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Choosing new router

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Don’t cancel the Asus, you are fine with the choice either way. I just didn’t want you to get the TP-Link. As for support Netgear will support the R7800 for a long time just like it does with the R7000 even now.

As for bandwidths:
2.4Ghz is 20 or 40 with 20 MHz being more stable when facing interference, also you don’t end up eating so many channels in a congested area and in turn causing interference yourself.

5Ghz 40MHz is “N” and “AC” is 80 & 160 MHz channels.

Not much supports 160 MHz other than the latest Android phones and the newly released Intel 9260ac adapter for laptops/desktops, I’m actually considering getting the 9260ac since it’s now for sale.
How does the channels work ? The router automatically assign wifi devices to other channels ? For example laptop channel 1, smartphone channel 2, and so on ?

How's the 160MHz better than 80MHz ? By a lot ?

So you say leave the asus order as is and dont bother with the refurbished X4S (Or new if the refurbished wont work well) ?
Btw, theres new Netgear X4 for sale on Amazon 129$, is it good ? I left my Asus order as is anyway, but I was just wondering.
 
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all of the devices use the same radio channel and share bandwidth. The 160 and 80 Mhz wide channels incorporate sidebands to increase the total bytes transferred per second ie it is multiple streams at the same time using the same "channel". However, this is more likely to have interference with other radios in the area since it uses more of the available radio spectrum for the 5Ghz and 2.4 GHz radios.
 
If it’s (R7800) brand new for $120 then yeah that’s a good deal. If priced similarly, pick either the Asus or Netgear, either way you should be good.


Channels:

No that’s not how they work, the router rotates active time between individual devices in a round robin fashion. With MU-MIMO you can have 2-3 devices on downlink simultaneously at any given time. Channel bandwidth is basically affects how much that can be transferred back and forth when the device is active. I don’t know if that was a simple enough of an explanation or I bungled it. There are better communicators here who can chime in with a better explanation.
 
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If it’s (R7800) brand new for $120 then yeah that’s a good deal. If priced similarly, pick either the Asus or Netgear, either way you should be good.


Channels:

No that’s not how they work, the router rotates active time between individual devices in a round robin fashion. With MU-MIMO you can have 2-3 devices on downlink simultaneously at any given time. Channel bandwidth is basically affects how much that can be transferred back and forth when the device is active. I don’t know if that was a simple enough of an explanation or I bungled it. There are better communicators here who can chime in with a better explanation.
R7500 for 129$ deal on Amazon, the R7800 goes for 230$ new on Amazon or refurbished 130$. I'll stick to the Asus anyway as you said. And does the better CPU in the Netgear X4S makes a lot of difference ? What's the role of the CPU in routers ? Sorry for the dumb questions I am a bit paranoid :D
 
You should be fine don’t worry about it, unless you are running some highly CPU intensive packages like VPN or functions like QoS or traffic monitoring which disable hardware acceleration then CPU makes a bigger difference, that is if you have like an ISP connection faster than 300-400 Mbps at which point you would probably disable QoS anyway at those speeds.

Don’t get the R7500, it was like an interim solution before the R7800 came out. The V1 version of the R7500 was terrible as it used a Quantenna 5Ghz chips that was flaky. The V2 is ok but it’s not updated firmware wise as often as the R7800.
 
You should be fine don’t worry about it, unless you are running some highly CPU intensive packages like VPN or functions like QoS or traffic monitoring which disable hardware acceleration then CPU makes a bigger difference, that is if you have like an ISP connection faster than 300-400 Mbps at which point you would probably disable QoS anyway at those speeds.

Don’t get the R7500, it was like an interim solution before the R7800 came out. The V1 version of the R7500 was terrible as it used a Quantenna 5Ghz chips that was flaky. The V2 is ok but it’s not updated firmware wise as often as the R7800.
One more important question, both the X4S and the AC86U has DDOS Protection ? And does it really work (I am asking because I am using the ISP cheap router as bridge) ? I used to play in the past with some IRL friends which DDOS me as a joke sometimes but it did annoy me.

I already bought the Asus (Because it is newer and seems to be overall better except the CPU which is a bit lower than the Netgear), the Netgear has the same interface (GUI its called I guess) as the cheap router that my ISP gave me in the past, shame that they didn't change it.

I will not use VPN most likely, but QoS and traffic monitoring I will use, I thought the use of the CPU is mostly to transfer data to a lot of devices, the stronger CPU (and RAM too) - the more devices connected to it.

Also there are chipsets for each band 2.4GHz and 5GHz, which router has better chipsets the X4S or AC86U ?
 
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The R7800 is worse GUI feature wise and external storage performance (ie hard drive connected to router), its strength lies in better WiFi chipset and CPU. Broadcom has had issues (maybe fixed with this chipset) with MU-MIMO which the R7800 (Qualcomm based) does not. For you I don't think the CPU aspect will make much of difference.

As for "DD0S & Port Scan Protection" from what I have been told its not all that useful on a consumer device, read post/message number 5 in this thread:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Ni...able-Port-Scan-and-DoS-Protection/td-p/510921
 
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The R7800 is worse GUI feature wise and external storage performance (ie hard drive connected to router), its strength lies in better WiFi chipset and CPU. Broadcom has had issues (maybe fixed with this chipset) with MU-MIMO which the R7800 (Qualcomm based) does not. For you I don't think the CPU aspect will make much of difference.
The MU-MIMO is pretty important for me and one of the reasons that I upgraded my router. I heared they (Broadcom) upgraded their latest gen CPU and improved the MU-MIMO.
 
The R7800 is worse GUI feature wise and external storage performance (ie hard drive connected to router), its strength lies in better WiFi chipset and CPU. Broadcom has had issues (maybe fixed with this chipset) with MU-MIMO which the R7800 (Qualcomm based) does not. For you I don't think the CPU aspect will make much of difference.

As for "DD0S & Port Scan Protection" from what I have been told its not all that useful on a consumer device, read post/message number 5 in this thread:
https://community.netgear.com/t5/Ni...able-Port-Scan-and-DoS-Protection/td-p/510921
Is the protection on the Asus and netgear same ? You linked me Netgear thread and I bought the Asus.

And the Linksys WRT32X is on sale for 218$ on Amazon, is it much better than the Asus AC86 or the Nergear X4S ? I still have a chance to cancel my Asus order :D
 
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The DDoS option should be similar, it was a general explanation not specific to Netgear. No the WRT is not better than these.

Now stop having second thoughts, you picked a good device :).

Be careful with MU-MIMO, some MU capable clients don’t like it, mostly Broadcom ones I think. I have 2 laptops with it and it doesn’t make as huge of a difference as you think unless you have a lot of MU devices. I disabled MU-MIMO on my R7800 till recently TBH as until a month ago I only had 1 MU capable client.
 
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The DDoS option should be similar, it was a general explanation not specific to Netgear. No the WRT is not better than these.

Now stop having second thoughts, you picked a good device :).
Okkkkay :D ! Thank you so much for the help !!
And yeah the WRT is good when paired with Killer network card based motherboards, I will never buy motherboard Killer based again since my Gigabyte and MSI motherboards that had it, it is completely trash, Intel FTW.
 
The Killer (Qualcomm QCA6174A) cards and Dell 1820A (Broadcom BCM4350) are unstable in my experience and you will find mumerous people who replaced them for Intel adapters in their laptops because of that, get an Intel 8265 they are probably the best adapters I’ve used, I actually need to replace the 1820A in my sister’s Dell XPS 9350 with an Intel 8265 because the damn thing won’t connect to Bluetooth devices for more than a second and it drops WiFi connections regardless of settings changes or driver changes.
 
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The Killer cards are unstable in my experience and you will find mumerous people who replaced them for Intel adapters in their laptops because of that, get an Intel 8265 they are probably the best adapters I’ve used, I actually need to replace the Killer Wireless 1535 in my sister’s Dell XPS 9350 with an Intel 8265 because the damn thing won’t connect to Bluetooth devices for more than a second and it drops WiFi connections regardless of settings changes or driver changes.
Yeah I've had enough in my gaming PC (With both MSI and Gigabyte), my brother got Killer card built in his gigabyte mobo and sometimes it won't recognize the internet cable then he has to do 2-3 restarts and it works again.
I actually use the built in Intel card in my mobo which works great since 2015 (My motherboard is an Asus Z97 VII Ranger), I don't need wireless card in my PC so it's fine.
 
The Killer cards and Dell 1820A (Broadcom BCM4350) are unstable in my experience and you will find mumerous people who replaced them for Intel adapters in their laptops because of that, get an Intel 8265 they are probably the best adapters I’ve used, I actually need to replace the 1820A in my sister’s Dell XPS 9350 with an Intel 8265 because the damn thing won’t connect to Bluetooth devices for more than a second and it drops WiFi connections regardless of settings changes or driver changes.
By the way, can you help me to find a good AP for less than 100$ ? I will connect it wired with my new router (In a another room 30M away from the Asus AC86U).
 
What about band steering as a consideration? I think the Asus AC86U supports it but the x4s doesn't? That seems like a particularly useful feature if you just want to have one SSID?
 
What about band steering as a consideration? I think the Asus AC86U supports it but the x4s doesn't? That seems like a particularly useful feature if you just want to have one SSID?

Band steering is quirky, it depends on your clients being able to play nice with it, so your results may vary. Personally I prefer to manually assign specific devices to specific bands rather than rely on automatic band steering. Some clients don't like getting moved around.
 
Band steering is quirky, it depends on your clients being able to play nice with it, so your results may vary. Personally I prefer to manually assign specific devices to specific bands rather than rely on automatic band steering. Some clients don't like getting moved around.
I just got the router and it works great, but it made me wonder about radiation, my previous router had 2 anntenas now this one has 4 (3 external 1 internal), and the router is in my bedroom with thick concrete walls, what do you think ?

it also made my speakers make pssssssssss noise and sometimes small sparks, I think it is the RCA cable that cause it because if I try to play with it the sound stops so I need something that is better shielded.
 
I think you will be fine.
 
I just disconnected the RCA cable from the speakers while it is on, and its still does that sparks noise, maybe it is the speaker itself ? how to solve it ? please help.
 

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