Looking for new wifi ap/router

[ecktt]

As the title says but here some background. I currently have a Netgear R7000 which has good range but not enough and the 2.4GHz band is slooow. The R7000 needed restarting every few days now, so it was flashed to FreshTomato Version 2024.1 and so far, so good. I preferred the single SSID of the stock firmware. Freshtomato firmware has to many options and reset to defaults doesn't seem to work completely. My current internet connection is a cable 500Mbps down/50Mbps up. I have a 50 TB TrueNAS with a 10 Gb connection connected to a 4 x 2.5Gbps + 2 x 10Gbps switch. The house is 2 stories concert and steal on a 50' x 100' lot of land. All 12 wireless devices are WIFI 6e.

Features I'd like to get:

• Wide area coverage. FCC be dammed.
• OpenVPN Client for use with a VPN service
• OpenVPN server should I want to host a retro style but stay at home lan party
• Ability to use my Android phone as a modem if internet goes out.
• Some sort of Mesh networking so I can expand to get better coverage later on (preferably vender agnostic) with the ability to use either wired or wireless backhaul.
• Ability to use an 3rd party firmware (eg DDWRT) down the road.
• Wifi 7 if it's not much more.

Budget is always a concern.

Thanks in advance for you suggestion and help.

 

[TheLostSwede]

How about the Asus RT-AX86U Pro or the RT-AX88U Pro?
Merlin supports both models.
There's the RT-BE88U Pro coming, but no word on pricing and it lacks the 6 GHz radio, but it's likely to be cheapest WiFi 7 model from Asus for now.

ASUS Unveils RT-BE88U WiFi 7 Dual-Band Router

High-performance router delivers future-proof networking with blazing-fast WiFi 7 speeds up to 7200 Mbps and a massive 34 Gbps of combined wired capacity Dual-band WiFi 7 (802.11be) router enables Multi-Link Operation on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks, 4096-QAM, and throughput up to 7200 Mbps 10...

www.snbforums.com

 

[coxhaus]

If you are thinking about Wi-Fi 6e you are thinking of being a beta tester. It is too early for that now.

 

[Tech9]

Thanks in advance for you suggestion and help.

At your location I would just go to the beach more often and forget about Internet distractions.

If you really insist - what @TheLostSwede suggested above is perhaps more than enough for your needs.

 

[ecktt]

At your location I would just go to the beach more often and forget about Internet distractions.

If you really insist - what @TheLostSwede suggested above is perhaps more than enough for your needs.

I work at the beach....but I live next to a swap.

 

[sfx2000]

How about the Asus RT-AX86U Pro or the RT-AX88U Pro?
Merlin supports both models.

To be honest, this is a bit disappointing...

You're the last person I would have suspected to have a dose of the Asus kool-aid.

There are a lot of valid options out there - you could have done better, IMHO.

 

[Tech Junky]

have a dose of the Asus kool-aid

And this is why I don't answer these any longer. It's a bit pointless to offer suggestions outside of the box and I just DM people instead.

 

[sfx2000]

And this is why I don't answer these any longer. It's a bit pointless to offer suggestions outside of the box and I just DM people instead.

Well - this is kind of where things land - SNBForums is basically an unfunded Asus support forum these days...

 

[TheLostSwede]

To be honest, this is a bit disappointing...

You're the last person I would have suspected to have a dose of the Asus kool-aid.

There are a lot of valid options out there - you could have done better, IMHO.

So instead of having a go at me, why didn't you suggest some alternatives?

Is Asus the best there is out there? Maybe not, but most router makers are between awful and not so great when it comes to firmware updates and support and at least Asus is one of the better companies here, if not the best.

I had a Netgear R7800 for around seven years and it was great and got semi-regular updates and with the help of Voxel there were updates to more things. However, current Netgear hardware seem to be barely supported by the company itself and I wouldn't buy a product that comes with three months support, that is just plain awful.

TP-Link I wouldn't touch with a barge pole because of their shenanigans with swapping hardware revision so they don't have to support older hardware.

D-Link, yeah right...

Linksys I have no experience with, but they don't seem to offer that great support, neither does Tenda, Acer, MSI or Zyxel.

What does that leave us with that's actually supported and that is consumer friendly? Synology? Sure, go ahead, not too bad, but you get less for your money compared to Asus.

And no, not all Asus routers are good or are based on good hardware, but that's why only some models are worth recommending.