RT-N66U is dying....need recommendations please

[Codyormoe]

As the title says, my trusty N66U is starting to get very erratic, wifi dropouts, transfer speeds varying greatly for no apparent reason. Not complaining, bought it 4/2012, and it has served us very, very well for almost 5 years of 24/7 use. I almost replaced it with a newer N66U, but decided to see was new in the world of routers......and now my head is ready to explode. I've been reading for the last week, and reading, and reading, yet I am still no closer to picking a replacement, might actually be further away than when I started. I'm hoping some of you here will take pity on my poor aging brain and just give me a simple answer.

What Asus router will best suit my needs? In no particular order...

1. Media server is a must, I stream from router connected hd daily
2. QoS is a must also as there are 2 gamers in the house
3. Parental control(to kick aforementioned gamers off so they actually sleep at night)
4. Wall mountable is prefered, but not a must
5. App accessible would be nice, but again, not a must
6. Between $100-$200 would be nice, but a little extra wouldn't be a deal breaker
7. Good transfer speeds over wireless to attached drive would be nice(currently getting maybe 2-3mb/sec if I'm lucky)
8. Merlin compatible is a must, have always used it with my N66U and found it to be ultra reliable compared to stock firmware
9. Have 2 ip cams(they have their own poe switch that's connected to router) that connect to an NVR at a different location, setup was super easy on N66U9static ip's). I'm a big fan of super easy.

Would like to stick with Asus, looked at a ton of models, AC68U, AC1900, AC87U, AC3100, etc, but I think I overloaded my brain and am now just drowning in a sea of indecision.

Please....
Help

Edited because I forgot about the ip cams

 

[pete y testing]

1. Media server is a must, I stream from router connected hd daily

ok lets deal with the elephant in the room here and thats the use of usb for streaming , for the most part its crap even on the newer models

you are far better of investing in getting a real NAS that connects via giga ethernet so its not a bottleneck for your media streaming

7. Good transfer speeds over wireless to attached drive would be nice(currently getting maybe 2-3mb/sec if I'm lucky)

this off course depends on not only the routers wifi capacity but the client adapters as well , throughput wise its no good getting a super fast wireless ac router if your client adapters are still wireless N as the adapters will stiull be the bottleneck

so if you have good wireless ac adapters in your gear you can expect good wireless throughput at even 25 meters from the router ( depending on construction materials )

so before you go considering getting a new router consider the above as without doing the lot you may as well not bother as your results will not be astounding , that is unless you go with say the 3100 or 88u which has half decent usb 3 speeds but still no where near a real NAS and you will still need to look at the wireless adapters anyway

the rest of your point forms suggest you can only look at the asus rt-ac gear because of merlin fw

not sure of the price structure where you are but "Between $100-$200" isnt a huge amount to spend on a new router these days

just give me a simple answer.

never a simple answer but a logical one

 

[L&LD]

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/s...-go-with-the-rt-ac1900p-v3.34748/#post-281391

RT-AC3100 is the simple answer. More than your budget indicates, but worth every penny unless you want to be looking at a new router again in a year or so.

 

[RMerlin]

I would look at the RT-AC66_B1 - just check to make sure it's wall mountable (I'm not at home at the moment so I can't check mine).