Belkin N600 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router with Parental Controls, HD Video Streaming, & 300 Mbps (Latest Gen) $40 FS

Quote from Skids_477 : Actually Best Buy changed their return policy to 14 Days...

looks like you are misinformed http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Help-...0800050014

also i just returned a router to Best Buy 25 days after i bought it

The 15 day return policy is effective March 3rd. He is not misinformed.

http://www.businessinsider.com/be...icy-2013-2

Quote from gargigulos : What is this flash tomato and dd-wrt you speak of and how can it improve my routing experience?

DD-WRT from Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
Tomato from Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]

Quote from dj-3lusion : if this was ddwrt or tomato compatible + 10 bucks less it would be a slickdeal firestorm

which one is better? DD-WRT or Tomato? will they make the router run faster or more consistent over factory firmware? The biggest issue I've had with various routers in the past is the frequent drop connection, will flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato solve this problem?

Quote from bestco : which one is better? DD-WRT or Tomato? will they make the router run faster or more consistent over factory firmware? The biggest issue I've had with various routers in the past is the frequent drop connection, will flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato solve this problem?

for the most part ddwrt and tamato should help get a more stable connection. ur router can drop the signal if its old and craped out. i dont think this router is ddwrt compatible. and if u havent flashed to ddwrt i wouldnt recommend it if ur a noob.

Quote from bestco : which one is better? DD-WRT or Tomato? will they make the router run faster or more consistent over factory firmware? The biggest issue I've had with various routers in the past is the frequent drop connection, will flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato solve this problem?

Honestly you raise a good question. I will answer that with depends on your needs / preferences. A long time ago before tomato I was on the ddwrt craze. But once I discovered tomato firmware and its variants. Im all for tomato for its ease of use and gui.

Now ddwrt has some interesting feats, you can set cpu clock speeds via terminal connection ssh i think?.. I forget the exact simple term. but its essentially remoting into the router using something like a putty client.

I own the older N300 (i think that's what it's called) and slapped tomato on it and that was that. I believe tomato is now becoming more widely adopted and customized for other hardware that ddwrt doesn't gel so well with. like usb support etc. Just my opinion though.

Quote from dj-3lusion : Honestly you raise a good question. I will answer that with depends on your needs / preferences. A long time ago before tomato I was on the ddwrt craze. But once I discovered tomato firmware and its variants. Im all for tomato for its ease of use and gui. Now ddwrt has some interesting feats, you can set cpu clock speeds via terminal connection ssh i think?.. I forget the exact simple term. but its essentially remoting into the router using something like a putty client. I own the older N300 (i think that's what it's called) and slapped tomato on it and that was that. I believe tomato is now becoming more widely adopted and customized for other hardware that ddwrt doesn't gel so well with. like usb support etc. Just my opinion though.

How easy is it to flash to DD-WRT or Tomato? I know how to update the motherboard BIOS, DVD burner firmware, etc.. Is flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato similar or more complicated?

Quote from bestco : How easy is it to flash to DD-WRT or Tomato? I know how to update the motherboard BIOS, DVD burner firmware, etc.. Is flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato similar or more complicated?

Similar, but more complicated
Seriously though, if you can follow written instructions then you will most likely not have issues. it helps to have minimal networking knowledge when troubleshooting issues.

Quote from bestco : How easy is it to flash to DD-WRT or Tomato? I know how to update the motherboard BIOS, DVD burner firmware, etc.. Is flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato similar or more complicated?

no it's easy.. just like you would with any other firmware out there. some might require an extra step but its the same thing

Quote from bestco : How easy is it to flash to DD-WRT or Tomato? I know how to update the motherboard BIOS, DVD burner firmware, etc.. Is flashing to DD-WRT or Tomato similar or more complicated?

Sometimes its as easy as downloading the rom image and using the routers firmware update tool to upload it, then holding the reset button in through some power cycling to make sure there isn't any junk left lying around in the settings part of the flash. Worst case you have to put the router into a download mode and use tftp to send it the rom image. That requires changing your IP address under windows (or whatever) and installing some s/w.

I can't say you could get your grandma to do it, but if you just read that and said "no biggie" its not that bad. If however you read that and said "Waaaa?"...

Curious, why do some routers say they are optimized for video streaming while others are not when their speeds are WAY more than your internet speed at home?
iwheela