Trying to pick a router from online reviews is exhausting

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
11/15/2014 at 01:28 • Filed to: None

I've been shopping for a new router for the past few days. I keep finding routers that have 4-star review averages on Amazon & Newegg, but all of them have a big chunk of terrible reviews. Are routers really that hit-or-miss? What the hell?

I moved in with my gf at the beginning of October. We have a couple routers: my gf's Rosewill 2.4 GHz N150 and my Netgear dual-band N300. This was her place first, so the Rosewill was hooked up. It was ok, but had a couple minor issues, so I decided to try my Netgear, which fixed one of the main issues, but has worse signal strength and worse throughput when streaming videos stored on our laptops to our PS3 or Sony streamer box.

Anyway, I'm looking for a new router. The main things that are important to me are gigabit ethernet (my cable modem has gigabit ethernet), good signal strength, good throughput on 2.4 GHz (the PS3 and streamer box only work on 2.4 GHz), and good stability. Wireless AC support would be nice since my Macbook Pro supports it, but it's the only device we have that does. I'm looking to keep this $100 or less.

Seems like, every single one I find that looks like it could be good, has a significant portion of really bad reviews, like 25-30% are 1 or 2 star reviews. Issues range from signal dropping all the time, terrible range, being bricked by official firmware updates, the list goes on.

With pretty much every router I'm finding being somewhat of a gamble, maybe I should stick to the cheaper ones that at least cover the basics, and not go for something fancy? It's hard for me to pull the trigger when I keep seeing bad reviews. I dunno. This is stupid.

DISCUSSION (16)

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 01:32

I've been using the Apple Airports for a few years, and they seem to be pretty reliable, and have good range.

Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz) > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 01:39

How much you want to spend will dictate your options. Go with an Asus AC router , consistently the best.

Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 01:45

about 90% of all bad technology related reviews come from people who have no idea what they're talking about and typically have set up whatever they're giving a negative review wrong.

Textured Soy Protein > m-b-w loves his SUBAROO
11/15/2014 at 01:53

The Airport Express at $100 is kinda the most I'd want to spend, if I absolutely have to spend that much. The problem is, I want a router that supports gigabit ethernet since my cable modem has a gigabit ethernet port, and you have to go up to the Airport Extreme to get gigabit ethernet.

Textured Soy Protein > Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ
11/15/2014 at 01:56

Sure, but at the same time, most of these router reviews seem to be coming from people who know what they're talking about. Not "oh this was hard to set up," more like concrete problems that they tried to deal with. For example there's one Asus router that's supposed to be super fast, but multiple people talked about how the router admin page prompted them to install a firmware update that bricked their router, and the process to un-brick the router took an hour on the phone with tech support, and required a Windows laptop. I figure people who know what a firmware update is and use the word brick to describe a piece of technology no longer working, are generally pretty savvy.

Textured Soy Protein > Galileo Humpkins (aka MC Clap Yo Handz)
11/15/2014 at 02:04

I'm trying to keep it $100 or less. The main thing I want is gigabit ethernet. I don't know if any of my devices actually support AC. Even if some do, all the different things hooked up to TVs (and the smart tv) only work on 2.4 GHz not 5 GHz, so need good speed on 2.4 GHz.

The best-rated Asus router under $100 is the RT-N56U which is an N600 model, and apparently there's an Asus official firmware update that will brick it. Even without the firmware update, people talk about it dying after a year or less of ownership. The RT-AC52U (AC750) has hardly any reviews but they talk about a bunch of issues. The reviews on the RT-AC56U (AC1200) talk about the 2.4 GHz band on it sucking. I need it to be good on 2.4 GHz.

Which....well that's exactly why I'm frustrated.

Zibodiz > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 02:11

I own a computer repair shop, so I sell a lot of routers and setup a lot more routers (that were purchased elsewhere but were too complicated to set up for the end user), and I can honestly tell you that there really are no 'bad' routers out there anymore. 10 years ago, the Linksys WRT were about the only model that would last more than a year. Today, even the generic brands last a couple years minimum. I personally use a Dlink in my house, and have had good luck with them in my shop. I've also had good luck with older pre-Belkin Linksys boxes. I'm not a fan of Belkin (they really are the cheapest-quality there is), but even they last pretty well and have only occasional compatibility issues.

The only real standouts I've worked with are commercial-grade Cisco (those things are expensive, but they're also workhorses), and my favorite, Meraki. The Meraki routers are designed for enterprise-class, so they're a little bit harder to set up because they're geared to people who know what they're doing, but they're seriously bulletproof, and they're very reasonably priced for what you're getting. I have 2 of them mounted on the roof of my house & shop right now, acting as a point-to-point network 3 blocks apart. They've been there for 5 years and have never crashed once, whether the sun was beating down at 115+ or it was -35f out there. Even when we had a hailstorm that knocked one off a 35' pole onto a metal roof, they still kept working — didn't even drop the link! The next time my home router dies, I'm going to be replacing it with a Meraki.

Textured Soy Protein > Zibodiz
11/15/2014 at 02:21

Yeah, I'm talking like $100 tops.

Zibodiz > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 02:34

Oh, bother. I just said Meraki. I meant Ubiquiti. Meraki is a Cisco product (which I also use and recommend, but it's expensive), Ubiquiti is the really good brand. Here's a Ubiquiti WAP for $68: http://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_…

The only catch is that you have to have an existing router to hand out DHCP addresses; this isn't usually an issue, though, as most modems have inbuilt routers now, or alternatively, you can use a lower quality wifi router as a wired router and disable its wireless, letting the WAP do all the heavy lifting.

Trevor Slattery, ACTOR > Zibodiz
11/15/2014 at 09:19

Can you explain how that ubiquiti unifi system works in a little more detail? I'm moving into a new home and wifi access and setup needs to be addressed. Thanks!

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 13:53

The problem with router reviews is that if it works, you give it 5 stars and if it doesn't work you give it 1 star. Everyone with a broken router will write a review and give it 1 star, but lots of people with functioning routers won't bother writing a review.

You should just buy whatever meets your specs and max price, but check the return policy. I've owned Netgear and ASUS routers and they've both lasted me for years. The Netgears I've owned have had issues with needing to be power cycled every couple weeks for seemingly no reason. I've been really happy with my ASUS. It's AC and crazy fast. I consistently get 400-600 Mbps from it.

SaigaShooter - He's got an Impreza > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 13:53

I'm in a similar boat. Our old Asus RT-N53 is maxed out on ports, and the backplane can't handle the amount of traffic we are running though it between wired and wireless and the network bogs down.

The more I look at all in one routers the more i think i should just buy a gigabit switch, a firewall, and then turn the RT-N53 into an access point, then I remember it isn't a gigabit device, and well, I really want gigabit all the way around, so and start looking for gigabit AP's, then I circle back around to all in ones.

Someday I might make a decision.

Zibodiz > Trevor Slattery, ACTOR
11/15/2014 at 15:00

I haven't had the chance to use it yet, but it's basically the same thing as Meraki's cloud management. Essentially, when you want to make changes to your network, you have a single website that you log in to, where you adjust settings on all of your equipment. Traditionally, you had to access each piece of hardware individually; if you have Cisco or Juniper stuff, that means a CLI (command line interface - think 'DOS'), or for home grade routers there'd be a web config page (192.168.1.1 or something similar) that you'd have to access for each individual piece of hardware you own. For a home, that's usually fine, since most people only have a single router/modem combo and nothing else. But for a business that has a router, 3 switches, 8 WAPs, a dozen security cameras, and a few door security sensors, that's a lot to deal with. The Unifi system lets you manage all of your networked equipment in a single web-based portal.

tl;dr: If you only have one piece of Ubiquiti equipment, Unifi doesn't mean anything to you. If you're building a business with a network, it means your work will be much simpler.

Rico > Textured Soy Protein
11/15/2014 at 17:12

I got an Airport with built in 2 TB its the best router I've had for range, throughout and ease of use. Seriously the range is ridiculously far.

JDIGGS > Textured Soy Protein
11/17/2014 at 17:55

My friend is computer dumb. He wanted things to work well so he went out and bought a super over qualified near commercial spec router, I think a linksys. Anyways it's super complex and hard t use and has a firmware problem that affects his video gaming.

Had he bought a regular 50 dollar router he'd be fine.

I've always thought apple airports were utter dog shit having left them years, ago but also worked in environments for macs that utilized airports and regular routers offering a great side by side by of just how bad the airport was when you were required to use it.

Get a D Link

Textured Soy Protein > JDIGGS
11/17/2014 at 18:01

I bought a Linksys , but a consumer model with a very simple web interface.