Best router for 8 people, 20+ wireless devices

[AznKnight82]

So I decided to make a last minute decision and just rent a place near school. It's a big house with 8 people living in it in total. I am one of the furthest from the router, but I do gaming and streaming (to watch the WAN show etc.). I do not know the speed of the internet connection in the house, but I am hoping it's the top-tier (120 Mbps down/ 10Mbps up) since there's this many people living in the house.

 

I have two options, but would prefer the cheaper of the two:

 

a) buy an awesome wireless router (preferably AC - desktop and tablet use AC, my phone isn't desperate for internet access when I'm home) that I can share with my 7 roommates. I'm thinking a total of 20+ devices, but maybe a maximum of 10 active connections at any given moment. So which one? The Nighthawk X6 looks nice, because it's tri-band. But the WRT1900AC has a more powerful chipset. These kinds of routers will set me back about $300-350 after taxes. A second issue I might have are if people still connect to the wireless modem. Then the modem will control the load-balancing and treat the router as a single user. If my roommates would agree to just using the new router, I could turn off the radio on the modem, and possibly even get the cost of the router partially subsidized by them.

 

I want to try this option first, as it's the cheaper of the two. Planning on visiting a big-box store with a generous return policy, try it out at the new place. Let my roommates connect to it, and see if they like it (and the connection is stable enough for me). If not, return it, and go with option B.

 

 

b ) I'm a bit of a security nazi. I really like wired connections. Just pay for another modem just for my room. That'll cost me about $600-700 (to my ISP, after taxes where I get 55 Mbps down, just for the next 8 months) but then I don't have to worry about anyone hogging bandwidth etc.

 

 

I also have a couple of NAS devices, so having a localized router in my locked room does bring extra piece of mind, but I also don't mind my roommates grabbing files from it from time-to-time.

[Shaqo_Wyn]

@AznKnight82

 

I think you'll be fine with a good dual band wireless-N router. Asus RT-N66U!

[Rheinwasser]

what about homeplugs?

[qwertywarrior]

check out www.smalnetbuilder.com they have VERY in depth reviews of routers and a big chart

 

 

all the info below is info  i generally know but dont take my word for it . research first

 

A) AC doesnt have great range as N because AC must use the 5GHZ band  for example my bro is using the AC68U and the 2.4ghz band is showing 4 bars while the 5Ghz band is showing 2 bars

AC is great for file sharing with many people  if this isnt important its better to look for a great N router  instead

i recommend bridging the modem to the router for better performance (NAT performance) (  looks pretty complicated )

 

B  ) if your a security nazi take a look at RADIUS  most high end routers have this and also take a look at guest networks most routers have this

 

 

 

 

here is what SNB said about the nighthawk after a very deep 2 part review

 

. So it should come as no surprise that the R8000 isn't likely to work miracles with your Wi-Fi range or boost throughput for individual clients. At its heart, the R8000 has the same Broadcom 3x3 AC radios that power the majority of AC1900 routers. So any range or throughput improvement will be modest, as our test results show.

 

The R8000's real promise is in improving total wireless throughput with mixes of client types. And here, the R8000 is a work in progress. NETGEAR chose to let the R8000 perform only a few tricks out of Broadcom's entire XStream technology catalog. So you might be better off manually assigning clients to its two 5 GHz radios, instead of using the very simple (and static) client assignment algorithms currently implemented.

 

 

take a look at either the Asus N66U or the Netgear R7000

[uhMayzedHD]

ASUS RT-N66U or ASUS RT-AC66U or there latest one ASUS RT-AC87U

 

Any one of these will work great

[fl4ilinat0r]

I have the  WD mynet N900 (and I realy like it)

it has 7 lan ports. and 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz (no ac)

but i don't have that many wifi device's connected to it.

[fl4ilinat0r]

double post

Edited September 13, 2014 by fl4ilinat0r

[AznKnight82]

As a side note, I have about 7TB of cloud (NAS) storage. I often stream massive HD files (ranging from 4 - 15GB for 2-3 hours of video) to my tablet and PC. I generally need solid-throughput. My room isn't that far from the router. I think only a bathroom separates my closest wall to the modem/router. But then again, my room is also the largest in the house at 13' x 16'. Maybe 80 ft total maximum distance from the furthest wall in my room to the front door. The house is built with what I call "half-floors".

 

                                              ____ second floor ________ (my room)

front door |______________/ 

                                             \____ lower floor ___________________                          / = about 5 steps

 

Worst-case scenario, I buy the router and no one else uses it, but I lock access by MAC address to the router. But my NAS drives sit outside of my room.

[qwertywarrior]

As a side note, I have about 7TB of cloud (NAS) storage. I often stream massive HD files (ranging from 4 - 15GB for 2-3 hours of video) to my tablet and PC. I generally need solid-throughput. My room isn't that far from the router. I think only a bathroom separates my closest wall to the modem/router. But then again, my room is also the largest in the house at 13' x 16'. Maybe 80 ft total maximum distance from the furthest wall in my room to the front door. The house is built with what I call "half-floors".

 

                                              ____ second floor ________ (my room)

front door |______________/ 

                                             \____ lower floor ___________________                          / = about 5 steps

 

Worst-case scenario, I buy the router and no one else uses it, but I lock access by MAC address to the router. But my NAS drives sit outside of my room.

how thick are the walls ?

concrete ?

[AznKnight82]

how thick are the walls ?

concrete ?

 

Not concrete. It's an older house, but well-taken care of. It's got "premium dry-wall". The owner/landlord is a real estate agent. He knows what holds value. He just re-paved (sidewalk cement, it looks fresh) all of the walkways around the house and the driveway and plans on getting a landscaper to add some green (grass, shrubs, and stepping stones).

 

The router supposedly sits somewhere before the steps. I think it's the base modem/router provided by the ISP.

 

 

I'm starting to move some of my stuff over today, hopefully I'll meet some of my roommates and I can discuss it with them.

Edited September 13, 2014 by AznKnight82

[qwertywarrior]

Not concrete. It's an older house, but well-taken care of. It's got "premium dry-wall". The owner/landlord is a real estate agent. He knows what holds value. He just re-paved (sidewalk cement, it looks fresh) all of the walkways around the house and the driveway and plans on getting a landscaper to add some green (grass, shrubs, and stepping stones).

 

The router supposedly sits somewhere before the steps. I think it's the base modem/router provided by the ISP.

 

 

I'm starting to move some of my stuff over today, hopefully I'll meet some of my roommates and I can discuss it with them.

then 5Ghz range will be good enough

go for the netgear R7000

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-reviews/32497-ac1900-router-retest-redux

 

the high ACxxxx routers seem pointless and dont offer what they claim

its still in beta stage

[mythicalbeast]

You don't know the internet speed? It takes 10 seconds to go to speedtest.net and check it out