I picked up a Netgear WNR834B two months ago, and it’s been doing pretty well replacing my Linksys WRT54G v4. It runs DD-WRT and I have it set up to broadcast two wireless networks: my secure network with WPA2-AES, and a less secure, isolated network with WEP encryption that lets my mobile/embedded devices that may not be able to handle the AES encryption (Palm TX, Zune, HTC Excalibur, Nintendo DSi) onto the internet.

The signal wasn’t that fantastic at the other end of my apartment, though. Lots of people on the DD-WRT forums were getting a lot better results with modding the antennas on the router, so I did too. After finding compatible antennas on eBay, all I had to do was open up the router, enlarge the holes in the grate at the top to fit an RP-SMA connector through (easy task with the Dremel), plug in the pigtails to the board, and screw on the new antennas.

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