocks sites and instant messenger. :)

I've had a linksys WRT54G since they released it and it's worked like a champ.

As mentioned, buy something that is capable of the third-party firmwares (the linksys mentioned above is a good choice). Buy yourself a good UPS (a line-interactive or double-conversion UPS, not a cheapo standby UPS) for it, and enjoy your connectivity.

I have had or installed for others many dlink, belkin, linksus etc routers but IMO buffalo routers are the gold standard for speed and reliability.

MisterNice

I'm betting you have power issues and that's what's killing them. Of all the electronics I've had, when ever I've lived in places with really wide power swings, the routers were always the first to die.