Replace Asus-RTN56

[baatch]

Hi all

I'm going to give my old router Asus RT-N56 to my mother, so I will need a new one. I have been very pleased with my Asus router so far.
I have read all the articles about AC not being stable and that more advanced stuff are coming at CES. What would you guys recommend for me based on my current setup:

Small apartment
Asus RT-N56
2 x 2010 Lenovo Laptops with N cards
Ps3
Ps4
Iphone 4s
Iphone 5s
Ipad mini retina
2011 Asrock htpc with n card
Kindle
2013 HP laptop with ac card
2013 13' Macbook pro retina

Thanks

 

[RogerSC]

My first response to you would be if you're happy with your rt-n56u, get another one and be happy. Easy for you to set up, you already know how, and probably have settings files that you can use to do that.

You could look for another router, but you don't state any needs or direction that you'd like to go. If you get another rt-n56u, they aren't expensive right now, and you could keep it as a backup or access point if you find you want to get something newer after the next round of wireless-ac routers (or whatever's coming) comes out.

If you buy more than you need now, and don't use the added features, you will indeed see better stuff come out in 6 months or a year that you wish that you had *smile*. That's the nature of the home networking market this days, it moves along.

 

[baatch]

RE:

My needs are all the devices in the setup:
8 n devices
2 AC devices (macbook pro retina, HP laptop)
1 g device (ps3 that may get thrown out)

And the alternatives are:
1. Buy another Asus RT-N56
2. Buy Asus RT-N66
3. Go with AC router, Asus RT-AC66


Will my n devices and maybe (g) slow down my AC devices speeds? So maybe I should with alternative 3 ?

 

[RogerSC]

You could do that, if you anticipate using the wireless-ac bandwidth. The price point of the rt-ac66u isn't bad right now, and it is a very capable router.

I do think that a mixed wireless-n and wireless-ac network will slow down the wireless-ac to some degree, depending on how much network bandwidth the wireless-n is using. When wireless-n is operating, it is slower, so the wireless-ac has less of the total bandwidth. When wireless-n isn't operating, there's no effect at all, of course, but when it is, if there's enough of it you should see some slowdown of wireless-ac. But if you're streaming on wireless-ac, and using wireless-n intermittently for other things, then I'd think that the effect would be small overall. But you could simply use 2.4GHz. for all your wireless-n, and use 5GHz. for wireless-ac only. Sorting things out between wireless bands can help you.