Sam asks "I'm thinking of buying a new wireless router for my home network. The current Belkin router I have just doesn't cut it when I start playing games like Team Fortress 2 and Counterstrike. I've been looking online and I've narrowed my brands to D-Link and Linksys. Which router would be best for gaming?"

One of the problems with answering a "which router is better" question is that personal experience can greatly influence ones opinion. So, while I have my own opinion, keep in mind that it has been formed by my own experiences. In other words, your mileage my vary.

Let's get this out of the way: I hate D-Link. I've used several consumer-grade D-Link routers over the years, and all of them have been complete and utter garbage. A horde of problems arise with these routers: they don't have enough memory for multiple NAT connections, they constantly overheat, their firmware is often buggy and exploitable, etc...

Given all of that, D-Link does make some decent professional and corporate-level routers. Obviously, there is more money to be made at the corporate level by selling support, and D-Link is a master at that.

Linksys, on the other hand,. I've had more success with, but only with one particular series of consumer-grade router: the WRT54GL (better known as the WRT54G Version 4). With the other Linksys routers, I've run into the same problems as D-Link routers, but with much less frequency.

If you twisted my arm, I'd recommend the WRT54GL. It's not as consumer friendly as other routers, but it's not nearly as unstable as some of the other junk I've had the misfortune of using (I'm looking at you, DI-624!)

The biggest problem you're going to run into is overheating. Consumer routers are just not built to withstand their own thermal output, and no heatsink or fan is installed in these machines by default, so heating is a very big concern. Keep your router off the floor, and off of other heat-generating electronics, and it should be OK (at least until the first big summer heat wave!)

Do you have a question you need answered? E-mail me! lordkat@gmail.com

Click here to check out How to Build a Gaming Computer for Under $1000.

Be safe,

Jason