Is this still the best recommendation?

[Sammy2]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...ghthawk-x4s-smart-wifi-gaming-router-reviewed

Asking for a friend.. I use Ubiquity myself but with everyone home my brother in law is feeling the pain of a weak router!

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[L&LD]

It has great hardware and was king back in 2015/2016 when tested, but it has been surpassed.

How big in SqFt is your friend's home? What is his ISP paid for speeds? Fibre, cable, DSL? How many devices are normally connected wirelessly?

What is the construction of the home? Concrete? Drywall? Plaster/lathe?

What other features might he need besides WiFi coverage?

What is his budget?

Will the router be placed centrally in the area to be covered, or, will it be off in one corner and/or a basement?

The Asus RT-AX88U with RMerlin firmware and built-in amtm support for additional scripts/capabilities for the router is easily the top choice right now. With more scripting options becoming available almost every day. The link below is for the RMerlin firmware and the models supported.

https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/features

https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/about

The link below shows what amtm can bring to the router in a very accessible format.

https://diversion.ch/amtm.html


A supported Asus router with RMerlin firmware and a spare USB drive for amtm, a swap file and available scripts are very hard to be surpassed in the level of security, performance, and the easy customization possible.

 

[Sammy2]

Asus routers are finicky on Spectrum with common DHCP Errors. That's why I went to Ubiquity.

Budget is $200ish.

Spectrum is unmetered cable internet. Speed is 100mbps.

He's got a 3000 sf wood framed stucco and drywall home. It would be in the second floor loft area so pretty centralized.

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[Trip]

@L&LD - At ~$350 shipped, an AX88U is going to be a fair bit over the brother-in-law's requested budget. And if AsusWRT, Merlin or otherwise, is not going to cut it in the eyes of the OP, no sense in beating that horse. Even though I think the concerns re- Spectrum may be largely moot if running the latest Merlin -- but I can't confirm personally.

@Sammy2 - At 3,000 square feet, an all-in-one may cut it, but it's most likely going to need to be a highly amplified model to reach the edges of the home, and even so, weak enough signal at the edges may compromise airtime enough to make the experience lousy for everyone. If you did want to roll the dice, perhaps an R7800 would cut it. A different and potentially better approach, especially if all he needs is baseline-reliable connections and he's less concerned about maxing out his internet speed (especially if it's only Spectrum's base 100/10 speed tier), would be a Eero dual-band three pack for $199. Plug and play, plus proper SQM QoS between nodes and out to the internet, for low-latency on all endpoints, all the time (all he needs to do is enable SQM in the Eero Labs part of the app). And if he needs more wired ports around any of the three units, a simple $15-20 5-port unmanaged switch will solve that very easily.