Newbe needs router help.

[larrys2006]

I will be getting verizon fios starting at 50 and in a year or so 500 speed. I will use the rj45 connector on the ont using cat 6a. I tried to figure min router requirements but I am new at this I never bought a router so I will tell you what I think I need. I would try to keep it around $200 or less so I guess enterprise units would be out of the price range.
It will be used for 1 person at home.

hard wired no wi-fi
one gigabit WAN port and four gigabit LAN ports
Number of LAN Ports: 4

IP versions 4 and 6
Wired WAN Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Mbps auto-sensing
Wired LAN Ethernet: 10/100/1000 Mbps auto-sensing
Firewall: ICSA certified

Network Protocols
Supports IPv4 and IPv6

USB 3.0
Hardware NAT if verizon fios suports it.
hardware-based VPN engine

WAN Type Dynamic IP/Static IP/PPPoE/
PPTP(Dual Access)/L2TP(Dual Access)/BigPond

DHCP Server, Client, DHCP Client List,
Address Reservation

Port Forwarding Virtual Server, Port Triggering, UPnP, DMZ
Dynamic DNS DynDns, Comexe, NO-IP
VPN Pass-Through PPTP, L2TP, IPSec

 

[Trip]

50 Mb/s of WAN over VPN with encrypt/decrypt done on the router itself is doable for <$200; you'll want a higher-clock speed (800-1Ghz+) CPU on whatever you choose (most common is dual-core ARM at the moment). Tough part is most of those that have any kind of end-user support are all-in-ones with wifi, so you might be forced to buy one of those and just turn off wireless.

500Mb/s of WAN is not gonna happen for $200; you'd most likely need an x86-based build or a really high-end embedded device, both well into the mid-hundreds for cost. I'd say buy for what you need today, and hopefully by the time 500 Meg is actually a reality for you, throughput-per-dollar will have improved on all fronts.

All the rest of your requirements should be accommodated by most any choice you make. I'd look at the Netgear R7000 and/or Asus AC68U and be prepared to possibly need to run custom firmware on either to get the stability/results your looking for. If you're solid on your skills, I *might* recommend Mikrotik or Ubiquiti. Great bang for the buck, but sparse documentation and user forums are all you get for support, so that might be a non-starter right there. I know it is for many...

 

[larrys2006]

thanks I will check them out.

 

[System Error Message]

500Mb/s of WAN is already doable below $200 because he did not specify any complicated needs such as configurable firewall or QoS so hardware NAT is viable in his case which means that you can use the SNB charts to find yourself a router. SNB charts were done with IP without overheads like PPP so if you add PPP it adds a bit of overhead but many of the routers that have 1500Mb/s hardware NAT or above will support 500Mb/s. If you want wired only but below $200 there is ubiquiti edgerouter but their dual core MIPS with hardware acceleration have a flaw of using internal usb storage instead of onboard flash which means you can easily mess up your router firmware when you update.

The speed for WAN isnt determined much by the CPU architecture so it doesnt matter whether it is MIPS or ARM but it matters for PPTP throughput although none of the routers below $200 will perform PPTP at 500Mb/s unless you scavange an x86 system. With the prices of used quad port intel server NICs scavaging an old PC is very cost effective but you would have to undervolt it and disable turbo/similar for power savings to avoid it from being more expensive than an embedded router in the long run. Using x86 will also give you more flexibility and do other things such as storage. USB3 on a router isnt important because only a few embedded routers are fast enough to actually use more than usb2 speeds and you would need to be using a hard drive with faster speeds too. Some CPUs have hardware based encryption (VPN throughput is based on encryption throughput) so theres no such thing as hardware based VPN. Many common VPN routers that uses CPUs with hardware encryption are quite unstable in firmware that you will not get much uptime with them compared to consumer wifi routers and the good implementations do cost a lot more such as using a full x86 platform and not the cut down version such as celeron or intel atom or lower or PPC based routers that are used in industries cost like $300 but they offer advantages in flexibility and can do 500Mb/s without hardware NAT. The only router that does VPN and NAT at wirespeed and has usb3 is an x86 plaform (your everyday desktop).

what the ISP uses is meaningless if hardware NAT is supported or not. Hardware NAT will work on almost any ISP except google fibre which requires specific configurations.

 

[Lee Sharp]

You can get full gigabit speed with full functionality here for $369.95. http://www.mitxpc.com/proddetail.php?prod=FWJNF9NMT3410 You can knock of $40 if you get the one with RealTek chips, and it will give you 500 meg...

But for $200, you will need to build one based on an old PC. And you will spend that extra $169 in electricity.

 

[CaptainSTX]

If you are getting CATV from FIOS you have some other design considerations. The TV network in your home requires MOCA if you want guide and VOD. Search this site for what all your options are if you have TV.

In my case I found it better to keep the Actiontec router as the WAN facing router with my own ASUS router double NATed behind it.

 

[larrys2006]

If you are getting CATV from FIOS you have some other design considerations. The TV network in your home requires MOCA if you want guide and VOD. Search this site for what all your options are if you have TV.

In my case I found it better to keep the Actiontec router as the WAN facing router with my own ASUS router double NATed behind it.

it will be pure internet.

 

[larrys2006]

I will chec

You can get full gigabit speed with full functionality here for $369.95. http://www.mitxpc.com/proddetail.php?prod=FWJNF9NMT3410 You can knock of $40 if you get the one with RealTek chips, and it will give you 500 meg...

But for $200, you will need to build one based on an old PC. And you will spend that extra $169 in electricity.

I will check it out.