Good router brand

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kandjc

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#183669 26-Oct-2015 08:14

What would be a good wireless router brand to look at for our 2 level home to use on a new Spark adsl connection? Thanks.

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#1413792 26-Oct-2015 08:16

Onhub?

DizzyD

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#1413794 26-Oct-2015 08:35

Depends what you going to need it for.

If you going to be doing some advanced routing or using VPN's etc, then go for something that supports DD-WRT (I like the Linksys brands), especially the WRT1900AC (my next upgrade)

If not. Fritzbox is also good.

Dingbatt

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#1413802 26-Oct-2015 08:57

I have an ASUS router but probably won't get another. Like a lot of things ASUS, it has great hardware let down by poor firmware. So much so that I have had to install beta firmware to get it to run even half decently.

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corksta

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#1413805 26-Oct-2015 09:06

Dingbatt: I have an ASUS router but probably won't get another. Like a lot of things ASUS, it has great hardware let down by poor firmware. So much so that I have had to install beta firmware to get it to run even half decently.

I'd agree with this. I have an Asus RT-AC87U router which I've had almost a year. Great hardware, but the firmware has always been a bit average until last month's update which finally made the unit absolutely rock solid and greatly improved coverage and reliability around the house.

I do know the RT-AC68U is also a good performing unit, and Asus is a good brand overall, they just seem to be a bit behind with the software side of things.

sbiddle

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#1413932 26-Oct-2015 13:51

Like every other post on here where people ask "what is the best router" I'll answer it with the very same answer.

What are your requirements?

There is no such thing as the perfect router, and depending on your exact requirements there are plenty of different recommendations.

surfisup1000

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#1413943 26-Oct-2015 14:20

Are you using this as an Access point only, or router. Do you need modem built in?

Will you have fibre in future?

I think the netgear r7000 (without modem) , or netgear d7000 (with modem) might be good options.

The r7000 is quite an old model now but still tops the charts.

I have a linksys ea6900 which is ok but seems to drop out on occasion.

richms

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#1413948 26-Oct-2015 14:28

I picked up a really cheap tenda dual band AC router to get me 5GHz again while I wait for unifi to get their new APs out.

Its range on 5GHz is quite impressive compared to the old model AC unifi AP's - 2 walls and still solid signal, whereas the old unifi was down a bar and not at full speed going thru the same walls.

But as a router, it is rubbish. 4 phones and a couple of wifi speakers and 2 chromecasts and 2 laptops on it (all 5GHz) and its DNS redirection started to fall over. I am running it as double natting at the moment to make sure that nothing else on my LAN is causing the chromecasts to disconnect from the app that is casting. 4 days and it stopped resolving till rebooted. 6 days the next time. Hardly the pinicle of stability as a router. Now that its looking like chromecast sucking isnt because of my lan, I will change it over to AP mode and see how it goes. But the wireless side of it is great.

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lNomNoml

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#1413952 26-Oct-2015 14:33

I have the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and the signal is pretty good can pick it up from the moon.

surfisup1000

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#1413955 26-Oct-2015 14:35

richms: I picked up a really cheap tenda dual band AC router to get me 5GHz again while I wait for unifi to get their new APs out.

Its range on 5GHz is quite impressive compared to the old model AC unifi AP's - 2 walls and still solid signal, whereas the old unifi was down a bar and not at full speed going thru the same walls.

But as a router, it is rubbish. 4 phones and a couple of wifi speakers and 2 chromecasts and 2 laptops on it (all 5GHz) and its DNS redirection started to fall over. I am running it as double natting at the moment to make sure that nothing else on my LAN is causing the chromecasts to disconnect from the app that is casting. 4 days and it stopped resolving till rebooted. 6 days the next time. Hardly the pinicle of stability as a router. Now that its looking like chromecast sucking isnt because of my lan, I will change it over to AP mode and see how it goes. But the wireless side of it is great.

It is common for routers to have protocol bugs or faulty firmware. I've had bizarre intra-lan issues which have gone away after getting a new router.

They can chuck in the shiniest hardware, but without decent firmware. no good.

Telecoms business modem, the Pace V5542 is a good example. It had a name resolution error where internal netbios name lookups would translate to external IP addresses. So, devices on the same lan could not really see each other.

This was a huge bug in the firmware, and I think telecom might have bought out a fix a couple of years after releasing the modem.

richms

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#1413957 26-Oct-2015 14:40

Ive been finding on the network here that after a few weeks, that when a mac address moves from one AP to another, like walking outside and then hitting the garage AP, it would lose visibility of much of the network for some time. At the moment I have a mishmash of different switches, some smart, some managed, a few dumb ones etc which I think is the problem because powercycling everything gets it all working for a while. Before I mess around with it too much I'm going to replace the house, shed and garage switches with 3 of the same model decent ones to see if that helps. Till then I just switch things off and on occasionally to keep it all well behaved.

But the tenda router losing DNS resolution in a few days really suprised me. I have it going to my windows DNS server on its wan port, will try unotelly on it later but I really have no need for it on the portable devices.

Richard rich.ms

sbiddle

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#1413980 26-Oct-2015 15:51

lNomNoml: I have the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and the signal is pretty good can pick it up from the moon.

Good range these days isn't necessarily a good thing though - we're in an era where people need to accept multiple APs in the average house is the best way of delivering WiFi coverage.

surfisup1000

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#1414080 26-Oct-2015 19:02

sbiddle:
lNomNoml: I have the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 and the signal is pretty good can pick it up from the moon.

Good range these days isn't necessarily a good thing though - we're in an era where people need to accept multiple APs in the average house is the best way of delivering WiFi coverage.

I have two ap's in my house just now, I once experimented using the same SSID on both but found the devices would sometimes not jump to the strongest signal.

So, I gave them different SSID's and now manually select the strongest SSID . You almost need the lan to be manage multiple ap's -- the wifi authentication and control is done by the main router. Maybe that would improve multiple ap scenarios -- although i guess the tech is not there yet (and maybe not neeed if it can be done at the ap level but i'm no expert).

darylblake

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#1414081 26-Oct-2015 19:04

+ 1 to the last post about multiple AP's.

For example it ultimately depends on your requirements.
If you live in a small (2 bedroom sized house) for instance then an all in one type router will probably be sufficient and a good option.
If you live in an apartment building then everyone will have wifi and it will be super noisy. So a 5Ghz Dual band solution might be better.

If you live in a massive house then having a router and multiple access points will most probably be better. Also more people would live in a larger place, so would therefore have more wifi devices so having more ap's would be beneficial.

I wouldn't get strung up on the brand. This usually doesn't mean much. I have had terrible linksys units before and some great ones, same with ASUS.

One of the biggest problems with all in one units is more often than not where the ONT or master filter is installed in your place is normally NOT the best place to put a wireless access point. Which is why having a separate router and wireless access point or points is probably a better solution.

I am using ubquiti unifi 2.4 ghz AP and i get about 20mbit everywhere in the house. Which is fine for me because my internet speed is about that and if i want to copy large files between computers I use a ethernet cable. Its placed on the ceiling in the middle of my house and I have never had a problem with signal on any of my devices. I am using a router which is not WIFI to do my internet in conjunction with a vdsl modem to do the bridge.

Currently building a new house and will be able to move this gear and use it in the larger place. with the hope i will get ufb (2019) :(.. But ubquiti are releasing new ap range as richms mentioned and I also heard the xclaim access points are great.

FWIW I had a fritz box all in one unit and although it was not a bad unit, from where it was placed the wifi was not good at one end of the house. I also had loads of problems with the VoIP on it so I decided to use a pap2t and I had all sorts of problems so I sold it.

raytaylor

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#1414161 26-Oct-2015 21:45

surfisup1000:

I have two ap's in my house just now, I once experimented using the same SSID on both but found the devices would sometimes not jump to the strongest signal.

Turn down the power on both so the "cells" or coverage areas are more defined and dont overlap.
Many wifi card drivers in windows also allow you to select the roaming/stickyness level.

Ray Taylor

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sbiddle

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#1414285 27-Oct-2015 07:24

Roaming was never part of the 802.11 standard. In recent years this has become a much bigger issue which saw the creation of the 802.11r and 802.11k standards for roaming. If your hardware does not support these standards it'll be up to the client radio to decide what AP to use, and this occasionally always be the strongest signal if you have roamed between AP's.

802.11r and 802.11k support exists in many new devices. 802.11r and 802.11k support exists in most enterprise WiFi kit however it doesn't exist in low end kit, and until it does roaming will always be an issue. UBNT have some new beta firmware coming out soon for beta testers that will include better roaming support.

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