Buying a new router

[jampog]

Hi!

 

We are looking to buy a new router this black friday/cyber monday. What is a good router to buy?

 

We would use it for work. It would be great if it has a guest/multiple wifi for we share it with another family. We just upgraded to fibr so hopefully it can manage that as well. Future proof too i guess, something like even though the manufacturer discontinues its firmware, we can switch to DDWRT. Restrictions/Limiting/filtering the time and use of children as well would be helpful. 

 

We live in the Philippines and have some relatives coming home for the holidays from canada so if you don't mind telling us where to buy it as well :D. We plan to order it online and send it to them. I know its kinda wrong but we are just hoping to save some cash...

 

TIA!

[NinJake]

Netgear nighthawk should cover all those things I believe.

[jampog]

4 minutes ago, NinJake said:

Netgear nighthawk should cover all those things I believe.

yup it would but if i am not mistaken it is the top of the line of netgear as well. So its pricey. The one i browsed a while ago is a 6700 at 99$. Do you have any other router in mind? Or that is how router cost nowadays? Do you have a specific model in mind as well? 

[Boomwebsearch]

22 minutes ago, jampog said:

Hi!

 

We are looking to buy a new router this black friday/cyber monday. What is a good router to buy?

 

We would use it for work. It would be great if it has a guest/multiple wifi for we share it with another family. We just upgraded to fibr so hopefully it can manage that as well. Future proof too i guess, something like even though the manufacturer discontinues its firmware, we can switch to DDWRT. Restrictions/Limiting/filtering the time and use of children as well would be helpful. 

 

We live in the Philippines and have some relatives coming home for the holidays from canada so if you don't mind telling us where to buy it as well :D. We plan to order it online and send it to them. I know its kinda wrong but we are just hoping to save some cash...

 

TIA!

What internet speed and type of connection are you using from your internet service provider, how much range do you need the wireless signal to cover, and do you have a certain budget in mind for the router?

[jampog]

12 hours ago, Boomwebsearch said:

What internet speed and type of connection are you using from your internet service provider, how much range do you need the wireless signal to cover, and do you have a certain budget in mind for the router?

Its a fiber connection upto 20mbps. If we get extremely lucky I would like to bump it to 50mbps. Regarding the range, the house we live in is only one floor. The router would be in the living room. Reaching two rooms in would be great. The one we have right now can only reach one room and no connection in the bathroom  I just measured it at most 25 feet from the router to the bathroom. 

 

Regarding the budget, we are willing to spend if needed since we would use it for work as well. Our D-link router firmware was discontinued so we depended on dd-wrt to keep it upto date. Then dd-wrt updates stopped working since last year. I think the make of the router was too old. It was a hand me down from my brother in law so we used it for at least 5 years all in all. I am also kinda paranoid since we don't live in a village but in a semi populated area so I want to be sure the software can always be updated. Whenever I see kids suddenly hanging around infront of our house playing online games, I would assume they got us hacked but more likely one of our relatives shared the access :))

 

so in short if we need to spend close to 200$ ca it needs to be really justified... 

 

If you don't mind giving us options that would be better  we were initially just looking to buy an archer but one dude in ddwrt told me that it would be better to get a nighthawk since the archer is kinda old but the nighthawk price is almost doubled. So I am posting here to see if there are other options out there. 

 

hope i didnt bore you down with my explanation lol

 

 

[LinusOnLine]

Any of the Linksys WRT routers should be good.

[jampog]

1 hour ago, LinusOnLine said:

Any of the Linksys WRT routers should be good.

thanks! your the first one who suggested that. I have been looking at tplink and netgear. Ty again!

[homeap5]

Try TP Link, is less annoying of them all and have fast GUI. Also it's the only brand that have implemented ARP Binding out of the box in router configuration. Archer C9 or C7 are good choice.

[Boomwebsearch]

7 hours ago, jampog said:

Its a fiber connection upto 20mbps. If we get extremely lucky I would like to bump it to 50mbps. Regarding the range, the house we live in is only one floor. The router would be in the living room. Reaching two rooms in would be great. The one we have right now can only reach one room and no connection in the bathroom  I just measured it at most 25 feet from the router to the bathroom. 

 

Regarding the budget, we are willing to spend if needed since we would use it for work as well. Our D-link router firmware was discontinued so we depended on dd-wrt to keep it upto date. Then dd-wrt updates stopped working since last year. I think the make of the router was too old. It was a hand me down from my brother in law so we used it for at least 5 years all in all. I am also kinda paranoid since we don't live in a village but in a semi populated area so I want to be sure the software can always be updated. Whenever I see kids suddenly hanging around infront of our house playing online games, I would assume they got us hacked but more likely one of our relatives shared the access :))

 

so in short if we need to spend close to 200$ ca it needs to be really justified... 

 

If you don't mind giving us options that would be better  we were initially just looking to buy an archer but one dude in ddwrt told me that it would be better to get a nighthawk since the archer is kinda old but the nighthawk price is almost doubled. So I am posting here to see if there are other options out there. 

The TP-Link Archer series/lineup of routers in general are not that new and they are using older designs which I would not recommend as they would have less support for features and efficiency in broadcasting wireless signals. I do not honestly think that you would need a ton of range as 25 feet is not much for modern routers today. I would highly suggest getting one with the Wireless AC standard because in my experience it makes a huge difference in the stability of the signal and clarity of real-time data transfers such as needed in web conferences. I will link a few options within this post which are within different price points, I noticed that you stated that some areas have not any signal and I think that a range extender may be helpful for that rather than having one powerful router as the signal will not degrade much going farther away since there are two points which are spaced out over a certain distance apart from each other. 

 

four antenna D-Link Router which is an AC1200 model and hosts the best value oriented option standpoint:   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/d-link-ac1200-dual-band-wi-fi-router/6079700.p?skuId=6079700

 

This one is the one which supports the highest speed although for your internet speed currently it may not be of much benefit although if you need more bandwidth or get a higher speed in the future then it will be beneficial:   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/tenda-ac1900-dual-band-wi-fi-router-black/6027807.p?skuId=6027807

 

Usually I would not recommend this one because of its price point which is around the point of 200 dollars although it is now on sale for $99.99 at BestBuy and offers excellent security and management features, so I have decided to link it:   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/norton-norton-core-secure-high-performance-wi-fi-router-granite-gray/5824501.p?skuId=5824501

 

 

[jampog]

On 11/22/2018 at 11:11 PM, Boomwebsearch said:

The TP-Link Archer series/lineup of routers in general are not that new and they are using older designs which I would not recommend as they would have less support for features and efficiency in broadcasting wireless signals. I do not honestly think that you would need a ton of range as 25 feet is not much for modern routers today. I would highly suggest getting one with the Wireless AC standard because in my experience it makes a huge difference in the stability of the signal and clarity of real-time data transfers such as needed in web conferences. I will link a few options within this post which are within different price points, I noticed that you stated that some areas have not any signal and I think that a range extender may be helpful for that rather than having one powerful router as the signal will not degrade much going farther away since there are two points which are spaced out over a certain distance apart from each other. 

 

four antenna D-Link Router which is an AC1200 model and hosts the best value oriented option standpoint:   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/d-link-ac1200-dual-band-wi-fi-router/6079700.p?skuId=6079700

 

This one is the one which supports the highest speed although for your internet speed currently it may not be of much benefit although if you need more bandwidth or get a higher speed in the future then it will be beneficial:   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/tenda-ac1900-dual-band-wi-fi-router-black/6027807.p?skuId=6027807

 

Usually I would not recommend this one because of its price point which is around the point of 200 dollars although it is now on sale for $99.99 at BestBuy and offers excellent security and management features, so I have decided to link it:   https://www.bestbuy.com/site/norton-norton-core-secure-high-performance-wi-fi-router-granite-gray/5824501.p?skuId=5824501

 

 

thanks for the products and the link!

 

for the norton i was really hyped about it but it has a subscription after a year so we won't be getting it. for the tenda, its at least 2 years old already and I am not familiar with the brand. We are actually looking at the dlink family you sent us

 

It seems amazon black friday ended lol... i thought it would start today :))

[jampog]

On 11/22/2018 at 11:04 PM, homeap5 said:

Try TP Link, is less annoying of them all and have fast GUI. Also it's the only brand that have implemented ARP Binding out of the box in router configuration. Archer C9 or C7 are good choice.

we are actually looking at c9 and newer family... do you have any suggestions  

[homeap5]

20 minutes ago, jampog said:

we are actually looking at c9 and newer family... do you have any suggestions  

So buy C9. But check version first. Newer is usually better.

[jampog]

31 minutes ago, homeap5 said:

So buy C9. But check version first. Newer is usually better.

Yeah it seems there are lot of versions of routers with the same name. Weird.... really like how amazon is showing products side by side...

 

I am tasked to check whats the best router we can afford out there and I did not know there are too many. My wife just told me that she prefers asus. I think its because we just watched linus and talk about the mesh stuff with old routers.  now i need to check their products as well since nobody here suggested it lololol... 

 

anyways, ty!

[homeap5]

2 hours ago, jampog said:

Yeah it seems there are lot of versions of routers with the same name. Weird.... really like how amazon is showing products side by side...

 

I am tasked to check whats the best router we can afford out there and I did not know there are too many. My wife just told me that she prefers asus. I think its because we just watched linus and talk about the mesh stuff with old routers.  now i need to check their products as well since nobody here suggested it lololol... 

 

anyways, ty!

Asus are bad routers imo. GUI is slow as hell, additional features works or not, print server works sometimes (or not) and Asus tool for that can even makes BSOD.

I bought Asus RT-AC68U and after many hours testing, replacing firmware, looking for solutions etc. return that crap to shop and get Archer C9. And I'm happy. And I don't care about frequently updated firmwares. Asus updates their firmware very often, alternative versions are updated very often too and still the same bugs, still the same problems. So - if I may choose frequently bad updates or rare good updates - I choose second option.

[jampog]

Asus RT-AC68U 

6 hours ago, homeap5 said:

Asus are bad routers imo. GUI is slow as hell, additional features works or not, print server works sometimes (or not) and Asus tool for that can even makes BSOD.

I bought Asus RT-AC68U and after many hours testing, replacing firmware, looking for solutions etc. return that crap to shop and get Archer C9. And I'm happy. And I don't care about frequently updated firmwares. Asus updates their firmware very often, alternative versions are updated very often too and still the same bugs, still the same problems. So - if I may choose frequently bad updates or rare good updates - I choose second option.

Asus RT-AC68U - yup thats weird either the reviews love the router or they hate it terribly... it is highly recommended though...

 

my wifi saw the google wifi(single) and now is leaning towards that lol... review seems okay... anything i would miss aside from ports and lan?

[homeap5]

You probably already selected brand and model. Do you need confirmation that your choice is good or advice? :)

[jampog]

not really but we narrowed it down to google wifi and asus.... 

 

my wifi and i really like google... but the lack of lan usb and linus recommendation... i wanna still see if there is any asus we can get... 

 

so its still a toss between these two... 

 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-asus-wireless-ac1900-dual-band-router-rt-ac1900p-rt-ac1900p/10452373.aspx?

 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/google-wifi-ac1200-whole-home-mesh-wi-fi-system-nls-1304-25/10660406.aspx?

[Sfekke]

I have nothing but praise for my RT-AC3200.

It's expensive as all hell, but it keeps up with more then 25+ devices connected at once simultaneously transferring data pretty much 24/7.

One issue was the placement for me, putting it in the garage all the way in the front of the house makes it impossible to get a signal anywhere else since there are at least 3-4 brick walls shielding it in.

For that I got some Asus Lyra Mini's, pretty much fixing it.

 

Maybe a little too much information, so TL;DR

Asus RT-AC3200

• Good web-ui
• Extremely stable/reliable
• Frequent updates
• Every feature under the sun

[jampog]

25 minutes ago, Sfekke said:

I have nothing but praise for my RT-AC3200.

It's expensive as all hell, but it keeps up with more then 25+ devices connected at once simultaneously transferring data pretty much 24/7.

One issue was the placement for me, putting it in the garage all the way in the front of the house makes it impossible to get a signal anywhere else since there are at least 3-4 brick walls shielding it in.

For that I got some Asus Lyra Mini's, pretty much fixing it.

 

Maybe a little too much information, so TL;DR

Asus RT-AC3200

• Good web-ui
• Extremely stable/reliable
• Frequent updates
• Every feature under the sun

Thanks for sharing

 

more info is better for me :)) I just check but sadly the bestbuy near my relatives does not have that one on sale and its quite expensive at regular price...we can try pushing our budget to around 150ish i think... but yours is 375! I am just glad you are extremely happy with it!! 

 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-rt-ac3200-wireless-ac3200-tri-band-wireless-gigabit-router-aiprotection-with-trend-micro-for-complete-network-secu/11985346.aspx?

[Sfekke]

7 hours ago, jampog said:

Thanks for sharing

 

more info is better for me :)) I just check but sadly the bestbuy near my relatives does not have that one on sale and its quite expensive at regular price...we can try pushing our budget to around 150ish i think... but yours is 375! I am just glad you are extremely happy with it!! 

 

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-rt-ac3200-wireless-ac3200-tri-band-wireless-gigabit-router-aiprotection-with-trend-micro-for-complete-network-secu/11985346.aspx?

I paid 210 Euro's for it, which is around 315 Canadian, expensive it sure is.

Always happy to share what I know, I do get it is too expensive for most and quite honestly most people don't need a router that beefy & feature packed.

 

The Linksys EA8300 sounds like a good fit for your needs

However it doesn't run DD-WRT as of yet, taken a peek at their forums and it sounds like its possible but no ETA on the actual release date.

[jampog]

Thanks everyone!

 

My wife choose google wifi given all the reviews she read with promise of easy security and I can't argue with that. It seems they have good support as well. I am just actually just sad that i thought this time around we can have a usb connected to the router so we can share/watch/listen to stuff easily. O well.

 

Anyways, ty for letting me drool on all those routers. Maybe next time we can have an alien looking one :))