Help me LLTkenobi!, Advice for heavy-use wifi router?

[Gunnath]

     I will apologize in advance if this topic has been covered recently, but I looked through some topics about it and never really found AN answer. To be fair, I did see some threads with "Dude, I got this <insert brand here> and it is totally the bomb cause mine still works." Which really doesn't answer the question for me, since I prefer answers backed up with a bit more science. After all, isn't that why we watch and subscribed?  As I browsed topics on Youtube and Google looking for relevant information regarding Wifi routers w/o modems, I also came up wanting. Either it was a video from a year plus ago, OR it was Hooptie Scooters R Us ranks best Wifi routers and the video had 1,000 views. Grandpa Hooptie sure is proud of his grandson's Youtube channel, and since dementia set in, its fresh content every day!

 

But let me get to the point.

 

My situation:

 

ISP/general layout info:

     My family and I live in a small town in Tennessee that has gigabit service available to everyone in the city. That is 1 gigabit down AND upstream for the nice price of 75 dollars a month (yes we feel lucky). It is fiber optically connected to my house, the box on the outside of my garage converts it to a signal able to be carried inside my dwelling by the Cat 5e cable and to my wireless router. No modem needed. I get close to those speeds through my main desktop which is connected via a hard line (not wifi) to my router. There are 3 other devices hard wired into the router via Cat 5e, Two 4k Tvs, and another desktop. I'm not sure if 'long cables' make more work on the router, but one of the TVs and the other desktop are at the other end of the house and each has at least 50 feet of cable running to them through the attic.

 

Detailed usage - 

     I would categorize my family as "Very heavy use". I have a wife and 4 daughters 21, 19, 17, 16 (pray for me). Everyone in the house has a Laptop and or tablet, smartphone and the appropriate smartwatch to go with it, 3 Homepod speakers, 2 desktop computers, 2 smart 4k TV's, 1 Alexa, Sony PlayStation 4, X box one, Nintendo Switch, 3 Phillips Smart LED lightbulbs and a 'smart air filter'. It isn't unusual to have multiple high definition streams being attempted (including both 4k TV's) at once. Sometimes, I am convinced they are just on for the noise. There may be a few more, these are all I can remember that showed up on the "wifi map" to the best of my recollection or are plugged directly into the router. The current home we have been in for approximately 5 years. When we moved in, there wasn't as heavy demand on the wifi, it just adds up over time.

 

Specific router info: When we moved in, I had just purchased a new router based on some review I had read at the time. It was the LINKSYS WRT 1900 AC Dual-Band Gigabit Wi-fi router (the one with blue top and black base with 4 antennae). It lasted about 3 1/2 years. When it failed it didn't just completely fail, it just got so slow that the speed was untenable. I took the advice of the IT guy that was really patient while we troubleshot that router. I was on the phone with him for over an hour. I gave his statement "I've been doing IT troubleshooting for 18 years." a lot of weight and purchased a LINKSYS AC4000 MU-MIMO EA9300 Tri-band router. Even though it was new, it still only came with 4 connections on the back for hardwiring other devices. The EA9300 started acting flakey about a month ago. Believe me, when you are the family "IT expert" excuses won't cut it because there are life-changing activities like 'streaks' that can't be missed. (I am still vague on what a streak is but let me stay on topic) We had dropped wifi signals, buffering activity, not recognizing devices at all until a reboot, etc. I ran a speed test a little over a week ago and I see that I am getting 25 megabit download speeds and 400 megabit upload. What the?!?!? Using multiple speed checking companies/software I see that it is consistent across all. I check every networking software I can think of and there is nothing I can find that would throttle it down. For the final test (that I should have performed first, but sadly had to be reminded of by the IT professional I call) I just plug the networking cable directly into my computer. BOOM! 900+ megabit download AND upload speeds. She concurs that it's my router. It is 1 AM and I am frustrated. I run down to the local Wal-Mart and frustratingly purchase the most expensive router they have. It is a Nighthawk x6 AC3200 Tri-Band router, (No Moo Moo, apparently just Dynamic QoS and Beamforming) Yes, I know now that it was a downgrade, but I am still within the return window. 

 

I keep all the devices shielded from power surges/under voltages with APC battery backups. 

 

So my question, Is there any hard evidence, good evidence, or good hard evidence on what our family should be using for a wifi router for this type of heavy home use? 

 

Thanks in advance for you guys expert opinions!

 

Jeff

 

 

[Sauron]

There are quite a few buyer's guides around the web https://www.pickmyrouter.com/

 

However, in my experience, an all-in-one router and AP isn't a great choice when you're spending over $150 or so - at that point you're better off with a dedicated router and a dedicated AP.

[Gunnath]

I don’t know what you mean by “AP”. Does it stand for Access Point? I’m just trying to distribute my bandwidth to as many devices as possible. I use wired instead of wireless for the 4 devices I know require more bandwidth and/or need lower latency connection (like gaming). Can you clarify please?

 

Thanks!