Please Recommend The Right Router

[kage]

I have an Apple Airport Extreme 802.11AC Router. For the last two months I tried out these routers:
1. Netgear R7000p
2. Google Nest WiFi Router
3. Asus RT-AX58U
4. Refurbished Eero Pro Router

These four routers had issues:
1. Netgear R7000p - bright LED lights, disconnecting issues
2. Google Nest WiFi - lowered ISP speed by half
3. Asus RT-AX58U - unable to connect to 5GHz devices
4. Refurbished Eero Pro Router - SSID broadcast couldn't be found

To be honest, I prefer my Apple Airport Extreme Router over those 4 routers I mentioned.

As my search still continues on, I've been eyeing on the TP-Link AX6000, Netgear R7800, Netgear RAX50. As of this moment I don't have any WiFi 6 devices. The square footage my condo is about 1400 to 1500. I like to keep the price under $300 on the router and it must be stable. Please recommended me a router.

 

[coxhaus]

You might take a look at a Cisco RV260P and a Cisco WAP581 wireless AP. I have a large home and run 2 WAP581 APs and they work well with Apple. We have a lot of Apple products. You can buy the Cisco RV260P new for less than $200 and find a used Cisco WAP581 used on eBay for $100. This would be a solid combo.

 

[Trip]

If reliability if your core focus, I would move on from consumer products altogether and look at small-business grade gear; it doesn't have to be all that complex or expensive, either.

Overall, wireless and routing are prime candidates for flaky behavior when implemented in the vast majority of all-in-one type devices (as you've now personally witnessed). So instead of more of the same in hopes one will be different (which is similar to Einstein's definition of insanity), I would recommend a combo of discrete components. Even for just 1500 square feet, the reliability gained from having individual items handling specific roles is significant, and will also increase ease-of-upgrade when the next wifi standard hits (just replace your AP) or ISP speed bump happens (just replace the wired router).

For specific gear, you could deploy an all-Cisco small-business solution per @coxhaus's example. There's also Ubiquiti UniFi, which provides an even tighter level of control plane integration over gateway, switching and wireless. If for whatever reason you must keep everything converged, there are options such as the Cisco RV260W or UniFi Dream Machine.

Happy to help guide you further if you have questions about any of what coxhaus or I proposed.

 

[Mark070]

100% agree with @Trip. Another thing to consider is if you can get most of your "stuff" on a wired connection (ethernet, MoCA). I did this, and quickly realized that an AC access point (or two) would work fine for my IOT devices and a few phones; the only devices not running wired.

I went with the Unifi Dream Machine, because, well ... I wanted to, but prior to that I ran the EdgeRouter 4 (still have it - backup now), with 2 access points.

 

[L&LD]

@kage, what is your ISP speeds? What service are you on (cable, Fibre, other)?

Did you use new, never before 'seen' SSID's by any of your devices when testing the routers? Did you 'forget', reboot, and re-associate the client devices one by one if not?

On the RT-AX58U, did you try RMerlin firmware on it? The latest Alpha from a couple of days ago is much better than what was available even a few weeks ago. Even if all RMerlin versions for me have been stable.

If you 'blindly' entered your old network configurations into the new routers, I can see how you would have dismal results.

 

[kage]

I narrowed it down to two of these routers:
1. UniFi Dream Machine
2. TP Link AX6000

I read good things about these two routers. Out of the two, which router is overall better? I'm looking for easy setup, stability, and good security functions.

 

[kage]

I finally decided to spend a little more money to get a better router. I ordered the Amplifi Alien Router this morning and it should be arriving next week. I was thinking of purchasing either the Asus RT-AX88U, TPLink AX-6000, or the UniFi Dream Machine.

 

[coxhaus]

I did not know what it was so I looked it up. Amplifi is the consumer devision of Ubiquiti. Interesting. Consumer router vendors may have competition with a company that repairs their firmware.