When and why should I buy a good router?

[kiicki]

So I have been reading up on networking as I kinda have a situation at home and I'm kinda wondering:

When does it make sense to buy a router? It seems like it's more than enough to buy an access point rather than a router that you can turn into an access point because of the price. The internet provider I have hooked their own router to the modem that they also installed so I don't need a router. it doesn't even seem that I can change that router because of how it's setup and all. And I assume that the router they provided should be decent enough for the speeds that they offered. It has more ports than what I need and since I will be using access point for the wifi and not the router they provided, where does "new and better router" come in?

Is "new router" for the people where their provider doesn't offer them a router, or does it make sense to get a second router? Maybe I understand if your modem and router is on 1st floor and you need to hook up several devices on the 2nd floor with Ethernet cables so instead of running 3-4 cables from first router and up, you can run 1 cable from downstairs to upstairs and hook it up to a router that then hooks up with the other devices as you will now need shorter cables and you won't be having so many cables running up and down.

Is that the reason for a new router or something else?

[Howitz]

tomorrow, because.

 

lol, seriously, you want a new router when the one you have does'nt satisfy your needs... a router that would be crap for you can be perfect for someone else, let me examplify this.

 

if you have a family of 5-6 and they all use internet for streaming and playing videogames and such, you will want a router that evenly split the bandwidth to everyone. if you have 3 walls to go trought, you'll want a router with a stronger signal and such. if you don't have problems with a basic router then theres no need to buy another one... most of the time your ISP router will be fine.

[kiicki]

48 minutes ago, Howitz said:

tomorrow, because.

 

lol, seriously, you want a new router when the one you have does'nt satisfy your needs... a router that would be crap for you can be perfect for someone else, let me examplify this.

 

if you have a family of 5-6 and they all use internet for streaming and playing videogames and such, you will want a router that evenly split the bandwidth to everyone. if you have 3 walls to go trought, you'll want a router with a stronger signal and such. if you don't have problems with a basic router then theres no need to buy another one... most of the time your ISP router will be fine.

Well it doesn't matter how many people are on the internet because the router that is provided my the ISP would still handle the speed that they offer. or else they wouldn't offer you that specific router. It should be good enough for your max speed that you pay for anyway.

Also, for better connection as  you mentioned in terms of better signal, isn't that where "Access point" comes in? Sure you could use a router as an AP if you have a spare one, but you wouldn't really buy a router to use as AP when you simply could just buy AP and save your money?

[Howitz]

1 hour ago, kiicki said:

Well it doesn't matter how many people are on the internet because the router that is provided my the ISP would still handle the speed that they offer. or else they wouldn't offer you that specific router. It should be good enough for your max speed that you pay for anyway.

Also, for better connection as  you mentioned in terms of better signal, isn't that where "Access point" comes in? Sure you could use a router as an AP if you have a spare one, but you wouldn't really buy a router to use as AP when you simply could just buy AP and save your money?

lol yes and no, it all depends really. a router just makes a signal

[kiicki]

2 hours ago, Howitz said:

lol yes and no, it all depends really. a router just makes a signal

Well I would say that a router is more than just for signal. There are more features in a router compared to a plain access point, but think I understand

[Donut417]

16 hours ago, kiicki said:

So I have been reading up on networking as I kinda have a situation at home and I'm kinda wondering:

When does it make sense to buy a router? It seems like it's more than enough to buy an access point rather than a router that you can turn into an access point because of the price. The internet provider I have hooked their own router to the modem that they also installed so I don't need a router. it doesn't even seem that I can change that router because of how it's setup and all. And I assume that the router they provided should be decent enough for the speeds that they offered. It has more ports than what I need and since I will be using access point for the wifi and not the router they provided, where does "new and better router" come in?

Is "new router" for the people where their provider doesn't offer them a router, or does it make sense to get a second router? Maybe I understand if your modem and router is on 1st floor and you need to hook up several devices on the 2nd floor with Ethernet cables so instead of running 3-4 cables from first router and up, you can run 1 cable from downstairs to upstairs and hook it up to a router that then hooks up with the other devices as you will now need shorter cables and you won't be having so many cables running up and down.

Is that the reason for a new router or something else?

Routers provided by ISP's tend to be shit. They have crap WiFi radios. In the case of Comcast they offer an open WiFi hotspot for all Comcast subscribers. Your better off owning your own equipment. Because you can get equipment that suits your needs, not just what shitty box your ISP wants to give you. 

 

As far as your second issue is concerned. You would not want to run two routers on a signal network. In the case of getting better WiFi to an area, you would just add a wireless access point to the area you need WiFI, running a wire to your central router. As far as needing to connect multiple Wired devices, you could just run one wire and hook it up to a switch. 

 

Im currently using a older Dual band Wireless N router. Why? Because it does what I need. You tend to buy a newer/better router when you out grow your current one, or your current one dies. Sometimes you need more performance. Newer standards like AC, AD, and AX (the standard that is going to replace AC) can offer faster speeds and more range also newer or more expensive access points can some times handle more devices. 

[Cool Guy]

I think an access point would work fine.  The main reason I would get a router would be for security and performance as well as extra flexibility.  If you aren't planning on expanding your network, your ISP-provided router is getting updates, and has a NAT (a firewall so no computers externally can access the internal network.)  You should only worry about buying a router when you either don't have one, need a new one (like a new network) or you are running into security issues, or performance issues regarding your current one.   Like for example if you needed to run an OpenVPN client on your router, but your current one didn't support it.  You would need a new one or new firmware to have that functionality.  

 

Unless you have any specific requirements for a router than yours isn't fulfilling, and you just want better wifi speeds.  A good access point would be more than you need.  If you do want to buy a router, I like MikroTik routers, the RouterOS is a little complicated but if you do some research on networking you'll be fine for the most part, they support pretty much everything you would need and are fairly cheap.   And I like Ubiquity access points if you just want an access point.