Good wifi routers in China (2016)

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Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« on: May 27, 2016, 10:10:34 PM »
I'm looking to upgrade. I have an aging D-Link DIR-605, which until recently was fine for bringing the internet to two laptops in the other room and sundry mobile devices floating about, but it (or one of the laptops) started seriously degrading the internet signal last night and it's at least six years out of date anyway so I'm thinking it's time for a change.

The upside of this particular D-Link in China was how you could clear the language pack, leaving it to default to an English language interface, which is most essential.

What do you use?
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

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Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2016, 07:59:50 AM »
I'm looking to upgrade. I have an aging D-Link DIR-605, which until recently was fine for bringing the internet to two laptops in the other room and sundry mobile devices floating about, but it (or one of the laptops) started seriously degrading the internet signal last night and it's at least six years out of date anyway so I'm thinking it's time for a change.

The upside of this particular D-Link in China was how you could clear the language pack, leaving it to default to an English language interface, which is most essential.

What do you use?

Apple Airport. which Is prolly off your grid and budget. But it actually work..

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. - B. O'Driscoll.
TIC is knowing that, in China, your fruit salad WILL come with cherry tomatoes AND all slathered in mayo. - old34.

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2016, 10:50:21 PM »
The TP-Link TL-WR841N is cheap, it's a good seller on Amazon, and it might even be supported by dd-wrt

That's not what they sell in China, though.

In China, they sell the TL-WR842N. It's Chinese language only and does not have enough flash memory to support even the manufacturers English language firmware let alone any alternative. Well played, China. Well played.

Cost only 90 yuan so there's that anyway.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #3 on: June 03, 2016, 11:27:37 PM »
Presently, to judge by what's in the stores where I went shopping today, this TL-WR842N is the shizzle at the moment. It's 300 Mbps, and it's everywhere. Alongside it I also saw a 450Mbps version, which might be the TL-WR941N, but which is probably some 2N version as well, and thus also presumably Chinese-language only.

I would like to know of a cheapish router, somewhere in the range of 100-300 yuan, that as well as being cheapish will also accept to have international firmware applied to it. Manufacturer's English firmware at minimum; and/or dd-wrt, openwrt and/or Tomato for fun.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2016, 01:13:07 AM »
Meanwhile...

按需连接 在有访问时自 (On Demand)
自动连接 在开机和断线 (Always on)
手动连接 由用户手动连 (Manual)

Right?
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #5 on: June 04, 2016, 07:27:27 PM »
And now I have two of them.

(a) because they're cheap
(b) because a Wireless Distribution System is exceptionally easy to set up between them

Thus I now have one router on one side of the wall wired to the ADSL socket, and the other router on the other side of the wall wired to #2 laptop. The WDS set up between the two routers makes a wireless bridge through the wall. If the speed tests work out well (and the TL-WR842N doesn't turn out to have some disastrous phone home hardware implant or some other security issue), then that's my network and don't hack me bro.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2016, 08:01:40 PM »
The first router has a nice regular signal. The second router is showing those same sudden dips in signal strength as I see in neighbouring TP-LINKs. They happen every minute or so and last for less than a second, though sometimes they arrive in pairs, and sometimes the gaps between outages are as long as 4 minutes. But in any case they appear to have a significant effect on ongoing download speeds. Hardware fault? Not every TP-LINK in the vicinity shows these micro-outages, but no other brands appear to. You be the judge.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2016, 12:52:05 AM »
Dear router blog,

the second router still has those micro-outages. They happen about once a minute. But then, for science, I set the computer wired to the second router to ping that router continuously. I just wanted to see what kind of transmission delay accompanied the outaged, but friggen jesus if the outages didn't almost completely stop! In the last ten minutes there's been exactly one and otherwise the signal has been steady. Goddamn router just wants attention.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2016, 03:53:19 AM »
Router blog,

perhaps you already knew - the data is a lie. It means something that these micro-outages exist, and they do appear to correlate with, for instance, managed large downloads dropping in overall speed. But that might just be wifi and I can't tell anymore.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #9 on: November 21, 2016, 03:54:12 AM »
Six months later, no, the TP-LINK TL-WR842N is not a good wifi router. It's cheap though and I have two so maybe the second one will last another six months. But in looking up best selling routers in this fine red land, I have come across something unhelpful, and possibly strange. The router market in China seems full to bursting with cheap and crippled versions of otherwise acceptable routers. Cheap and crippled in this case means not enough internal memory to load, say, the international version of the firmware, nor an aftermarket firmware come to that.

Bah
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

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Nolefan

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Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #10 on: November 21, 2016, 08:23:26 PM »
Six months later, no, the TP-LINK TL-WR842N is not a good wifi router. It's cheap though and I have two so maybe the second one will last another six months. But in looking up best selling routers in this fine red land, I have come across something unhelpful, and possibly strange. The router market in China seems full to bursting with cheap and crippled versions of otherwise acceptable routers. Cheap and crippled in this case means not enough internal memory to load, say, the international version of the firmware, nor an aftermarket firmware come to that.

Bah

just switched to huawei and i'm pretty darn happy with their hardware. i spent 300+ rmb for the pro router model and it's made a huge difference. The kicker is that you have an app to manage it from your phone/tablet which is in the right language so no need to change firmwares or whatsoever.
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Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #11 on: November 21, 2016, 11:12:54 PM »
just switched to huawei and i'm pretty darn happy with their hardware. i spent 300+ rmb for the pro router model and it's made a huge difference.

Specific make and model?

I likely will end up buying something from outside China and carrying it back here, but it's several months before I can do that and I could try out a Huawei instead.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #12 on: December 02, 2016, 02:04:38 AM »
Purchased a D-LINK DIR-822 Dual Band 11AC 1200

300 migglejiggles in the 2.4GHz range; up to 8 billionty eleven in the 5GHz range. (Figures may be altered at the time of publication). Tomorrow when Pigman the China Mobile Technical Butt drags is fireplug self up all those stairs to, duh, issue a new password, I'll find out if it actually works. My first dual band router! If publicly accessible signals are any guide, it's the first one on my block.

Why D-Link, you ask? Because, it would seem, they always have the option to clear language packs. When you buy the router, it'll be in Chinese language, but if you can find your way to the system tab and thence to the "Clear language packs" button, then violoncello, you'll have a (perfectly ugly) English language web interface for managing your newest tech afterbirth.
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0

Re: Good wifi routers in China (2016)
« Reply #13 on: December 02, 2016, 04:36:58 PM »
DIR-822 works as advertised. 2.4GHz band covers the house nicely; 5GHz doesn't make it through the walls very well (drops connection in the kitchen and the crapper) but where it does, it registers on my phone as about three times faster than the 2.4GHz connection (which is a pleasant but equivocal result because the actual speed will be limited by whatever the ISP has rated the line rather than whatever my phone and the router can do). Tentative thumbs up.

(Minor thumbs down: this router will not take dd-wrt firmware and I may never find out what all that fuss is about.)
when ur a roamin', do as the settled do o_0