Router Recommendations

[SamD40]

Hi, I'm new here so please bear  with me.

I have an existing r7000.

I'm trying to replace it with a newer maybe wifi 6 capable router.

The features i need are parental controls for network access only allowing certain times of the day(without having to pay for a subscription). But most especially very reliable and stable connections for both wired and wireless connections.

 

So far the reviews I've seen for some routers i am looking at the asus rt-ax88 uax6000. But a lot of reviews say that it's not very reliable. Any thoughts, suggestions and recommendations are welcome. Thanks

[EpiCheeseTime]

Do you need it router to also have built in wifi?

[SamD40]

18 minutes ago, EpiCheeseTime said:

Do you need it router to also have built in wifi?

Yes, I'm giving my old router to my brother.

[EpiCheeseTime]

What is the speed you need, sq footage of wife coverage, etc etc. Lots of devices out there to comb through, need to weed out the no goes.

[SamD40]

7 minutes ago, EpiCheeseTime said:

What is the speed you need, sq footage of wife coverage, etc etc. Lots of devices out there to comb through, need to weed out the no goes.

I don't think my wife would appreciate me defining her in square footag, XD.

Kidding aside. It's a 3000sqft home, I'll have 3 tv's, 2 game consoles and 2 pc's on my wired network and around 10 wireless devices around the house. My wifi doesn't have to reach 2 blocks away. If signal coverage is an issue then I'll add access points but preferably just 1 router for now.

[EpiCheeseTime]

Then if money isn't a huge problem. Unifi Dream Machine. Loved it when I had one. The only box it doesnt check is wifi 6 (to my knowledge). It is a little costly...but it has a USG, a 4x4 MIMO wifi, internal gigabit switch, and easy adoption and expansion for future proof.

Now if money is a little issue, D-Link EXO Mesh is good runner up. its 1/3 the cost, but I know it does lack a little in the coverage area.

[EpiCheeseTime]

and just a heads up. I am a Unifi fan boy, so I love their stuff haha.

[SamD40]

6 hours ago, EpiCheeseTime said:

and just a heads up. I am a Unifi fan boy, so I love their stuff haha.

No problem, your info helps. Thanks.

[tarfeef101]

So I have 2 setups from which I think I can draw relevant experience:
1. My personal setup in my tiny apartment: I have a pfsense box (box is a bit of a generous term, it's actually just a motherboard and psu on top of a storage bin) as my router/firewall, and a r7000p in access point mode for my AP. It works great. Pfsense, as one might expect, does everything you might want, and more cause it's just freebsd, has dark mode :), etc. 

2. My parents' setup I helped with last time I was there. I left them with a ubiquiti edgerouter x (the cheaper end of their lineup), and a TP-Link EAP AC1750 for their access point. 

 

The former is great because I'm a giant nerd, I had extra PC parts, and I host servers and stuff. I killed consumer routers because they couldn't handle the load. However, for just dealing with regular internet traffic for a family, it is unnecessary. However, if you have an old PC lying around with a couple gigs of RAM and a dual-core CPU that's not 10+years old, that's totally good enough. And won't cost you more money. I can't speak much about the AP because, well, I have a 500sqft apartment and 1 user. It doing well in that use case isn't an achievement.

The edgerouter x was simple enough, it does actually run on debian if you want to do more on it (though the cheaper ones don't have a lot of horsepower so I wouldn't go very far), and is small+quiet. For a home with 3 people, even working at home and/or streaming all the time, it had no issues. Also has a built-in switch, which most motherboards you might use for pfsense do not. As for that EAP access point, it is great. You can set up proper seamless handoff with them and either a dedicated controller, or a PC running the software for it (if you use pfsense, run it in a VM, and have another for this). The setup is dead simple, even my parents could understand it. Most importantly, though, the performance has been great. 4+ streams and people working at the same time on wireless, no issues. The range was enough for a ~3000 sqft house, even in the farthest rooms it would be over 50mbps (with just a single unit). 


So I'd say either pfsense if you have the hardware or the intensive use case (as in lots of firewall rules that put the machine under meaningful load), or an edgerouter x if you don't. And I would go for the TP-Link EAP series of access points. IIRC they announced but haven't released wifi 6 units in most countries, so if you want that maybe wait or seek alternatives. But I cannot recommend them enough because my experience has been so very good with them. 

[Intergalacticbits]

I found Netgear to be a good brand back in the day.

I don't know anything about their current line up, wi-fi 6 and what not but they used to be pretty reliable.

 

[SamD40]

14 hours ago, tarfeef101 said:

So I have 2 setups from which I think I can draw relevant experience:
1. My personal setup in my tiny apartment: I have a pfsense box (box is a bit of a generous term, it's actually just a motherboard and psu on top of a storage bin) as my router/firewall, and a r7000p in access point mode for my AP. It works great. Pfsense, as one might expect, does everything you might want, and more cause it's just freebsd, has dark mode :), etc. 

2. My parents' setup I helped with last time I was there. I left them with a ubiquiti edgerouter x (the cheaper end of their lineup), and a TP-Link EAP AC1750 for their access point. 

 

The former is great because I'm a giant nerd, I had extra PC parts, and I host servers and stuff. I killed consumer routers because they couldn't handle the load. However, for just dealing with regular internet traffic for a family, it is unnecessary. However, if you have an old PC lying around with a couple gigs of RAM and a dual-core CPU that's not 10+years old, that's totally good enough. And won't cost you more money. I can't speak much about the AP because, well, I have a 500sqft apartment and 1 user. It doing well in that use case isn't an achievement.

The edgerouter x was simple enough, it does actually run on debian if you want to do more on it (though the cheaper ones don't have a lot of horsepower so I wouldn't go very far), and is small+quiet. For a home with 3 people, even working at home and/or streaming all the time, it had no issues. Also has a built-in switch, which most motherboards you might use for pfsense do not. As for that EAP access point, it is great. You can set up proper seamless handoff with them and either a dedicated controller, or a PC running the software for it (if you use pfsense, run it in a VM, and have another for this). The setup is dead simple, even my parents could understand it. Most importantly, though, the performance has been great. 4+ streams and people working at the same time on wireless, no issues. The range was enough for a ~3000 sqft house, even in the farthest rooms it would be over 50mbps (with just a single unit). 


So I'd say either pfsense if you have the hardware or the intensive use case (as in lots of firewall rules that put the machine under meaningful load), or an edgerouter x if you don't. And I would go for the TP-Link EAP series of access points. IIRC they announced but haven't released wifi 6 units in most countries, so if you want that maybe wait or seek alternatives. But I cannot recommend them enough because my experience has been so very good with them. 

Thanks, that does sound like a good alternative. I'll take a look into it if it's something i might wanna try.

 

[SamD40]

8 hours ago, Intergalacticbits said:

I found Netgear to be a good brand back in the day.

I don't know anything about their current line up, wi-fi 6 and what not but they used to be pretty reliable.

 

I do like the reliability of my r7000 the range is adequate. My issue with it was that parental controls were on  a subscription basis. If i was going to upgrade anyway i wanted to see if there were people with experience with different wifi 6 routers which i may be able to choose from.

[Falcon1986]

56 minutes ago, SamD40 said:

My issue with it was that parental controls were on  a subscription basis.

What kind of parental controls are you looking for?

 

pfSense, Untangle and PiHole (IIRC) should allow you to activate the relevant filters. You can probably even do something at the DNS level with OpenDNS.

[EpiCheeseTime]

The UniFi software has parental controls built in for free. I haven't messed with them in a while and only have Dell's and to my recolection, I liked the setup on the Ubiquiti's a lot more. If you want to mess with the software before you buy, you can download the UniFi software to your computer. Its free and easily found online.

[SamD40]

On 10/15/2020 at 1:40 PM, Falcon1986 said:

What kind of parental controls are you looking for?

 

pfSense, Untangle and PiHole (IIRC) should allow you to activate the relevant filters. You can probably even do something at the DNS level with OpenDNS.

setting internet access times to specifiic devices so let's say my kid's tablet can only be used after school at 5-7 pm. laptops internet access time for school is from 8am-4:30 pm.

ps4 has internet access only on the weekends from 10am-2pm. Those are just a few examples . 

[SamD40]

On 10/16/2020 at 8:00 AM, EpiCheeseTime said:

The UniFi software has parental controls built in for free. I haven't messed with them in a while and only have Dell's and to my recolection, I liked the setup on the Ubiquiti's a lot more. If you want to mess with the software before you buy, you can download the UniFi software to your computer. Its free and easily found online.

Thanks, I was looking into it, I will probably test it some more before i consider and i'll also look into it pfsense as well .

Although the customization is great for both I still don't have any conclusive answers on reloiable wifi 6 equipment or should I even consider upgrading to wifi6 or just wait a couple more years.

[EpiCheeseTime]

@SamD40 The dream machine itself does not have WiFi 6. But they are releasing their APs with WiFi 6. When that will be? Who knows. I read May 21st of 2020, I've heard 2021...Its up in the air right now mostly due to Covid from my understanding, but that is an option with expandablility like you said earlier.

But if you must have WiFi 6 right now, @tarfeef101 has a pretty good solution.