$400 - What would you buy?

[yetollerey]

Hi,
With $400 budget, what router would you buy and why?

The first thought was to buy Wave 2 capable router and from what I know, currently there are only 2 in the market, the Netgear Nighthawk AC2350 X4 Smart WiFi Router and the ASUS RT-AC87.

Based on the review published for ASUS RT-AC87 (part 1+part 2), firmware is not stable enough, but the review was published 4 months ago, anything changed?

There is also the Netgear Nighthawk AC2350, but I could not find any deep info so I can get better impression of it.

The NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router (R8000) is another option, but it lacks the Wave 2 support.

I've also heard about the Linksys EA9200 AC3200 in that budget, but again, I don't know how good it is compared to the other leading models in the market.

Any thoughts?

 

[Trip]

If you have the chops for it, for $400 you can score quite a bit more power and versatility with a pfsense, MikroTik or UBNT box, and one of those AC all-in-ones wired in only as an access point. Better performance/features, lighter workload per device, easier upgrade/replacement, etc.

 

[yetollerey]

Thanks for raising those options, I didn't think about them, but I dont want to use a dedicated computer for this, i rather have a plug&play solution.

 

[thiggins]

What do you think you are buying with a "Wave 2" router besides bugs?

What are your requirements? How many devices and what are their wireless capabilities including dual-band? What is the physical environment? How many neighboring networks?

 

[yetollerey]

Hi,
If i'm spending so much money, I wanted a router that would be future proof as much as possible. In case the Wave 2 present generation is not stable enough, then I guess I should buy a different one, like maybe the Linksys WRT1900AC?

Regarding my environment, I have around 20 clients, NAS, streamers, some of them are 802.11ac. Using a lot of streaming (wired and Wi-Fi).

What are your thoughts?

 

[L&LD]

If you know that you're not going to buy another router for a good long while, then it may make sense to buy the RT-AC87U today. Assuming it works in your environment without major issues (now) and continues to do so into the future.

However, the problem is that there is no such thing as a Wave2 AC Class router that has been released yet, from any vendor.

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?p=152608


I don't think you'd be future proofing with any current model. The best bet for now and the future and with the highest performance available today is the RT-AC68U with RMerlin firmware.

Buying the RT-AC87U and thinking you're set for the next few years is wishful thinking.

As I mentioned in the other thread, the biggest hint that true Wave2 routers have arrived is that they will (or at least should) have 10GBe ports to ensure that the performance promised by them will actually be usable.

Right now, we don't even have MU-MIMO, let alone any clients that have 4 antennae or more, or even, 160MHz capable clients or routers. All of these are show stoppers to get to AC Class Wave2 levels. And when those features are enabled in the next generation of products (new hardware is required, not a simple firmware upgrade can enable all of these features), routers having less than 10GBe ports will just as similarly be crippled when trying to run a network of two or more Wave2 capable clients.

 

[thiggins]

With that many clients, you would be better to add access points (or routers converted to APs) to your current installation, splitting traffic among the APs and moving clients to 5 GHz.

AC1900 routers are the sweet spot in terms of maturity, cost and performance. AC1750 will also work well.

Enterprise wireless has long used multiple access points with coordinated frequency plans and power levels to provide reliable service. Eventually, the consumer industry will move in this direction. But someone (chipmakers probably) will need to invest in software to make multiple AP setups self-managing. The average consumer has neither the knowledge nor patience to set up these kinds of networks.

P.S. Future proofing is a fool's errand
5 Tips For Buying A Future Proof Router

 

[RogerSC]

I agree with Tim about shifting to 5GHz., and using wireless AP's.

"Buying the future now" just doesn't work, since when the future comes the terrain will have shifted in ways that we don't know about now. The wireless-1900AC routers are mature and working well now, and offer lots of bandwidth and great wireless performance. And there are wireless-AC clients out there that work well, also. Their prices are trending down, since they're no longer perceived as "leading edge", but really do provide more performance than most people need at the moment. So they do provide the most practical "future proofing" for the near future. The farther future is not yet here, so you can guess what it might require, but investing in a guess doesn't seem like a good bet to me.

Anyways, I'd invest some of that $400 financially and it will grow and help you pay for the real future when it comes into view.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

20 clients and a NAS with lots of streaming. Are all going to be hitting on the network at the same time or do you have 20 potential devices with maybe 2 browsing and 1 watching movies with the rest just sitting there?

The lighter case describes my network and, for $400 I would buy a nice refurb and get a new router in a couple of years as technology changes. This would leave a lot of change left over from the $400.

For a commercial quality environment, I would approach it a little more thoughtfully and look at a systems approach as opposed to a device or two approach. What do you want to accomplish, overall? What's the internet speed? Do you stream a lot from storage? Do you need to throttle users?

If you want to buy once and for all, think about a different approach. Some of the super AC routers of today will look primitive in a couple of years, yet probably meet a lot of needs for normal users ... just as N600 routers do today for the mainstream user.

 

[htismaqe]

For $400, you could buy at least 2, and possibly 3, AC1900 routers.

One as a router, the others as APs, you'll be pretty happy with the result I would imagine.

 

[yetollerey]

Thanks for all the responses!

I understand now that Wave 2 will not provide me any future proof capabilities and if i understood correctly, they are not so stable right now.

Looks like the AC1900 models are the one to buy now and based on this:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...c1900-router-wireless-retest?showall=&start=2

I should go for the Netgear R7000 or the ASUS RT-AC68U. The article above was published last Jan, almost a year ago, since then, the Linksys WRT1900AC was released, what is the general thoughts about which one to choose between those 3 models?

With a bit extra money, I could also go for one of the AC3200 routers, like the NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200. Is it stable enough compared to the previous 3 models that I mentioned?

Thanks ahead!

 

[htismaqe]

Your best bet is probably either the AC68U or R7000. The WRT1900AC will blow your budget.

 

[TonyH]

For $400, you could buy at least 2, and possibly 3, AC1900 routers.

One as a router, the others as APs, you'll be pretty happy with the result I would imagine.

Hi,
Sounds very good to me.

 

[stevech]

You asked!

No way would I spend $400 on a WiFi router for home/SOHO use.

Better to buy a $75 one and use the rest for a nice hotel/massage.

 

[exteri]

If i'm spending so much money, i will buy 2 or more.
and AC1900 routers is a nice choose.

 

[Cloud200]

With $400:
If that was my money . . .
Buy 2 or 3 access points or routers converted to access points depending on the size of the house and density of the clients.
All AC1200 or higher. Personally because I love the aesthetics of it I would get POE access points, but that's just a nice thing to have not critical.

Last, I would buy a wired only router capable of pushing at least 500mb/s of throughput with 50 clients.

In my mind the way to future proof is building infrastructures and systems with upgrading planned, not being static.

 

[stevech]

lots of active users = lots of APs

 

[Trip]

the way to future proof is building infrastructures and systems with upgrading planned, not being static.

Not to brown-nose, but that should be sticky'd at the top of every sub-forum.

 

[Cloud200]

Not to brown-nose, but that should be sticky'd at the top of every sub-forum.

Lol I think I just found my sig.