Whats the Best and most Powerful router in 2015?

[coxhaus]

Agree
Even these will help a lot. Esp. for handhelds.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320168&cm_re=n12-d1-_-33-320-168-_-Product

There does not seem to be any 5GHz or ac to match the master router.

 

[stevech]

Well, my 2.4GHz SSID is xxx2 and my 5GHz SSID is xxx5, where xxx is something I know.
Matters little to me as our 4 handhelds (2 apple, 2 andriod, phones/tablets) flop to 2.4GHz after minutes or hours of use, due to mobility.
They never flop back to 5GHz.
No matter, these handheld things don't need even the 2.4GHz speed.

5GHz is rarely used. Good thing I didn't spend a lot on the dual band router.

 

[sfx2000]

Well, my 2.4GHz SSID is xxx2 and my 5GHz SSID is xxx5, where xxx is something I know.
Matters little to me as our 4 handhelds (2 apple, 2 andriod, phones/tablets) flop to 2.4GHz after minutes or hours of use, due to mobility.
They never flop back to 5GHz.
No matter, these handheld things don't need even the 2.4GHz speed.

5GHz is rarely used. Good thing I didn't spend a lot on the dual band router.

If your stuff works - that's awesome...

But a quick comment - 2005 called, and they want their AP's back...

We've gone around a bit on Common SSID on multiple AP's and dual-band services, and at every turn, you've presented, fwiw, a well reasoned argument against, what is now, perhaps, best practice for a better end user experience.

Keep an open mind - the gear that we've seen in the last 18 months are so, they're all awesome sauce, in capability and usability for the most part, and they've taken a huge step forward...

sfx

 

[coxhaus]

Well, my 2.4GHz SSID is xxx2 and my 5GHz SSID is xxx5, where xxx is something I know.
Matters little to me as our 4 handhelds (2 apple, 2 andriod, phones/tablets) flop to 2.4GHz after minutes or hours of use, due to mobility.
They never flop back to 5GHz.
No matter, these handheld things don't need even the 2.4GHz speed.

5GHz is rarely used. Good thing I didn't spend a lot on the dual band router.

All our windows laptops and Apple devices including an original old iPad are on 5GHz running very well and have been for several weeks. My wife's iPhone 4s is the problem but she is planning to replace it very soon. In my house they all run better on 5GHz. I seem to have a lot of surrounding 2.4GHz networks around me. I would never go back to 2.4GHz now that I have used 5GHz running through out my house and outside.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Just grab any of the many top models mentioned in Tims tests and charts. A good single wireless router can cover a large home. We have an ~3,600 sq ft home, 3 stories if you include the finished basement. And my router is located in my cabinet in the bar of the basement, just an old Cisco e3000 right now, with Tomato firmware. our home even has 2x brick walls on the first floor in between rooms. Although I typically bring home and test other network hardware (as small business networks are what I do for a living). Most units I test and run at home cover the home well, even up on the second floor where my wifes home office is, and my office, and anywhere in the house...I have good connectivity. Even if I go outside to the pool house/cabana in the back yard...my wireless signal sneaks out the basement windows enough for decent connectivity there.

Don't over think it, select from the many well liked routers mentioned in the reviews and charts here, and you'll likely be fine.

 

[sfx2000]

I would agree... placement of the AP is critical, but yes, one can easily cover a 2000 sq ft home - two stories and a finished basement, with a single AP...

 

[thiggins]

Stonecat and sfx: Sorry guys. But if what you're saying were true, the manfs wouldn't have such a good business selling wireless extenders.

My home is two story, 34'x48' footprint, with router in center of house on the lower level. My bandwidth requirements are low, email and web, any video streaming goes via Ethernet.

I've used a lot of routers, currently have an RT-AC68U and I still have a low signal spot that I light up with a second AP.

All depends on the definition of "cover"....

That said, I agree that many people in the SNB forums overthink router selection.

 

[sfx2000]

The house I mentioned - stick-built with sheetrock - open floor plan on the first floor where the AP is located - at most, it has to punch thru 1 wall...

She's got 5 streamers (3 Roku, one Amazon Fire, and Apple TV), couple of smartphones and a tablet, along with a wired desktop, one wireless Laptop, and an iPad3 - no game consoles... and she does do a bit of VoIP via FaceTime and iMessage to kids/grandkids.. upstream is cable, 20Down/5Up on an SB6141 DOCSIS3

So the level of service I was looking at was to basically have around 50Mbps thruout the house, and better bandwidth in the first floor common area - that in mind, and that she's not super technical at routing, no VPN needs, no VLAN's, etc... I put a WRT1900ac based on the radio performance in both 2.4 and 5GHz...

Works great - but what it does say - a good site survey and a clear understanding of needs/requirements, one AP can definitely do the job...

Upside on the WRT1900ac, dropped a WD external USB3 for basic backups, and it's a beast there

sfx

 

[coxhaus]

Just grab any of the many top models mentioned in Tims tests and charts. A good single wireless router can cover a large home. We have an ~3,600 sq ft home, 3 stories if you include the finished basement. And my router is located in my cabinet in the bar of the basement, just an old Cisco e3000 right now, with Tomato firmware. our home even has 2x brick walls on the first floor in between rooms. Although I typically bring home and test other network hardware (as small business networks are what I do for a living). Most units I test and run at home cover the home well, even up on the second floor where my wifes home office is, and my office, and anywhere in the house...I have good connectivity. Even if I go outside to the pool house/cabana in the back yard...my wireless signal sneaks out the basement windows enough for decent connectivity there.

Don't over think it, select from the many well liked routers mentioned in the reviews and charts here, and you'll likely be fine.

There just too many 2.4GHz networks around me. Cisco's built-in "wireless neighborhood" picks up 22 networks around me on 2.4GHz. My 2.4GHz performance is now bad with short distances. I back up to a city park which installed outdoor wireless antennas to cover the park. They bleed noise over into my house which shortens 2.4GHz distance in my house. With 2.4GHz 20mhz bandwidth is all I can do. The good thing is there are no 5GHz networks around me maybe one from time to time. I have no problem running 40mhz bandwidth on my 5GHz wireless. So my perceived speed is much faster at 5GHz than 2.4GHz. So my conclusion is to stay at 5GHz and never go back to 2.4GHz.

The one problem I have seen is 5GHz does not penetrate my brick walls on the outside so I need a 5GHz wireless unit in the window transmitting outside to have good coverage outside in my sitting area. My house is 86 feet long plus 30 feet for outside sitting area which makes for 116 feet for wireless range with lots of walls. I don't think I am over thinking my wireless.

It does not matter which wireless router I choose, one router will not cover my house.

I guess I should add if I wanted wireless in my detached garage behind my house I would need to add about 55 more feet for a total of 171 feet. I have never had wireless in my detached garage and my thinking is it would be too much trouble for the little bit of benefit gained.

 

[stevech]

22 detected WiFi networks. That may not be an issue.
What's important is if any SSIDs within 3 channels of yours are heavily used. Most often, not.

Even at 2.4GHz, I find it necessary to use two APs to provide good SPEEDS (not simply coverage), in 1700 sq. ft, two stories. Floors have much more attenuation than walls, since walls are just two layers of rather low loss drywall (except for lath/plaster houses).

 

[coxhaus]

I cannot get 40MHz to work on 2.4 GHz so I assume all the channels are being used. Am I wrong?

 

[sfx2000]

22 detected WiFi networks. That may not be an issue.
What's important is if any SSIDs within 3 channels of yours are heavily used. Most often, not.

Even at 2.4GHz, I find it necessary to use two APs to provide good SPEEDS (not simply coverage), in 1700 sq. ft, two stories. Floors have much more attenuation than walls, since walls are just two layers of rather low loss drywall (except for lath/plaster houses).

Completely agree - and also should add that if one has about 20dB RSSI over a neighboring AP in the same channel, it's not going to matter...

 

[sfx2000]

I cannot get 40MHz to work on 2.4 GHz so I assume all the channels are being used. Am I wrong?

The AP/Router is doing what it's supposed to do - one can set it for Auto 20/40, but the AP has to scan for activity in the adjacent channels, and go back to 20MHz for a period of time... at least they're supposed to...

I've got a neighbor with a Draft-N Belkin AP, and it's old-school where the default is 40MHz only, with no fallback to 20Mhz, and he's camping on channel 9 (-1), which means he's nuking both 11, and 6, drives me nuts, but since 2.4GHz is unlicensed, nothing I can do... lucky for me, it's down in the weeds, so not much impact, but it makes channel 1 a bit busy - he's 3 houses down from me, but my neighbors in the two houses between basically have both hopped on to Ch 1, along with the guys across the street from him.

Now if I could convince the guy across the street from me to upgrade his 11g AP - that would be cool... he's 11g, and running WEP as he has some 11b gear (I can tell 11b, as he's running non-ERP/Barker Preambles), so that channel is pretty noisy on Ch 11... he's running WEP as his kids have Nintendo DS's, and they're 11b/WEP only...

 

[coxhaus]

Ok I have been watching inSSISer on 2.4GHz. Looks like there are active networks on all the channels. The bar graphs are active on all channels. Every so many seconds different graphs pop up to the top on different networks through out the channels above -15dB. With this type of scenario how do you get 40MHz bandwidth to work?

 

[sfx2000]

so the tip for folks that want to run wide channels... don't, but if you must, select 1 or 11 as the primary channel only...

If you have a neighbor running Wide Channels, and there's no room to maneuver around them, find the primary channel, and set you channel to the same one as that will minimize interference of the wide channel...

sfx

 

[sfx2000]

Ok I have been watching inSSISer on 2.4GHz. Looks like there are active networks on all the channels. The bar graphs are active on all channels. Every so many seconds different graphs pop up to the top on different networks through out the channels above -15dB. With this type of scenario how do you get 40MHz bandwidth to work?

If the band is that busy, then don't run wide channels, stick with 20Mhz channels only for 2.4Ghz...

 

[coxhaus]

5GHz wide does not have this problem. I can run both 5GHz and 2.4GHz and 5GHz is much quicker. You can see it on the iPad air and laptop Intel AC-7260. They just respond faster as seen by a more instantaneous response on 5GHz vs 2.4GHz. 5GHz is like right now on response.

 

[stevech]

Want 40MHz mode/speeds?
Use the 5GHz band and plan on adding an AP or so if you have only a WiFi router now, and you do not live in 800 sq. ft/1 story. Such is the price of speed!

I've yet to figure out how to get my iPad, Android Tablet and iPhone and Android phone to not flop back to 2.4GHz. I could brute force 5GHz by not telling the client devices the password for the 2.4GHz WiFi. But, well...

 

[coxhaus]

I run 3 Cisco WAP321 wireless APs on 5GHz I bought on eBay. The last one I paid $50 for it with a Cisco injector. The cost for speed is not that great.

 

[sfx2000]

Want 40MHz mode/speeds?
Use the 5GHz band and plan on adding an AP or so if you have only a WiFi router now, and you do not live in 800 sq. ft/1 story. Such is the price of speed!

I've yet to figure out how to get my iPad, Android Tablet and iPhone and Android phone to not flop back to 2.4GHz. I could brute force 5GHz by not telling the client devices the password for the 2.4GHz WiFi. But, well...

FWIW - they're probably going back to 2.4GHz because it's a better channel that the 5GHz for the SSID/BSS it was previously on.