I’ve been using a Belkin Pre-N router for a while and found that it “was” unmatched in range, even using plain G clients. However, the router’s features are pretty barebones and Belkin never seemed committed to improving things. Now, Linksys is pretty solid but limited in the feature area quite surprisingly. I’ve always like DLink, but a tried one of their new models and the range was pitiful!
After much research, I crossed my fingers and bought the Netgear WPN824. It has the� best software I have seen out of the box and the range seems better than the Belkin Pre-N [see update below]. Now note that I am not using any non-standard clients. Everything is plain old G equipment, except of course for the router. What’s kind of amazing is that there are no external antennas! Supposedly there are 7 internal ones. It has these flashing blue leds on the top of the unit that supposedly tell you which antenna is getting signal. Could get annoying I suppose, but ok so far. Anyway, I highly recommend this unit. I believe it is 2nd generation MIMO and 3rd is out now, but that unit is not getting very good reviews.
UPDATE: Well, it appears the range is just a tad less than the Belkin. I’m not ready to go back and ordered a directional antenna which should provide the tiny boost I need to connect my bridge from the front room to the router in the back of the house.