Help choosing between 3 routers

[Canuckguy]

I have an ancient wrt54g that continues to chug along, but time to upgrade. I've added new devices over last couple years (ipdas, ipods) and certain spots in house have a weaker, but manageable, signal.

Since I tend to hang onto this kind of thing, I don't mind spending a little more money to address needs:

• router will remain in basement, but service 3 floors
• me, 2 kids and wife who love to stream content on mobile devices
• want to add a new apple tv on main floor (not holding breath, but waiting to see if a new version is released over next couple months)
• have an ethernet wired xbox 360 that does the brunt of streaming eg netflix
• the xbox uses unblock DNS services for US content, but want to drop this as I now have VPN via Private Internet Access.com
• use a VPN client within new router for all devices I specify (eg VPN for XBOX, but not PC as I want to turn this off and on when PC gaming)

Routers I'm looking at

• WRT1900AC
• Asus AC68U
• Asus AC87U

Questions

1. custom firmware (eg openwrt, ddwrt, merlin, etc) - which is best in my case?
2. VPN client is critical for me as I want to drop the cost incurred with unblockus. Which has the best support for a configurable VPN?
3. OpenVPN seems to be the recommendation? Agreed?
4. anything coming out before Jan '15 that I should wait for? (not looking to wait forever though)
5. will new router enable me to go wireless on xbox 360?
6. do any of the routers allow for specifying which devices use VPN?
7. if I use the old wrt as a repeater, is the overall network's performance lowered?
8. AC68U and AC87U differences? website is not very helpful

 

[htismaqe]

The WRT1900AC is out. No 3rd party firmware and no VPN client.

 

[kbp]

Im lovin my R7000 with dd-wrt build.

 

[CaptainSTX]

If you are trying to bypass geo blocking by running a VPN client on your router isn't going to do it. All the VPN client software on any router or for that matter a PC is going to do is encrypt your data transmissions. It isn't going to change your public IP.

 

[Migelo]

Of course it will change your public IP, it will the one same as that of the VPN server. I have watched many times location-locked content over VPN.

Just make sure that the VPN you're buying is in the correct country.

 

[Trip]

Hi Canuck. You can skin this cat multiple ways, especially considering your budget, and not necessarily with one "silver bullet" device... First off, since you're replacing a G-class AP, I'm sure you know that N, and AC even more so, will have less range, so even a strong all-in-one many not be able to push enough of a broadcast to the top floor or corners to meet your signal/bandwidth needs.

How feasible would it be to wire cable from the basement to the middle and/or upper floors? Or do powerline? Or a multi-AP mesh? I ask about these because one of them combined with a wired router in the basement may make more sense than just a single pricey all-in-one plunked in the basement with best hopes... Also, you don't necessarily need AC wifi -- in many cases, N, or even a mix of N and G, is still just fine, especially if you're running multiple APs.

If it were me, I'd do a WNR3500Lv2 ($50) with AdvancedTomato, wifi turned off, as my gigE wired router and OpenVPN client, placed in the basement. With a 480Mhz CPU and 128MB ram, it's plenty powerful to route all your home wired traffic and run an OpenVPN client. Then run cable ($20?) to the middle floor and do one central AP there (an AC68U set in AP-mode perhaps? $200), of if you can't do that, do an AP mesh launching out of the basement ($200 UniFi 3-pack).

For the conditional VPN, you may have to get creative with vlans and iptables -- definitely doable on Tomato devices, though.

 

[RogerSC]

I would drop the RT-AC87U off your list for the time being. This one is so early on that I wouldn't want to own one until the firmware was in much better shape, and I knew what I was getting into as far as clients that can take advantage of what you're paying for there. If you go with one of the wireless-1900AC routers, you're much more likely to get your money's worth, given that the firmware for them works pretty well at this point. You'll still need wireless-AC clients, but there a lot of those around if you've got some cash.

I'd also drop the WRT1900AC off my list due to the extra cost...I liked the idea of the WRT1900AC when I thought that there was going to be third-party firmware, but not so much at this point.

So, if I were you *smile*, I'd be choosing between the RT-AC68U and the R7000. My choice is clear (see my signature line *smile*), but Asus makes excellent hardware as well.

Of course, in the end you may find that you need an Access Point (AP) to cover a multi-story house, but that remains to be seen. Depends on how the place is laid out, and what the construction materials are. I would think that for a multi-story house, the wireless router should go either on a middle-ish story, or a top floor, and an AP be used below that if needed. My R7000 covers my 2-story house from the first floor, but I don't have a basement, so have less vertical real estate *smile*. And, as another poster mentions, you can use powerline networking to connect an AP if you have to. If you do that, though, you're going to lose some speed using powerline networking over a cable connection to your AP, and if you're trying to get wireless-AC class speeds, bottlenecks will show up.