Which Router to get in 2020?

[Im_Ben]

Hello people, 

 

I need some help picking a good Router to get for me in 2020. I recently got an Asus RT-AC88U on sale. The problem, however, is it's unstable. The stock firmware was unstable, leading that the wireless connection would just disconnect for no reason at all. 

 

I got recommend using Merlin firmware, which was better, but still, I lose connection. 

I live in a big house, however, It's a bit old(but renovated). The problem with that is that I can't get new internet cables across the house to set up a good mesh network. I game quite a lot, however, I use a cable, so it's stable for me. I'm fine with 30-50 ping, so QoS isn't a game-breaker by me. A lot of people use wireless to people, so I need a good router to give me a good range, and having a good MU-MIMO might be a must?

 

So all in all, I need the router to have really good coverage, and it needs to be able to handle 15 ish devices connected to it(maybe 5-7 ish at the same time). 

Any recommendations? What do you people use? I'm willing to pay the high-end version to fix my problem. 

 

Incredibly sorry that the post was so long..

 

 

[brenrich101]

I've used AmpliFi with great results.

[Falcon1986]

54 minutes ago, Im_Ben said:

Hello people, 

 

I need some help picking a good Router to get for me in 2020. I recently got an Asus RT-AC88U on sale. The problem, however, is it's unstable. The stock firmware was unstable, leading that the wireless connection would just disconnect for no reason at all. 

 

I got recommend using Merlin firmware, which was better, but still, I lose connection. 

I live in a big house, however, It's a bit old(but renovated). The problem with that is that I can't get new internet cables across the house to set up a good mesh network. I game quite a lot, however, I use a cable, so it's stable for me. I'm fine with 30-50 ping, so QoS isn't a game-breaker by me. A lot of people use wireless to people, so I need a good router to give me a good range, and having a good MU-MIMO might be a must?

 

So all in all, I need the router to have really good coverage, and it needs to be able to handle 15 ish devices connected to it(maybe 5-7 ish at the same time). 

Any recommendations? What do you people use? I'm willing to pay the high-end version to fix my problem. 

 

Incredibly sorry that the post was so long..

1. Does your ISP provide you with a simple modem or gateway device? If it's a gateway, which device is doing routing and NAT?
2. Try directly connecting with ethernet to the AC88U. Is your connection stable? Do you get your promised speed on speed tests?
3. What settings are you using on the wireless radios? Did you perform a wireless survey before broadcasting the wireless signal or did you let the AC88U set it up for you? If the situation was the latter, please download and run WiFi Analyzer and show us what you see on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

[Im_Ben]

2 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

1. Does your ISP provide you with a simple modem or gateway device? If it's a gateway, which device is doing routing and NAT?
2. Try directly connecting with ethernet to the AC88U. Is your connection stable? Do you get your promised speed on speed tests?
3. What settings are you using on the wireless radios? Did you perform a wireless survey before broadcasting the wireless signal or did you let the AC88U set it up for you? If the situation was the latter, please download and run WiFi Analyzer and show us what you see on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

1. They provided a simple modem. However, It's rather easy to bypass. I just setup a vlan 102, as the wan, and now the Asus router is my "main" router/modem. 

2. With a cable it's perfect.

3. I let the AC88 set it up for me. If you mean what channel they're on, it's on the pictures. My network name is "Asus_Ruter". This is taking the floor right above the router(so the the 5ghz think I'm much farther than I am). The merlin firmware is set to "auto" for the channels, and It changes quite frequently. (sorry if you meant for me to send something else)

 

 

[Im_Ben]

2 hours ago, brenrich101 said:

I've used AmpliFi with great results.

I'll look more into it. How's the software side, and is there any speed drop-off when using them?

[Falcon1986]

9 minutes ago, Im_Ben said:

1. They provided a simple modem. However, It's rather easy to bypass. I just setup a vlan 102, as the wan, and now the Asus router is my "main" router/modem. 

2. With a cable it's perfect.

3. I let the AC88 set it up for me. If you mean what channel they're on, it's on the pictures. My network name is "Asus_Ruter". This is taking the floor right above the router(so the the 5ghz think I'm much farther than I am). The merlin firmware is set to "auto" for the channels, and It changes quite frequently. (sorry if you meant for me to send something else)

If the AC88U is auto-selecting the wireless channel, it might do so in the middle of internet activity causing a momentary disconnect as you're experiencing.

 

Although your 2.4GHz band in your neighbourhood seems quite hectic, I'd force a channel that has the least amount of neighbouring signal and stick with that. Also ensure that you're using a 20MHz channel width for the 2.4GHz radio. The 5GHz radio channel width can be increased to 40MHz or 80MHz if the router supports it. While you're there, set authentication to WPA1/WPA2 with AES encryption (not TKIP).

 

As a general rule, make sure your wireless router's antennae are not backed up against a wall or that there is a minimum of obstruction around them. Placing the router in a central location will also help with signal range.

 

Finally, are any of those other detected wireless signals yours? This might seem like a simple question but some people forget their other devices or that their ISP device might also be broadcasting a wireless signal. If it is, you can clean up interference on the 2.4GHz band by just turning those extra radios off.

[Im_Ben]

11 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

If the AC88U is auto-selecting the wireless channel, it might do so in the middle of internet activity causing a momentary disconnect as you're experiencing.

 

Although your 2.4GHz band in your neighbourhood seems quite hectic, I'd force a channel that has the least amount of neighbouring signal and stick with that. Also ensure that you're using a 20MHz channel width for the 2.4GHz radio. The 5GHz radio channel width can be increased to 40MHz or 80MHz if the router supports it. While you're there, set authentication to WPA1/WPA2 with AES encryption (not TKIP).

 

As a general rule, make sure your wireless router's antennae are not backed up against a wall or that there is a minimum of obstruction around them. Placing the router in a central location will also help with signal range.

 

Finally, are any of those other detected wireless signals yours? This might seem like a simple question but some people forget their other devices or that their ISP device might also be broadcasting a wireless signal. If it is, you can clean up interference on the 2.4GHz band by just turning those extra radios off.

I'll change it to not auto, and fix the frequency. I'm already using WPA2 with AES. The antennas are not up against a wall. 

 

Technically 3 of those are mine. "Altibox Wifi" is mine, and the "hidden ssid" is just the asus router switching from 2.4 to 5 ghz for devices. Those "Altibox Wifi" will get removed when the Asus router situation is fixed, so they are just temporary. 

 

However, if those things doesn't fix my situation, what would you recommend me do then?

[Falcon1986]

1 hour ago, Im_Ben said:

The antennas are not up against a wall.

Good.

 

1 hour ago, Im_Ben said:

Technically 3 of those are mine. "Altibox Wifi" is mine, and the "hidden ssid" is just the asus router switching from 2.4 to 5 ghz for devices. Those "Altibox Wifi" will get removed when the Asus router situation is fixed, so they are just temporary.

OK. So once you set a fixed wireless channel for the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz broadcasts, then that "hidden SSID" should disappear?

 

Are the "Altibox WiFi" signals being broadcast from the ISP device? If so, then that makes it a gateway. Two problems that I see with this setup are:

1. If both the ISP gateway and your router are performing NAT, then they can potentially conflict with each other causing internet connection interruption for your client devices. After a set interval, the ISP gateway will want to renew the internal IP of the Asus router which will momentarily cut it's internet connection and all connected clients. What you should do here is either convert the ISP gateway to "bridge" mode (thereby disabling the built-in router and access point) and let the Asus router do this in its default configuration, or convert the Asus router to AP mode (thereby giving routing functions to the upstream gateway device).
2. Having multiple overlapping wireless signals spells interference for the clients trying to communicate and those already connected. Either spread them out or remove them altogether if they're not needed. Additionally, if you don't specify an SSID priority or reduce roaming priority on your client devices, they will jump from one WiFi signal to the other depending on which is strongest at the time.

[Im_Ben]

2 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Good.

 

OK. So once you set a fixed wireless channel for the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz broadcasts, then that "hidden SSID" should disappear?

 

Are the "Altibox WiFi" signals being broadcast from the ISP device? If so, then that makes it a gateway. Two problems that I see with this setup are:

1. If both the ISP gateway and your router are performing NAT, then they can potentially conflict with each other causing internet connection interruption for your client devices. After a set interval, the ISP gateway will want to renew the internal IP of the Asus router which will momentarily cut it's internet connection and all connected clients. What you should do here is either convert the ISP gateway to "bridge" mode (thereby disabling the built-in router and access point) and let the Asus router do this in its default configuration, or convert the Asus router to AP mode (thereby giving routing functions to the upstream gateway device).
2. Having multiple overlapping wireless signals spells interference for the clients trying to communicate and those already connected. Either spread them out or remove them altogether if they're not needed. Additionally, if you don't specify an SSID priority or reduce roaming priority on your client devices, they will jump from one WiFi signal to the other depending on which is strongest at the time.

Yes, once I've fixed the 2.4- 5GHZ, the hidden SSID will go away. 

 

The "old" setup was modem -> router.

 

The new setup is just the asus router with a vlan 102. (but the old setup is temporary online, it will go away when the issues are fixed)

 

1. I'll definitely try that out, and hopefully it helps 

 

2. I'll look more into those setting, and try to adjust some of those settings

[Escapenz]

Could just be faulty. Ive set a few people homes up with ac88U and have had 0 issue with them. Other option could make a AI-Mesh with a second one and see how that goes. I personally have dual ac68u with a ac5300 all hard wired together and it works a treat

[Im_Ben]

19 hours ago, Im_Ben said:

Yes, once I've fixed the 2.4- 5GHZ, the hidden SSID will go away. 

 

The "old" setup was modem -> router.

 

The new setup is just the asus router with a vlan 102. (but the old setup is temporary online, it will go away when the issues are fixed)

 

1. I'll definitely try that out, and hopefully it helps 

 

2. I'll look more into those setting, and try to adjust some of those settings

 

19 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

Good.

 

OK. So once you set a fixed wireless channel for the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz broadcasts, then that "hidden SSID" should disappear?

 

Are the "Altibox WiFi" signals being broadcast from the ISP device? If so, then that makes it a gateway. Two problems that I see with this setup are:

1. If both the ISP gateway and your router are performing NAT, then they can potentially conflict with each other causing internet connection interruption for your client devices. After a set interval, the ISP gateway will want to renew the internal IP of the Asus router which will momentarily cut it's internet connection and all connected clients. What you should do here is either convert the ISP gateway to "bridge" mode (thereby disabling the built-in router and access point) and let the Asus router do this in its default configuration, or convert the Asus router to AP mode (thereby giving routing functions to the upstream gateway device).
2. Having multiple overlapping wireless signals spells interference for the clients trying to communicate and those already connected. Either spread them out or remove them altogether if they're not needed. Additionally, if you don't specify an SSID priority or reduce roaming priority on your client devices, they will jump from one WiFi signal to the other depending on which is strongest at the time.

I did what you asked, and cleaned up the wireless interference and it's good. No-one on the network has gotten disconnected(yet). I am noticing some dead spots, and some weak speeds. So I'll look into setting up an ai mesh of some sort (in the future).

 

I'll be monitoring the network and see if anything "bad" happens. 

 

But thanks for helping me out!