Asus AC68U or Netgear R7000

[nicko]

Hi,

I need new router to replace my good old WRT54GL with DD-WRT
So, after browsing and searching, I decided to go with either AC68U or R7000.

These are my requirements:
- stable
- stable
- stable
- VPN server support
- VLAN Tagging support
- WAN-LAN and LAN-WAN 200mbit throughput with VPN
- QoS is optional

It is no problem to put some other firmware on router, I just want it to plug it in and forget about it after I configure it, otherwise it might end up in the wall...

So, I need recomendation.
Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

These are my requirements:

- WAN-LAN and LAN-WAN 200mbit throughput with VPN

Certainly hope you're not looking for 200Mbps on the VPN... neither of your choices have the horsepower to do that - esp. using the OpenVPN server implementations on these two devices.

Even with a dedicated host inside, you're going to see about 10 percent overhead on the VPN in the best of cases... and you'll be limited by the uplink end on your WAN connection.

sfx

 

[nicko]

Certainly hope you're not looking for 200Mbps on the VPN... neither of your choices have the horsepower to do that - esp. using the OpenVPN server implementations on these two devices.

Even with a dedicated host inside, you're going to see about 10 percent overhead on the VPN in the best of cases... and you'll be limited by the uplink end on your WAN connection.

sfx

I've misstyped. I need 20mbit VPN throughput
Do you know stable firmware for either of these two routers?

 

[Trip]

FWIW, I've generally had better luck with Tomato (specifically Shibby's builds of TomatoUSB) than with DD-WRT, when it comes to stability. All AIO and VPN builds support OpenVPN and VLAN'ing. And both models have builds in the K26ARM section.

If budget is no big deal and you want something a bit more solid and supported out of the box, do an edgerouter or a usg40 for wired routing and vpn, then attach the R7000 or AC68U in AP-mode.

 

[nicko]

FWIW, I've generally had better luck with Tomato (specifically Shibby's builds of TomatoUSB) than with DD-WRT, when it comes to stability. All AIO and VPN builds support OpenVPN and VLAN'ing. And both models have builds in the K26ARM section.

If budget is no big deal and you want something a bit more solid and supported out of the box, do an edgerouter or a usg40 for wired routing and vpn, then attach the R7000 or AC68U in AP-mode.

As this would be my home device, I don't want to stack up the devices - so hence the AC wireless router

So, I think I'd go with Asus due to availability in stores. What about Merlin FW vs Tomato?

 

[Trip]

As this would be my home device, I don't want to stack up the devices - so hence the AC wireless router

Understandable for a SOHO application.

So, I think I'd go with Asus due to availability in stores. What about Merlin FW vs Tomato?

I don't have any experience with Merlin, but its codebase is asuswrt, so I'd suspect behavior to the original firmware. That still doesn't give a meaningful indication of real-world stability. The only way to really tell is to try each, stress-test and observe performance. I *can* speak for shibby's TomatoUSB releases and say that for the most part, they're rock solid, especially if you're just looking to get something set-and-forget to cover the basics.

FWIW, I've found it's not until one starts using the bleeding-edge or newly-added features in these firmwares where instability starts to creep into the picture. At that point, if you're that serious, it's probably better to step up to an actual business-class unit that offers the feature(s) as mature, tested and supported parts of the product.

Bringing things full circle, I'm guessing any of the external-antenna, top-tier Asus models would work well for you, with either Merlin or Tomato (shibby).

 

[nicko]

Understandable for a SOHO application.I don't have any experience with Merlin, but its codebase is asuswrt, so I'd suspect behavior to the original firmware. That still doesn't give a meaningful indication of real-world stability. The only way to really tell is to try each, stress-test and observe performance. I *can* speak for shibby's TomatoUSB releases and say that for the most part, they're rock solid, especially if you're just looking to get something set-and-forget to cover the basics.

Thanks for advice!

FWIW, I've found it's not until one starts using the bleeding-edge or newly-added features in these firmwares where instability starts to creep into the picture. At that point, if you're that serious, it's probably better to step up to an actual business-class unit that offers the feature(s) as mature, tested and supported parts of the product.

I can see that, for that reason I'm not buying the latest AC87U. I've also considered FortiWiFi 20C at first, but I find it overkill for home use...And also AC standard should come in handy.

Bringing things full circle, I'm guessing any of the external-antenna, top-tier Asus models would work well for you, with either Merlin or Tomato (shibby).

Thanks again, AC68 is ordered, hoping for the best

 

[Trip]

Good choice. It's also a comfort to add that if you notice CPU-related stuff (routing, firewalling, NAT, etc.) isn't holding up over time in terms of performance or stability, you can always just use the AC68 as an access point for its wifi features only (thus taking some pressure off its workload) and delegate routing duties to a full-blown wired router like an edgerouter lite, etc. That said, I have a feeling the AC68U should be able to bare the intended load just fine.