Suggestions for best wired throughput router

[rich121]

Looking to purchase a new router.
The wireless performance isn't important, as the only wireless device that will be hooked to it so far is my daughters psp.

I will be cabling the modem to an xbox 360 and a newer ps3.

I plan to purchase a media player (to be wired to the router) in the near future that will play the 1080p60 m2ts files I have on my computer from my Panasonic TM700 camcorder.

I would like top wan-lan/lan-wan performance, as I also upload video to internet.

I was first looking at Netgear r6300, then seen the reviews/popularity of the asus 56/66 routers and have been reading and reading and reading...

Then, I thought, I better just ask

I have up to 100mbps service, and will also be purchasing a Motorola SB6121 cable modem to match to the router.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[stevech]

Looking to purchase a new router.
The wireless performance isn't important, as the only wireless device that will be hooked to it so far is my daughters psp.

I will be cabling the modem to an xbox 360 and a newer ps3.

I plan to purchase a media player (to be wired to the router) in the near future that will play the 1080p60 m2ts files I have on my computer from my Panasonic TM700 camcorder.

I would like top wan-lan/lan-wan performance, as I also upload video to internet.

I was first looking at Netgear r6300, then seen the reviews/popularity of the asus 56/66 routers and have been reading and reading and reading...

Then, I thought, I better just ask

I have up to 100mbps service, and will also be purchasing a Motorola SB6121 cable modem to match to the router.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

You have DOCSIS 3 service (not DOCSIS 2)? Too pricey for me!

It may be that the typical consumer $150 and less routers and wifi routers cannot sustain 100mbps on the WAN side (they can on the LAN side since that's just a switch). Also depends on what options you want the router to do on the WAN side - beyond NAT, such as various firewall features, QoS, etc.

I don't have experience with 100Mbps WAN from cable modems... I think such speeds are not worth the extra cost from the ISP - because few or no internet host servers will sustain those speeds to consumers.

SOHO grade stuff from ZyXel and Juniper might do the best, but they get pricey.

 

[rich121]

You have DOCSIS 3 service (not DOCSIS 2)? Too pricey for me!

It may be that the typical consumer $150 and less routers and wifi routers cannot sustain 100mbps on the WAN side (they can on the LAN side since that's just a switch). Also depends on what options you want the router to do on the WAN side - beyond NAT, such as various firewall features, QoS, etc.

I don't have experience with 100Mbps WAN from cable modems... I think such speeds are not worth the extra cost from the ISP - because few or no internet host servers will sustain those speeds to consumers.

SOHO grade stuff from ZyXel and Juniper might do the best, but they get pricey.

The 100mbps speed is not so much "sustained", that is why I said "up to", and probably will not average much more than 40 to 50mbps.
I'm getting around 30 to 35mbps now, but the modem I have is a bottleneck.
My service provider used to have many options, now only 2, regular speed and ultra speed...the price difference is only about $15 a month from what they are charging me now, so I'm staying with the upper speed.

I thought most of the US was using DOCSIS 3? The State and rural area I live in is usually behind the rest of the country, we have had this change for about a year and a half now.

Yes, the lan side is just a switch, but routers wan-lan/lan-wan performance varies and I want the best all around performance that will show "real world" difference for HD video/audio, everyday use, and somewhat future proof.

The modem I have been using, which I was charged $7 per month for, an Ambit U10C018.
I have found it is not even compatible with DOCSIS 3...I was never informed by the provider when the DOCSIS 3 upgrade occured, and just happened to find out recently while searching for other information.

 

[tipstir]

Get what I am using cost you around $188 to me it's the best Wired Router around, it's 17.3" long all metal. Hasn't gotten hot either. I have the WAN set to Auto though. Ingress and Engress is matched to what I am suppose to get but I've set it higher to smooth performance.. WAN port can be managed from Auto to 1000m also FD or HD. Depends what your paying for from the ISP.


TP-LINK Gig Load Balance Wired Router TL-ER5120

 

[stevech]

My router is a turn on and forget for months on end. Cradlepoint brand. They sell mostly to machine to machine applications like ATMs and kiosk Point of Sale, but their same firmware runs in their consumer routers. It does fine at 20Mbps which is all I've ever obtained on a good day per speedtest.net and the best-server. Got a deal on mine via eBay.

I'm guessing that 1/8th of American Cable Modem users have DOCSIS 3 here. And I suspect that few will pay the premium for the higher speed.

The HDTV side of the household costs has gotten so high that I'd say average folk take a pass on higher than cable modem speeds of 15-20Mbps. Most see that Netflix streams with even less costly service, even DSL speeds.

I'm excluding the really affluent folks.
I could afford faster speeds but don't need it, and don't want to send even more to the monopoly cable TV/Phone/Internet empire (Time Warner) - that the US deregulation created.

 

[rich121]

My router is a turn on and forget for months on end. Cradlepoint brand. They sell mostly to machine to machine applications like ATMs and kiosk Point of Sale, but their same firmware runs in their consumer routers. It does fine at 20Mbps which is all I've ever obtained on a good day per speedtest.net and the best-server. Got a deal on mine via eBay.

I'm guessing that 1/8th of American Cable Modem users have DOCSIS 3 here. And I suspect that few will pay the premium for the higher speed.

The HDTV side of the household costs has gotten so high that I'd say average folk take a pass on higher than cable modem speeds of 15-20Mbps. Most see that Netflix streams with even less costly service, even DSL speeds.

I'm excluding the really affluent folks.
I could afford faster speeds but don't need it, and don't want to send even more to the monopoly cable TV/Phone/Internet empire (Time Warner) - that the US deregulation created.

Not sure what your HDtv comments were targeted at, media? As, the hardware prices are lower now than ever!

As for internet speed and the modem...

Just changing out the Modem alone makes a HUGE difference!

I just swapped out my old Modem mentioned above, and installed the new DOCSIS 3 compliant Motorola SB6121:

On Speedtest.net just before disconnecting the old Modem, I got 25, 27, 29 and last was 28Mbps download speed.

On Speedtest.net just after hooking up the new Motorola modem I am consistantly getting 62, 63, 64 and last was 64Mbps download speed!

Upload stayed the same...

Jitter on the old modem was over 5ms each time, reaching up to 9ms

After the Motorola install, jitter went down a whole bunch, down to 1ms everytime with 4 tests on the Pingtest.net site.

This is basically a "Free" upgrade in internet speed...I was paying $7 per month for a bottlenecking slow modem, I paid $100 for the Motorola and it will pay for itself in just over a year..

I have doubled my internet download speed for free! And.... my internet bill will drop to about $47 per month.

I have read that for any internet speed 10Mbps or more, if you have the DOCSIS 3 network, you will see considerable gains by using the Motorola SB6121 modem...

Glad I did...

 

[tipstir]

My router is a turn on and forget for months on end. Cradlepoint brand. They sell mostly to machine to machine applications like ATMs and kiosk Point of Sale, but their same firmware runs in their consumer routers. It does fine at 20Mbps which is all I've ever obtained on a good day per speedtest.net and the best-server. Got a deal on mine via eBay.

I'm guessing that 1/8th of American Cable Modem users have DOCSIS 3 here. And I suspect that few will pay the premium for the higher speed.

The HDTV side of the household costs has gotten so high that I'd say average folk take a pass on higher than cable modem speeds of 15-20Mbps. Most see that Netflix streams with even less costly service, even DSL speeds.

I'm excluding the really affluent folks.
I could afford faster speeds but don't need it, and don't want to send even more to the monopoly cable TV/Phone/Internet empire (Time Warner) - that the US deregulation created.

Oh you still have one after all this time. I had remembered you talking about getting one of those. So you haven't lost power in your house due to brown out from the Electric Company? Being that you said it been on without issues. Still battery backup APS where I am now has more brown outs due the weather conditions here.

I can't say much about what I am using only been a few weeks in operation but so far 1080p streaming from Gig LAN to Gig LAN no issues. 1080p HD Wireless and Wired from WAN from Amazon Prime Instant Videos no issue on my HDTV 's It works smooth no over heating.. Yet

I am only paying for 30 mbps down I am not paying more for 50 to 100mbps even though for what I run here for business faster lines are only $89 a month but again no really needed.

VOIP, Cable HD, High Speed Internet bundle plus entire house re-wired with 5x connections also DVR support, new drop line from the box to house and new conjunction box installed. Not cheap either but it had to be done. So with Comcast who have now where I use have 8x connections better speeds of 43mbps pole drop line drop to the house same all new wiring, dual power amps most of that was free with Cox

What I've gone through so many brands from Wired and wireless routers. Still that's a lot that burn out due do heavy usage. Here I don't wan those issues.
So buying something more used in a business environment might cost more but in the end I won't have to worry about every 1 to 2 years to replace the hardware as much.

 

[stevech]

above, I equated DOCSIS 3 with speeds much higher than I have now with DOCSIS 2. The monthly service charge would go up too much for me to value DOCSIS 3 as "worth it".

 

[rich121]

above, I equated DOCSIS 3 with speeds much higher than I have now with DOCSIS 2. The monthly service charge would go up too much for me to value DOCSIS 3 as "worth it".

I don't understand your reply?

If your getting 20Mbps now with DOCSIS 2 modem, you pay $100 (less than $89 if you look online) for a new DOCSIS 3 compatable Motorola SB6121 and your speed doubles to 40Mbps your monthly service charge will go up????

Your service fee should'nt increase unless your downloading/uploading Gb goes up substantially..not the speed of the connection.
This would happen regardless of what internet speed you are connecting at.

The use of the new modem only makes positive sense to me...higher speed, and a much more reliable connection.

Also, if you're paying a monthly fee for the outdated modem your using, you will save that amount also...making it really a win win deal.

 

[stevech]

not the way it works here with Cox and Time Warner. They sell different speed grades. I pay for DOCSIS 2 type speeds. If I pay more, my 20Mbps improves greatly. They charge by speed grade, not data volume used. Marketing terms are "Standard" and "Turbo" or some such. To go from my standard to turbo will almost double my monthly fee. And my speed would increase greatly due to DOCSIS 3 rather than 2. The billing is not by GB used but by speed grade. But DOCSIS 3 isn't proliferated much here in my region. Their head-end doesn't support much or any.

Also, with Time Warner, unless they've changed recently, the will not commission a customer purchased cable modem on their system. THat's fine with me, as I have no hassle getting them to fix/replace, etc. They own it. There's no itemized rental fee in the bill (I buy cable/TV/phone bundled).

 

[Andrew LB]

^^^ Very similar to how things are here in Orange County, CA. The price for wide band is just insane. I'm already paying $160/month for HDTV, 2 HD-DVR's, Roadrunner Turbo, Home phone, and a couple channel packages. I'm currently getting 20 megabit but if I were to pay $10 more, the boost takes my connection to 30 megabit. Now that isn't a bad deal considering it's 50% more speed for like 25% extra in cost. Wideband 50 megabit costs an additional $30 on top of that, so basically i'd be paying almost $100 for internet.

Also, with Time Warner, unless they've changed recently, the will not commission a customer purchased cable modem on their system. THat's fine with me, as I have no hassle getting them to fix/replace, etc. They own it. There's no itemized rental fee in the bill (I buy cable/TV/phone bundled).

Really? I was on the phone with Time Warner this afternoon asking them to replace my antique Cisco 4200 modem, and when asked about buying my own modem, they said as long as it's on the list it's fine. They then in typical TWC fashion attempted to talk me into upgrading to faster internet. I pretty much told the guy that TWC should be discounting my bill for all the horrible connection speeds this past week. I had a full re-wire of my home about 6 months ago and the installer told me my modem is not outdated and how getting the motorola would be a mistake. LoL. talk about BS.


Edit: Tomorrow i'm taking my old Cisco modem down to TWC to swap it out with a newer modem and depending on what my monthly fee will be, will determine whether or not to buy my the SB6141 or not.

Right now my money is better spent upgrading my EnGenius ESR9850 router to something like the new Western Digital MyNet N900 once they get update the firmware. I can't believe it took a company, let alone a hard drive manufacturer, to release a wireless router that's dual band, has 8 gigabit ports, and TWO usb ports. It will be nice to be able to put both my HDTV's on gigabit instead of Wifi.

 

[rich121]

^^^ Very similar to how things are here in Orange County, CA. The price for wide band is just insane. I'm already paying $160/month for HDTV, 2 HD-DVR's, Roadrunner Turbo, Home phone, and a couple channel packages. I'm currently getting 20 megabit but if I were to pay $10 more, the boost takes my connection to 30 megabit. Now that isn't a bad deal considering it's 50% more speed for like 25% extra in cost. Wideband 50 megabit costs an additional $30 on top of that, so basically i'd be paying almost $100 for internet.




Really? I was on the phone with Time Warner this afternoon asking them to replace my antique Cisco 4200 modem, and when asked about buying my own modem, they said as long as it's on the list it's fine. They then in typical TWC fashion attempted to talk me into upgrading to faster internet. I pretty much told the guy that TWC should be discounting my bill for all the horrible connection speeds this past week. I had a full re-wire of my home about 6 months ago and the installer told me my modem is not outdated and how getting the motorola would be a mistake. LoL. talk about BS.


Edit: Tomorrow i'm taking my old Cisco modem down to TWC to swap it out with a newer modem and depending on what my monthly fee will be, will determine whether or not to buy my the SB6141 or not.

Right now my money is better spent upgrading my EnGenius ESR9850 router to something like the new Western Digital MyNet N900 once they get update the firmware. I can't believe it took a company, let alone a hard drive manufacturer, to release a wireless router that's dual band, has 8 gigabit ports, and TWO usb ports. It will be nice to be able to put both my HDTV's on gigabit instead of Wifi.

That is some $$ you are spending!

I dropped dishnetwork about 2 years ago...$90 a month that a don't miss spending!

About the same time I switched from DSL to cable, as I was only getting about 6Mbps download for $40 a month! Not only switched to cable, but had the landline disconnected which saved another $60 per month...just use cell phone now.

My only entertainment "utility" is my net connection, and at just under $50 per month and now averaging over 50Mbps download, I don't think it's that bad of a cost... especially now since adding the Motorola modem over 2 times the speed I had before the new modem..

I'm thankful my provider only raises the cost if you consistantly use alot Gb over a period of time...
I think it's unfair to charge just by what speed your connected at...that would be the same as having to pay extra electric bill for 240v over 120v , regardless of how many watts are used...

I also subscribe to NetFlix for $8 per month...

I download alot of sports and coaching videos, so I appreciate the speed.

 

[tipstir]

I get HD channels + HBO (all of them) Starz (all of them), VOIP, Digital Phone, Internet $140. Add 3x non-DVR $17, Add state and local taxes comes our to be $175. I want to drop the land-line and use my cell phone only. To me the cable bill keeps going up.

I have two leaf HD flat ANT, I just got two more. To me drop the cable channels, use the leaf HD flat ANT and bring in 40 DTV channels. Use Netflix, Crackle TV, Amazon Unlimited Instant Videos. Have BT to pick up the slack.

This would save me a lot of money. I have Netflix and AUIV already. Most all around me here have dropped Comcast for everything because the cost is just way to high. DishTV is where they all gone too. But to me that seems steep after 2 years contract is over. I hear price go 2 to 3x the amount.

Cable use to be cheap, but has turned into high cost a racket.

 

[stevech]

I too am unhappy with cost of cable TV... blamed, they say, on the content providers' fees.

Maybe DVRs with commercial skipping is a part of the cost growth problem... advertising revenue way down.

To drop cable and do off-air, we'd lose 95% of the content we watch.

 

[Andrew LB]

That is some $$ you are spending!

I dropped dishnetwork about 2 years ago...$90 a month that a don't miss spending!

Yea. I recently added the home phone service, saving me $40-60/month on my old school Verizon land-line. When I had just the Time Warner Cable internet + cable, I was paying $154 after taxes and all that crap.

I've decided to purchase a Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 modem so I don't have to continue leasing one from TWC. It will pay itself off in about a year, and since it can do 8-channel bonded downstream and 4-channel bonded upstream, which is roughly 300 megabit down and 100 megabit up. I doubt i'll replace it anytime soon.

 

[somms]

Yea. I recently added the home phone service, saving me $40-60/month on my old school Verizon land-line. When I had just the Time Warner Cable internet + cable, I was paying $154 after taxes and all that crap.

I've decided to purchase a Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3.0 modem so I don't have to continue leasing one from TWC. It will pay itself off in about a year, and since it can do 8-channel bonded downstream and 4-channel bonded upstream, which is roughly 300 megabit down and 100 megabit up. I doubt i'll replace it anytime soon.

Good choice on the modem! That should be future-proof for new Xfinity 305Mbps tier and like you said, would be paid off soon instead of getting soaked with ever-increasing 'modem rental' fee scam!

 

[tipstir]

I too am unhappy with cost of cable TV... blamed, they say, on the content providers' fees.

Maybe DVRs with commercial skipping is a part of the cost growth problem... advertising revenue way down.

To drop cable and do off-air, we'd lose 95% of the content we watch.

That's the hard part to drop the cable. Off.. My contract ends in August so I going to do a deal with a deck of card in my favor. They're going to say "what you have it the best you can get for that price". Even with DishTV through my Executive Member over at Costco $89 for all channels with 1-DVR HD and 3x HD non-DVR boxes locked-in for 2 years contract rate. 3 months of HBO bla, or $15.96 for HBO (wow pricey) That's how everyone around me has it like with DishTV. Use AT&T for phone or ADSL. Never going back to AT&T nope!

I have one of those new RCA HD Outdoor or ATTIC ANT 40 miles range type with amp dbi booster mount. It seems to work well with 40 miles radius range. Channels like AMC, SyFy will be gone if I do that though.

Funny I have no DVR HD boxes and yet my bill keeps going upward. With the 5x boxes 3x being DVR-HD boxes will all the premium channels it was $250 a month. I changed it to what I have now just 3x Non-DVR Box with HD only and it cost me $175 a month that's all the taxes and fees. I had asked them once to drop the phone they told me it couldn't be done!

 

[stevech]

well, the primary TV viewer here, if we went off-air/broadcast only, would lose all the semi-good stuff
FoodTV
Discovery
Nat Geo /Wild
Cooking channel

and so on.
We just don't watch the crap-TV networks - haven't done so for 15 years.

Each time I consider Direct TV and get serious, past the sales lies, it can't meet/beat cable, sad to say.

 

[Andrew LB]

Good choice on the modem! That should be future-proof for new Xfinity 305Mbps tier and like you said, would be paid off soon instead of getting soaked with ever-increasing 'modem rental' fee scam!

OK.... NOW I'm PI$$$$$ed!!!!

So my modem arrived yesterday, i hooked it up, then called TWC for them to get it running on their end. I gave them the model name and MAC ID, and a few moments later I was up and running. So after hanging up I decided to run some speed tests to see if things have improved and here are the before and after results.....

Before:



After:




I'm sure you guys can see that something is wrong here. So I go and call TWC to find out why I am not getting the 20+powerboost speeds that I have paid for and have been receiving ever since "Turbo" first became available in the SoCal (seal beach) area.

After first dealing with Level 1, I get transferred to Level 3 tech support. After some looking things over, he proclaims that 15/2 is exactly what I should be getting. I explained to him that my Roadrunner turbo many years ago was indeed 15/2 and many years ago TWC in Orange County increased the speeds for all existing customers 5mbps shortly after FIOS and U-Verse both entered the market with 20mbps and 18mbps respectively, without any additional rate hike.

The Tech told me that "MY" roadrunner turbo is 15/2 and I was part of a group of customers who were "grandfathered" in without a price increase, or an increase in speeds. He then said only the sales/service department had the power to make any adjustments to my speed due to this "complication" and he apologized....

So I called their regular customer service guys who informed me that I had no right to complain because I was never supposed to receive 20/2 and they completely denied any knowledge of TWC upgrading our 15/2 turbo to 20/2 in Orange County to stay competitive and as a courtesy to their long term customers. She then tried to sell me on an upgraded speed package, something I quickly turned down because I wasn't going to allow them to try a "bait-and-switch" on me.

... so I asked for a supervisor.

I started off telling the supervisor how incredibly rude and argumentative the "phone jockey" who I had just spoken with and how she tried a "bait-and-switch" sales trick on me, in which he apologized and promised that he would not try to sell me ANYTHING, but would instead try to help me with this issue...

So after another 30 minutes of discussion and how I have had a 20/2 connection for 5 years now because of that 2008 free speed increase in my area, he then attempted to claim the same CRAP as the rude lady and told me that I had no idea what I was talking about and any speeds above 15/2 were due to power boost feature, which I still have as part of my service. I then asked if that were the case... why is my speed completely blocked from getting above 15mbps when only a day ago, my "magical 15/2 internet" was able to "power boost" not just to 20/2, but as high as 25mbps.

Of course he said that I am receiving the speeds I'm paying for and I have no right to complain.

I told him that tomorrow when I have time, we'll then do an experiment and hook this older Cisco 4200 modem back up and see how fast my internet is. My guess is that it will be locked at exactly 15/2, which will indeed prove without a doubt that my area did in fact receive a free speed increase back in 2008.

He also told me that in order to get 20/2, I would have to pay $20/month extra instead of the $10/month extra that I am currently spending in addition to my "standard roadrunner". I found that amusing considering their own website specifically says the price for upgrading from Standard to Turbo is $10.

So I pulled up the PDF price guide off Time Warner Cable's own website dated March, 2012 which clearly stated that the upgrade to Roadrunner Turbo is $10.

Here is the PDF: http://www.timewarnerla.com/pricingguides/PDFs_2012/2016_PL-0312.pdf

He then claimed the PDF was outdated and no longer on their website (clearly a lie since I got it from their website last night)

Another odd thing I noticed in my billing is how up until 3 months ago, my $10 fee for turbo said "Roadrunner Turbo", in addition to my "Surf and View" package which costs $85.99. Since I added home phone in April, my $10 fee says "Turbo int @ 15m" in addition to my "All the best" package @ $121.99.

It seems to me like they suddenly decided to be specific on the internet speed once I added home phone because they figured that once I saw how Turbo is now advertised at 20/2, they could nail me for more money to upgrade.

What's odd is that when I ordered home phone, I specifically asked for "All the Best" and the additional cable boxes and channels I decided on. Why is it that my "all the best" package contains a version of Roadrunner Turbo that they don't even offer anymore. I never asked them to make the slower roadrunner part of my modern package. wtf....

 

[stevech]

re the above..
Same situation for me. Grandfathered to Turbo, paying "standard" rates. So I get 15Mbps down sustained, burst to 20-25Mbps for a few seconds. 0.9Mbps up. Every day. Every year. I a'int gonna pay TWC's monopoly for more speed (and I don't need it).

My regional TWC's fees are by data rate, no matter what modem you have. And in my TWC So. CA market, the local policy is no customer owned modems.

I started another thread here to talk about what people in other regions and countries are paying as compared to the above.

As one who grew up with T-1 at $2000/mo costs on my old jobs, and even $300 or more today, and too, my first home modem was 300 baud, I'm OK with TWC's costs.