Looking at buying: WiFi-6 router / gaming router

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Looking at buying: WiFi-6 router / gaming router

thinkingtrex8848

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#270029 20-Apr-2020 13:00

Router with a 4000/5000Mbps throughput or there abouts and built in VPN.

Need something strong enough to throughput 2 or 3 streams of high bitrate video on Plex.

Examples:

Asus RT-AX88U
Netgear Nighthawk AX8 RAX80

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#2466305 20-Apr-2020 14:59

Hi, if you are really serious, those products are the very last option one would take. You say high bit rate video, exact numbers?

Cyril

neb

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#2466338 20-Apr-2020 15:28

cyril7:
Hi, if you are really serious, those products are the very last option one would take.

And if that really is 5Gbps, wireless anything is the last option you should take.

michaelmurfy

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#2466344 20-Apr-2020 15:39

As per my thread:

A note on consumer grade routers: Most are overpriced garbage. I'm yet to find a router in the consumer market (with the exception of the Ubiquiti AmpliFi) that can outperform a "enterprise grade" solution on both price and performance. Don't get sucked in. The word "Gaming" is a buzzword that is often thrown about and means nothing - there is nothing these routers can actually do to improve your gaming ability especially if you're playing over Wireless. This is also mentioned below again as I see too many people getting sucked in. Do your research, if the all in one router costs over $350 then take a step back and consider either the Grandstream or Ubiquiti solutions as these are not much more price wise and will outperform any router in this price. If you're needing basic WiFi along with a router that can do anything then the Huawei HG659 is honestly the best solution here. - The Router Guide

You're wasting your money. You're not going to achieve anything close to those speeds and WAN performance on those routers is rubbish. It is all marketing.

Also think of this also - the routers you're looking at have 1Gbit Ethernet ports so how will you achieve the "6000Mbit" WiFi speeds? My UniFi NanoHD's refuse to use 160MHz channels due to neighboring access points, I'd say this will refuse to use anything above 80MHz also limiting you to around 800Mbit real world performance anyway (best case) and if you attempt to lock it in to the maximum band width - not only will you really annoy your neighbors, you'll actually get less performance yourself.

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thinkingtrex8848

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#2466354 20-Apr-2020 15:52

neb:
cyril7:

Hi, if you are really serious, those products are the very last option one would take.

And if that really is 5Gbps, wireless anything is the last option you should take.

Sure, I was just advised these are good routers by my colleague and I just looked for others with similar specs. For direct play I have the Shield and file server hardwired to existing Vodafone UltraHub and direct play works perfectly fine no matter what I throw at it.

But remote streaming over the network is lagging very badly. My files are around 80GB - 140GB ripped from 4k Bluray discs. An example photo -

thinkingtrex8848

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#2466359 20-Apr-2020 15:58

michaelmurfy:

As per my thread:

A note on consumer grade routers: Most are overpriced garbage. I'm yet to find a router in the consumer market (with the exception of the Ubiquiti AmpliFi) that can outperform a "enterprise grade" solution on both price and performance. Don't get sucked in. The word "Gaming" is a buzzword that is often thrown about and means nothing - there is nothing these routers can actually do to improve your gaming ability especially if you're playing over Wireless. This is also mentioned below again as I see too many people getting sucked in. Do your research, if the all in one router costs over $350 then take a step back and consider either the Grandstream or Ubiquiti solutions as these are not much more price wise and will outperform any router in this price. If you're needing basic WiFi along with a router that can do anything then the Huawei HG659 is honestly the best solution here. - The Router Guide

You're wasting your money. You're not going to achieve anything close to those speeds and WAN performance on those routers is rubbish. It is all marketing.

Also think of this also - the routers you're looking at have 1Gbit Ethernet ports so how will you achieve the "6000Mbit" WiFi speeds? My UniFi NanoHD's refuse to use 160MHz channels due to neighboring access points, I'd say this will refuse to use anything above 80MHz also limiting you to around 800Mbit real world performance anyway (best case) and if you attempt to lock it in to the maximum band width - not only will you really annoy your neighbors, you'll actually get less performance yourself.

I guess 6000Mbit is overkill and I don't need any of that. Just hope that the ISP generic UltraHub router wasn't this bad at streaming. Any decent router will do, and would be a great bonus if it has built in VPN. Also I've seen the $600 routers on Trademe for $250 and some even less on Marketplace.

Please ignore the 'gaming' title as its mainly for media streaming and not really for gaming. It's just most beefy PC hardware have gaming title attached to it. Sort of like I had to buy a 'gaming' laptop that can sustain high cpu usage without throttling for video editing. Ok off-topic now, back to routers.

michaelmurfy

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#2466420 20-Apr-2020 16:51

The point I am making is this won't solve your issue at all and is a complete waste of money. All of these consumer grade routers are.

Instead of this router - consider looking into a UniFi NanoHD access point (or two) depending on the size of your house. Will achieve better performance. You also need to ensure that you've got enough disk bandwidth on your Plex server and the stream is not transcoding at all. Also where possible, use Ethernet instead. These routers are not your solution.

chevrolux

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#2466444 20-Apr-2020 17:06

Hahahahaha oh wow.... 4-5000Mbps gave me a good laugh. Thanks bud.

If spending money is the goal, I can highly recommend something from Ruckus. You will want to grab yourself a ZoneDirector (just to be on the safe side), and perhaps the R730 access points (cos it has the biggest numbers.)

..seriously though, take on board what @michaelmurfy is saying. The NanoHD are fantastic access points and could support streaming that file, given the client device is up to it.

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Jase2985

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#2466488 20-Apr-2020 17:44

dont use wifi to stream

sepreate gbe connection to each device, not throuh the same switch. pretty much any decent hardware could handle that, and doesnt even require a router. if going via the net then throw a decent router (router only) in the mix, and if you want wifi then some decent access points. try not to use an all in one device. they have their limits

thinkingtrex8848

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#2466495 20-Apr-2020 17:48

Lots of good learning here.

So the TV in the bedroom, there are no LAN ports. If hardwire option was available then all sorted but we don't have that luxury.

In Plex when I'm direct streaming (no transcodes) it says 800Mbits bandwidth which I thought isn't that much of a big deal. If my puny Ulta hub free router can manage to stream lowish bitrate 4k mkv over the WiFi, logically I thought a much beefier router can stream high-ish bitrate mkv. Hence why the WTB post.

thinkingtrex8848

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#2466499 20-Apr-2020 17:53

Jase2985:
dont use wifi to stream

sepreate gbe connection to each device, not throuh the same switch. pretty much any decent hardware could handle that, and doesnt even require a router. if going via the net then throw a decent router (router only) in the mix, and if you want wifi then some decent access points. try not to use an all in one device. they have their limits

If no WiFi, can you recommend something that might do the job? I'll Google in the meantime.

Just thought a good quality router will be an all in one solution.

michaelmurfy

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#2466507 20-Apr-2020 18:05

Have a look at the UniFi Dream Machine as an all in one option. You can also expand this with other UniFi access points if needed.

Ticks all your boxes and will perform so much better.

Jase2985

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#2466509 20-Apr-2020 18:08

all in ones have compromises

what tv do you have that doesn't have Ethernet? i cant say i have seen one but then i havent been keeping up with current trends.

800mbps is 100MB/s. its unlikely any of your streams would reach anywhere near that. a 2h 140GB file is only 19MB/s average.

thinkingtrex8848

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#2466542 20-Apr-2020 18:59

Jase2985:
all in ones have compromises

what tv do you have that doesn't have Ethernet? i cant say i have seen one but then i havent been keeping up with current trends.

800mbps is 100MB/s. its unlikely any of your streams would reach anywhere near that. a 2h 140GB file is only 19MB/s average.

You are absolutely right, my mistake. Tautulli is where I saw that mbps, maybe I misread it.

I have an OLED in the lounge which is hardwired Ethernet to the Shield and rest of the network.

2nd TV is in another room where there are no Ethernet ports. I thought Wi-Fi would work because I did a test on the WiFi strength in the corner of the room and it said 300-350mbps. Usually that is plenty for 1080p -smaller 4K file streaming.

Delorean

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#2466544 20-Apr-2020 19:02

I agree with the majority of comments in this topic, most consumer grade routers are very overpriced and don't perform to what is advertised.

I have the TP Link AX6000 WiFi 6 Router. these retail at $599, however i sourced one for around $420

TP Link has a number of high end features and their routers aren't as expensive as the rest when you compare spec to spec.

This router has a number of extras, with built in Trend Micro Anti Virus which is free for 3 yrs and very robust parental control interface. the performance is not bad, not anywhere near the 6000 throughput that is advertised between devices. However i can obtain 700-800 down and 200-450 up with no issues on a speedtest on WiFi 6.

Overall i would recommend provided you don't pay retail.

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landcruiserguy

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#2466751 21-Apr-2020 04:28

I did the free router upgrade last week. I rang up 2 degrees and said if I resigned for 12 months would I get a new router? They said yes and it's a Fritzbox 7590. 7590 has more wifi radios in it (4) so I can use it as the centre node of my mesh system. The good thing about fritzbox is the old router can now be a mesh point. Fritzbox is not wifi 6 it's worth noting but the price was right.

To get a decent signal to your TV I would use a powerline adaptor or put a mesh access point next to the tv and plug the tv into the eithernet on the mesh point. This way your TV is using the awesome wifi in the mesh point not whatever it got shipped with.

Plex is hard to get a reliable steam from in my experiance.

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