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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
This won’t fix the slow USB, but for wifi performance, I turned off wifi on my router (~5 year old Linksys) and ran a Ubiquiti Unifi AC AP LR. I bought it for roughly $100 a couple years back and set it up using POE. Since setting it up I’ve NEVER had to fiddle with it it reboot it. Ubiquiti makes great stuff.
I can confirm all of this, I also tested/used all of them. From listed routers AC68 is the best, and Asus firmware is the best.
I use AC87 at home.
All listed Netgear routers have firmware problems and don’t work really good. For example R6400 doesn’t do port forwarding the way it should, and that just doesn’t work. Only flashing DD-WRT can fix some probems. Netgear support is useless.