Router/AP for AC as Replacement for RT-N66U

[derTyp]

Hello,

I want to replace my current RT-N66U in favor of an AC device. Here are the things I *need* from the router/ap:

• Must support VLANs
• Should have the same/better range than the current RT-N66U (which was at time of buying the best n-Router as far as I remember)
• Must not cost more than 200€

I will use the router solely as a (dumb) AP as the routing and firewalling is done by an OPNsense box. The current router is running shibby, but tomato seems to be slowly dying so I want to replace it and upgrade to AC wifi and hopefully be able to stream 4K.
To be future proof I would like to get an OpenWRT compatible model. Unfortunately this sorts out all current ASUS devices as they all seem to have broadcom chips.
Currently I am looking at a Linksys WRT1900ACS which seems to be quite well supported by OpenWRT and looks promising in terms of wifi performance.

Are there other models that I might have overlooked and are there any caveats that I missed on the WRT1900ACS ?

Best regards

 

[coxhaus]

Why buy a router? Buy a wireless AP.

 

[derTyp]

I forgot to mention that I looked at APs specifically at the Ubiquiti AP AC Pro but it's more expensive and, according to the tests on this site, has lower range/throughput so I settled with buying a router and using it as AP.

 

[coxhaus]

I guess you are talking about 2.4GHz ratings. When I try to pull up the 5GHz rating on wireless APs it is empty. 2.4GHz is very limited compared to 5GHz.

 

[derTyp]

In both charts (router and AP) I took 5GHz downlink profile and there are definitely results showing up. Maybe you need to adjust the test revision ?
Routers seem to be much faster than the APs (e.g. the WRT1900ACS has near to triple the downlink compared to the AC Pro).

Maybe that's the wrong thing to compare, honestly I don't know which value would be the best to compare. For me it seemed that the WRT1900ACS (which atm costs about 150€ here) is substantially faster compared to APs in the same price range (Ubiquity AP Pro cost 180€)

 

[coxhaus]

5GHz downlink profile does work. I used 5GHz down/up throughput which is blank.

Are these tests run at 80mhz wide channels or wider?

You would think with a router performing all the LAN duties like DHCP and firewalling you would think a AP would be faster in the real world since it only has 1 duty.