Help in finding a new router

[BlueMooneke]

Hi guys,

a friend of mine adivsed to ask this question on this forum. I'm in search of a new router for my home network. I'm in the process of gigabitifying the network and the only thing left is the router.

What I need is:

• a minimum of 4 Gb LAN ports
• a very strong wifi signal (big house with lots of walls)
• a very STABLE router

The network consists of 7 PC's and a home server. The home server provides file storage, web services and a minecraft server. The router needs to be 100% stable, running 24/7 to keep the server online.
I saw the NCIX tech tips video on the WD N900, but was thinking it might already be outdated.

Any suggestions would be highly welcome!
Thanks

[MG2R]

Hi!

 

First of all, welcome to the forums! I'm sure you'll have a nice time here ;)

 

On topic:I'm not an expert on this, but you can't go wrong with Cisco. I would say Cisco or Linksys but since Linksys got acquired, I don't know if their quality is still the same. I hope some more qualified than me has some good options.

[Darren]

If you're demanding something like that, I'd steer away from the consumer grade stuff, mainly due to the wireless. Grab yourself a Ubiquiti UniFi AP and a small office style router. I'd shoot for Ubiquiti for that too, but the only router they've released so far is the Lite :(

I recommend a dedicated wireless AP solution due to reliability and the increased likelihood that it will actually meet his/her requirements.

[MG2R]

I recommend a dedicated wireless AP solution due to reliability and the increased likelihood that it will actually meet his/her requirements.

With dedicated wifi AP's you have the added benefit of being able to position them in the center of your house, which helps the signal strength a fair bit.

[Thunderjolt]

The very high end Netgear routers are very good. They also come with Wireless 802.11ac

Anything from Netgear, Linksys, Cisco, D-Link are very good routers in my opinion.

[Silentsoul]

I have the Asus Rt-ac66u and the range and signal strength are amazing. Also, have not dropped connection since I got it a few months ago.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100010076%2050001315&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=20

A professional solution may fit your needs better though if you want to spend the extra money.

[LAwLz]

The My Net N900 is not outdated. Or well, it depends on what you mean by outdated. It got 450 + 450Mbps wireless N, which is pretty much as good as it'll get for wireless N. It has 7 Gigabit port which is good for a consumer router, it has USB 2.0 ports which is nice and so on.
Yes, you can get 802.11ac (which goes above 1Gbps) and yes there are a few routers with USB 3.0 on them, but they are really expensive and won't really offer that big of a difference (802.11ac is so new that barely anything uses it, and some of the things which does can't take advantage of the higher speeds anyway).
 
It's hard to say what will be good without knowing how your house looks, what it's made out of and so on, but the N900 is pretty much as good as you'll get in terms of wireless range and speed (except 802.11ac when it becomes more widely adopted, right now it's fairly useless, and it will only increase speed as far as I know).
It's also hard to say what will be reliable/stable. I personally use an RT-N56U from Asus in my home network and it has been rock solid ever since I got it, but several people on the forums have stability issues.
 
A think worth noting with the Ubiquiti UniFi AP (as well as the Aironet which I was going to recommend, but decided against) is that they are not consumer grade, and not to be rude but I don't think you will be able to handle them. I haven't used Ubiquiti but if they are like the Cisco Aironet series, then you need to know how to use a CLI on network equipment, as well as how a network works (pretty low level things as well, in order to get it working properly). Also, you want to be very careful when buying something called "Lite" because chances are that it's a so called LAP (lightweight Access Point) and they require a WLC to work.
 
Advice on how to get good rang/stability/speed in your wireless network:

• Check which channels are used in your area. If there are several networks around you, try to set your network on a channel 5 channels away (for example if someone uses channel 1 near you, use channel 6, and if someone uses channel 3 then use channel 8.
• Try to only use 802.11n devices, and if you do, manually set the router to only use 802.11n and disable any kind of a/b/g protection (also called RTS/CTS). Only do this if you are 100% sure that all devices can use 802.11n, if they don't and you do it anyway, then these devices won't be able to connect to the network.
• Position it properly. Contrary to popular beliefs, the range of a wireless device is not a sphere, it's more like a doughnut (a very brutally handled doughnut) so if you position it on the floor in the basement, then it won't have as good coverage upstairs, as if it was placed on a bookshelf in the basement. I have attached a polar chart at the end of this post which shows how the wireless signal from an "omnidirectional" really is. The left is the signal looking at it from above, and the right chart is looking at it from the side.
• Use 2.4GHz if you want long range and got lots of objects in the way. 2.4GHz is far better at penetrating solid objects than 5GHz is.
• You might want to consider using PowerLine instead of wireless.

 

[BlueMooneke]

Thanks for those quick answers!

@LAwLz:
I don't need the powerlines. We're still managing the cables and every room has an ethernet connection (really every room). The wireless part should be used for smartphones and when I want to be in the garden with my laptop. Our garden is quite large, so that's why I was hoping to get a router with decent wifi coverage.

This house is used as an office, so a small office router was the plan but I don't want to go too professional (like CLI on network equipment seems to pro to me for just setting up a fast network, however I would definitely try it just to learn how that stuff works)

@Darren:
I don't want to put up another wireless AP. It won't be used that much as it will only be used for smartphones and small laptops.

I also have my modem (with router included) which is able to put up a wifi network (currently 2 wifi networks to cover the whole house)


I'll describe the total setup to make the final conclusion:

Modem (+router): situated in the garage on the bottom floor on the front of the house (ofcourse!)
New router: situated on the back of the house on the first floor
All PC's and the server will be behind the new router (with gigabit switches/hubs in between)

As I checked the used channels, I found out only 2 channels being used: channel 1 & 11. So I still got some room for choosing my channel!

Final textblock:
My shop suggested these models:

• Draytek vigor 2130N (175 euro's)
• Draytek vigor 2920N (280 euro's)

The last one is too expensive and I've never heard of that brand so I don't really like the suggestion.

Hope this info will help to make the final decision.

 

[LAwLz]

As I checked the used channels, I found out only 2 channels being used: channel 1 & 11. So I still got some room for choosing my channel!

That's perfect. Pick channel 6 and you won't have interference from the other two networks.

 

I quickly looked up some review on the Draytek Vigor 2130n you mentioned since I have never heard of that brand either. Be warned! It seems like they are not WiFi certified so they might not work with some wireless products (will probably do, but you can't be 100% sure).

The review I found also stacks it up against the Asus RT-N16, and the Asus wins a few tests (even though it's less than half the price).

Given the limitations and other issues with the 2130n's wireless feature set, I'd say its wireless portion is the weakest part of the product. And I certainly would not recommend buying the 2130n for its wireless performance alone!

 

I think it's best if you stay away from the 2130n if you're going to use it for wireless.

 

What you could do is get something like the Western Digital N900 from a store with a good return policy (a lot of stores where I live will take a product back, no question asked, for 30 days after the purchase),test how well it works, and then return it if it doesn't perform as you would have hoped for.

[Denned]

I can also recommend the Asus routers. Those a super stable, while being some of the best performing routers. If you're willing to spend the money I'd take the rt-ac66u. Personally I have the old n56 which have been running for a few years with barely any downtime.

The firmware is updated very often, great GUI etc.

 

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/lanwan/router-charts/view

[BlueMooneke]

@Everybody:
Thanks for the usefull info and suggestions!

At the end, I decided to go with the Asus RT-AC66U. It's a little bit more expensive but I guess that will pay off later on.

@LAwLz:
Don't got such a good shop where I could just "try" the hardware and see if it satisfies my needs... So I guess I just had to make a decision!

Again, thanks everybody for the suggestions!

[MG2R]

Don't forget to mark the thread as solved ;)

[DavePC]

Good luck with your purchase, I am so jelly of the ASUS RT-AC66U, I plan on getting it when I have a good internet connection*.

 

*hopefully someday, cause internet in canada SUCKS. controlled by one company. 45 down / 4 up is like 70 dollars.