Recommended WiFi N router for small office? (20 devices, 2.4/5GHz, #1 issue is reliability).

Forums › LAN (ethernet/Wifi/routers/Bluetooth) › Recommended WiFi N router for small office? (20 devices, 2.4/5GHz, #1 issue is reliability).

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qyiet

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Reply # 1099810 1-Aug-2014 08:34

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TimA: I have had good runs with TP Link, The most reliable pile of $75 i have ever spent in network gear. My little Wireless N 2.4 and 5ghz AP out performs my HG659 and beat my last Cisco.

I have to second this, I have 5 dirt cheap TP Link APs, and while being nothing flash they HAVE been reliable. They were purchased with 'why do we need wifi at all' from management.. so price was the driving factor. But they have stood up when it comes to reliability.

sbiddle: The biggest problem with Unifi's is the lack of any band steering to 5Ghz. Having to run multiple SSIDs to use 5Ghz is just a total pain.

That is *supposed* to be coming. It may not be as fast as I'd like but UBNT does add features to it's products. UBNT would be by goto for wifi now, a really good combination of price/performance.

Warning: reality may differ from above post

xpd

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Reply # 1099814 1-Aug-2014 08:46

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jnimmo: I'm sure all of the suggestions above are good, I've had OK experience from the UniFi APs but would always keep one spare as I've had 2 die on me now, and it isn't easy to update software or change settings really.
If you wanted something basic, the Apple Airport Extremes are solid, but I'd avoid that because doesn't leave you with a growth plan if you need to expand to more than one AP etc.

Cisco Meraki MR18's are awesome, I got a free one a few months ago from attending a webinar and it has been flawless. Wouldn't want to pay RRP for them, but I got a very attractive quote from Acquire for buying a couple. https://meraki.cisco.com/freeap

Edit - Just saw your next reply, didn't realise it also needed to be a router. In that case, a Meraki MX60W would do you very well. But it depends on what type of internet connectivity you have now/will use in future. Fantastic as you can also do 4G failover etc in case of a main connection outage, visualise usage by client and manage/monitor it from anywhere in the world.
I also have some time available if you need a local independent IT contractor.

Meraki is good, but expensive and requires continual subscription - that "free" unit, only gives you 3 years subscription - which I guess isnt a big issue as most people are likely to upgrade by then anyway.

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sbiddle

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Reply # 1099815 1-Aug-2014 08:50

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The biggest problem with UBNT is their reliability and promises of products and features that often take years to eventuate. UniFi 3.0 is still bug laden well over a year after it was announced, and products like the Titanium and GPS sync, well, just never delivered. Quality is also a problem, over the last few years I've encountered well above what I' consider to be a reasonable failure rate of their hardware.

Don't get me wrong - I like their hardware and have deployed hundreds and hundreds of Unifi's but it's not the best performing WiFi kit out their (Ruckus is) and isn't the most feature laden (Aerohive is) but it does fit a price point that people consider reasonable.

jnimmo

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Reply # 1099843 1-Aug-2014 09:20

xpd:
Meraki is good, but expensive and requires continual subscription - that "free" unit, only gives you 3 years subscription - which I guess isnt a big issue as most people are likely to upgrade by then anyway.

Yeah worth pointing out xpd. I think the costs for a business are reasonable though rather than expensive, especially if you start to take advantage of any of the extra functionality included. I say that based on getting some good discounts through a Cisco partner :) Of course included in those costs are the lifetime NBD warranty, phone+email support.

robocat

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Reply # 1099908 1-Aug-2014 10:53

Thanks heaps for everyone's help.

I now know how to move forward (separate router and access point) which wasn't obvious to me without your help! I will probably use the UniFi AP, since it seems from this thread that it would work (I can manage the mentioned down-sides).

Aside: In OP I mistakenly wrote Netgear WRT1900AC when I meant Linksys WRT1900AC - the Linksys is going back to vendor because it was unusable (firmware 1.1.8161197).

Thanks again.

openmedia

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Reply # 1099983 1-Aug-2014 12:57

robocat:
openmedia:
robocat: Any recommendations for a small office WiFi router?

.....

* Currently using NetGear N600 router but it glitches every 2 to 8 weeks and it gets blamed for other problems (because glitches are intermittent and not same every time).
* Tried Netgear WRT1900AC - but it dropped WiFi network every few hours.

Have you looked at the Tomato firmware fir the Netgear WRT1900AC? I've found it to be very stable and provides excellent reporting on usage etc.

Used Tomato at home for years - love it.

But I want to use standard firmware (original post explains why).

Odd as I'd consider Tomato or Gargoyle far easier to use than stock firmwares.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat New Zealand as a Solution Architect for all things Linux, Virtual and of course Cloud. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

raytaylor

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Reply # 1100404 2-Aug-2014 02:37

robocat: Any recommendations for a small office WiFi router?

* Single router (I hate managing multiple boxes or diagnosing problems due to one box going glitchy).
* Easily covered by a single device.
* Currently 6 laptops on WiFi, 15 devices (and growing so need headroom).

I forsee a problem
Wifi is not designed to stream data to multiple devices at once - it is designed for short bursty data streams to multiple devices - not multiple at once.

At the same time, if you are actually using the router part of the box, the NAT table could be filling up if someone is running a torrent application or letting a torrent/p2p program run idle in the background.

My suggestion is simply two access points. Typically put them at different ends of the building so that devices will be evenly spread between the two AP's
Put one on channel 3 and the other on channel 9
And if at least one of the access points has 5ghz capability then thats even better.

Ray Taylor
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robocat

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Reply # 1179342 19-Nov-2014 10:34

We got a UAP-Pro and it has been working flawlessly for a while now. Came with a PoE injector so really simple to setup and install (I haven't yet bought a new smart switch, that is next!).

Thank you to everybody.

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