Top 10 wireless routers – best sellers in Amazon in networking – router category – most popular wireless N routers with almost five star average ratings

With a bunch of wireless routers available in the market today, it is obviously confusing the way you choose which one is the best for your need. Wireless router is the heart of your home wireless network to share the internet connection and other networking tasks. Unlike wired network which the connectivity performs well with least interference, wireless network is prone to any types of signal attenuators within its network coverage. Any sources of signal attenuators (including 2.4GHz-based wireless home appliances, concrete walls, file cabinets etc) can degrade the performance of your wireless connection significantly.

Wireless router manufacturers introduce their new router products powered by the latest wireless 802.11n technology, dual band support and embedded with gigabit interfaces for both LAN and WAN Ethernet ports delivering high speeds of up to 300Mbps or even faster up to 450Mbps. But remember, the speed specifications are in ideal conditions. In the real world, you never reach those speeds due to many factors and environment conditions. Unlike wired connection, the wireless network is prone to any types of signal attenuator sources that can cause the wireless connectivity issues. Moreover, wireless network shares the bandwidth. The more wireless clients connect to the network, the more traffic shares the bandwidth that makes each connection getting slower. So if you are planning to purchase a wireless router, listen from others who have experiences with the products and read what their opinion about the products.

Without including the legacy wireless routers, the following top 10 wireless routers are currently become the best seller in Amazon in networking – router category.

1. MediaLink Wireless N150 Router

You will be surprised if you read the customers reviews about this router. Nearly 90% out of the customer reviews give averagely 5 star ratings for easiness of the installation, value for money, attractiveness, and technical support.

MWN-WAPR150N Wireless N150 Medialink Router is powered by wireless N150 technology with solid connections. This router is ideal for simple hoe networking for sharing the broadband internet and other networking tasks.

Cons:

• It supports single band (2.4GHz). Typically the 2.4GHz band is not ideal for streaming HD video. But many customers are satisfied with the solid connection even for streaming up to 1080p HD video
• It doesn’t support USB port for storage / printer

For detail manufacturer description and specs, click MWN-WAPR150N Medialink router here.

2. D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Gigabit Router

D-Link DIR-655 is previous generation of D-Link Extreme N routers with three external MIMO antennas technology, designed for larger homes and offices. The router is ideal for bandwidth-intensive applications with gigabit ports.

Mostly customers provide positive reviews with averagely 4 star customer ratings for ease of setup, value for money, speed and wireless connection. It is interesting that the next generation of this router (D-Link DIR-665 selectable dual band router) doesn’t receive better customer ratings than the DIR-655 even though it is designed with N450 technology.

Cons:

• Doesn’t support 5GHz band for clean network and less interference
• Supports only one USB port for either sharing the storage or printer. For best value I prefer router with 2 USB ports to share both printer and storage concurrently

you may consider the new version DIR-645 whole home router with Smartbeam technology. The latest and fastest router product by D-link is Dir-857 N900 router with one USB 3.0 port, ten times faster than USB 2.0.

For detail manufacturer spec click here D-Link DIR655

3. Apple Airport Base Station

Apple Airport Base Station is a simultaneous dual-band gigabit router. Apple doesn’t follow other wireless routers which are typically includes 4-Etherent ports, this router includes only three Gigabit LAN Ethernet ports. This is unusual actually, but if you require wireless router with more ports you can consider D-Link DIR-623 which is equipped with 8-Ethernet ports.

Mostly customers provide nearly 5 star customers rating averagely for ease of installation, ease of use, range and extensibility. The router includes one USB port for either storage share or printer share. The good thing is that you can add USB hub to allow you host both printer and storage concurrently.

Cons:

• Less Ethernet ports (3 Gigabit ports)
• Single USB port, but allows you add USB hub to host both storage and printer at the same time

You may also like the new version of Apple airport express with wireless N, a compact wireless base station and can be configured as the wireless extender. Click here comparison between Airport express and Asus WL330N3G. Asus is a multifunction router, very small and compact and is ideal for travellers.

For more manufacturer specs and detail click here Airport base station.

4. Cisco Linksys E-3000

Cisco Linksys E-3000 is a simultaneous dual-band router with gigabit interfaces for both WAN and LAN Ethernet ports. It’s one of Linksys high performance routers designed for streaming HD video and smooth gaming.

Mostly customers experience satisfaction by giving averagely 4 star ratings for easy setup, better range, good design and technical support. For secure guest access, you can create separate SSID, different password and with limited access.

Cons:

• Include one USB port for hosting share USB storage but you cannot use it for hosting a USB printer. You need separate wireless print server for share printer.

Compare new Linksys E3200 Vs Linksys E300 - click the link. For manufacturer specification and description, click E-3000 series here.

5. WNDR3700 Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router

WNDR3700 is the first Netgear router with wireless N600 technology. It supports simultaneous dual band and gigabit ports for both WAN and LAN interfaces. The router is powered by draft 802.11n wireless technology with 680 MHz powerful processor, 16 MB flash and 64 MB RAM. For eco friendly – Green features, the router includes power and wireless on/off buttons and 80% recycled packaging.

Customer reviews are mostly positive with nearly 5 star ratings averagely for ease of installation, ease of setup, ease of use and rich of features.

Cons:

• It supports Guest network (multiple SSIDs) but many complaining that this feature doesn’t work
• It includes one USB port for storage but not for hosting a printer share. Many complaining about this port, cannot work for storage.

For detail manufacturer spec and description, click here WNDR3700 dual band router.

6. Cisco Linksys E-4200

Cisco Linksys E-4200 is the latest product by Linksys, powered by the latest wireless N750 technology, meaning the speeds for 5GHz band is up to 450Mbps and for 2.4GHz band the speed is up to 300Mbps. This is the first Linksys router with the high speeds of N750 technology. It’s a high performance router for large home for streaming HD video and smooth gaming.

Still not much customers provide reviews for this router in Amazon, but in CNET the router receives nearly 4.5 star ratings averagely for ease of setup, ease of use, features, performance and support.

Cons:

• Includes only one USB port for storage share but it cannot be used for printer share
• Guest access can only work limited to 10 clients

For manufacturers description and spec details click here Linksys E-4200 N750. See also Apple airport extreme Vs Linksys E4200.

Note: End of 2011 Linksys introduced new version, Linksys E4200V2 which is an N900 router and it supports USB with printer sharing.

7. Netgear WNDR4000 N750 Wireless Dual Band Router

Netgear WNDR4000 is the latest product with N750 technology delivering the high speeds of up to 450Mbps for 5GHz band and 300Mbps for 2.4GHz band. The router is designed for streaming HD video and gaming. It includes one USB port for storage share with ReadyShare technology.

Free live parental control is an added value for safe internet experiences for the family. Multiple SSID is also included for guest secure access. To know how the Internet performs, the router includes a broadband usage meter.

Mostly users give positive reviews with nearly 5 star customer ratings averagely for ease of setup and reliability.

Cons:

• Three spatial streams only work for 5GHz
• The USB port can only be used for storage share but it cannot be used for hosting a USB printer for share

For manufacturers description and spec details click here WNDR4000 N750 router. You should also consider the ultimate spedd WNDR4500 N900 router.

8. Asus RT-N56U Black Diamond

Asus RT-N56U is a new line of router products by Asus, keeping its tradition in providing the best value for the router by adding two USB ports for storage share and printer share concurrently. This is ideal solution for complete networking solution for small offices as well as for home entertainment. You don’t need to buy print-server for printer share and at the same time you can host external storage for sharing across the network.

Customer reviews provide averagely nearly 5 star ratings for ease of use, speed and reliability. Speed and reliability are two important performance features for wireless network.

Cons:

• Should you require guest network access, the router doesn’t support this feature. For home usage with the absence of guest access is not a serious issue.

For manufacturer description and spec details, click here RT-N65U Spec.

9. Netgear WNDR3400 N600

The WNDR3400 is one of popular Netgear high performance routers with dual band simultaneous technology. Both bands deliver the speeds of up to 300Mbpsideally. Like other Netgear products, this router supports free Live parental control, secure guest access, and broadband usage meter. The router includes one USB port for external storage share across the network.

Customer reviews are positive with nearly 5 star average ratings for range, speed, security features and software features.

Cons:

• USB port is not designed for hosting a printer
• The router doesn’t include gigabit LAN Ethernet ports for reliable high speed wired connection

For manufacturers description and specs for WNDR3400 click here.

10. Buffalo WZR-HP-AG300H High Power Router

Buffalo wireless routers are all powered by DD-WRT Linux-based – an open source firmware. For Linux developers, open-source firmware is exciting for custom configuration to optimize the performance, security and routing options. WZR-HP-AG300H is powered by wireless 802.11N with simultaneous dual-band technology.

Unlike other wireless routers, this router includes an external switch to let you configure the device to operate either as wireless router or wireless bridge / repeater.

Cons:

• Includes one USB port for storage share but not for printer share. With DD-WRT firmware, developers can tweak this for better usage.
• It doesn’t support Guest network access

For WZR-HP-AG300H manufacturers description and spec details click the link.

The following table shows you spec comparison for those top 10 best seller routers. For example Linksys E3000 Vs Netgear Wndr3700 N600 you see that both routers are nearly the same except that Wndr3700 is DLNA compliant router.