Recommend a router, Oppo

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 02/12/2019 at 19:20 • Filed to: None

1

60

I recently found out that I’ve been paying for up to 200 Mbps of download but I was capped at 60 Mbps. Long story. Anyway, I got that fixed, but I also learned that, regardless of speed, my old Linksys router is throttling my speed to no more than 30 Mbps.

I have a cable modem, which runs into the router, and the router goes into a switch that serves 4 PCs and a network storage device. I have determined through lots of plugging and unplugging that the switch is not throttling, it’s the ancient Linksys router.

So, I’m looking for a dual band router that will not throttle my up-to-200 Mbps internet.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:32

0

I recently got the Google home wifi. Not too expensive for a single router, and if you need extenders, it's the best I've used. I dont know if its dual band. However, I see 132 off the modem and 100 on wireless 

boxrocket > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:33

1

Hard to go wrong with an ASUS. Their gaming line is particularly quick.

random001 > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:35

0

Would you like a Cisco E2500?

random001 > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:35

0

https://www.linksys.com/us/support-product?pid=01t80000003KZuNAAW

lone_liberal > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:36

0

I used a Netgear Nighthawk for a home router and it was pretty solid. 

Urambo Tauro > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:41

4

This PC router has pretty good reviews. Unfortunately, it can only handle one bit at a time.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:42

2

I am c urrently using a Netgear nighthawk 1900. Pretty good, if  a little spendy - or it was when I got it.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:45

1

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-R6700-Nighthawk-Gigabit-Ethernet/dp/B00R2AZLD2/ref=asc_df_B00R2AZLD2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198076677096&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3591084849838964728&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1022560&hvtargid=pla-368559454729&psc=1

I’m running a  N etgear AC1750 at home. It does its thing well, and it was cheap enough from Amazon on a cyber monday Friday deal in 2017 for $70 . At that time, they were cheap because they required a firmware update to patch a security issue before some ISPs would play with them. I updated the firmware, set it up, and it has been working well ever since. If your wifi router is more than a couple of years old, a modern dual-band AC router will rock your world.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:49

1

Depends. How long do you want it to last?

https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/MR2200ac

This is basically the God King Emperor of home-grade routers, period. Even i f you don’t need mesh today. The MR2200ac is the big brother of the RT2600ac, yet costs less . And it’s the only future-proof one you can get today, period.

Linksys, Asus, Netgear, et. al actively and deliberately kill models after about a year - including security updates - to force customers to buy new ones. They also have worthless warranties at best. (Netgear only gives you 90 days of support. So if your router dies on day 91? That’ll be $50 before they’ll give you an RMA. And they will fight you on it.)

Synology, well, I have a DS410 - released in 2009 - that is still working perfectly and still gets some security updates. If I have a problem with it, I email support, and they provide support. When one of the fans failed on it, they were able to sell me a replacement part - 6 years after production ended.

Oh, and the price? MR2200ac: $139.99

https://amzn.to/2E82cAM

To solve your lack of ethernet ports, just add this:

https://amzn.to/2N4JWLo -or- https://amzn.to/2N4K6T0  (8 port)

facw > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 19:55

0

I have an Asus RT-AC68R which works fine for me (after upgrading to the 3rd-party Merlin firmware, was a bit weird before that ).

I’ve heard other geeks rave about the Ubiquiti Amplfi mesh routers, but the price has been too much for me to consider.

jminer > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 20:21

0

Ubiquiti Edge router X. It’s $60 and awesome, it is just a router (no wireless) and is not user friendly but is super powerful and stable.  I've had it at home for about 6 months and offloaded the routing from my RT-3200 and been far more stable since.

https://www.ui.com/edgemax/edgerouter-x/

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 20:34

1

I just got the net gear 6700 and it’s pretty damn good. I called it triceratops because it has three antennas. It can do hdtv streaming and phones and computers at the same time.

MuchWagon > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 20:34

0

Am I the only one who wants open source firmware? DD-WRT FTW.

ttyymmnn > facw 02/12/2019 at 20:39

1

That’s what my brother recommended, an ASUS with the Merlin firmware. 

ttyymmnn > jminer 02/12/2019 at 20:39

0

Thanks, but I need the wireless.

ttyymmnn > MuchWagon 02/12/2019 at 20:41

0

No. I’ve had two people recommend an ASUS router with Merlin firmware.

ttyymmnn > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 02/12/2019 at 20:46

0

I have no idea what “mesh” is.

ttyymmnn > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 02/12/2019 at 20:47

0

I have had a couple of people recommend ASUS with third party firmware.

ttyymmnn > Urambo Tauro 02/12/2019 at 20:47

0

You’re not helping.

ttyymmnn > random001 02/12/2019 at 20:48

0

I don’t know, would I?

Nothing > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 02/12/2019 at 20:50

0

That’s what I have as well. Works great for us.

random001 > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 20:50

0

Well, it’s dual band N600, and it’s sitting here on my couch, and you can have it.  You tell me.

Textured Soy Protein > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 02/12/2019 at 20:57

1

I have the same. Netgear R6700. Signal strength is way better than the Linksys EA6400 that it replaced. Only downside is for tinkerers, the current R6700v2 that’s on sale can’t run custom firmware. But I don’t care because it works great as-is.

That said, now that Asus has that gimmick where you can combine multiple of their routers into a mesh network, I’d be inclined to recommend those to people. But for houses where you’re only ever planning to run one router, and want to spend $80 or less, can’t beat t hat sweet sweet Netgear  R6700 signal strength.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 21:07

1

Nope. Just no. No no no.

https://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/asus.html

And that’s being generous. Asus customer support is nonexistent, customer service is nonexistent, and the list goes on. There’s a REASON they’re on my vendor blacklist and they KNOW it.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 21:07

1

Mesh is where you have a bunch of overlapping WiFi APs to cover a MUCH larger area. 2000ft^2 is very optimistic for WiFi coverage. Most people don’t need mesh.

Future Heap Owner > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 21:25

1

I use a TP-Link Archer AC1750. Dual band, Open-WRT support, good performance, but only ok range/signal strength.

Like most of my electronics purchases, it was recommended by The Wirecutter:

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wi-fi-router/  

If you’ve got a bigger space to cover / more than two walls that the signal has to go through, you should go for the Netgear model they reccomend.

Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 21:37

1

I’ve had an Orbi system for about a year now and am very happy with it. The mesh system gives me amazing coverage, I have one in the front of my garage, one upstairs in the front corner and another downstairs in the other corner and it is super fast everywhere on my property and a good way down the road. That extended coverage is key for me since I’m sometimes on call and cell phones suck out here.

Saw it on sale for under $200 today as well. That’s about half what I paid.

NETGEAR Orbi Wall-Plug Whole Home Mesh WiFi System - WiFi Router and 2 Wall-Plug Satellite Extenders with speeds up to 2.2 Gbps Over 5,000 sq. feet, AC2200 (RBK33) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072ZN4PSB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_bl4yCbZ79DRX9

jminer > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 21:50

1

You pair it with a wireless access point and it handles the routing processing for the wireless instead of an all in one . This both allows for better flexibility and performance for your network.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 22:03

0

I’m running a Portal router. It’s dual-band, supports mesh networking, and lets you set up multiple parallel networks and prioritize network traffic by data type and device. It’s one of the easiest routers to set up and manage.

https://portalwifi.com/features

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/portal-wifi,review-4764.html

If you want to dig into the guts, take a look at a router which supports open-source firmware. What’s that? Think of it as Linux for your router. If you want to learn more about controlling a network, this would be jumping in with both feet.

https://www.maketecheasier.com/dd-wrt-vs-tomato-vs-openwrt-router-firmware/

ttyymmnn > random001 02/12/2019 at 22:09

1

That’s very generous, but I’ve got clearance from the Finance Minister to spend some money on something new and spiffy. 

ttyymmnn > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 02/12/2019 at 22:12

0

That’s a pretty impressive list of shitty reviews.

ttyymmnn > Future Heap Owner 02/12/2019 at 22:14

0

This whole process of discovering that I was getting less Mbps than I was paying for started when I couldn’t connect to the Live View on my Ring doorbell. Even though there was only 25 feet and one wall between the router and the doorbell. So stronger is better in this case.

ttyymmnn > Eury - AFRICA TWIN!!!!!!! 02/12/2019 at 22:15

0

Thanks, but I’ve only got about 1400 sq ft, and I was hoping to spend less than that.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/12/2019 at 22:17

0

My brother is pushing the open source firmware. While I agree that it looks like a good idea, I’m not the most tech savvy guy, and plug-and-play is better for me. Though I imagine it’s not that big a deal.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ttyymmnn 02/12/2019 at 22:27

0

The big advantage of open-source is having an entire community working on updates to fix problems or add features.

The big disadvantage is the learning curve, especially if you aren’t really tech savvy and aren’t really interested in learning it.

ttyymmnn > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/12/2019 at 22:50

1

I would like to learn it, but I know the reality of how much time I wish to spend on it.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 00:00

2

A lot of this depends on what you want, in terms of modular equipment.

A Cable Modem is a protocol translator, from DOCSYS data over coax, to IP-based ethernet, and according to your description, it is just a pass-through.

Also, your “Up-to-200Mbps” service on Coax/DOCSYS, is likely shared with your entire network node, so you and your neighbors each have a link to a network node in your area, with a single backhaul to your provider’s backbone network. T he maximum bandwidth is a theoretical number that the electronics are capable of, or capped at (60mbps or 200mbps cap, it may still be subject to traffic volume conditions at any given time, and not guaranteed ) It may only be   achieved if the rest of the node subscribers are quiet, and everything is working ideally. If every house in your neighborhood has 15 devices online, and streaming 3 Netflix 4K movies in each house... that bandwidth will get crowded, and throttled for load balancing.

No Cable companies, and very few larger telecoms that I know of have dedicated, guaranteed bandwidth per customer. DSL, Cable, and most fiber optic PON networks follow that distributed node topology. Not many, and usually smaller independent telecoms, put the money required into direct point-to-point connections from the main transport network, directly to each subscriber for dedicated bandwidth.

A Fiber-to-the-home Optical Network Terminal (ONT), an older ADSL Router, an analog phone modem, a cellular data LTE interface, are all various forms of protocol translators, to connect different types of networks together.

A Gateway Router is the master controller of your network, whether it has WiFi or not. It operates the firewall to block unwanted outside traffic from getting into your Local Area Network, as well as Network Address Translation (NAT) and DHCP, which turns your single public IP address, into a private subnet, with a range of available IP addresses for your devices to use, and processes the traffic distribution.

Ethernet switches are basically port multipliers and traffic cops for ethernet traffic, sorting IP packets to the port that it recognizes the device’s MAC address is connected to.

WiFi Access Points are similar to switches, except with wireless radio connections, instead of copper wires.

Some WiFi Routers are better than others. Some have better firewalls, some have better and more stable and reliable NAT/DHCP protocols, some have VPN tunneling, etc.. Almost all have at least 4 ethernet switch ports, and some have WiFi protocols and radios built in.

The question is... how often do you want to replace everything, vs. how often do you want to upgrade certain parts.

An All-in-one WiFi Gateway Router is easier, and may be slightly less expensive than several standalone pieces, but if it fails, it all has to be replaced, if you want a new WiFi protocol, such as 802.11ax (aka WiFi version 6), you have to replace the firewall equipment as well.

You can also option for a mesh network system with distributed WiFi access points for wider coverage, and access points that provide Multi-user Multi-In, Multi-Out capability (multiple radios for multiple sessions to more than one end-point device at a time , as well as transmit and receive on separate channels for full duplex communication. O lder WiFi protocols are half-duplex: send, then receive on the same frequency, then repeat for each device in sequence.

If one device is slow, they all slow down and wait for that device’s turn. An 802.11B or G device can drag down an 802.11N 2.4Ghz wifi network to just 20mbps on wireless , even if most of the devices are capable of much faster N speeds, and the Wireless Access Point is connected to (or is integrated into) the Gateway Router and ISP at 100Mbps or more. Dual-band allows 802.11 N, AC, and upcoming AX protocol devices to option up to 5Ghz if the signal strength supports the higher frequency.

Netgear, Cisco-Linksys, TP-Link, and others offer combination WiFi routers as all-in-one devices, and usually some smaller add-on extenders, but usually each device is relatively independent, and the extenders just copy what they find from their uplink source, or pass-through to it. It can emulate a mesh, but only just. A smaller house may only need the main router to cover the whole area, but some objects (metallic radio reflective, or dense/thick radio absorbing or refracting objects) in a building can cast radio shadows, and create spots with lower signal. Central and elevated positioning tends to be more important for coverage.

Eero, or Orbi, and other consumer grade mesh systems bundle a gateway router with WiFi satellite mesh networking for a very good solution in a larger or more interference prone residence or small business, where the devices are all commonly managed, and do a better job of frequency balancing, traffic balancing, and common management. Placement near areas of the most use, within range of the other nodes tends to create better results, and more coverage angles, with fewer “ shadows.”

Ubiquiti UniFi, EnGenius, and others provide a bit more management and adaptability for pro-grade users, and small to mid-range businesses, including wireless point-to-point backhaul to outbuildings and such. Ubiquiti also has a line of commercial grade switches, routers, and security gateways, and Power-over-Ethernet equipment that can power WiFi Access Points, wired cameras, and more, without AC adapters for each device. It also has decentralized cloud management console access, and more advanced remote accessibility features, and network analytics .

Ruckus and others provide enterprise-level WiFi for business settings, and public venues, with large numbers of endpoint devices, and unique security considerations.

Also, keep in mind, if you buy your own equipment, chances are you will be the one responsible for supporting it. ISPs usually provide equipment that they can manage and troubleshoot. Customer owned equipment is usually beyond the “D emark” point, not accessible by the ISP, and up to the customer to support, or up to the customer to hire third party support for it.

Some ISPs actually do have commercial-grade equipment, such as gateway routers, and WiFi access points or extenders that they will lease you, and support for you, if you prefer to call and have them solve problems. Depending on the provider, the good stuff is as good or better than the high-end consumer grade equipment, and not as management intensive as the enterprise-grade systems, and doesn’t need to be weather- hardened like the outdoor public venue equipment. Also, good ISPs will roll over to newer, better equipment every few years to keep competitive, although you may have to call to find out... they don’t plan on going to every customer’s house to replace equipment that isn’t failing.

- Friendly Neighborhood Network Technician.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 00:18

0

It might not be an issue with your Ring doorbell, or it’s placement. It’s signal may be strong, but that is not the only factor.

Either the Router/Wifi Access Point, or some other station device (phone, tablet, computer, home automation device, etc...) could be dragging your WiFi network speed down as a bottleneck, which will affect the speed of wireless traffic to ALL of your connected wireless devices, including the Ring Doorbell.

If you have the equipment handy, try comparing the same speed test setup between a laptop or desktop computer when it is wirelessly connected among all the other devices, vs. when it is the ONLY wireless device connected at the time, vs. connected directly to an ethernet port, bypassing wireless entirely.

Your wireline speeds are probably much closer to your rated internet service than wireless. That is normal due to the communications overhead, electromagnetic environment, and nature of radio transmissions.

If your ancient Linksys router is not Gigabit Ethernet, (1000base-T) and only 100-baseT, you won’t get more than that on wireline tests, even if your connection is theoretically capable of more. Just like if your wireless has older protocol devices, or severe interference, your wireless connection may be hindered. If your Router, or any of your devices are 802.11B or 802.11G, they will also slow your 2.4Ghz network speeds to their specifications, which is ~20mbps to ~ 50mbps respectively, and any interference or weak signal re-transmission will cause it to slow down even further from there.

A weak signal to an 802.11B device on your network will sit there and ask for dropped information packets to be re-transmitted... and everything else has to wait while that happens, before those other devices get their turn. It can slow a WiFi network to a crawl.

ttyymmnn > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 00:26

0

Thank you for that lengthy reply. I will admit that I glazed over a couple of times. But here’s where I am in all of this.

I have no problem with separate gear, and don’t feel the need for an all-in-one solution. Besides, Spectrum will charge me $5/mo to use the wifi portion of their combo modem/router. Nope.

I have an older modem, but it will allow the “up to 200" speeds. When I plugged my Mac directly into the modem, I got about 134 Mbps. That’s almost 4x what I had before. That is good.

I have three PCs and one Mac (I’ll call them all PC’s to make it easy). I currently have it arranged modem > router > 8 port switch. The switch has network cables to all 4 PCs and a networked storage device. With my old Linksys router in the middle, I am throttled back to about 35 Mbps (or less) on all PCs. That is bad.

If I plug the modem directly into the switch, and bypass the router altogether, I get high speeds, but I can only get internet on one PC. That is bad. So I need a router, and I also need wifi in the house.

Based on the recommendations of Oppo and others, I am looking at various routers, particularly ones that are open source. ASUS routers can use the Merlin firmware, Netgear can use the Tomato or DD-WRT from My Open Router. Looks like this is pretty easy to set up, but do I need this? Do these open source firmwares provide any improved stability or security?

Every router you look at on Amazon or wherever has its share of crappy reviews. ASUS seems to have really, really shitty CS, while Netgear routers tend to just stop working or dropping signal, according to the bad reviews. I tend to look at the spread of 5-star vs 1-star reviews. If it’s a narrower spread, it gets more of a down vote from me. Obviously, these things do work well for lots of people, so it is a bit of a crapshoot.

Knowing all this, got any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks again.

ttyymmnn > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 00:31

0

Thanks. It’s starting to sound like my ancient router is the culprit in all of this. I spent an hour on the phone with Ring the other day and they finally determined that it’s probably too much interference with the wifi signal, though it’s only about 25 feet away from the router and through one wall. But I also understand the competition for that signal. Interestingly, after futzing around with all the different connections and plugging/unplugging the router numerous times today, the Live View worked again. 

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 01:57

1

Ok... you mentioned elsewhere you are trying to cover ~1400 square feet. chances are a good consumer grade device, placed correctly, near the center of the area, and as elevated and away from obstacles as possible. Not behind heavy furniture, not behind shielded electronics like TVs, etc...

If you have to place the router at one end of the area, and it doesn’t cover the other end well, then we start talking about an extender, or mesh network equipment.

The advantage to a separate router from an Wireless Access Point, is that the router can be placed where most of the wiring is needed, and one wire can be run to the ideal place for the WiFi network to be broadcast from, the central, elevated position. The router doesn’t have to be located there, with multiple et hernet cable runs.

To be perfectly honest, the last 6 months I have been testing Commercial/Service provider grade equipment, as I am a network ops tech for an ISP , and I am not as up-to-the-minute on consumer grade equipment releases, so I don’t have current model numbers right at hand.

Consumer grade equipment is a balancing act. Good enough to make the sale, and not get too many bad initial reviews, but not designed to be too expensive (too thin a profit margin) , or with a lot of longevity. Linksys, ASUS, Netgear, and others want to sell units repeatedly , not support them, that is their business model. Sometimes a lesser-known brand will try to get sales on build quality, rather than bargain pricing, or flashy design and marketing of the usual brands that are in every electronics department.

It is actually similar to why your ISP charges 5$ a month for their WiFi service, also... business model, and cost control. I t isn’t the cost of turning the feature on , it is the cost of supporting it once it is turned on, and having to stand behind that service with remote, and sometimes on-site service calls.

With wireless, it can take many labor hours to diagnose and even attempt to resolve wireless issues, which may end up being customer-owned devices, neighboring networks, or ambient noise interference that is out of the ISP’s control. The number of hours that my colleagues in network operations, and in the field have spent chasing wireless interference and old-protocol consumer devices is VERY high, and those labor hours have significant cost, but the subscribers want, and deserve good service, and to understand why sometimes wireless networking can be susceptible. Those labor hours would cost hundreds of dollars to directly bill to a subscriber at the time... instead it is aggregated, and charged to all subscribers as a few dollars per month, as a cost of the service.

The commercial retailers don’t want to spend hours and hours and money to support aging electronics either , or track down issues that may end up being elsewhere.

Generally, with consumer grade, you somewhat get what you pay for, but even the top-end has a bit of planned obsolescence.

It is unfortunate that Apple got out of the Router game... if they weren’t, I would recommend an AirPort Extreme 802.11AC dual-band router for you. I use Apple at home, Windows/Unix at work, and I like Apple’s reliability and capability. It just WORKS, and works well, for a long time. A discontinued product has a limited support lifetime, though, and no next-generation products coming up... It would be buying into a sunsetting product.

Eero was designed by former Apple employees, and just recently bought out by Amazon for integration into Amazon product lines. It is designed as a t ri-band mesh system, but the baseline Eero router is sold stand-alone, without extenders.

Google I believe has a new home router, but tends toward hands-off minimal management, easy for everyone, not particularly sophisticated for people who want more in-depth management.

Amazon/Eero, and Google Home devices may have some data capture and analytics concerns for some. Eero may not be fully integrated into Amazon yet, but will be in the future.

TP Link has some routers that are not as flashy as Linksys, Asus, or Netgear, but have performed well in testing. They don’t look like space-ships, and maybe rather bland by appearance , but they seem to spend the R&D dollars on solid electronics, instead.

Some of the other suggestions in these comments may be worth looking into, as well, Synology, ect..

SonicWall, now owned by, or at least associated with Dell, is a fairly well known SO-HO (small office, home office) gateway routers and firewalls that don’t necessarily have WiFi on-board, but would work as a network controller, where you could add a simpler WiFi Access Point in an ideal broadcast location.

Almost all of the routers can operate in “bridged” non-router mode, making it essentially a “dumb” Wireless Access Point, but that is a bit overkill to pay for. D-Link, TP-Link, Netgear, etc... do offer some WAP (wireless access point) simpler hardware that costs less.

A WAP usually only has settings for connecting itself to your network (it gets an IP address, subnet mask, and gateway router IP , to know how to send traffic up-stream, and wireless network name (SSID), password and encryption protocols for how wireless clients join the WiFi network. It doesn’t generally have a firewall, DHCP server, NAT translator, or other gateway router features, and generally has an ethernet uplink port, or a WiFi uplink channel as a wireless extender.

A WAP can be connected anywhere behind your gateway router, like any computer, printer, NAS, or other device. It doesn’t have to be placed between your ISP and the rest of your LAN devices, as a gateway does .

However, some * cheap* ethernet switches freak out trying to handle a lot of devices on WiFi channeled through just one switch port, and even if the WAP works normally, a cheap switch with a small internal reference table might revert to hub behavior, which slows things down greatly by flooding the network with broadcast packets . A reasonably  good ethernet switch with more memory for a device table , or connecting the WAP directly to one of the gateway router LAN ports usually avoids that.

Even some WiFi extender devices can operate as a WAP, when wired behind a gateway router, but most extenders have very limited setup controls, and may not have as many radio channels as a device sold as a primary WAP or a wireless router.

Ubiquiti makes good commercial-grade stuff, and it is reliable and sophisticated, but the expense and learning curve is a bit steeper than most consumer grade equipment. If you want to learn it... it is a good system. If you would rather plug-and-play, you may want to stick with something a bit simpler.

The open-source firmware capability is nice, but it is almost like running Linux on a PC. It works, perhaps even better than OE windows installations, but it is also a learning curve, and depends on a certain level of tech savvy, understanding, and time to research the best options, or to troubleshoot any problems that arise, because it isn’t officially supported. It is kind of a tech hobby thing. Some like to dig into that, others want to open a box, plug in a device with minimal fuss, and have it work.

AC1700, AC2300, AC3200, etc ... that is a bit confusing (intentionally by consumer grade vendors, commercial and enterprise grade don’t use those terms) , but generally the higher numbers offer more simultaneous radio channels. They may also say things such as 2x2 MIMO, 3x3, 4x4, etc... or MU-MIMO. the more 4x4 means 4 transmit radio channels, by 4 receive radio channels, and so-on.

The more simultaneous channels, the better, and they can operate in two ways. They can bind multiple channels together for 4 times the bandwidth on transmit and receive to one device at a time, larger 80Mhz pipes for more data at a time, to one device at a time. The other way, is to keep them split up, 4- 20Mhz channels in transmit, 4 more in receive, to 4 different devices simultaneously (multi-user, the MU- in MU-MIMO) . The processor and wireless control protocols negotiate the best option between the access point, and the end point device’s capabili ty.

Some of the best right now offer 2x2 MIMO on 2.4Ghz, and 4x4 MU-MIMO on 5GHz bands. This is dual-band. TriBand usually means that there is another, separately dedicated 5Ghz or a ~3Ghz radio that is used to connect multiple wireless nodes together (meshing wireless access points together under common control protocols ) , so that the wireless nodes communicating and transporting data between each other, doesn’t occupy airtime that the end-point devices can be using.

I hope that makes it as clear as mud.

random001 > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 07:21

0

Roger that!

ttyymmnn > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 09:57

0

Again, thanks for the comprehensive reply. It always helps making an informed decision with a bit more understanding of just what is going on and how everything works . I’m thinking about pulling the trigger on this TP-Link from Costco. Super easy to return it, even months after the purchase.

Despite the pressure from my brother to go the Asus/open source route, I just get the sense that, while that provides increased functionality, I won’t be using all of the features. It may be more than I need.

Thanks again for taking the time.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 11:23

0

Hey Boxer, thank you for those great replies. I’ve known Ttyymmn for about 50 years and I am his first-level tech resource; I am using an Asus router with Merlin firmware, for that sort-of hobbyist feel that you mention.

I read every word of both of these replies with great interest; thank you for taking the time.

Ttyymmnn’s got a TP-Link router model from Costco that he wants to try and I think he’s sending you the link.

Thanks, once again!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 11:26

0

Having read, with interest, every word Boxer generously typed, your TP choice looks great. If you set it atop your desk cabinet, I bet you’d get good coverage. You have a couple of walls between there and your bedroom, but just some studs and sheetrock, no brick or old school construction like what lies between the router and the sun room in the rents’ house. Plus, it looks cool! But who cares about that?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > TheRealBicycleBuck 02/13/2019 at 11:27

1

I’m using an Asus router with Merlin firmware, but that’s gone be more than Ttyymmnn wants to fool with. He’s gotten some very good and comprehensive input from Boxer above, and has a model picked out from Costco. It’ll probably serve him very well. There are nothing but a couple of stud-and-sheetrock walls between the front and rear of his house.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 11:29

1

I think your TP-Link from Costco is probably a very good bet. It’ll damn near plug and play. The 8-port switch I left with you is not a bottom-end unit, and should manage the wired connections just fine. You might consider giving one of the ports on the router to your Mac, and the NAS as well. Put the Kiddos on the switch and all the electronic devices on the Wiffy.

Truly an outstanding diss ertation from Boxer.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 11:30

1

This would be good for the ‘ Rents, but what they have works. If I lived there, I’d do a mesh with a repeater in the butler’s pantry and one up on the third floor.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 11:32

0

Think: old blue plastic piece of crap that cost $35 and two stubby little antennae.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/13/2019 at 11:35

0

The old 2.4 Linksys gives me reasonably good connectivity throughout the house and on the front porch, so any upgrade to that will likely seem extraordinary.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Urambo Tauro 02/13/2019 at 11:35

0

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 02/13/2019 at 11:37

0

Mea culpa . I use an Asus with Merlin firmware, recommended to me by a paranoid guy some years back. I’m the guy who put out that idea to Ttyymmnn. But if that Synology is everything you say, and supports mesh, then I might buy one myself. Or just see if Merlin has a firmware upgrade and apply it and lazy myself onward...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 11:38

0

I have never once had to call Asus, for the record...

TheRealBicycleBuck > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 11:40

0

“Also, your “Up-to-200Mbps” service on Coax/DOCSYS, is likely shared with your entire network node, so you and your neighbors each have a link to a network node in your area, with a single backhaul to your provider’s backbone network.”  

I was an early subscriber to one of the first cable modem networks in the nation. We had several interesting incidents. Early on, they didn’t secure the network traffic, so if you were on a shared node and the other parties didn’t lock down their network, you had full access to any open shared drives. It was hilarious to turn on network discovery, open Explorer and find a bunch of accidentally shared drives in our neighborhood.

While rolling ip addresses are common now, back then every modem had a static IP address. One day I came home to discover that my modem was being kicked off the internet every five minutes or so. After five minutes off, it would reconnect and be fine for the next five minutes. It took a week of troubleshooting for the provider to realize they had assigned my modem’s IP address to a new customer. The network would recognize one device as active, then five minutes later recognize the other device and kick the first one off line.

Good times.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/13/2019 at 11:41

0

I’ve read lots and lots of reviews over the past two days. The fact that there aren’t more bad reviews means that these devices are working perfectly well for a great many people.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 12:24

0

No doubt. And much faster.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 02/13/2019 at 12:26

1

Yup. I think the most egregious hacks are of the sort that struck Nana, when the crook is invited in. Though games and malware can do that.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/13/2019 at 14:34

0

I am very glad to help, and I hope I didn’t overload too much.

User/customer/subscriber education is a big part of what makes my job easier, and makes users more knowledgeable, ultimately more helpful during troubleshooting, and also more satisfied with the service when it is working properly, as well as more comfortable with utilizing the technology to do what they want to do, and adapt to new technologies as they arrive. ..

Someone getting more comfortable with wifi networking on smart phones and laptops, are already then further along the learning curve in adapting to home automation, home or digital security, or distributed Audio/Video, and other related technologies, and understanding the advantages, as well as risks.

I try to shy away from saying Brand X Model A is great, and Brand Y Model B is crap..., buy X. (although I don’t have a problem calling out truly sub-standard products that have serious flaws to avoid.)

T here are so many other factors at work than that, especially with wireless communication. Not only does a personal experience cloud those sorts of decrees, but the bad personal experience may have been caused by something other than the specific product mentioned, and even if it is a product issue, it could be a specific lemon of a unit, or may have been dropped during shipping, or something...

Most products within a reasonable range are generally pretty similar and comparable, and can boil down to detailed differences in intended uses, and just outright personal preference. The technology, based on various versions of the IEEE 802.11 standards, is pretty much the same.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 02/13/2019 at 15:44

0

I knew a guy who knew some stuff. He was extremely paranoid. He was also a jerk, and I dumped him as a friend, but in retrospect, I think he is on the autism spectrum, which would explain a lot. Anyhow, he got me into an Asus ACU-66 router and he was very hip on the Merlin custom firmware. He said that this would make the router much more difficult for someone to hack. I’ve had this setup for a number of years now, and update the Merlin firmware from time to time. I’d be curious to know your thoughts about that. The router has never given me any problems, though lately, it seems to sort of “blank out” for a moment, but I can’t be sure this is not a Comcast hiccup.

Do you think this setup is likely dated enough to warrant upgrading? Performance seems more than adequate.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 02/13/2019 at 22:26

0

I’d say you are good for now, although you may want to see if your Asus is rebooting when you notice slight interruptions in connectivity.

The hardware, Asus 802.11AC routers have been relatively similar for the last few revisions. A couple of little feature changes, like QUAM multiplexing on 2.4ghz, which will help only if the end-device also supports it, but the core hardware seems good if it is working reliably.

I read a little bit about the Merlin firmware, and it seems like it keeps the Asus hardware drivers, but adds some logic and feature handling like TOR compatibility, VPN that can apply to only one LAN device, rather than only being able to put your whole LAN on a secured tunnel to another network somewhere else... It doesn’t seem like the ASUS firmware is bad, the Merlin Firmware might just be a bit more tailored by a single or group of software writers.

An automotive analogy might be a bone-stock car that still has warranty, and works just fine, meets regulations, and can be mass marketed vs. an intelligently modified car with lighter wheels, better tires than the oe mass-market ones , a precise alignment, and a few other specific optimizations that make that individual car run just a little bit better, but you have to trust the tuner, and know a bit about why the modifications were made, and maybe take a little more care during maintenance.

A customer with 802.11b, g, or single-band n, I would say they may want to consider a dual-band upgrade if network performance is lacking.

At this point, for anyone with a reliable dual-band 802.11AC wireless system in place , I wouldn’t recommend getting too eager to upgrade until later.

802.11ax is in development. A few routers are starting to support the draft protocol, not many customer endpoint devices utilize it yet, but an AX router will have more processing power, more tailored radio bandwidth sharing and beam-forming capabilities, and generally more optimization. Think of it as smarter at using only as much power as needed, in more precise directional beams, and sharing radio airtime and channel selections more precisely.

Sort of like a radio equivalent to a direct-injected, turbocharged, variable-valve-timing, ECU-optimized wonder-engine that is very power-efficient and makes 50o horsepower on demand, but gets 30+mpg on the highway when cruising , and shuts down at stop signs;   compared to earlier, simpler port-injected, or even older carbureted engines that got single-digit fuel guzzling economy to make that kind of power, and was barely controllable, and less reliable at it.

I would wait for full AX capabilities in a solid product, rather than an early adopter rush-job, and even then maybe hold until your first endpoint device that can use it, or if your main router fails and needs to be replaced promptly.

That old Linksys, is a cash-for-clunkers candidate.

Your Asus is a late-model pre-owned daily driver,  with a couple of good mods, that still has some miles left.

The new TP-Link is a 2018-19 new imported car, right of the lot, and ready to go. Certainly a BIG upgrade over a clunker, but probably fairly similar to your late-model used car that does most of the same stuff, plus the “ new car smell.”

An 802.11AX router/system is like the concept car at the auto show... shows where things are going, and what a 2020 or 2021 model might be ... and your late model pre-owned good car will last and run fine until the production version arrives. I’d wait for that production model at this point.