Time for a Gigabit router upgrade, any suggestions?

[Texas_Ace]

@nkresho

I am pretty happy with my WRT1200AC. I upgraded from an old Asus with DDWRT flashed to it (converted the Asus to a target camera system, with an old foscam camera). I wanted 5ghz and it does well with that (down 2 floors to the basement and across the house (about 100’ through a few walls). I don’t use the usb port, but it has complete control of it, if needed.

The nighthawks were tempting, but I grabbed this one for under $150, IIRC. Budget, compared to the rest of the market.

It’s been running nonstop for about three years and has not had a single hiccup. I’ve got a 10 channel switch, a 5 channel switch, a plex media server, 8 channel NVR, and a bunch of other stuff connected. Wifi gives ample signal to get 1080p on 7 rokus.

Not sure if this fits the bill for you, but might be worth a look for what’s available and not bleeding-edge.

Here’s a review: http://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/linksys-wrt1200ac-performance-and-verdict-page-2

They are quoting 80MB/s read speeds and 45.5 writes, they weren’t so happy with the range though.

Good suggestion, Linksys has treated me well in the past, if I had to pick I would chose either an ASUS or linksys. Neither has let me down.

Ebay prices on that model are pretty good as well, less then $50 appears to be fairly easy to come by, which was my target budget that I forgot to mention earlier.

If anyone else has suggestions feel free to let me know, I am not in a major rush on this, just looking for some targets to keep an eye out for a good deal on.

Searching ebay for used routers comes up with too many choices to know which ones are good and which ones are not.

[mattlward]

TP-Link hands down…. affordable, fast, work well with third party firmware…

[Texas_Ace]

@mattlward

TP-Link hands down…. affordable, fast, work well with third party firmware…

Any particular models?

[pilotdog68]

Hey! Something I know something about! I recently upgraded my router, and per my norm I bought a whole bunch, evaluated, and then sold the rest.

In the last month I’ve owned
NETGEAR
R6400
R7000
R7900
R8000

Linksys
E8350

Asus
AC-68U

My findings are that Linksys has gone way downhill recently with buggy firmware and very short-lived support.

Netgear supports their products longer but the firmware can also be buggy in some cases.

The Asus firmware is far and away the best. All the stability of something like DD-WRT or OpenWRT, but with a fantastic interface and support.

I did not try any TP-Link. I have had good products from them in the past, but after the Archer C7/C8 they have begun to be less friendly towards 3rd-party firmware.

Right now I’m left with what is shown in the 2nd picture: the R7000 (which has the excellent Asus firmware installed on it and will be sold to a friend), the R8000 (also with Asus firmware, which works well on both), and the Asus Ac68u.

I’m happy with all of their performance, but I would only recommend something with the Asus firmware. It is just so superior to everything else I’ve tried. Both the R7000 and R8000 are decently stable, but little features like the DLNA server just would not work on the stock firmware.

[BlueSwordM]

Hmm in the PC community, we call these kind of routers “demon summoners”.

You can understand why :laughing:

@TA, I currently have the RT-AC66U from Asus.

In its stock form, it is an excellent router, and can provide Wi-Fi easily in any part of the house, even outside in the garden and even farther.

I got mine for 60$CA, which should translate into 45$US. If you can find it, I can highly recommend it. I’m planning to install DDWRT soon on it.

[mattlward]

I am a TP-link fan because if you open them up…. they produce their own asics, and they are really fast. Gig port to gig port the throughput is amazing and at layer 3 they are very fast. DD-WRT is in dev for the C3150.

[pilotdog68]

@BlueSwordM

@TA, I currently have the RT-AC66U from Asus.

In its stock form, it is an excellent router, and can provide Wi-Fi easily in any part of the house, even outside in the garden and even farther.

I also recommend the ac66u given your budget, as Asus tends to hold theur resale value higher than others. I forgot to mention I had one of those for a week too

My only gripe is that it has a single-core processor, so using the usb storage tends to slow down the router. If you don’t use the storage server function, it’s quite good. It also had better range than all but the R8000 in my tests

[BlueSwordM]

Oh, for storage, I just use a small low power PC using an AMD sempron APU.

Extremely powerful for what it is essentially: a SATA router for housing an transmitting content from 2x3TB routers.

[Texas_Ace]

@pilotdog68

Hey! Something I know something about! I recently upgraded my router, and per my norm I bought a whole bunch, evaluated, and then sold the rest.

In the last month I’ve owned
NETGEAR
R6400
R7000
R7900
R8000

Linksys
E8350

Asus
AC-68U

My findings are that Linksys has gone way downhill recently with buggy firmware and very short-lived support.

Netgear supports their products longer but the firmware can also be buggy in some cases.

The Asus firmware is far and away the best. All the stability of something like DD-WRT or OpenWRT, but with a fantastic interface and support.

I did not try any TP-Link. I have had good products from them in the past, but after the Archer C7/C8 they have begun to be less friendly towards 3rd-party firmware.

Right now I’m left with what is shown in the 2nd picture: the R7000 (which has the excellent Asus firmware installed on it and will be sold to a friend), the R8000 (also with Asus firmware, which works well on both), and the Asus Ac68u.

I’m happy with all of their performance, but I would only recommend something with the Asus firmware. It is just so superior to everything else I’ve tried. Both the R7000 and R8000 are decently stable, but little features like the DLNA server just would not work on the stock firmware.

Long time no see PD68, course I am not around much lately either.

Good info, so the asus firmware can run on the netgear routers? That is very interesting. I have heard that the asus firmware is much better.

Are all netgear routers flashable with new firmware? Or just the nighthawk series?

The R7000 and AC68U look to be available in my budget with some looking, I will have to look into those.

[Texas_Ace]

@BlueSwordM

@TA, I currently have the RT-AC66U from Asus.

In its stock form, it is an excellent router, and can provide Wi-Fi easily in any part of the house, even outside in the garden and even farther.

I got mine for 60$CA, which should translate into 45$US. If you can find it, I can highly recommend it. I’m planning to install DDWRT soon on it.

Looks like an older model of the AC68U that PD mentioned? Any significant differences?

Both can run DDWRT?

[BlueSwordM]

Yep.

Here is the list I used when I bought the AC66U to check if it had DDWRT capability:
https://wiki.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

Just look for Asus, and you will find it.

And yes, both can run DDWRT.

[Texas_Ace]

@mattlward

I am a TP-link fan because if you open them up…. they produce their own asics, and they are really fast. Gig port to gig port the throughput is amazing and at layer 3 they are very fast. DD-WRT is in dev for the C3150.

Interesting, sadly that model looks to be going for $80+ which is more then I would really like to spend if possible. Although if there are tangible gains for the money I pay for better performance.

[pilotdog68]

Asus firmware only works on a few Netgear models; most successfully on the R7000. If you’re fine with installing other firmwares, they can be had for $50. You don’t get 100% of the Asus features though.

The ac68u is the better bet imo. You’ll have to check if they’re compatible if you want DD-WRT, but I don’t have any need for it after using Asus-WRT

[Texas_Ace]

@pilotdog68

@BlueSwordM

@TA, I currently have the RT-AC66U from Asus.

In its stock form, it is an excellent router, and can provide Wi-Fi easily in any part of the house, even outside in the garden and even farther.

I also recommend the ac66u given your budget, as Asus tends to hold theur resale value higher than others. I forgot to mention I had one of those for a week too

My only gripe is that it has a single-core processor, so using the usb storage tends to slow down the router. If you don’t use the storage server function, it’s quite good. It also had better range than all but the R8000 in my tests

Hmm, at this point it looks like I will be using the storage server function right now unless I find a NAS for cheap. Although they are hard to find. So I guess trying to find the AC68U might be better.

Or if those netgear models work well and can run the asus firmware (same guts inside?), that might be the way to go.

@BlueSwordM

Oh, for storage, I just use a small low power PC using an AMD sempron APU.

Extremely powerful for what it is essentially: a SATA router for housing an transmitting content from 2x3TB routers.

I considered doing this but the lowest power PC I could build/find in my stable was around 50-60W idle power usage. I would be better off adding more drives to my main system instead of using another one. Which I have considered.

The issue with that is I turn my system off every night and restart at odd times, so I want a drive available 24/7 for certain functions. Right now I have my main media server setup on a drive in my main system.

Although a raid setup in a proper NAS would be superior naturally. The drive on the router is mostly a “swap drive” for swapping things between systems or serving up basic files 24/7. Not a lot of use but it can have large file transfers going through it.

[Texas_Ace]

@pilotdog68

Asus firmware only works on a few Netgear models; most successfully on the R7000. If you’re fine with installing other firmwares, they can be had for $50. You don’t get 100% of the Asus features though.

The ac68u is the better bet imo. You’ll have to check if they’re compatible if you want DD-WRT, but I don’t have any need for it after using Asus-WRT

Yeah, I have no issues installing other firmware. I am almost disappointed in cases where I can’t lol.

Although with routers I am fine with good factory firmware like the asus.

The AC68U and R7000 are about the same price from a quick scan, so might as well go with the Asus it would seem if you say it is better.

[Texas_Ace]

@BlueSwordM

Yep.

Here is the list I used when I bought the AC66U to check if it had DDWRT capability:
Supported Devices - DD-WRT Wiki

Just look for Asus, and you will find it.

And yes, both can run DDWRT.

So with all of this in mind the AC68U is looking like a nice sweet spot in price and performance with long term expandability in mind as well.

Anyone know of a better option?

[pilotdog68]

If you’re looking at the ac68u/r/p (all basically the same), just be aware the T-mobile version takes extra work to “unlock”. It worked fine for me, but apparently not everyone is so lucky

[Texas_Ace]

Good info, I was not even aware there was such a thing as a T-mobile version. How do you tell which version is which?

Anything else I should know about them?

[pilotdog68]

The Tmobile version says “Tmobile” on it, comes in a pink box, and are about $20 cheaper… So it’s not too difficult.

The only thing I don’t like about mine (which I’m using right now) is that you can’t really lay it down or wall-mount it. It’s designed to sit up on a desk/shelf vertically.

[Joshk]

I had a Asus AC66U that was a good router for the money. The hardware finally suffered heat-death after many years. I replaced it with a AC88U and don’t regret it. It was worth the money, and it was a LOT of money.
I have a full signal everywhere. I can even maintain a connection to a Sonoff switch *Through 1 interior wall + 1 exterior BRICK wall, + it’s behind a 12000 gallon swimming pool. And that little Sonoff doesn’t even have an external antenna! This routher just works. Everywhere, everyday.