looking for a new AC wifi router... to last

[Martronic]

so i am wanting to get a new router to get some kind of CFW to allow me to manage individual mac addresses and put a label to them.... so i can easily block them, id like to limit the bandwidth using the same type of process with groups or something....... i am having other people help pay for wireless but if they dont pay i want to be able to disable their devices connection... and limit the bandwidth they use... but i dont know what CFW nor what router i should get/use... any ideas?

plus having better connection speeds than the technicolor modem/router combo from century-link would be nice...

 

[Vadi]

Any kind of Mikrotik routers right for you!

 

[System Error Message]

@Vadi is absolutely correct, mikrotik routers allow for serious layer 2 filtering.
https://routerboard.com/RB922UAGS-5HPacD may be what you want. Mini PCIe allows updating to newer wifi. SFP can be used with SFP module so you can get rid of your modem.

However you will find the job much easier with asus routers actually. Any recent asus router will work fine even with RMerlin's firmware which i strongly recommend as it works with many software that asus have including phone apps that help you configure it as well. ASUS routers can see devices, though you cant put a label to them you can see their mac and name and manage them in terms of QoS and whether to block them or not. you arent looking for the really advanced layer 2 filtering that mikrotik offers nor are you doing QoS on layer 2 either.

 

[sfx2000]

"To last" is a relative term perhaps...

Half-life of most consumer router/AP's is about 12-18 months at best - so looking at 3 years, one might start looking...

AC1900 class is a nice spot, has been for the last year or so - and the R7000 from Netgear and the Asus RT-68 series (both Broadcom solutions) are a good bet. What's nice about this place is the strength of the 3rd party community as well as maturity with the factory firmware these days...

Qualcomm-Atheros has been making some good stuff in the AC2600 space - so depends on needs and price sensitivity...

It's really hard to tell where things are with Mesh - some are better than others, but it does tend to be somewhat usage driven along with environmental aspects, but the mesh/mesh-like devices can do a good job covering the wireless side.

Breaking things out beyond just the all-in-one Big Honking Router category...

Good stuff from Ubuitity/MicroTik in the sub-$100USD range for wired only routers - and there's a number on WAP's that are Wireless Access Points only...

Going deeper into the rat-hole - getting into VPN and advanced routing - pfSense on Intel is a great place to be there, and uTik has some very interesting options with their RouterBoards...

then we have SophosUTM, Untangle, and the like there...

 

[Shimo]

@Martronic - if you are willing to spend some money for a long-lasting, high-quality, very-powerful router take a look at the router Turris Omnia. It runs on OpenWrt and therefore has a huge set of features and capabilities. It allows all sort of configurations, monitoring, device control etc.

It's completly open source - hardware and and software wise and built by a small non-profil organization out of enthusiast from the Czech Republic. These guys maintain the Chez domain infrastructure and have in depth router and security experience. Since the router got first shipped around October 2016, the team has published regular updates to the OS, which get installed automatically.

This router has powerful hardware - e.g. 2GB of RAM, 5 GBit LAN ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports and 3 mPCIe slots. E.g., these slots allow to replace the pre-installed 2 wifi modules with truly high end once. Or, you can install an mSATA SSD into one of the mPCIe slots. I installed MikroTik R11e-2HPnD and R11e-5HacT wifi cards with 5 dedicated high-end antennas and get fantastic signal coverage and speed. I installed a mSATA Samsung850 SSD and get very fast and very stable disc throughput.

So seriously, in the past I used devices from Apple, Asus and Linksys - but, at least for me, nothing beats the Turris Omnia.

 

[pege63]

MikroTik R11e-2HPnD and R11e-5HacT thats 100-125USD only there
€324.90 for the Router i hade this router but i returned it, i followed this project for 2 years
You can read about it here

 

[Shimo]

MikroTik R11e-2HPnD and R11e-5HacT thats 100-125USD only there
€324.90 for the Router i hade this router but i returned it, i followed this project for 2 years

Yes, it's expensive. I spent another 100USD for good antennas and 50USD for high-quality atenna cables.

Why did you return your Turris Omnia?

 

[pege63]

It was not the final, my was blue, and i could get much more for less money. And i looked also here and here to get info.