Recommend me a router for my 600Mb/s internet

[Caphalem]

Hello,

 

I'm currently moving to a new apartment and I would like to get a router. I don't know much about routers so I figured I could ask you guys. The new apartment is 79m² big (one floor) and having wi-fi for the whole place would be nice. It would have to be capable of passing at least a couple of concrete walls, however. I'm ordering 600Mb/s speed internet and I'm pretty sure I won't need a modem.

 

Any suggestions or just pro router choosing tips would be helpful

[tlink]

anything from this list is capable of supplying >600mbit connection over 2.4ghz, 5ghz and lan. any other functionality you would like, like esata so you can use it as a NAS? or good open source support so you can flash stuff like WRT? or would you prefer a set and forget system? also how many lan ports do you prefer? just ignore that its in a different language, the router names are the important part. most specs are in english anyways.

https://tweakers.net/categorie/560/modems-en-routers/producten/#filter:TY5BCoMwEEXv8tcpJGkyxhyg0EJXXZYuRLMIaJVYSkG8e8emqKvJvDz-nwl9akI6xdA28BjrPgWIDG9DqM9MD0pgSLEO1_iElwIjf5xi-wpphJ-glS2W-a5a-DsuFR6zgDHkVrpAZtoq2pnKlpRdJ38J3VIAkpJP6KoPv5XkJRtuMxzRamhFxT97Z5DdMgqdM3Rp1K6djs5w-zx_AQ

[Donut417]

The big issues is concrete. WiFi and Concrete do not mix. You might find a router to do what you want. I just doubt it. I have a dual band Wireless N router. Going through 2 walls of dry wall and plaster I lost at least 50% signal strength on 5 Ghz. 5Ghz is where all the speed is. 2.4 Ghz will probably do much better. Just put what ever router you get Higher up and in a centralized location for best coverage. 

[Mornincupofhate]

600Mbps or 600MB/s (5gbps)?

[System Error Message]

pretty sure he means 600Mb/s but people tend to get it wrong, should always remind people about bites and bytes, bandwidth and speed (latency).

 

a lot of consumer routers will do what you ask it really depends on what you want from a router other than wifi. You should take a look at the chips used for it. wikidevi shows it where you can see all the specs and it helps to compare similar routers that use the same chips too in terms of experiences.

 

1 wifi router if placed in the middle will cover your entire apartment but people usually place them at the edge which is what leads to bad reception and strong reception of your wifi to your neighbours. If you have to run a cable so that you can place it in the middle, more towards where you use wifi.

 

As for wifi a lot of devices even those with wifi AC will struggle to get 600Mb/s as many are equipped with single (phones) or dual channel (many laptops) 5Ghz wifi AC so dont expect performance out of it.

[Caphalem]

Don't have much of an internet at my new home so I'm slow to respond but thank you so much for your responses!

 

On ‎2016‎.‎10‎.‎15 at 10:49 PM, tlink said:

anything from this list is capable of supplying >600mbit connection over 2.4ghz, 5ghz and lan. any other functionality you would like, like esata so you can use it as a NAS? or good open source support so you can flash stuff like WRT? or would you prefer a set and forget system? also how many lan ports do you prefer? just ignore that its in a different language, the router names are the important part. most specs are in english anyways.

https://tweakers.net/categorie/560/modems-en-routers/producten/#filter:TY5BCoMwEEXv8tcpJGkyxhyg0EJXXZYuRLMIaJVYSkG8e8emqKvJvDz-nwl9akI6xdA28BjrPgWIDG9DqM9MD0pgSLEO1_iElwIjf5xi-wpphJ-glS2W-a5a-DsuFR6zgDHkVrpAZtoq2pnKlpRdJ38J3VIAkpJP6KoPv5XkJRtuMxzRamhFxT97Z5DdMgqdM3Rp1K6djs5w-zx_AQ

I'm not planning on doing anything fancy like a NAS or WRT at the moment. Port wise, I don't think that I'd need more than 4 or 5. I'm thinking about NETGEAR R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 but I'm worried that it will just stop operating normally after it's waranty. (I could get a 2 year waranty on it) It seems to be a pretty strong router but with the hopes of getting an even more powerful internet in the future it would fit nicely. The only concern - would it make it to that future?

 

On ‎2016‎.‎10‎.‎16 at 0:31 AM, Donut417 said:

The big issues is concrete. WiFi and Concrete do not mix. You might find a router to do what you want. I just doubt it. I have a dual band Wireless N router. Going through 2 walls of dry wall and plaster I lost at least 50% signal strength on 5 Ghz. 5Ghz is where all the speed is. 2.4 Ghz will probably do much better. Just put what ever router you get Higher up and in a centralized location for best coverage. 

Yeah, I inspected the apartment more closely and I'm pretty sure I could place it more strategically so it only needs to pass 1 wall at the most and even then there would be a door in that wall.

 

On ‎2016‎.‎10‎.‎16 at 1:22 AM, Mornincupofhate said:

600Mbps or 600MB/s (5gbps)?

600Mbps

 

On ‎2016‎.‎10‎.‎16 at 6:52 AM, System Error Message said:

pretty sure he means 600Mb/s but people tend to get it wrong, should always remind people about bites and bytes, bandwidth and speed (latency).

 

a lot of consumer routers will do what you ask it really depends on what you want from a router other than wifi. You should take a look at the chips used for it. wikidevi shows it where you can see all the specs and it helps to compare similar routers that use the same chips too in terms of experiences.

 

1 wifi router if placed in the middle will cover your entire apartment but people usually place them at the edge which is what leads to bad reception and strong reception of your wifi to your neighbours. If you have to run a cable so that you can place it in the middle, more towards where you use wifi.

 

As for wifi a lot of devices even those with wifi AC will struggle to get 600Mb/s as many are equipped with single (phones) or dual channel (many laptops) 5Ghz wifi AC so dont expect performance out of it.

Hm... As I mentioned above, I'm interested in the NETGEAR R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 but after taking a look into the WikiDevi I discovered ASUS RT-AC68U which is similar, slightly cheaper (slower though), has just as many Newegg reviews but better score.

 

Can't help but wonder that perhaps there are simpler, reliable routers for my needs.

[System Error Message]

The netgear r7000 actually uses good hardware but to make the most of it you have to install custom firmware. My recommendation would be the r7000 with vortex fork of rmerlin firmware as you get the goodness of asus firmware rather than netgear's terrible firmware while retaining hardware acceleration which is what you will need to get 600Mb/s especially when you use PPPOE.

 

Its not to do with the CPU rather the wireless chips that matter for wireless performance and to some extent the design. Netgear makes good hardware but have bad firmware while asus makes both good hardware and firmware. Even the asus AC68U is also a good choice too so its up to you which one to get. What matters is whether or not you will get 600Mb/s of NAT with PPPOE out of it and any other features you want from it.

[Caphalem]

6 hours ago, System Error Message said:

The netgear r7000 actually uses good hardware but to make the most of it you have to install custom firmware. My recommendation would be the r7000 with vortex fork of rmerlin firmware as you get the goodness of asus firmware rather than netgear's terrible firmware while retaining hardware acceleration which is what you will need to get 600Mb/s especially when you use PPPOE.

 

Its not to do with the CPU rather the wireless chips that matter for wireless performance and to some extent the design. Netgear makes good hardware but have bad firmware while asus makes both good hardware and firmware. Even the asus AC68U is also a good choice too so its up to you which one to get. What matters is whether or not you will get 600Mb/s of NAT with PPPOE out of it and any other features you want from it.

Well I won't deny that installing custom firmware on a router would be an interesting project since I've never done it before. On the other hand, what is the likelyhood of me messing up my rather expensive router?

[System Error Message]

6 hours ago, Caphalem said:

Well I won't deny that installing custom firmware on a router would be an interesting project since I've never done it before. On the other hand, what is the likelyhood of me messing up my rather expensive router?

as long as the firmware can be installed via the update firmware field on stock firmware. In order to support 600Mb/s you will need hardware acceleration so only firmwares like RMerlin's firmware support it as it uses the same base as the stock asus firmware.

 

If anyone mentions something like the ERL avoid it as you dont have the skill for it and more expensive asus routers (like the ac3200 and newer) can do NAT with adaptive QoS.

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, Caphalem said:

Well I won't deny that installing custom firmware on a router would be an interesting project since I've never done it before. On the other hand, what is the likelyhood of me messing up my rather expensive router?

You can brick the router if it goes bad. Thats why you triple read all the directions before you do anything and follow them to the letter. Ive installed DDWRT on my router, as the 2.4Ghz radio would drop out. Was going to go buy an Archer C9 for $130. Installed the 3rd party firmware and it saved me $130. 

 

 

[Caphalem]

6 hours ago, Donut417 said:

You can brick the router if it goes bad. Thats why you triple read all the directions before you do anything and follow them to the letter. Ive installed DDWRT on my router, as the 2.4Ghz radio would drop out. Was going to go buy an Archer C9 for $130. Installed the 3rd party firmware and it saved me $130. 

 

 

Nice! Well I don't have any issues with carefully following instructions as I'm one of those people that actually read the IKEA instructions before trying to assemble the thing lol.

 

8 hours ago, System Error Message said:

as long as the firmware can be installed via the update firmware field on stock firmware. In order to support 600Mb/s you will need hardware acceleration so only firmwares like RMerlin's firmware support it as it uses the same base as the stock asus firmware.

 

If anyone mentions something like the ERL avoid it as you dont have the skill for it and more expensive asus routers (like the ac3200 and newer) can do NAT with adaptive QoS.

Do you have any more recommendations on what firmware to install?

[System Error Message]

RMerlin firmware keeps things as stock as possible. Openwrt is good but you lose hardware NAT which you will need for your speeds, unless you want to spend more to get a real router.

[Caphalem]

14 minutes ago, System Error Message said:

RMerlin firmware keeps things as stock as possible. Openwrt is good but you lose hardware NAT which you will need for your speeds, unless you want to spend more to get a real router.

Alright then, I'll look into RMerlin. Thanks!

[kirashi]

On 10/17/2016 at 0:29 AM, Caphalem said:

 

I'm not planning on doing anything fancy like a NAS or WRT at the moment. Port wise, I don't think that I'd need more than 4 or 5. I'm thinking about NETGEAR R7000 Nighthawk AC1900 but I'm worried that it will just stop operating normally after it's waranty. (I could get a 2 year waranty on it) It seems to be a pretty strong router but with the hopes of getting an even more powerful internet in the future it would fit nicely. The only concern - would it make it to that future?

 

23 hours ago, System Error Message said:

The netgear r7000 actually uses good hardware but to make the most of it you have to install custom firmware. My recommendation would be the r7000 with vortex fork of rmerlin firmware as you get the goodness of asus firmware rather than netgear's terrible firmware while retaining hardware acceleration which is what you will need to get 600Mb/s especially when you use PPPOE.

 

Its not to do with the CPU rather the wireless chips that matter for wireless performance and to some extent the design. Netgear makes good hardware but have bad firmware while asus makes both good hardware and firmware. Even the asus AC68U is also a good choice too so its up to you which one to get. What matters is whether or not you will get 600Mb/s of NAT with PPPOE out of it and any other features you want from it.

17 hours ago, Caphalem said:

Well I won't deny that installing custom firmware on a router would be an interesting project since I've never done it before. On the other hand, what is the likelyhood of me messing up my rather expensive router?

HELLO THERE; Fellow R7000 Addict reporting in here. You ask, I'll answer! All I demand is 1 (one) cookie and a beer.

No, but seriously, I settled on the R7000 in late 2014, and love it so much I've had friends buy them as well. (Always on sale, of course.)

Please keep in mind that custom firmware doesn't mean the range or speed will improve, but gives you more features for free.

 

I used to use the Kong-AC DD-WRT build on it, but that started to become a little buggy as they kept releasing beta builds and stuff.

(Build r29300 is decent enough, and from September of this year, so it would work just fine.)

There is a basic readme here for Kong-AC firmware, but it's pretty barebones.

You might want to familiarize yourself with the DD-WRT Wiki Entry on the Netgear R7000 first.

There is also a list of Kong R7000 Configuration Best Practices or Working Solutions located on the forums to check out.

 

I now use Tomato-based Shibby firmware since I've found it to be easier than DD-WRT for home use, and easy is good because I'm lazy.

(Shibby is one of the guys who continued development of the original Tomato-WRT firmware when the original dev stepped down in 2011.)

It's a lot more Javascript heavy than DD-WRT, which means less page refreshes when changing settings.  And it's pretty too.

 

The other good thing is that the R7000 has exposed serial headers on the mainboard - this means it's essentially unbrickable.

If you ever put it in a state of poop-fart herp-derp mode, you can unbrick it as long as it powers on and the bootloader works.

(The bootloader is not something you can easily modify on a router, so if it powers up, there's a bootloader running.)

Now, I've never had to serial recover any of the 5+ routers I currently own that have DD-WRT on them, but it's good to know.

 

RMerlin was my second choice of firmware when I started looking for an alternative to DD-WRT, but I stuck with whatever worked first.

As @System Error Message has said, it does keep things more stock based, which might be good if you're not super technical.

[Caphalem]

21 hours ago, kirashi said:

HELLO THERE; Fellow R7000 Addict reporting in here. You ask, I'll answer! All I demand is 1 (one) cookie and a beer.

No, but seriously, I settled on the R7000 in late 2014, and love it so much I've had friends buy them as well. (Always on sale, of course.)

Please keep in mind that custom firmware doesn't mean the range or speed will improve, but gives you more features for free.

 

I used to use the Kong-AC DD-WRT build on it, but that started to become a little buggy as they kept releasing beta builds and stuff.

(Build r29300 is decent enough, and from September of this year, so it would work just fine.)

There is a basic readme here for Kong-AC firmware, but it's pretty barebones.

You might want to familiarize yourself with the DD-WRT Wiki Entry on the Netgear R7000 first.

There is also a list of Kong R7000 Configuration Best Practices or Working Solutions located on the forums to check out.

 

I now use Tomato-based Shibby firmware since I've found it to be easier than DD-WRT for home use, and easy is good because I'm lazy.

(Shibby is one of the guys who continued development of the original Tomato-WRT firmware when the original dev stepped down in 2011.)

It's a lot more Javascript heavy than DD-WRT, which means less page refreshes when changing settings.  And it's pretty too.

 

The other good thing is that the R7000 has exposed serial headers on the mainboard - this means it's essentially unbrickable.

If you ever put it in a state of poop-fart herp-derp mode, you can unbrick it as long as it powers on and the bootloader works.

(The bootloader is not something you can easily modify on a router, so if it powers up, there's a bootloader running.)

Now, I've never had to serial recover any of the 5+ routers I currently own that have DD-WRT on them, but it's good to know.

 

RMerlin was my second choice of firmware when I started looking for an alternative to DD-WRT, but I stuck with whatever worked first.

As @System Error Message has said, it does keep things more stock based, which might be good if you're not super technical.

Wow, didn't expect to find someone who likes this router so much  Lucky! After reading Newegg reviews most of the complaints were that it either stops working properly couple of months past the warranty or that the wifi has some issues (such as it starts slowing down download speeds until it it completely stops and then you have to restart the router, or the connection just randomly dissapears). What issues did you and/or your friends had if any?

 

Tomato-based Shibby firmware looks really sexy, very compelling indeed. Might be the first one I'll try out

 

Also, thanks for such a detailed post!

[kirashi]

22 minutes ago, Caphalem said:

Wow, didn't expect to find someone who likes this router so much  Lucky! After reading Newegg reviews most of the complaints were that it either stops working properly couple of months past the warranty or that the wifi has some issues (such as it starts slowing down download speeds until it it completely stops and then you have to restart the router, or the connection just randomly dissapears). What issues did you and/or your friends had if any?

 

Tomato-based Shibby firmware looks really sexy, very compelling indeed. Might be the first one I'll try out

 

Also, thanks for such a detailed post!

Friends and I have had no qualms with our R7000's as of yet. One friend is even still running the stock Netgear firmware.

 

Issues (or lack thereof):

Mine has been up for 37 days solid. Would be longer if we didn't have a power outage.

Tech savvy friend has been running the same Tomato Shibby version (v138 AIO) that I am running, and he's got no complaints.

Now, the friend running the stock firmware isn't super tech savvy, so navigating the interface wasn't super easy for him.

 

The unit I had my boss purchase for their family-run business is running DD-WRT and hasn't dropped connections often.

(it only drops them because it's shared with the kids, and they overload it with so many connections that my head wants to explode.)

I might install a secondary router for the kids PC's, and throttle the crap out of them, or get a PowerLine AV kit to connect to the residential line upstairs.

 

I actually forgot to mention that the R7000 is the router we unofficially installed in the tech centre at the retail store I used to work at.

We had to supplement the "upgraded" in-store WiFi with something that could actually handle our 50+ demo display computers...

Needless to say, it handled between 50-70 on-shelf demo display computers, including a slew of Apple devices, and our personal phones.

It also never dropped connections, and I believe the highest number of devices I saw connected over WiFi was around 113 or so.

Oh, I'd also like to note that it can reach the breakroom about 100ft away through 3 walls from where the router is located.

 

Length of Ownership:

My unit has been in service for just over 2 years as I said. I did have reboot and crashing issues, but that was configuration stupidity on my part.

The tech savvy friend and family business only bought theirs within the last 8 months, and they appear to be the same hardware revision as mine.

The non-so-savvy friend has had his for about 1.5 years, and I haven't been called over there to look at it so that's good.

As far as I know, the unit at the retail store I used to work at is still online, and supplying the demo display internet just fine.

 

If I had the money, I'd setup a MESH network using these routers around my neighborhood.

But then again, at that point one would be better off buying a single Ubiquiti Edge Router and running multiple Wireless Access Points from it.

[Caphalem]

On 2016-10-19 at 9:24 AM, kirashi said:

Friends and I have had no qualms with our R7000's as of yet. One friend is even still running the stock Netgear firmware.

 

Issues (or lack thereof):

Mine has been up for 37 days solid. Would be longer if we didn't have a power outage.

Tech savvy friend has been running the same Tomato Shibby version (v138 AIO) that I am running, and he's got no complaints.

Now, the friend running the stock firmware isn't super tech savvy, so navigating the interface wasn't super easy for him.

 

The unit I had my boss purchase for their family-run business is running DD-WRT and hasn't dropped connections often.

(it only drops them because it's shared with the kids, and they overload it with so many connections that my head wants to explode.)

I might install a secondary router for the kids PC's, and throttle the crap out of them, or get a PowerLine AV kit to connect to the residential line upstairs.

 

I actually forgot to mention that the R7000 is the router we unofficially installed in the tech centre at the retail store I used to work at.

We had to supplement the "upgraded" in-store WiFi with something that could actually handle our 50+ demo display computers...

Needless to say, it handled between 50-70 on-shelf demo display computers, including a slew of Apple devices, and our personal phones.

It also never dropped connections, and I believe the highest number of devices I saw connected over WiFi was around 113 or so.

Oh, I'd also like to note that it can reach the breakroom about 100ft away through 3 walls from where the router is located.

 

Length of Ownership:

My unit has been in service for just over 2 years as I said. I did have reboot and crashing issues, but that was configuration stupidity on my part.

The tech savvy friend and family business only bought theirs within the last 8 months, and they appear to be the same hardware revision as mine.

The non-so-savvy friend has had his for about 1.5 years, and I haven't been called over there to look at it so that's good.

As far as I know, the unit at the retail store I used to work at is still online, and supplying the demo display internet just fine.

 

If I had the money, I'd setup a MESH network using these routers around my neighborhood.

But then again, at that point one would be better off buying a single Ubiquiti Edge Router and running multiple Wireless Access Points from it.

Finally got my internet up and running in my new home. My isp lent me a D-Link Wireless AC1200 Dual Band Gigabit Router for the time being. I think it overheated already after I uploaded around 250 pics to my dropbox lol as the speed went tits up. Anyway, I'm sold on the Netgear Nighthawk R7000 Gonna get it in a week or so.

[SU26Crashing]

Recently purchased a new laptop, and the WNDR3700v1 finally stopped transmitting 2.4ghz after I used the WPS "feature" (never used it previously) perhaps just the age of the router. The 5ghz is unstable.. I've been looking at the R7000 for a replacement, I don't need (or will use) advanced functions but need it to be solid as a home router. I'm in grad school,a stable connection is more important than features at this point.  The WNDR3700 was solid, the firmware got the job done, but based on reviews ~15% of these routers are defective. Any other routers I should be considering?

[foobar42]

If you wan't to spend a bit more money, but get way better wifi and a more flexible router in return, instead of looking at consumer equipment I'd consider to look at the low end enterprise router range (edgerouter lite comes to mind) and at solid wifi from aruba equipment, everything from the 210 series upward should be able to handle 600mbps when configured properly (80mhz channel width, empty channel). make sure you get the instant variant, which is able to operate without controller. also, ignore the list price, you can get them way cheeper used on ebay.