Which router should I get?

[cadabri]

Hey guys

I am moving to a new apartment soon and was told that their networking setup does not allow for smart devices or connectivity unless you bring your own router. I was hoping to set up some smart home things, but also, more importantly, I need to be able to connect my NAS, and was doing some research and realized that link aggregation is a thing so I would like a router that can do that so I can do that (the NAS supports it). Right now I am looking at the ROG Rapture GT-AC5300 but I was wondering if anyone out there has had experience with it and knows if all the bells and whistles are actually useful or mainly gimmicks like the faster gaming data or game ips, or if there is a better substitute.

 

Thanks!

[WereCatf]

22 minutes ago, cadabri said:

was doing some research and realized that link aggregation is a thing

Do you have a setup, where link-aggregation would actually be useful, though? Like e.g. do you have multiple users accessing the NAS simultaneously, or does your PC have multiple NICs?

[Onyx___]

Mikrotik RB2011UiAS-2HnD-IN

It's all the router you'll ever need. Configuring this router requires WinBox which has a learning curve to it, but once you get the hang of it, it's a bliss.

[cadabri]

3 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Do you have a setup, where link-aggregation would actually be useful, though? Like e.g. do you have multiple users accessing the NAS simultaneously, or does your PC have multiple NICs?

I would probably need to get a new NIC for my comp but that's not that big of a deal. I am a photographer and constantly offload bulk files so the faster I can offload and get to editing the better. 

 

[WereCatf]

4 minutes ago, cadabri said:

I would probably need to get a new NIC for my comp but that's not that big of a deal. I am a photographer and constantly offload bulk files so the faster I can offload and get to editing the better. 

 

Okay then. Well, may I make a suggestion: buy a switch that supports 802.3ad instead, then you can use whatever router you feel suits your other needs. Switches with 802.3ad-support are far easier to find. Your NAS may also support load-balancing even without dedicated support from your router/switch, like e.g. Synology's NASes seem to do ( https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/AdminCenter/connection_network_linkaggr )

[cadabri]

3 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Okay then. Well, may I make a suggestion: buy a switch that supports 802.3ad instead, then you can use whatever router you feel suits your other needs. Switches with 802.3ad-support are far easier to find. Your NAS may also support load-balancing even without dedicated support from your router/switch, like e.g. Synology's NASes seem to do ( https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/DSM/AdminCenter/connection_network_linkaggr )

Its good to know that those exist, but wouldn't the asus router do that? Or are you saying you can add it to a cheaper router that can't?

 

[WereCatf]

I've never used link-aggregation myself, so I had to look some things up. It seems link-aggregation requires Windows Server, not one of the consumer Windows-editions, and it only increases speed if you're transferring multiple files simultaneously -- single, individual files are still limited to your network-speed, ie. 1Gbps on a gigabit-network. I thought it would speed up even single-file transfers, so it appears I just don't know as much about this topic as I thought, and maybe I should let more knowledgeable people to chime in instead.

 

PS. The Asus-router only has link-aggregation on two ports, so it's only ever useful when you have multiple PC's accesing the NAS simultaneously. It doesn't support 802.3ad on any other ports, so even if you had a PC with two NICs, running Windows Server, you still wouldn't be able to use link-aggregation on it.

[cadabri]

6 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I've never used link-aggregation myself, so I had to look some things up. It seems link-aggregation requires Windows Server, not one of the consumer Windows-editions, and it only increases speed if you're transferring multiple files simultaneously -- single, individual files are still limited to your network-speed, ie. 1Gbps on a gigabit-network. I thought it would speed up even single-file transfers, so it appears I just don't know as much about this topic as I thought, and maybe I should let more knowledgeable people to chime in instead.

Yeah, I was doing more research too because it's not as simple as some of the descriptors seem to make it. It seems that I can set up link aggregator easily for the NAS, but not the computer. But even with this, I could set up the NAS aggregated and be able to upload and download from my desktop and laptop or phone or any cloud download two at a time so its not completely useless. It does seem like there should be an option to just have two cables act as one, like an ethernet raid or something, but it seems like that isn't a thing (At least available to consumers)

[Alex Atkin UK]

Well it is a bit of a hack and designed from a shared server point of view, where the important thing is to have several slower streams of data rather than a single faster one.