Is there at least one good router out there?

[Goofie Newfie]

Trying to decide between these routers.I can't believe how hard this is. My DGL-4500 is on its way out. House is stand alone, all gyprock, 1200 square feet, two floors. But I have this crazy dead spot in one corner so I've always had to run a second AP in that corner (ran wires to it) . FiberOP connection.

Still have 3 x 2.4 GHz N camera's in house and one laptop. Couple of camera's are really at the extent of the dgl-4500 range and struggle. Phones are 5c, S6 Edge, Surface Pro3, old iPad ( I don't really care about this) some Nest Smoke detectors that are all 2.4GHz. 5 wired IP camera's ( I use a separate 1gig hub). Two PC's, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One which are all wired. Wireless Samsung TV which is hardly used. Sounds like a lot of stuff, but really there is only two people here most times, so it is not like all devices are on all the time. The camera's are the biggest load as they are 24/7.

Purpose of new router is stability. Get the AC and N clients on their own network and to be unaffected by the cameras and 2.4 stuff. 1 gig LAN performance very important for streaming HD movies from PC/NAS and of course the camera's are going 24/7. Most of the camera's are 720p h263 Foscams. I need a guest network SSiD. I need full coverage WiFi hopefully without the use of a second AP anymore. Pretty much any router can fit my needs for port forwarding/firewall etc.

Stable connectivity/range/speed is priority.

So. This is all I can get locally
Asus RT-68U
Asus RT-87U
Asus 3200AC
Linksys WRT1900AC version 1
Dlink 890 3200
Netgear X6/7000

Seems like every review of each router claims its the best/fastest. Also every review is when the device first came out and not retested after firmware matures. Example, the 87U was "unfinished on relase" but it is still no good?

DD-WRT would be very nice to have but the more I read the more it seems unstable on every new router. I'm a sys admin. I know the Linksys is just now getting someone making DD-WRT for it, and open WRT is working but with no GUI. I want a GUI. I see enough command line crap all day at work! So waiting for it is not a problem.

So do I get old faithful 68u?go MIMO? triple band, 4x4? go with the beast Linksys? Forget money, what is the best, fastest with longest range router? I tend to keep my router a long time so don't mind spending a little more up front now.

I had practically decided to go with the 87U last night. I was sick of reading review after review, and forum posts and just said I grab it. Then I woke up today started reading on snb forums about 5GHz disconnects and overheating issues. ARGH. Fact is, around here there are only a few routers available to me and if I have to return something, local is easier of course. I got one of each here local

I fear the 68u/p and the R7000 are basically near EOL after this year so I am trying to avoid them.

I think if I could guarantee a version 2 wrt1900 somewhere I'd grab it... I think

 

[Goofie Newfie]

according to my local flyer for tomorrow, the dlink 890 just dropped another 50 bucks and the 87U is actaully 20 bucks more then the 890. So now, all these routers are literally within 50 bucks of each other where I live. Exception being the Asus 3200 which is still way more.

I apologize that this thread is not in the other section for wireless advice. Mods please move if u need to

 

[thiggins]

Our Router Charts are the best performance comparison tool you're going to find and all the major products are in there.

Don't overthink it. You're likely to find that any AC router will improve your WLAN's performance. But will they reach your dead spot? You'll only know if you try.

Best price/performance point right now is AC1900. Buy one of those, don't overspend and try it out. If it doesn't work, return it and try the next one in your list.

Tri-band AC3200 routers can help if you have a lot of 5 GHz clients and are willing to manually assign them to radios. Unfortunately, their automatic band steering doesn't work so well.

4x4 AC2350/2400 and AC2600 routers provide no benefit at this point. AC2350 has had ongoing 5 GHz stability problems. AC2600 is brand new and will take awhile to shake the bugs out and tune performance.

 

[System Error Message]

The best routers are obviously enterprise ones. Unless you're willing to buy proper cisco (not cisco RV) theres not much in best router.

Dont count on DD-WRT. Only install Tomato/Openwrt if the firmware doesnt have the feature you want. Many things that you can do in them can be done on Merlin firmware though with some difficulty. Because Merlin firmware works just like a normal linux server you can do everything a normal linux server can except install binaries since the CPUs are different architectures. DD-WRT is not open sourced so you cant tweak it like a standard linux box. With OpenWRT you can. Not sure about tomato though. If you get a router compatible with Merlin firmware (the netgear r7000 is an example aside from asus only) than you get to retain stock performance while expanding your feature set.

 

[thiggins]

The best routers are obviously enterprise ones. Unless you're willing to buy proper cisco (not cisco RV) theres not much in best router.

The OP was asking about wireless routers, which are not Enterprise products.

There are a few small-biz wireless routers, but their wireless portions aren't exceptional.

 

[Deleted member 22229]

If range is imprtant then you cant go wrong with the R-7000 very good signal better then the 68U i have tried them all. The R-7000 is pretty stable now and works very well exspecially on the 5 Ghz band allthough i will admit the web UI is rather child like but the router is stable and runs much cooler then some of the Asus routers.

As stated what one guy hates another guy loves the only way to know how things will work in your environment is to try it out if your unhappy return it and try another one. I personally would try either the RT-AC68 or the Netgear R-7000. Both work well and are stable for the most part.

 

[htismaqe]

If you're trying to cover a dead spot without using an AP, I would recommend trying the Linksys. It has 4 antennas (even though it's still a 3-stream AC1900 router) so I've found it gives more complete coverage in my environment than the R7000 or AC68U.

 

[roldogg]

I would choose the Asus RT-AC87R. Mine broke down after lots of abuse, and I decided to buy the RT-AC3200 as a replacement (if I ever have problems with a router, I usually buy a more recent router instead of buying the same one) but this time I regret making that decision. Since I have so many clients, I thought it might be a good idea to get the RT-AC3200 because it has 3 bands instead of 2 (1x2.4Ghz & 2x5Ghz), but I find this router doesn't have as much coverage as the RT-AC87R. And don't even bother with the Smart Connect feature of the RT-AC3200, which is similar to setting all your SSIDs the same and setting up roaming assistant to automatically switch you to the best band based on the criteria you put into the router. Tim Higgins wrote a summary describing how it's supposed to work and to help set it up (mostly because Asus doesn't include anything regarding setting this feature up), but it's still far from perfect.

If I'm on the opposite side of my house as my router, I barely get a signal on the RT-AC3200. When I had the RT-AC87R, I would connect at 750Mbps in the same exact spot. I'm not sure exactly what the difference between these 2 routers internally are, but the RT-AC3200 has 1 more band and 2 more antennas than the RT-AC87R. Maybe the power of the routers is split between 3 bands instead of 2, reducing the distance of your coverage, who knows. All I know is I've owned an RT-AC3200, RT-AC87R, Netgear R7000, RT-AC68R,a Linksys AC1900 (which I returned after 2 days), and the RT-AC66R (and a few others, but they weren't AC routers) but out of all of those, I've had the least amount of issues with, greater coverage, and faster speeds at further locations from the router with the RT-AC87R. That's just my opinion. Other people may think otherwise.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

Yeah I was under the impression that the 87U/R was a bad joke around here. I mean the reviews claim it is pretty good but the firmware needed maturing. So is the firmware now stable? I started reading about heat issues, android battery drain, 5GHz drop outs (which seems to be a Asus thing from what I read) and I started to have doubts. I literally had it in my hand yesterday and put it back on the shelf. I also had the dlink 890 Monster in my hand and put it back as well. Can't say I've had any hardware issues with Dlink with the 3 or four I've had, never had to reboot them, but their interface is pathetic - but at one point I was like get the 890 and put dd-wrt on it and I've got a ac3200 router for a $100 cheaper then the Asus 3200.

I can't seem to find a WRT1900ac version 2 anywhere and I'm not gambling with getting one online.

 

[htismaqe]

I have the V1, it's a great router. There's very little difference between the 2.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

Yeah, 512 ram vs 256, 1.3GHz vs 1.2 dual core. Fanless, better cooler cpu. But there doesn't seen to be a single review on it. Killer is, linksys has the habit of dropping support for older hardware the second they release another hardware revision. Plus only 1 year warranty.

 

[stevech]

Area of really weak WiFi signal?
No substitute for an AP. Esp. for the rather invisible client-to-router direction.

 

[System Error Message]

The OP was asking about wireless routers, which are not Enterprise products.

There are a few small-biz wireless routers, but their wireless portions aren't exceptional.

Cisco has enterprise grade wifi routers. Yes i know the OP was asking about consumer variants but i had to make that joke based on the title.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

Actually, at work we gave up on Cisco wireless AP's and such and went Meru. Just had to many issues with the Cisco stuff. Mind you Meru has its own issues but nothing like Cisco has. And as a education we get like almost 60% discount on Cisco stuff and we still don't want it anymore. Anyways, off topic

I still have some Cisco 1200 series lying around the house - which until now I forgot about. Their in a box somewhere. Remnants of of what we threw out at work

 

[RMerlin]

I wouldn't consider the RT-AC87U mature or stable yet. Quantenna is shipping a new SDK this month which is meant to resolve various lingering issues (most of them being with Apple devices, but a few Android devices are affected as well), so expect a new Asus firmware to come out in the next few weeks.

The battery drain issue only occurs with recent BETA firmwares BTW. Latest non-beta is fine.

RT-AC3200 is overkill if you don't have a lot of 5 GHz clients to mix (with a mixture of both 1x1 and 3x3 clients).

The R7000 and RT-AC68U are both mature and solid products. R7000 might be a bit cheaper, but RT-AC68U has more features, so it's up to you.

Have no experience with that D-Link model, and I'm unsure about the WRT1900AC due to being a V1 product (Linksys tends to quickly stop supporting older models with firmware updates, but it's hard to tell if Belkin will follow that same policy or not). WRT1900AC is probably too expensive for what it would bring you compared to the other products, plus its active cooling can be worrying for the future.

 

[RMerlin]

I fear the 68u/p and the R7000 are basically near EOL after this year so I am trying to avoid them.

I can't comment on Netgear, but Asus tends to support their routers for a LONG time. They still release firmware updates with new features for the 6+ years old RT-N16. This is because all their routers share the same firmware code. So if improve or fix something, that change also applies to all their other models.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

Great comments! thanks folks. Does the Asus AC3200 have any heat issues like the 87u? don't they use similar bodies?

 

[htismaqe]

Yeah, 512 ram vs 256, 1.3GHz vs 1.2 dual core. Fanless, better cooler cpu. But there doesn't seen to be a single review on it. Killer is, linksys has the habit of dropping support for older hardware the second they release another hardware revision. Plus only 1 year warranty.

They've released new firmware for the V1 since the V2 was released. They don't appear to be abandoning support anytime soon.

 

[RMerlin]

Great comments! thanks folks. Does the Asus AC3200 have any heat issues like the 87u? don't they use similar bodies?

The main temperature issue on the RT-AC87U was with the Quantenna chip. The RT-AC3200 is a pure Broadcom platform, and so far the temperatures generated by it are well within acceptable limitations of Broadcom's chips.

 

[Goofie Newfie]

thanks merlin. Looks like I can't get the Asus 3200 here now....my luck someone bought it. Only the X6 and 890 left. Maybe I'll order it my favorite BC store if its on sale tonight.