Tony, I've always been a fan of the WRT54GL routers, but those are outdated today (no gigabit or n). Still, they're very reliable.

Out of curiosity, what is your definition of reliable? How many years are you looking to get before something similar starts happening with the new router? Most of these things are $50-100, but are working around the clock running our whole networks and delivering constant radio signals. Even at the high end, I'd say that $25/year for such performance is pretty good. Yearly air filter replacements can be more expensive than that