Moving house need new wifi modem/router

Migit · January 28, 2016

Hey, I'm moving house in 2-3 weeks, and am going to need a new modem/router for my new place.

I'm in Victoria, Australia, so ISP will be Telstra as even though they're pricey they tend to also have best speeds/stability, unfortunately the area my new home is in currently only supports up to ADSL2+ so gonna have to settle with those speeds.

The basic modem/routers that come from the ISP are generally pretty poor in my experience, so just wondering what I should replace it with. I found an ASUS-DSL-N55U-C1 in my local PC store for ($118AUD) (~$83USD) and was wondering if its any good, or should I find something else?

My main rig will be connected via Ethernet, so WiFi will be for around the house use with portable electronics, phones/tablets/laptops etc, and my Smart TV, am planning on running a Plex Server too, so need it to be able to stream to the TV or other devices with good performance.

Price really isn't a problem, but I'm pretty sure I don't need a $500 version for my use.

skywake · January 28, 2016

My first suggestion would be to consider what's actually bad about the included modem/router. Because you're on ADSL2+ you're probably not going to be able to squeeze much more out of your connection anyways. So the bigger issue with the included router is the crappy WiFi and 100Mbps only ports. It's also worth noting that whatever happens in this country with internet odds are you're not going to be on ADSL2+ for that much longer. So it's probably not wise spending extra for gear that has an ADSL2+ modem built in. For example I'm probably getting VDSL2 by late 2018.... which should have been GPON but either way, it's still making my ADSL2+ gear useless.

As for the other side of your network the way I see it you have two options:

1. Get a Gigabit Switch (they're cheap) and pair it with a fancy access point (not quite as cheap)

2. Get something that does both (reasonably cheap)

Both of those will give you dual-band AC1200 as opposed to the N600 you get in the combo unit you linked. The first option will also give you more Gigabit ports and the ability to place the access point somewhere else. And if your ISP provided modem dies? Well, it's not hard to replace.

Migit · January 28, 2016

My first suggestion would be to consider what's actually bad about the included modem/router. Because you're on ADSL2+ you're probably not going to be able to squeeze much more out of your connection anyways. So the bigger issue with the included router is the crappy WiFi and 100Mbps only ports. It's also worth noting that whatever happens in this country with internet odds are you're not going to be on ADSL2+ for that much longer. So it's probably not wise spending extra for gear that has an ADSL2+ modem built in. For example I'm probably getting VDSL2 by late 2018.... which should have been GPON but either way, it's still making my ADSL2+ gear useless.

As for the other side of your network the way I see it you have two options:

1. Get a Gigabit Switch (they're cheap) and pair it with a fancy access point (not quite as cheap)

2. Get something that does both (reasonably cheap)

Both of those will give you dual-band AC1200 as opposed to the N600 you get in the combo unit you linked. The first option will also give you more Gigabit ports and the ability to place the access point somewhere else. And if your ISP provided modem dies? Well, it's not hard to replace.

Hmm okay, maybe ill just take option 2. If the default option doesn't work well enough for my liking.

How do you know what you're going to be changing too in the next 2-3 years?

skywake · January 28, 2016

How do you know what you're going to be changing too in the next 2-3 years?

http://www.mynbn.info/

Actually I looked at again and it seems as though I've slipped off the list. Again. Not sure if that's a good (still hopes for FTTH?) or bad (still waiting) thing though.....