Router for under $50 ?

I am trying to help someone stick to a budget.

Is it possible to get a 4 port, wireless N, gigabit, USB 2.0 router for under $50. It doesn't need to support Tomato or DD-WRT. I can find some, but the reviews are less than stellar.

It doesn't have to be new if there is a clear choice on performance. If a feature has to dropped that is OK also.

I would have placed this in "find me a deal", but I need some solid technical advise.

Any thought would be appreciated.

Quote from repitall : I am trying to help someone stick to a budget. Is it possible to get a 4 port, wireless N, gigabit, USB 2.0 router for under $50. It doesn't need to support Tomato or DD-WRT. I can find some, but the reviews are less than stellar. It doesn't have to be new if there is a clear choice on performance. If a feature has to dropped that is OK also. I would have placed this in "find me a deal", but I need some solid technical advise. Any thought would be appreciated.

I would recommend the Belkin Share N300 F7D7302 you can find it as low as $25 online

Here is all I could find at Newegg [newegg.com] fitting that criteria.

you might want to get one that is dd-wrt compatible.

WRT320N can be found on ebay as a refurb for $30 shipped. Supports tomato and DDWRT. Also has both 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands, but you can only operate one at a time.

Thanks all for the suggestions...repped

Quote from repitall : Thanks all for the suggestions...repped

I suspect at that price that all of your options are going to be end of life product being sold as refurbs on ebay and from third party resellers. If you want the reseller I used on ebay PM me and I'll find it when I go home. I bought two of the WRT320N to use a wireless bridge and so far so good. Apparently people are throwing heatsinks on them to overclock them or just make them super stable at regular clock speed. They seem to recommend slightly underclocking them from like 325 to 300 mhz w/ stock heatsink, but I haven't faced any issues so far without doing that. I can also confirm that both DDWRT and Tomato (stock and toastman's) work just fine on it.

Quote from brbubba : I suspect at that price that all of your options are going to be end of life product being sold as refurbs on ebay and from third party resellers. If you want the reseller I used on ebay PM me and I'll find it when I go home. I bought two of the WRT320N to use a wireless bridge and so far so good. Apparently people are throwing heatsinks on them to overclock them or just make them super stable at regular clock speed. They seem to recommend slightly underclocking them from like 325 to 300 mhz w/ stock heatsink, but I haven't faced any issues so far without doing that. I can also confirm that both DDWRT and Tomato (stock and toastman's) work just fine on it.

Thanks, but since this is for someone out of town, I won't be recommending anything but stock firmware and now have him up and running with an old Linksys for now. Maybe a deal will show up.

Quote from repitall : Thanks, but since this is for someone out of town, I won't be recommending anything but stock firmware and now have him up and running with an old Linksys for now. Maybe a deal will show up.

Buy it yourself, install Tomato or DDWRT, set it up so you can remotely access it, openVPN in, or just use a logmein account, and then ship it out to him/her.

Good luck on that deal! If you give up on the GigE ports you'll find it no problem. And I doubt they need that if they aren't tech savvy enough to set up their own router.

I can see your dilemma with stock vs alternative firmware. Documentation may be limited, but I've seen some routers where tomato or ddwrt was much easier to use than the stock firmware.

Quote : It doesn't need to support Tomato or DD-WRT. I can find some, but the reviews are less than stellar.

Stock firmware is garbage on 90%+ of routers. I would not buy a router where I had to use stock firmware unless I was sure it was ok. Create a deal alert and wait for a deal on a router with your requirements that can be flashed 3rd party. You may need to stretch your budget. If you value your time, be willing to stretch the budget if necessary.

I got the RB-WNDR3400 (referb) from Tigerdirect [tigerdirect.com] a few weeks ago for about $25.

A refurb Linksys E-3000 should be right around $50. And it's dual band. Just update the F/W as soon as you get it.

Thanks for the suggestions guys....
Why do I see so many negative comments with routers, dropping devices, dieing after a few months etc...
I have been using a Linksys WRT54GS for a long time and a TPA-LINK cheapo as a an AP and never have any problems. Both with stock firmware.
Do you think most of these problems are user related or they are just making crappier routers nowadays?