I've been using Airport extreme and then Time capsule routers for many years. They simply work, but there are clearly better performing routers.
I use the MAC address timed access controls provided in Airport Utility. It's a piece of cake to shut down wifi access to my school aged kids at midnight and have it turn back on at 7 am.
I'm ready for a big boy router but don't want it to be a big boy project. I want the benefits of improved throughput, some QoS, maybe some port mapping I want to use the USB 3 port the way I do today on my time capsule. Hang a usb 3 hub off of the USB port and have multiple devices connected to it. And I want my stinking timed access by MAC address.
According to ASUS and Linksys tech support, their firmware supports MAC address timed access. The Netgear R6700 (recently purchased from Coscto) does not. There are no firmware updates for this router, it appears to be a dumbed down r7000. I would be happy to pay more for the r7000 if the firmware updates allow me to do timed access by MAC address, but according to Netgear tech support, this isn't supported in the r7000 either.
Netgear is the router I want but it doesn't do the one thing I want it to do. So it appears I need to buy the Netgear and then flash it with 3rd party firmware to get what I want. Coming from the world of Airport, I don't want to have another thing to manage in my house. I've got enough stuff to do without worrying about my router. Can I install the latest kong version of dd-wrt, get mac address timed access and then set it and forget it or is this a fantasy as well?
I want the simplicity of the Airport Extreme but with the USB 3 and performance of the Netgear. Am I completely SOL or am I missing an option here? My house is 3 stories, 4000 square feet with users at far corners of the basement and my router at the opposite side of the house on the main floor. Airport Extreme performance has been degrading, it's over 5 years old.
I have 4 AC devices at this point with another 20 n devices of one type or another. I don't believe the r7000 is overkill, I just need it to do the one simple thing I've come to rely on for a little bit of access sanity in my home, time access by MAC address.
I use the MAC address timed access controls provided in Airport Utility. It's a piece of cake to shut down wifi access to my school aged kids at midnight and have it turn back on at 7 am.
I'm ready for a big boy router but don't want it to be a big boy project. I want the benefits of improved throughput, some QoS, maybe some port mapping I want to use the USB 3 port the way I do today on my time capsule. Hang a usb 3 hub off of the USB port and have multiple devices connected to it. And I want my stinking timed access by MAC address.
According to ASUS and Linksys tech support, their firmware supports MAC address timed access. The Netgear R6700 (recently purchased from Coscto) does not. There are no firmware updates for this router, it appears to be a dumbed down r7000. I would be happy to pay more for the r7000 if the firmware updates allow me to do timed access by MAC address, but according to Netgear tech support, this isn't supported in the r7000 either.
Netgear is the router I want but it doesn't do the one thing I want it to do. So it appears I need to buy the Netgear and then flash it with 3rd party firmware to get what I want. Coming from the world of Airport, I don't want to have another thing to manage in my house. I've got enough stuff to do without worrying about my router. Can I install the latest kong version of dd-wrt, get mac address timed access and then set it and forget it or is this a fantasy as well?
I want the simplicity of the Airport Extreme but with the USB 3 and performance of the Netgear. Am I completely SOL or am I missing an option here? My house is 3 stories, 4000 square feet with users at far corners of the basement and my router at the opposite side of the house on the main floor. Airport Extreme performance has been degrading, it's over 5 years old.
I have 4 AC devices at this point with another 20 n devices of one type or another. I don't believe the r7000 is overkill, I just need it to do the one simple thing I've come to rely on for a little bit of access sanity in my home, time access by MAC address.