Need help finding a new router

[Kanna]

Hello everyone reading it's time for a new router since the ISP provided one is pretty bad so I'm wondering if I could get help finding one within my requirements.

Sub 1000kr if possible (Swedish) 

The ability to port forward 

DDOS defence or what it was called

more than 2 ethernet ports

Good wireless that can support my speeds of 250/150 and deliver most of it on the 5ghz line

an optional 2.4ghz line for my older devices

[Kanna]

3 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Asus RT-AC86U or Asus RT-AX86U. The price of the new 130 € -160 €. Used at a much cheaper price.

No cheaper options?

[Kanna]

18 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Of course there is, for example TP Link Archer C80 , which is waaaaay much worse and it's only about 50€.

Instead of saying “waaaaay worse” tell me what’s worse with it

[Kanna]

8 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

I meant to say waaaaay much worse than Asus

Why so?

[Kanna]

7 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

-Usability

-Menus

-Structure

-Manufacturer firmware updates (not supported for a long time)

..........

These are personal experiences

 

 

 

 

Well recommend me a good asus router then for pretty cheap, would the ASUS RT-AC1200

[Kanna]

4 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Click me

I updated the reply also you didn’t read the OP huh

[metaleggman]

You could try looking for a used WIFI 4 or 5 Netgear Nighthawk, something like this.  I tried setting shipping to Sweden, but everything still shows up from the US.  Maybe the Nighthawk branding isn't used in the EU.  I'm currently using our old R7000 as a network bridge to my office and I'm getting about ~300Mbit/s downloads, which is similar to what I get with my WIFI 6 AIC at this distance.  It should have most of those features (not sure about DDoS protection though).

[Kanna]

28 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

You could try looking for a used WIFI 4 or 5 Netgear Nighthawk, something like this.  I tried setting shipping to Sweden, but everything still shows up from the US.  Maybe the Nighthawk branding isn't used in the EU.  I'm currently using our old R7000 as a network bridge to my office and I'm getting about ~300Mbit/s downloads, which is similar to what I get with my WIFI 6 AIC at this distance.  It should have most of those features (not sure about DDoS protection though).

Second hand stuff sucks in sweden because you often have to import which ends up costing too much so I think I might get an ASUS RT-AC1200 if I get any answer on if it’s good or bad

[Falcon1986]

16 minutes ago, Kanna said:

Second hand stuff sucks in sweden because you often have to import which ends up costing too much so I think I might get an ASUS RT-AC1200 if I get any answer on if it’s good or bad

You never mentioned what are your retail/online options for purchasing a new router in Sweden.

 

If the RT-AC1200 is easily accessible to you, falls within your budget, and you have the ability to return it with a refund if you don't like it, then go with that.

 

Looking at reviews of this wireless router on Newegg shows that it has mixed reviews. A big disappointment was the fact that the ports are only 10/100Mbps for both the WAN and LAN side, which is a ridiculous spec to have if your internet connection is faster than 100Mbps.

[Alex Atkin UK]

21 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

You never mentioned what are your retail/online options for purchasing a new router in Sweden.

 

If the RT-AC1200 is easily accessible to you, falls within your budget, and you have the ability to return it with a refund if you don't like it, then go with that.

 

Looking at reviews of this wireless router on Newegg shows that it has mixed reviews. A big disappointment was the fact that the ports are only 10/100Mbps for both the WAN and LAN side, which is a ridiculous spec to have if your internet connection is faster than 100Mbps.

Then its already a no-go as they said it needs to support 250/150 which obviously it wont.

[Kanna]

57 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

You never mentioned what are your retail/online options for purchasing a new router in Sweden.

 

If the RT-AC1200 is easily accessible to you, falls within your budget, and you have the ability to return it with a refund if you don't like it, then go with that.

 

Looking at reviews of this wireless router on Newegg shows that it has mixed reviews. A big disappointment was the fact that the ports are only 10/100Mbps for both the WAN and LAN side, which is a ridiculous spec to have if your internet connection is faster than 100Mbps.

Any shop works tbh, yeah I won’t get that one because those speeds could you maybe recommend me one?

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, Kanna said:

Any shop works tbh, yeah I won’t get that one because those speeds could you maybe recommend me one?

How much area of WiFi coverage do you need? For a single level or more?

 

This is my personal recommendation as I’ve used this setup and it just works...

 

Edgerouter-X ($64) + UAP-AC-Lite ($81)

 

You might be able to find better prices elsewhere.

[Kanna]

24 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

How much area of WiFi coverage do you need? For a single level or more?

 

This is my personal recommendation as I’ve used this setup and it just works...

 

Edgerouter-X ($64) + UAP-AC-Lite ($81)

 

You might be able to find better prices elsewhere.

Just a small apartment

[Alex Atkin UK]

All I can say is if you care about reliable Internet, don't skimp on your router.  Budget routers can bring all sorts of problems.

 

DDoS protection in a router is practically worthless however, as even if your router blocks connections they still take up CPU time and bandwidth, which is where a DDoS occurs.  DDoS protection has to be performed further up the chain, at your ISP, to have any protective impact on your much smaller broadband link.  This is why companies like Cloudflare have massive amounts of bandwidth and insanely powerful routers, much more than they would otherwise actually need, so they can absorb DDoS attacks.

[metaleggman]

Sounds like this would work well. Sub 1000 kr, has 4 gigabit ethernet ports, nice wireless throughput, 2.4ghz support, and afaik, most asus routers can do port forwarding (if not most all consumer routers; afaik the issue is it's with routers from your isp). You can check the manual for the specific model to be sure.

[Alex Atkin UK]

50 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

Sounds like this would work well. Sub 1000 kr, has 4 gigabit ethernet ports, nice wireless throughput, 2.4ghz support, and afaik, most asus routers can do port forwarding (if not most all consumer routers; afaik the issue is it's with routers from your isp). You can check the manual for the specific model to be sure.

That's still a little on the bargain basement side, not sure what speeds it supports.

 

Unfortunately Gigabit ethernet ports does not guarantee what speed it can route Internet packets at.  Cheaper routers can top out around 100-150Mbit which is a problem if you need 250Mbit down and 150Mbit up.  I'm not sure about this model, what we need to know is the NAT speed.

[metaleggman]

9 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

That's still a little on the bargain basement side, not sure what speeds it supports.

 

Unfortunately Gigabit ethernet ports does not guarantee what speed it can route Internet packets at.  Cheaper routers can top out around 100-150Mbit which is a problem if you need 250Mbit down and 150Mbit up.  I'm not sure about this model, what we need to know is the NAT speed.

I'm not entirely sure what you believe to exist below 1000 kr; unless OP is able to buy used gear locally (which they have already explained is difficult), OP is quite literally shopping in the bargain basement in terms of consumer routers.  They already requested something lower than the 130 pound price (well over 1000 kr) of routers provided initially, only to be provided something that was admitted to be bad, for...some reason (though I've had bad experiences with TP link, so I wouldn't suggest 'em).

As to the speeds the router supports, they're on Asus's website.  If the model is reportedly bad, or the specs are not what OP is looking for, I'm happy to have my suggestion criticized, but your post seems like it would only serve to confuse OP further.  Just saying you're not sure just seems...odd?  Especially when you're clearly a competent individual, given what appears to be a very nice network setup.  If you wish to look, look here.

Given that it's a Wifi 5 router and OP is in a small apartment, I can't imagine they will have any outstanding issues unless they overload the router with too many simultaneous connections.  My mentioning gigabit ethernet ports is specifically related to your reply to a post about a router with 10/100 ethernet ports for WAN and LAN.  Both WAN and LAN appear to be gigabit, so OP should get close to their connection speeds using the router.  It also has port forwarding, as OP requested (though I do wonder what ports they're forwarding and why; hope it's not 53...), as well as 2.4GHz support for their older devices.  In fact, it has a guest network, so if need be, OP might even be able to isolate legacy devices on a guest network.

As to NAT speeds, I'm sure OP would find it helpful to either explain what you mean, or provide a router that's competent in this way.  I've never heard of NAT speeds, but I'm willing to learn.

[Alex Atkin UK]

22 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

As to NAT speeds, I'm sure OP would find it helpful to either explain what you mean, or provide a router that's competent in this way.  I've never heard of NAT speeds, but I'm willing to learn.

NAT stands for Network Address Translation, its what a router does to allow a single public IP address to work across a private LAN.  So the NAT speed is the actual amount of bandwidth the routers CPU is capable of handling.

 

Trouble is, router manufacturers don't tell you or they give you an absolute best-case scenario that isn't necessarily realistic to real-world usage (WiFi and Internet at the same time adds more CPU load than wired LAN and enabling QoS can drop the speed by an order of magnitude).

 

I admit I should probably have just bowed out of the conversation, my intent was merely to ensure the OP did not rush out and buy a router that was not suitable before more people weighed in on the conversation.  Unfortunately it backfired as I was unable to revise my post with suggestions (the SmallNetBuilder site DOES test NAT speed but I couldn't get their search to work properly to find the right part of their chart for the speeds we were looking for) and nobody else offered suggestions either.

 

I apologise if it caused confusion.

[Kanna]

@Alex Atkin UK @metaleggman I can go above the budget and this is a site I can work with ( might not understand site lol) also no I won't be opening port 53 I will be opening ports for game servers and servers in general 

[metaleggman]

8 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

NAT stands for Network Address Translation, its what a router does to allow a single public IP address to work across a private LAN.  So the NAT speed is the actual amount of bandwidth the routers CPU is capable of handling.

 

Trouble is, router manufacturers don't tell you or they give you an absolute best-case scenario that isn't necessarily realistic to real-world usage (WiFi and Internet at the same time adds more CPU load than wired LAN and enabling QoS can drop the speed by an order of magnitude).

 

I admit I should probably have just bowed out of the conversation, my intent was merely to ensure the OP did not rush out and buy a router that was not suitable before more people weighed in on the conversation.  Unfortunately it backfired as I was unable to revise my post with suggestions (the SmallNetBuilder site DOES test NAT speed but I couldn't get their search to work properly to find the right part of their chart for the speeds we were looking for) and nobody else offered suggestions either.

 

I apologise if it caused confusion.

No it's okay, and I apologize if I came off too harsh.  I think I was just taken aback a little, because of the gear you're rocking and the reply (and I was tired and maybe a little...uh, tipsy so any rudeness is on me).  I hope you don't bow out of the conversation, since you could surely help op pick out something good!  If you weren't here, I wouldn't have even known SmallNetBuilder was a thing! 

[Falcon1986]

19 hours ago, metaleggman said:

Sounds like this would work well. Sub 1000 kr, has 4 gigabit ethernet ports, nice wireless throughput, 2.4ghz support, and afaik, most asus routers can do port forwarding (if not most all consumer routers; afaik the issue is it's with routers from your isp). You can check the manual for the specific model to be sure.

The RT-AC59U looks good from a few of the reviews that I've seen. Looks like a model unique to Europe and Asia. It should be able to provide what the OP needs for a small apartment.

[metaleggman]

5 hours ago, Kanna said:

@Alex Atkin UK @metaleggman I can go above the budget and this is a site I can work with ( might not understand site lol) also no I won't be opening port 53 I will be opening ports for game servers and servers in general 

Haha nice!  Sounds fun.  Only reason is because I was under the false impression that xbox needed port 53 forwarded, mostly because their article on open ports is somewhat vague, for um...longer than I'd like to admit   Only realized my mistake when setting up my pihole.  Thankfully I only forward ports to specific devices, not across the network or something...

How does this one sound?  It's a little more expensive than 1000 kr, but it tests very well.  It's the router I mentioned I'm using as a bridge.  @Alex Atkin UK what do you think?  I'm a big fan of the netgear web gui and features, but I believe it's compatible with DD WRT and Fresh Tomato, if you need some other feature (it isn't compatible with Open WRT because of the broadcom drivers not being fully open source).

[Kanna]

10 minutes ago, metaleggman said:

Haha nice!  Sounds fun.  Only reason is because I was under the false impression that xbox needed port 53 forwarded, mostly because their article on open ports is somewhat vague, for um...longer than I'd like to admit   Only realized my mistake when setting up my pihole.  Thankfully I only forward ports to specific devices, not across the network or something...

How does this one sound?  It's a little more expensive than 1000 kr, but it tests very well.  It's the router I mentioned I'm using as a bridge.  @Alex Atkin UK what do you think?  I'm a big fan of the netgear web gui and features, but I believe it's compatible with DD WRT and Fresh Tomato, if you need some other feature (it isn't compatible with Open WRT because of the broadcom drivers not being fully open source).

The Netgear Nighthawk R7000 seems to fit my needs and isn’t to expensive either

[Alex Atkin UK]

2 hours ago, Kanna said:

The Netgear Nighthawk R7000 seems to fit my needs and isn’t to expensive either

Yup, sounds good.  Its always a bonus when they support custom firmware as not only do you have a fallback if they stop supporting the official firmware, or introduce a bug, but people also test the NAT performance.

 

Obviously I don't recommend installing DD-WRT firmware so long as the official firmware does everything you need it to.

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 hours ago, Falcon1986 said:

The RT-AC59U looks good from a few of the reviews that I've seen. Looks like a model unique to Europe and Asia. It should be able to provide what the OP needs for a small apartment.

I guess that explains why there is no mention of it on SNB, although they only test a tiny minority of routers to begin with.  It really is annoying how few reviews test NAT performance, they stick it on their broadband and see how it performs, which is the WORST way to test as it depends entirely on how their ISP and sites like speedtest.net are performing that day.

We really could do with a YT channel like Hardware Unboxed that caters entirely to routers.