Wireless Router Saga

Okay, so I have a MN-100 Microsoft 802.11b router. Which means that it's ok on the speed, but it's security (WEP only) is out of date, and someone could crack the wep key. So, I wanted to upgrade to a newer 11g router, which would have WPA-PSK, basically MUCH safer in terms of immediate hackability (determined hackers are another thing). So, I bought a Linksys WRT54G. First mistake. The thing kept dropping our connections. I ran NetStumbler on my laptop (see! a GOOD use for a tool that otherwise can be used for hacking... anyways...) and my Microsoft router kept going up to -90dB, which is very good. (Since it's in the room next to the office, and only some drywall is between them, that's to be expected.) Okay, the WRT54G, with it's TWO antennas, was getting -60dB. Noise was around -20dB to -30dB, so I was getting half the usable signal, and it had more errors in the signal by far than the Microsoft one.

So I took it back (got it because my CEO gave me a $50 Best Buy gift card, so I only had to spend ~$25 including tax), and got a Netgear WGT624. It came out at around -50dB. I took it back within 2 hours because I couldn't get it to go higher, and it didn't even have the option to replace/upgrade the antenna! (What is UP with that?! Linksys uses nice standard SMC connectors, and I think DLink has an adapter to use them, so there's no excuse...) When I took it back, I exchanged it for a DLink DI-524. Oh, it's nice. The signal's nice and strong (~ -85dB) and it still supports all the things I want, like UPnP and Port Forwarding (not much, yeah, but still, someone's gonna make a cheap router that doesn't even do one of those someday, I'm sure...).

I'm hoping that it continues to run well, I REALLY want to replace the MN-100 (not because it's not capable, but I want the extra security that WPA will get me, and I have a DSL connection, so..). If Microsoft would upgrade the MN-100 to do WPA, I'd stick with it, it's got a nice powerful little radio.