Router Advice - the new guy

[NewlyAppointed]

Hey guys. I need your advice.

I’ve been using Verizon’s quantum router to act as my router for my home. I decided that I want to stop paying the $10/month and get my own router. Right now, I’m getting 100/100 speeds from fiber optic that’s coming into my house. I already have a wireless access point so I guess I should get a wired router. It would be located in my basement and have ethernet cables going off to the different parts of my house. I've got a tiny house so I can pretty much upgrade the ethernet cables to every part of my house from my basement.

So, any advice on a good WIRED GIGABIT ROUTER?

Here is a summary for my setup and what I'm looking for:

- VERIZON FIOS
o 100/100 Mbps, 3ms ping

- TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY
o I’m pretty much a novice in networking although I’m pretty handy. It doesn’t have to be exactly plug and play but if it gets too technical, I might take days/months to get it going.

- MY CONNECTIONS
o WIRED
 3 computers
 a smart TV
 NAS (5 terrabytes that I use to stream movies)
 wireless access point
o WIRELESS
 Laptop
 Ipad
 4 cellphones

- REMOTE ACCESS
o I’d love to remotely stream movies from my NAS in the future if I ever get the chance to take a vacation with the kids.

- SECURITY
o Decent security I guess.

- SPEED
o Gigabit ports because I would love to stream movies from my NAS to my computers.

- TIME SCHEDULE
o It’d be nice to restrict internet usage for my kids to certain hours.

- FEATURES
o QoS – I would like this since I’d like to put an emphasis on streaming movies or games.


I also forgot to mention that I just depleted my life savings to buy the Nighthawk X4s and use as a wireless access point. So I can’t go crazy on this wired router since I don’t have that much $$ in my bank account. (Btw, the nighthawk works awesome! I even get reception in the dark recesses of my basement!)

Thanks guys!

 

[microchip]

Get yourself another Nighthawk X4 and use it solely as router (you can turn off wifi) ? Or an ASUS AC68U will also do. Note that QoS turns off hardware acceleration so if you upgrade in the future to anything higher than 300 Mbps, you won't be able to reach it

 

[NewlyAppointed]

I was hoping that I could spend something around maybe $50 for a wired router which only manages the traffic. Is that unrealistic?

Get yourself another Nighthawk X4 and use it solely as router (you can turn off wifi) ? Or an ASUS AC68U will also do. Note that QoS turns off hardware acceleration so if you upgrade in the future to anything higher than 300 Mbps, you won't be able to reach it

 

[abailey]

Will your new router need to accept a fiber connection? If not you could find a router for around $50 that may be able to do QOS at 100Mbit but it is not going to be a real easy router to deploy. Ubiquiti and Mikrotik come to mind.

 

[Nullity]

If the objective is to save money, you can alternatively install pfSense (or similar) on an old desktop.

One concern is that the power required to run a "full PC" might be much more than an embedded device from Ubiquiti, Asus, etc. I personally have not noticed that since my 12Mbit/768Kbit connection never causes my pfSense PC to do anything more than idle.

 

[microchip]

I was hoping that I could spend something around maybe $50 for a wired router which only manages the traffic. Is that unrealistic?

I'm not aware of such a cheap router that only does routing and offers no wireless. You can always get an el cheapo ASUS or D-Link router. For example, the DIR-850L here costs under 50 euro's, same for the ASUS RT-N14U (tho it only has 100 Mbps ports) but the N18U has 1 Gbps ports. Just turn off the wifi and you're good to go

 

[sfx2000]

I'm not aware of such a cheap router that only does routing and offers no wireless.

https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-lite/

$99 - and fairly capable at that, much more so than any Router/AP consumer device at the same price point...

 

[microchip]

https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-lite/

$99 - and fairly capable at that, much more so than any Router/AP consumer device at the same price point...

Not around $50, is it now? Also he's a novice and I don't think he should jump to Ubiquiti/Mikrotik

 

[abailey]

https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-lite/

$99 - and fairly capable at that, much more so than any Router/AP consumer device at the same price point...

If he is using QOS then the hardware offload is turned off so he might be better off with the EdgerouterX. It is like $57.00.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YFJT29C/?tag=snbforums-20

But, as I stated earlier, it's not the easiest to set up.

 

[sfx2000]

Not around $50, is it now? Also he's a novice and I don't think he should jump to Ubiquiti/Mikrotik

Seems to be a fair amount of price flexibility with the ERL's - $100USD seems to be the norm, but UBNT has dropped prices from time to time, and they're a bit of a niche compared to the major retail OEM's.

That being said - they're pretty capable little devices....

 

[sfx2000]

I was hoping that I could spend something around maybe $50 for a wired router which only manages the traffic. Is that unrealistic?

At 50USD, probably not, but the 100USD range, yes...

And that investment will probably outperform LAN/WAN wired devices at the AC5300 class... mostly because of the routing performance - keep in mind that the AC3100/AC5300 class devices, the prices are pumped up pretty high because of "big numbers" - that big number is just that, a marketing number...

 

[Cloud200]

At 50USD, probably not, but the 100USD range, yes...

And that investment will probably outperform LAN/WAN wired devices at the AC5300 class... mostly because of the routing performance - keep in mind that the AC3100/AC5300 class devices, the prices are pumped up pretty high because of "big numbers" - that big number is just that, a marketing number...

The ER-X is actually faster than the ER3-Lite if you turn on traffic shaping.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YFJT29C/?tag=snbforums-20
$49.93 amazon prime free shipping

Edit:
Source

https://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeM...geRouter-software-release-v1-7-0/ba-p/1287631

• The HTB rate limiting is computation intensive, and therefore above a certain rate the rate limiting would not work well (cannot achieve the specified rate). The actual threshold (applied to the sum of "rate-up" and "rate-down") depends on the specific model and also the exact environment of course. As discussed with community members (including @Milo_Masters @Ric878 @final @Stickygears@Arnold2222 @NicholasP request_timeout @ubnat @WisTech @jjonsson Josh_SPITwSPOTS@PeterFalken dtaht2 for example here), here are some rough guidelines:
  • ERLite-3 and ERPoe-5: below 60 Mbps most likely will work, above 200 Mbps most likely will not work.
  • ER-8: below 160 Mbps most likely will work, above 450 Mbps most likely will not work.
  • ERPro-8: below 200 Mbps most likely will work, above 550 Mbps most likely will not work.
  • ER-X and ER-X-SFP: below 100 Mbps most likely will work, above 250 Mbps most likely will not work.
  Of course the exact threshold depends a lot on the actual setup, traffic pattern, etc. and therefore will require testing in the actual environment to determine.

 

[System Error Message]

Dont go for the ERL, go for the ER-X. At $50 mikrotik doesnt have a device as fast, only the mid to high range is where mikrotik shines.

You will need to remember that you need 200Mb/s of NAT + QoS.

Comparing power use of embedded against x86 varies. Intel atoms use a few watts just like with any consumer router you find or a router like the small ubiquiti edgerouter series. Comparing high end segment on full load and idle, (lets say you're using recent intel xeons or amd piledriver), at idle the x86 will use less power(around 20W) if comparing to a CCR1036 because on idle my CCR uses between 35-45W depending on temperature. On load however the CCR uses 60W to 70W max while the x86 will use between 60-100W. Power profile gets even worse for the CCR1072 especially on idle but it can do wirespeed NAT just like with the other models but it has 8 SFP+ ports and x86 would have a hard time keeping up. Power use doesnt really matter with the cost unless electricity is ridiculously expensive where you are.

The 1st device to replace if you wish to save power is to get SFP and get rid of the modem.

You can also get 2nd hand routers and disable wireless. You're looking at either asus (to use with RMerlin's firmware) or a router that supports tomato/openwrt. For good QoS it requires a router not for the novice but if you want basic QoS many consumer routers have it so you're just looking at the CPU and RAM.

 

[Trip]

Guys... easy. The OP highlighted the fact that he's pretty much a novice. Why even mention UBNT/'Tik, x86 and all the associated technicalities and specs if it's more or less uncalled-for? Superior? In many ways, of course. But is it appropriate for the use-case?

Yes, he wants "wired", but given the above point I would agree with any former suggestions to just purchase an Asus or Netgear (68U, R7000, whatever), update to the latest factory firmware (*maybe* Merlin on the Asus, if he can handle that) and turn off wireless if he so chooses. Then follow the setup wizards and you're good to go. Simple, easy and "just works".

I'm just as much of a fan of all of the next-level stuff as the next guy, but we really need to work on reigning it in when an unassuming novice comes in looking for point-and-click type suggestions, as to not steam-roll his/her chances to actually get some concrete guidance.

Just my two cents anyways.

 

[abailey]

Guys... easy. The OP highlighted the fact that he's pretty much a novice. Why even mention UBNT/'Tik, x86 and all the associated technicalities and specs if it's more or less uncalled-for? Superior? In many ways, of course. But is it appropriate for the use-case?

Yes, he wants "wired", but given the above point I would agree with any former suggestions to just purchase an Asus or Netgear (68U, R7000, whatever), update to the latest factory firmware (*maybe* Merlin on the Asus, if he can handle that) and turn off wireless if he so chooses. Then follow the setup wizards and you're good to go. Simple, easy and "just works".

I'm just as much of a fan of all the names and models in the pro-sumer space as the next person, but we really need to work on reigning it in when an unassuming novice comes in looking for point-and-click type suggestions, and ends up getting steam-rolled with certain content that's most likely going to be over his or her head.

Just my two cents anyways.

The problem is his budget is around the $50 mark. It is hard to get the features he needs at that price without going Ubiquiti or Mikrotik or such.

 

[Trip]

True in that light. The fact remains, though, he's still out for something simple(ish) to setup and use. I guess I would still put more effort into selling him on a larger budget for something plug-n-play (if there's even an option -- 200Mb of aggregate routing, if QoS is to be used, might to hard to find in any PNP product, irrespective of budget).

 

[Cloud200]

I wouldn't say ubiquiti is too technical for the use case.
Before anything, update to the latest firmware.
Initial setup is a wizard.
The QOS is done in 4 or 5 clicks.
Remote access can be either OpenVPN or PPTP.
NAT has the option of SNAT and DNAT . . . or Auto PAT with 1:Many NAT with Firewall rules all rolled into one.
The only semi difficult thing will be the time based rules.

 

[System Error Message]

pfsense is actually easier than ubiquiti but the cheapest box that'll run pfsense starts at $100 but perhaps the OP could reuse PC or get 2nd hand hardware.

 

[sfx2000]

pfsense is actually easier than ubiquiti but the cheapest box that'll run pfsense starts at $100 but perhaps the OP could reuse PC or get 2nd hand hardware.

ER-X @ 50USD is pretty interesting, esp. if this includes a level of support...

pfSense is always interesting, just add money

 

[Trip]

ER-X @ 50USD is pretty interesting, esp. if this includes a level of support...

Unfortunately, that's just it. UBNT's interpretation of "support" will leave most consumers bewildered. You do get what you pay for, and with UBNT and Mikrotik, very little of that MSRP is directed to support funding, that's for sure.