Best Router for Apartment (fighting with other Wifi), plus specific needs below

[alexbc]

Hi all,

I live in a large 1300sq feet apartment, with limitation on placing the router. I now have an Asus AC66 which was the top of the charts a cpl of years ago when I bought it, and has been doing OK, with Merlin Firmware, BUT I am lacking networking throughput of latest routers, some reliability issue here or there (needs restart), need to change channel when conflicting with others, AND my 2.4 GHz connection to bedroom SmartTV is not the greatest.

So, what would be the ideal router for the following specific needs:

1. Work BEST in apartment environment, competing with multiple other unit Wifi signal (do I need multiple bands)
2. Feed Xbox, PC, Receiver via Ethernet at highest speed and allow networking of 4K content
3. Stream content to multiple devices, at highest quality, like no issues streaming 4K Netflix, lossless audio, and downloading stuff on PC at the same time
4. Allow multiple VPN (OpenVPN) profiles that could be easily setup/selected for various needs
5. Be WALL-mountable and not too large
6. Prefer to have 3rd party firmware support
7. Have BEST 2.4Ghz performance, meaning strong bandwith in the farthest room
8. Future proof (feature-wise)

The current router ranking only shows 2016 routers and not the later models, so I am not sure if NetGear R7800 is the best option, and it's hard to say which router could be wall mounted (just need screw spots in the rear)?

Thanks for any help!

 

[alexbc]

Asus AC-86U looks like a great option, BUT it doesn't seem to be wall mountable! I hate the stupid new design of these routers...

 

[degrub]

1) Use cable to the fixed location devices, perhaps over powerline ethernet
2) AP or router with 2x2 radios AC
3) use 5 Ghz band as much as possible for less interference
4) use old router with AP turned off + POE AP mounted on wall where you need it.
5) you could try a pair of powerline ethernet adapters for coverage issues. Just make sure you can return them no penalty.

 

[MichaelCG]

1.) Your best bet for this is hard wires or multiple APs located closer to your clients.
2.) Pretty much any modern mid to high range device meets this requirement...even many current low range devices can.
3.) This comes down to how the devices are connected, link rates, airspace quality, etc.
4.) No feedback here since I don't really use this feature
5.) No feedback here.
6.) No feedback here.
7.) With crowded airspace, you cannot really achieve this over 2.4GHz. If the airspace isn't clear/clean, you will always be speed/performance limited on WiFi. Consider hardwire, move to 5GHz, or deploy multiple APs that are closer and lower power to your clients.
8.) What features are you trying to future proof for? Your future proofing won't align with my future proofing.

 

[coxhaus]

I agree 5GHz is the best for crowded air space but it will not cover 1300 sq ft unless you can live with dead air space.

 

[st3v3n]

Have you considered a couple of TM-AC1900s, converted t0 RT-AC68? They're wall-mountable and I've had no issues testing to over 2000 sq feet with both bands, various devices (and they seem to be agreeing with AIMesh if that's a consideration). Cheers.

 

[EmeraldDeer]

Netgear R7800 may be your best option. I am in an apartment that size and there are no dead spots using 80 MHz of 5 GHz DFS channels, at least with an iPad and iPhone which can use the full 480 Mbit Comcast download bandwidth. It appears no one in my building has a router which supports DFS yet. That goes for Comcast as well who account for the majority of the WiFi in use, even when customers are not using it for themselves. I do not use OpenVPN or third party firmware. There are mounting holes on the bottom, but the manual does not address it. I cannot say it is the fastest router in a congested 2.4 GHz environment, but it is very good and has a strong signal.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

I agree 5GHz is the best for crowded air space but it will not cover 1300 sq ft

Not true it depends what its constructed of and other factors. I was in a 1700 sq and my 3100 on 5 ghz covered the whole house no problems.

 

[alexbc]

Thanks guys, a few clarifications...

1. I cannot switch smart TV to 5GHz, as my TV doesn't do 5GHz
2. Interestingly, the in the farthest room with smartTV, while 2.4GHz is a bit weak, the 5GHz is WEAKER, like most devices pick the 2.4 over 5 when both available
3. I am using as much ethernet as possible, where ethernet ports are available, so my PC and media server will be on ethernet.

In terms of using my Asus N66 (it's not AC, that was a mistake) as AP... would that solve the problem? Like if I set it up in the bedroom with worst connection?

Last, so WHICH router would do this job that's also wall-mountable? TM-1900?

 

[alexbc]

How do I do that? Change the firmware? Is it as good?

Have you considered a couple of TM-AC1900s, converted t0 RT-AC68? They're wall-mountable and I've had no issues testing to over 2000 sq feet with both bands, various devices (and they seem to be agreeing with AIMesh if that's a consideration). Cheers.

 

[doczenith1]

From a VPN standpoint the TM-AC1900 or RT-AC68 will only do around 50 Mbps. The current VPN leader in the Asus line is the RT-AC86U which will do 200+ Mbps as a VPN client as it's cpu has built in crypto acceleration.

 

[avtella]

Range/WiFi Performance -> R7800 & VPN -> 86U, in addition if you use QoS, Traffic monitoring and anything that breaks hardware NAT acceleration the more powerful Qualcomm chipset would maintain much higher throughput assuming your internet speeds are high enough to cause this bottleneck, as aside from the crypto engine on the Cortex A53 the Cortex A15 like Qualcomm Krait is much more powerful in general per equal MHz.

The Synology RT2600AC and Asus BRT-AC828 use the same hardware as the R7800 so look at those as well. Any of the routers mentioned would easily cover my 2600 Sqft home. My router is at the top floor with good signal and speed two floors below in the basement. Then again people with more concrete walls/granite flooring would have much lower range, so build materials will make a huge difference as one poster mentioned above.

 

[Zolty]

I have recently picked R7800 and Synology 2600 ac.
Synology's FW is very impressive, but painfully slow - and (my impression) becoming slower with each update (and they come frequently). I have read somewhere recently that Synology might not continue routers line.
R7800 - can not say bad word. Based on recommendations from web, I switched off QoS, Mu-MIMO and other option and just ran it as pure router - worked OK with 40/10 connection. Just for curiosity I flashed it with voxel's firmware - and it slightly improved (running dsltests I rarely get below A mark on Bufferbloat).
Router has been trouble-free, uptime now is about 3 month and doing OK.
Out of the two - I have chosen R7800 over Synology (which tempted me with dual WAN option).

 

[avtella]

You can actually leave MU-MiMO on, it works fine on it unlike Broadcom based routers. Only if you have a Broadcom MU client like a Galaxy S7 would you want turn it off as those switch to single stream mode not that you would really notice that effect on a phone. Most current MU capable laptops have either a Qualcomm or Intel card which have no issues.

 

[Zolty]

Honestly - I am not sure if any of my portable devices has MU - so I do not miss it much, but thank you for the hint.
I have just read on Netgear community forum about problems with WAN-LAN transfers. Since I am on slow connection, I am not affected - but might be in a few months when I finally get FTTH with 777/777 connection.

 

[Constantin Sorin Popescu]

I currently have a Netgear R7000 router and I plan to upgrade because I have some weak spots in the 5 GHz AC band (85 sq meter apartment). I'm tempted to try an Amplifi HD router for better coverage and speed.
What do you think? Is Amplifi HD an upgrade from R7000 in terms of coverage and speed? or I should try an R7800?

I have a gigabit internet connection with 1000 up / 500 down.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[techboy]

My TP Link C2300 covers my 1600 sq ft apartment and more. Even the weakest areas usually have 50-100+ Mbps on 5 GHz while strong areas have ~1000 Mbps or so.

VPN is great too. Same cpu as AC86U.

 

[st3v3n]

Kal-El, ditto #8, our RT-AC3200 covers 2000+ sq feet, it's a 2.5 story, wood-frame building, and though the dormer isn't used much, we have good 5 GHz coverage in all areas. Suffice it to say, having very few neighbors within 100 yards helps. Cheers.

 

[hfm]

I have recently picked R7800 and Synology 2600 ac.
Synology's FW is very impressive, but painfully slow - and (my impression) becoming slower with each update (and they come frequently). I have read somewhere recently that Synology might not continue routers line.
R7800 - can not say bad word. Based on recommendations from web, I switched off QoS, Mu-MIMO and other option and just ran it as pure router - worked OK with 40/10 connection. Just for curiosity I flashed it with voxel's firmware - and it slightly improved (running dsltests I rarely get below A mark on Bufferbloat).
Router has been trouble-free, uptime now is about 3 month and doing OK.
Out of the two - I have chosen R7800 over Synology (which tempted me with dual WAN option).

Where did you hear

Synology might not continue routers line

?

I had my eye on the 2600AC since I have a DS211+ with two 2TB drives in RAID1 that I've had for 7 years and It's still cranking like a trooper. Would be sad to hear they are giving up so quickly.

 

[System Error Message]

i've seen a 1300sqft apartment, its not big and unless your apartment is in an l shape or some thin rectangular shape many routers are able to cover this well even with improper placement.