How To Buy A Wireless Router - 2017 Edition

[SilentForever]

When was the last time you upgraded your router? A few months ago, or was it years?

Personally, I would not buy a 3 year old product today (when the current one is so much better) and expect it to last another half decade or so.

The RT-AC3100 is the 'current' router I recommend to all my customers (and most of them do see the value of spending a little more than the RT-AC68U/RT-AC1900P) when the expectation is to start thinking of replacing anything they buy today in 2020 or so.

Well, I recently got a new router for isp within warranty since the old one was single band. They gave the AC1200 Archer C5 V2. My country doesn't have blazing fast internet, I am currently on 30 down and 10 up and it costs a lot since my country has monopoly on one isp and the other speeds offered are 50 down 20 up and 100 down 50 up and more in the future. Might be willing to upgrade down the road. Typical brand that can be get locally are Asus, Tp link and D-link since the firmware need to support the my isp which requires vlan tagging. There is netgear but only way to buy it is to ship it and it costs alot more than the US even the products sold locally. So, my point being is that I will be moving into a big house soon and planning to get a more powerful router. Was deciding on AC1900 or AC2600, AC3100 is too expensive plus the reviews here says that the AC3100 class routers cannot yet support mu-mimo while ac2600 can. So, what is your input on this? I know this is long but thanks for replying. I really appreciate it.

 

[RMerlin]

Hey there Tim, I was wondering you said that future proofing is risky business so if I were to buy a router now, would it be better to go for 1900 or 2600?

If the majority of your wireless clients are mobile devices, there is no point in going above AC1900 IMHO. Mobile devices will most likely never get 4x4 support, and as pointed out by Tim MU-MIMO is a non-factor right now.

 

[thiggins]

Hey there Tim, I was wondering you said that future proofing is risky business so if I were to buy a router now, would it be better to go for 1900 or 2600?

I answered this in the article by the AC1900 recommendation.

 

[thiggins]

Wouldn't using your current router and purchasing an extender like the Tp-Link RE350 or RE450 give you same performance as a Mesh system but for less money?

An AC1200 extender paired with an AC1200 or higher router should perform similar to eero and Luma, which are also built on AC1200 technology. Some extenders are smart about managing backhaul and will use one radio to connect to a device and the other to connect back to the router. Of course if you are handling clients on both bands, you get into retransmissions which eats up bandwidth.

Once you get into a setup with multiple extenders, all bets are off. With no overall backhaul management, things will get messy and performance will probably suffer.

Orbi is in a class by itself by having a dedicated backhaul that has twice the best case backhaul bandwidth of a mesh node that has a shared radio.

Also wouldn't an AP connected through Ethernet or powerline adapters outperform the mesh system?

Multiple APs connected via Ethernet is the best way of building a wireless network. MoCA, then powerline are the next best. But that is beyond the scope of the article.

 

[thiggins]

So, my point being is that I will be moving into a big house soon and planning to get a more powerful router.

Bigger numbers on the box don't significantly expand coverage / range, especially since you are starting with an AC router.

The biggest improvement comes from moving from N to AC. Once you get to AC, moving up in class doesn't provide the benefit you are lead to believe from the size of the number. In other words, an AC2600 class router doesn't provide twice the performance of an AC1200.

Range expansion is best accomplished by adding more radios, i.e. APs. That is what "mesh systems" are trying to accomplish, but without requiring Ethernet backhaul.

 

[thiggins]

What would be the big difference3 for the average consumer between an AC1750 or AC1900 router? How many current clients would see a performance difference between two models of the same brand?

Someday I will be able to get the time to bring wireless load testing online. But until then, I can't quantify the difference.

The main reason for recommending AC1900 vs. AC1750 is AC1900 routers generally have a more powerful CPU, which can help with busy WLANs. AC1750s are also 3x3 designs, so if you're pressed for cash could be a better choice than AC1200.

 

[ct1615]

Someday I will be able to get the time to bring wireless load testing online. But until then, I can't quantify the difference.

The main reason for recommending AC1900 vs. AC1750 is AC1900 routers generally have a more powerful CPU, which can help with busy WLANs. AC1750s are also 3x3 designs, so if you're pressed for cash could be a better choice than AC1200.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, much appreciated.

 

[System Error Message]

@thiggins perhaps you should write a page to expose these marketing crazyness about numbers, range, features, and about mesh if it really is mesh (some sort of method to mesh and increase performance rather than the old WDS system called mesh).

 

[sfx2000]

@thiggins perhaps you should write a page to expose these marketing crazyness about numbers, range, features, and about mesh if it really is mesh (some sort of method to mesh and increase performance rather than the old WDS system called mesh).

Not a good idea... the owner of HardOCP found out the [h]ard way with editorial content - Tom's Hardware back in the P3 days ended up on the same side of that stick for a bit... Tom's recovered, HardOCP - less so...

Sites do depend on vendor patronage and connections - going down the path you suggest - well, if I were a vendor rep, comments like that would drop one down on the priority list as it would burn bridges in a big way.

Tim reviews devices objectively - let the numbers fall where they must, as he has invested the time, effort, and money, and he can prove the data.

It's a fine line to walk, and Tim has done a great job on this for a number of years... He's earned the reputation of being fair - going down the deep end of rants against big marketing numbers would wipe out all credibility he has built within the vendor community he has worked with.

 

[sfx2000]

Someday I will be able to get the time to bring wireless load testing online. But until then, I can't quantify the difference.

The main reason for recommending AC1900 vs. AC1750 is AC1900 routers generally have a more powerful CPU, which can help with busy WLANs. AC1750s are also 3x3 designs, so if you're pressed for cash could be a better choice than AC1200.

For most folks - it's zero difference between AC1750 and AC1900 - the AC1750's on the market are pretty old, as not much product has been brought out - so the real steps are AC1200 and AC1900 class - and the AC1900 new product in 2016 might actually enjoy some benefit, depending on region/regulatory domain if one is in the market to upgrade/replace - the price points are pretty good there.

I think it's telling that Apple isn't doing some things - as they're pretty focused on the user experience - plug it in, it works, and it's stable...

What they're not doing...

1) MU-MIMO - they're just not going down that path, iDevices or Macs
2) AC1900 Wave 1 - meets the need
3) Mesh - they're not going there with the Airports obviously​

What they are doing - Wireless direct links - if I do Airplay from my iPhone 6S or later to an AppleTV4 or Airport Express - it's point to point. and it just works - same with screen sharing from my MacBook Air 2014 (or my MacBook Pro 2012 non-retina) to the ATV4 - direct link...

Airports do bind the Guest Network to a VLAN, so when using them in AP (Bridged Mode) - it still works even on the extended AP - this is why in "extended" mode, the Guest network still works - I have not seen any other consumer Router/AP that can do this with factory firmware..

Oh Tim - BTW - the Guest Network is both bands - even on the Express - you should update the reviews there...

What Apple also brings to the table is a workable cross platform Wake on LAN/Wake on WiFI through Bonjour Sleep Proxy - and yes, this works on Windows (and Linux) with some work and SW - iTunes on Windows, and Avahi on Linux - and the benefit there is also mDNS.

What I'm getting at - the BHR vendors are running up the numbers and checklist features - and most of these seriously don't apply to most folks.

Apple isn't playing that game as it does not provide any additional value to the user... and MU is one of those things, 4 stream 11ac is another, and I would suggest that Mesh is one more that is akin to 3D TV - Mesh just makes that 3D-TV in 4K with OLED

Airports are rather simple - but they do represent what is most common and these days - the best value - not Airports specifically, see below.

The Extreme AC is basically an AC1900 class Wave 1 device - it's long in tooth in the market, but guess what - it's like the R7000 Netgear or the Asus RT-AC68U - it does the job... DLink and Linksys, along with TP-Link and others all offer product in the AC1900 class...

(my minor gripe with Apple is the current Airport Express - no excuse for having an N600 class device at that price point when it's a simple turn of silicon to AC1200 class with GbE)

 

[pege63]

It does NOT matter which router one buy as long as the clients are the same, like wifi card/chip in the laptop/tablet/usb etc.
Then it's better to spend the money on better client card like USB adapter, M2 chip for laptop etc.
And if you cant find any wifi card to the clients spend the money on a good AP.
But that's my opinion like allways.

 

[System Error Message]

what i meant that if say a manufacturer was advertising the old WDS system as mesh than it should be exposed as that manufacturer would be unfair to other manufacturers. Otherwise having a guide on explaining what the numbers mean.

 

[thiggins]

It does NOT matter which router one buy as long as the clients are the same

I used to think that until I got some data.
Moving from an N to an AC router can improve performance. Moving from lower to higher AC class doesn't help as much, if at all.

 

[thiggins]

Not a good idea... the owner of HardOCP found out the [h]ard way with editorial content - Tom's Hardware back in the P3 days ended up on the same side of that stick for a bit... Tom's recovered, HardOCP - less so...

Say some more about what happened to HardOCP, please.

I have been covering consumer networking since it started. I've ALWAYS been on the side of the consumer, trying to help cut through marketing smoke and mirrors. This has sometimes landed me in the penalty box with some vendors and continues to do so. Ubiquiti is the latest to "cut ties" with SNB because of how AmpliFi came out in the mesh mashup review. Guess we won't be getting any advertising from them, huh?

And it's not like I can't buy anything on Amazon and review it anyway.

I don't go out of my way to pick fights. But I DO call out marketing BS, as I did in this and many other articles. How many "buying guides" do you see that talk about MU-MIMO the way I did in this article?

I'm an EE by training, so know that opinion without facts to back it up is just hot air. SNB is respected because I am data driven and try to do my homework carefully. And when I screw up, I'm the first to admit it and fix the error.

The established players who have confidence in their products all know the type of review SNB does and STILL send their products for review. I always tell new companies who want their products to be reviewed to go read some reviews so that they understand the type of review we do.

So no, SFX, I don't need to walk a fine line. I just need to continue to back up my opinion with facts and keep it professional.

 

[ct1615]

Say some more about what happened to HardOCP, please.

I believe he is talking about when AMD denied the Nano Video card to hardocp for review.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/09/amd_roy_taylor_nano_press/

 

[RMerlin]

I remember Anandtech also having troubles with a certain SSD manufacturer following reviews that pointed out major flaws in their products...

It's not that uncommon unfortunately.

 

[thiggins]

Vendor skirmishes are part of the business. If you've never been involved in one, you're not being tough enough!

 

[sfx2000]

Say some more about what happened to HardOCP, please.

Must have been back in 2000 when Kyle Bennett got into a tussle with nVidia PR, accusing them of some strong arm tactics with regards to whatever product was being launched, and it didn't meet the hype in a big way... it's one thing to do it privately, but it's another to air the dirty laundry in public - The site got blacklisted for quite some time, and the knock-on fallout is that he lost a lot of support from the ecosystem (vendors pulling ads, not providing review samples, etc...) it was a real mess, and it really wasn't until some time later that the bridges were rebuilt...

 

[thiggins]

Thanks, SFX.

 

[BrewWizard]

Also the statement below

"AC1900 class continues to be our go-to router for best combination of price and performance."

What would be the big difference3 for the average consumer between an AC1750 or AC1900 router? How many current clients would see a performance difference between two models of the same brand?

Having poured through rankings for AC1750 and AC1900 routers, it appears distance (see 2.4 and 5 GHz graphs bw vs signal strength) is a key differentiator. I believe the author recommends AC1900 for larger houses for that reason.

I doubt you'd see much other difference in practice.