Which router to get for my needs?

[ZeferiniX]

Hey guys, would like to ask what router should I get (or at least specs to look at) to get my full internet speed.

 

Situation:

1. I have a 100 Mbps Fiber Optic internet
2. Have 16 wireless devices that needs to be connected to the router.

 

Problem:

• My ISP provided me a dual-band modem/router that performs poorly when multiple devices are connected on both bands (2.4g & 5g).
  • 1-4 connected devices gives me my subscribed internet plan which is 100 Mbps consistently
  • 5-8 connected devices starts to drop around 50 Mbps
  • 8-10 connected devices gives me 20 Mbps
  • >10 connected devices, gives me less than 15Mbps and internet starts to become erratic (internet basically goes On/Off randomly on the device but the internet LED indicator is consistently lit up in the modem/router)

 

Other Info that might help:

• I tried an old Linksys E900 N300 (with Tomato custom firmware) to be directly connected thru wire on the modem/router and let all devices connect to it.
  • All 16 devices are connected but the Linksys can only give 40Mbps at best per device during speedtest

 

What I want to achieve:

• Fully get the 100 Mbps speed on each device during speedtest
• I want everyone to connect to a single router

 

I don't know much about routers as I was content previously with my old Linksys E900 along with my previous DSL 5 Mbps internet plan but now that I've got a huge upgrade, I'm guessing I'll be needing a better router (probably a gigabit router, pricey..). If I'll be needing a new one, can you suggest me a product? And what features/specs should I be looking at given my needs?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Edit:

 

1. I'd like to keep my ISP's modem/router, disable the wireless, and connect a secondary router to it then let everyone connect from there.

[Lurick]

Do you have a budget for a new router?

Who is your ISP? Would you keep their equipment and just disable the wireless or replace it?

[ZeferiniX]

7 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Do you have a budget for a new router?

Who is your ISP? Would you keep their equipment and just disable the wireless or replace it?

Thanks for the questions, I'll add the answer to that in the main question.

 

I'm from Philippines and would like to keep the cost low or at least just the bare minimum equipment to achieve what I want.

 

It's PLDT, the modem/router they gave is a PON ONU FiberHome. Not sure if that helps.

 

I'd like to keep their equipment, disable the wireless, and connect a secondary router to it then let everyone connect from there.

[Eastman51]

If your internet is 100mbps you don't need a gigabit router. You just need one that can handle 100mbps. And a word of advice, NEVER use an ISP provided router, they all suck. The Motorola router AT&T gave me can't handle more than 4 smartphones and an Amazon Fire TV....

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, Eastman51 said:

If your internet is 100mbps you don't need a gigabit router. You just need one that can handle 100mbps. And a word of advice, NEVER use an ISP provided router, they all suck. The Motorola router AT&T gave me can't handle more than 4 smartphones and an Amazon Fire TV....

The price difference between a router with gigabit and 100 meg ports these days is maybe a few dollars and for the extra speed you get for wired clients going LAN to LAN, I would gladly pay the extra couple bucks.

 

 

OP, for your needs check out the TP-Link Archer C1200 or Archer C7

[Eastman51]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

The price difference between a router with gigabit and 100 meg ports these days is maybe a few dollars and for the extra speed you get for wired clients going LAN to LAN, I would gladly pay the extra couple bucks.

 

 

OP, for your needs check out the TP-Link Archer C1200 or Archer C7

Depends on the area.  I physically can't get anything higher than 24mbps, so  its not worth it for me to get a gigabit router

[ZeferiniX]

22 minutes ago, Lurick said:

The price difference between a router with gigabit and 100 meg ports these days is maybe a few dollars and for the extra speed you get for wired clients going LAN to LAN, I would gladly pay the extra couple bucks.

 

 

OP, for your needs check out the TP-Link Archer C1200 or Archer C7

Everything's wireless in my case and I don't see any wired clients coming anytime soon so I'll be needing a reliable wireless connection.

 

Just checked the C1200 and Archer C7, the jump in the price between the two sure is pretty big here in my country. Considering these usually lasts a long time, I think I'll invest on Archer C7 (will wait for other suggestions and look around for alternatives while using C7 as comparison reference). The next step up from Asus RT-AC1200G+ is beyond my budget.

 

The C1200 costs around US$70 here while the Asus RT-AC1200G+ costs US$90 then Archer C7 at US$100.

 

Is there some huge throughput difference between the TP-Link C1200 vs the ASUS AC1200 given the price difference?

[Lurick]

4 minutes ago, ZeferiniX said:

Everything's wireless in my case and I don't see any wired clients coming anytime soon so I'll be needing a reliable wireless connection.

 

Just checked the C1200 and Archer C7, the jump in the price between the two sure is pretty big here in my country. Considering these usually lasts a long time, I think I'll invest on Archer C7 (will wait for other suggestions and look around for alternatives while using this as a C7 comparison reference). The next step up from Asus RT-AC1200G+ is beyond my budget.

 

The C1200 costs around US$70 here while the Asus RT-AC1200G+ costs US$90 then Archer C7 at US$100.

 

Is there some huge throughput difference between the TP-Link C1200 vs the ASUS AC1200 given the price difference?

There is a performance difference but it's upwards in the 800Mbps vs 850 Mbps range so I wouldn't worry about it. The C1200 seems to be able to handle a good number of clients by itself and I think it's newer than the Archer C7 so you might get support for a while longer.

[Donut417]

Well you got a ONT/Router. So instead of buying a router, it might be worth it to just buy a wireless AP. Like one from Ubiquti. It seems like you have a lot of wireless devices. Most consumer grade routers, not really built for tons of devices. While the Archer C7 is a decent router, I have set one up in the past, Im not sure it can handle all of your devices at the same time. Some routers just get over whelmed. Prosumer/Business stuff tends to be able to handle lots of devices. Thats just my take on it. 

 

Basically if you go this route, your ISP's box will still do the routing, but the AP would just do wireless. 

[mynameisjuan]

35 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Well you got a ONT/Router. So instead of buying a router, it might be worth it to just buy a wireless AP. Like one from Ubiquti. It seems like you have a lot of wireless devices. Most consumer grade routers, not really built for tons of devices. While the Archer C7 is a decent router, I have set one up in the past, Im not sure it can handle all of your devices at the same time. Some routers just get over whelmed. Prosumer/Business stuff tends to be able to handle lots of devices. Thats just my take on it. 

 

Basically if you go this route, your ISP's box will still do the routing, but the AP would just do wireless. 

Unless the ONT has a residential gateway on it that would be a no go. The problem is if you plug a AP into an ONT without RG then all devices get their own public IP and an ISP would notice really quick that their DHCP pool is being chewed up by a single connection and will shut the port down. 

 

The Archer C7 would be plenty enough. 

[Donut417]

49 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Unless the ONT has a residential gateway on it that would be a no go. The problem is if you plug a AP into an ONT without RG then all devices get their own public IP and an ISP would notice really quick that their DHCP pool is being chewed up by a single connection and will shut the port down. 

 

The Archer C7 would be plenty enough. 

He says its an ONT/Router Combo. So my setup would work fine. 

 

3 hours ago, ZeferiniX said:

1. I'd like to keep my ISP's modem/router, disable the wireless, and connect a secondary router to it then let everyone connect from there.

 

[Paul Vreeland]

Mikrotik has some low cost prosumer/business class router offerings.  We have converted several businesses to Mikrotik that have lots of public wifi and private wireless users and it handles the load great.

 

hAP AC comes to mind.  It is a triple chain capable AP/router combo.

 

hAP AC lite is cheaper, has 100 Mbit instead of Gigabit and less CPU/ram.  It should be fine for your smaller home network, but doesn't give you as much room to grow like the non-lite version.

[mynameisjuan]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

He says its an ONT/Router Combo. So my setup would work fine. 

 

ONTs are usually mounted and not directly accessible to the resident because of fiber. He probably just has a router.

 

@ZeferiniX What is the exact equipment you have? Like is the incoming connection from you wall an RJ45?

 

54 minutes ago, Paul Vreeland said:

Mikrotik has some low cost prosumer/business class router offerings.  We have converted several businesses to Mikrotik that have lots of public wifi and private wireless users and it handles the load great.

 

hAP AC comes to mind.  It is a triple chain capable AP/router combo.

 

hAP AC lite is cheaper, has 100 Mbit instead of Gigabit and less CPU/ram.  It should be fine for your smaller home network, but doesn't give you as much room to grow like the non-lite version.

I can back this up. We deploy Mikrotiks for our free wifi option, but that is it. They are pretty stable (except for ipads dropping, known bug) but anything besides basic settings are a pain in the ass to configure. 

 

Also the hAP AC2's were just released and look pretty nice for around something like $60

[Donut417]

12 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

ONTs are usually mounted and not directly accessible to the resident because of fiber. He probably just has a router.

Lots of people in Europe have ONT/Router combs, Ive seen pictures on this forum. 

[mynameisjuan]

10 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Lots of people in Europe have ONT/Router combs, Ive seen pictures on this forum. 

Yeah thats why I said residential gateways which are just ONTs that have wifi built into them and can do routing. Still devices that are not accessible to customers because they like to play with stuff and break fiber. 

[Donut417]

Just now, mynameisjuan said:

Yeah thats why I said residential gateways which are just ONTs that have wifi built into them and can do routing. Still devices that are not accessible to customers because they like to play with stuff and break fiber. 

The pictures I seen where desktop routers. Customers in Europe had access to them. Had Ethernet plugged in to them.

[mynameisjuan]

Just now, Donut417 said:

The pictures I seen where desktop routers. Customers in Europe had access to them. Had Ethernet plugged in to them.

I cant see the ISP letting fiber freely accessible to the customer. But that is their idiotic move to do so. 

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, mynameisjuan said:

I cant see the ISP letting fiber freely accessible to the customer. But that is their idiotic move to do so. 

Definitely seen routers with fiber going in to them. The fiber was not technically accessible as the connection in to the router was under a cover. But it had fiber going to it, and then had Ethernet and Coax out. 

[ZeferiniX]

4 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

 

@ZeferiniX What is the exact equipment you have? Like is the incoming connection from you wall an RJ45?

Nope, the old DSL Line uses an RJ45 from the wall but this one is different. See attached images. I don't know what this one is called but that's what's coming from the wall.