I have a bunch of family and friends asking me to tell them what wireless routers to buy, so I need some advice.
Here is what I'm after, in order:
- Range, at this time this is mostly for 11n 2.4GHz devices (e.g. tablets). Everyone needs more range.
The SNB 'router ranking' tells me that the best is usually ASUS. The ranking doesn't let me compare routers of different classes, but I assume that the 11ac routers offer no range advantage for the 11n clients.
- Mobile Apps for basic router management (and also for IP Camera for some people)
ASUS falls down here because their apps seem focused on cloud storage and remote file access which no one I know needs. Linksys seems like the best for this to me - I like their 'smart wifi' app.
D-Link would be best for the friends who also wants IP Camera - I like their DCS-942L camera, which I believe can be controlled with the same app. However, D-Link routers do quite badly in range ranking.
- General reliability and lack of firmware quirks and bugs
Reading these forums it appears that Apple is considered best for this, but they don't have my other requirements.
- Local file sharing via SMB or maybe DLNA. So I can connect a USB drive and share movies to a media player or Apple or Android tablet.
Many routers seem to support this and it is easy to figure out which don't. Currently I'm using a Linksys EA3500 which does SMB well.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Here is what I'm after, in order:
- Range, at this time this is mostly for 11n 2.4GHz devices (e.g. tablets). Everyone needs more range.
The SNB 'router ranking' tells me that the best is usually ASUS. The ranking doesn't let me compare routers of different classes, but I assume that the 11ac routers offer no range advantage for the 11n clients.
- Mobile Apps for basic router management (and also for IP Camera for some people)
ASUS falls down here because their apps seem focused on cloud storage and remote file access which no one I know needs. Linksys seems like the best for this to me - I like their 'smart wifi' app.
D-Link would be best for the friends who also wants IP Camera - I like their DCS-942L camera, which I believe can be controlled with the same app. However, D-Link routers do quite badly in range ranking.
- General reliability and lack of firmware quirks and bugs
Reading these forums it appears that Apple is considered best for this, but they don't have my other requirements.
- Local file sharing via SMB or maybe DLNA. So I can connect a USB drive and share movies to a media player or Apple or Android tablet.
Many routers seem to support this and it is easy to figure out which don't. Currently I'm using a Linksys EA3500 which does SMB well.
Any suggestions appreciated.