Going for an Archer C5. Am I wrong? Any better option?

[Duminica]

First post here, hi all and cheers for the nice work you're doing.
I lurked for a while reading stuff (hence the C5 choice), but I'm not so sure anymore.

Here's the starting point.
I am using a 1043ND v1.0 for a 100 Mbps pppoe connection, all is fine. The plan is to move to 500 Mbps, which will definitely require an upgrade.
What I'm looking for is (in this order): cost, throughput over the wire, decent WiFi (small apartment), guest network, 5GHz and ac.

All the wired devices are connected at 1Gbps and I frequently get stuff from the web and move files to/from a storage, plus some streaming.
WiFi will cover 3-4 phones and a couple of laptops. No need for fancy stuff but I recon I should be covered for the next years, so let it be 802.11ac.

I noticed the C5 v2.0 is a bit changed, Broadcom instead of Atheros, 2 antennas vs 3 (yes, I know 3 were useless), no DD-WRT (don't really care for it, I used it maybe 5-6 years ago, I think I don't need it). Is seems it's not anymore a castrated C7 but a beast of its own.
Still worth it?

The cost is about the limit I'm willing to spend, so the true question is: do I find something better for this money?

Thanks

 

[joegreat]

Any specific reason to go for TP-LINK? Why not look into Netgear (better) or even Asus (best) choices?

 

[Duminica]

No specific reason (other than it has a nice position on the router ranker page).

I'm open to any suggestion.
Which Asus? Which Netgear?
And most important: why?

 

[System Error Message]

For an AP it is totally fine but tp-link has been using outdated libraries in their firmware, not sure if they have updated it yet. So for a router it may not be good security wise.

 

[Duminica]

Yes, I'm aware of TP-Link's security issues, I think I can live with that.
Well, I'm already living with that since 2012 or so

The main consideration is the throughput over pppoe for that price tag (around $80).
I'm not tech illiterate, I can run a custom firmware or deploy a pfsense (and probably even iptables) but for this task I would prefer to go the easy way.
I will only use some DHCP reservations, a few forwarded ports... and that's about it.

 

[System Error Message]

if it uses a dual core ARM A9 CPU it will be able to do 500Mb/s of PPPOE if you can use it with hardware acceleration. Broadcom's hardware acceleration can do up to 800Mb/s with PPPOE but i am not sure if it applies to all their platforms with similar acceleration. It also requires the firmware to be able to use it with PPPOE so you may need to check with tp-link if it is possible. If it isnt using broadcom's ARM implementation theres the ASUS AC56U that is priced low as well.

 

[Duminica]

TY.

Will consider it.

 

[Duminica]

After giving some thought I am leaning towards Asus.

However, it seems the ISP just brought me today a Huawei HG8245H, so I will wait a while to see if I can live with it.
It's hard to beat its cost.

 

[L&LD]

After giving some thought I am leaning towards Asus.

However, it seems the ISP just brought me today a Huawei HG8245H, so I will wait a while to see if I can live with it.
It's hard to beat its cost.

The cost is hard to beat. But the flip side of that coin is the ISP's control (and access to) your network and devices.

An 100% owner controlled router is highly recommended.

 

[Duminica]

This is not so easy.

The router is also fiber modem/media converter. All I can do is use a second router behind it, with double NAT and other sad stuff.

 

[L&LD]

This is not so easy.

The router is also fiber modem/media converter. All I can do is use a second router behind it, with double NAT and other sad stuff.

No, it doesn't have to be so sad.

Simply ask your provider to put their router in Bridge mode.

 

[Duminica]

I considered this, then I forgot about it, now you reminded me.
I will try it.

It will be difficult because of the provider (great network/bandwidth, very poor customer support).
As a bonus - the contract belongs to my landlord, so I will have to nag him again (he just upgraded to 500 Mbps ).

Whatever the outcome might be - this forum really helped.
Cheers

 

[Duminica]

I know it's been ages and probably nobody is interested anymore, but I am now running an AC56U with Merlin's fw.
Provider's ONT works as bridge now.

 

[Therion87]

I know it's been ages and probably nobody is interested anymore, but I am now running an AC56U with Merlin's fw.
Provider's ONT works as bridge now.

Good choice