New Router Time!

[John Duff]

Hello, its about time for me to switch out my N600 NetGear router for that of something newer and or higher quality. I have a price range that i can stretch up to $260, any ideas on a reliable, and in my case affordable, option?

[skywake]

@John Duff

What are you upgrading it for? If it's for improved wireless performance then I'd strongly recommend NOT buying a combo unit. There are plenty of decent stand-alone access points on the market. A lot of people will recommend Ubiquiti access points and there's a reason for that. They're widely available, affordable and pretty damn solid. It'll be better than the wireless you'll get on any consumer grade router combo unit.

 

If it's the router itself that's the issue? Well there are a lot of options. But odds are what you have now if it still works is probably good enough for consumer grade internet.

[mcraftax]

i would go for one of the Ubiquiti Edge Router (I would say the Lite if you have or can get a switch) and a Ubiquiti UniFi AC AP

[lbrwnie]

Would also recommend pfsense if you are a bit more of a software tinkerer and want more control of your gear. Also helps if you have an old/underpowered computer lying around. There are a lot of good videos on youtube that you can watch to understand the complex stuff. If you don't want to get into pfsense I would go with the ubiquiti mentioned in a different comment.

[John Duff]

17 hours ago, skywake said:

@John Duff

What are you upgrading it for? If it's for improved wireless performance then I'd strongly recommend NOT buying a combo unit. There are plenty of decent stand-alone access points on the market. A lot of people will recommend Ubiquiti access points and there's a reason for that. They're widely available, affordable and pretty damn solid. It'll be better than the wireless you'll get on any consumer grade router combo unit.

 

If it's the router itself that's the issue? Well there are a lot of options. But odds are what you have now if it still works is probably good enough for consumer grade internet.

The router is the issue, i have had it for a bit over 5 years and am finding myself constantly resting it due to wifi dropping every few hours. (Ethernet is fine) The main purpose of this purchase is to not only fix this problem but also provide slightly more range in addition to the possibility to higher speeds. Thanks for the advice with the combo unit, and i will start looking into Ubiqutit access points. Any other words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

[Beskamir]

Personally I can't imagine buying a prebuilt router anymore. If you can salvage an old computer and the power in your area is cheap enough then I'd recommend using pfsense. So much more functionality than what a prebuilt router can offer.

[John Duff]

3 hours ago, ElfFriend said:

Personally I can't imagine buying a prebuilt router anymore. If you can salvage an old computer and the power in your area is cheap enough then I'd recommend using pfsense. So much more functionality than what a prebuilt router can offer.

My knowledge of networking is very limited, that being said i have looked into this solution and regret to say i do not have any spare computers lying around. thanks for the idea

[Guest]

4 hours ago, John Duff said:

My knowledge of networking is very limited, that being said i have looked into this solution and regret to say i do not have any spare computers lying around. thanks for the idea

If your knowledge of networking is limited then avoid PFSense, Edgerouters, Cisco business/ent routers etc. Stick with retail boxes (Asus, Netgear, DLink ect)

[skywake]

8 hours ago, John Duff said:

My knowledge of networking is very limited, that being said i have looked into this solution and regret to say i do not have any spare computers lying around. thanks for the idea

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend going that route anyways. Enterprise grade access points like the ones Ubiquiti makes? They'll improve your wireless performance. For your router I'd again suggest just sticking with what you have and maybe disabling the access point portion. That's as simple as turning off the wireless radio. Then if it fails you can just go to the shops and get whatever cheap but decent-brand router is available. Disable it's wireless functions in the same way.

 

Really, unless you have a connection that's well above 100Mbps any old router will do. The routing functions are generally not the bottleneck for consumer grade connections. Generally the issue is the wireless whether it's clients being dropped, bad coverage or whatever. And there are some higher end access points that do a far better job.