Can you buy decent consumer routers without Wifi?

[wayner]

I have my ethernet networking terminated in my basement where my main electrical box resides. This is where I put my cable modem, router, switch, etc.

The problem is that this is a terrible place for a Wifi hotspot, so I put other routers acting is WAPs in other parts of my house, one on each floor and one in my pool cabana (summer only). So when I am looking for a router I don't actually need Wifi capabilities.

But can you buy a good consumer router, something like the Asus RT-N66 router, without Wifi? Theoretically it should be cheaper, but that could be offset by the smaller market.

 

[zentec]

If it is possible, I haven't found them.

Like you, all my gear is in the basement on a backboard and having the wireless access point in on one corner of the basement is an awful location. 5 GHz is worthless there, and 2.4 GHz isn't much better so I've opted for a pair of Apple Airports on the first level.

An alternative is to take a reasonably fast consumer router with a decent amount of RAM and turn off the WIFI, perhaps load OpenWRT on it. In the past, I haven't been a fan of consumer routers using third-party firmware for anything BUT home applications. I have a home office that has a lot of VPN connections and VLANs so I've always opted for SOHO gear, but my recent experiments with the latest build of OpenWRT running on a TP-Link and a Netgear WNDR3700 have been very positive. So much so that the RV042 has been replaced by the WNDR3700.

The wireless is off, it has had no problems with what I've thrown at it. I don't know if I'd recommend it for a small office environment owing to the level of support required to get it flying, but after that it has been solid.

 

[thiggins]

The selection of consumer wired-only routers is smaller because the demand is smaller. If you want to buy from the big names (Cisco/Linksys, NETGEAR, D-Link) you need to look at their business products.

TP-LINK and TRENDnet both make wired-only routers. But the pickin's are slim.

 

[wayner]

Thanks guys, that is kind of like I figured. I don't really mind getting a Wifi router but it just seems kind of a waste if I don't really need the Wifi capability.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Consumer Grade Router

I have been using a TL R860 router to feed my two access points plus provide Ethernet connections to other devices on my network. At $30 seems to work OK.

 

[stevech]

same reason that counter-depth refrigerators cost more though they're smaller!

If you don't need WiFi, just turn if off in the WiFi router configuration settings.

 

[bmn1]

What about MikroTik wired routers?
RB2011L-IN and RB750GL seem good for this setup.

 

[stevech]

What about MikroTik wired routers?
RB2011L-IN and RB750GL seem good for this setup.

Nah. weird-o.

Either get a decent WiFi router and turn off its WiFi (cheapest), or get a Cisco/Linksys SOHO router if you need VPN and that class of router.

 

[tipstir]

Just get a wired router without the WiFi features on the same board. TP-LINK SMB Wired Routers in Gigabit base is a good starting point. Prices ranges though. From a desktop model to a full rack mounted type. I use ER6120 for couple of months now since 2012 no problems with it. TP-LINK has the smaller SMB Wired Router model ER6020. Again if you can't use a combo router with both Wired and WiFi mix on it then just get the full wired router instead!

 

[Turick]

I'd like to revive this thread with the same basic question. I currently have my AP in my office with a connected NAS full of media. Some of the media is blu ray rips that stutter on my home theater pc across a wireless connection. I have fiber to the premisses and would like to put a router right where the ethernet enters my basement and run cat 6 to at least 5 other locations in my house.

I guess the "enterprise" way of doing this would be to use a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite or TP-LINK product plus a gigabit switch, but now we're talking more $$ than I'd care to spend. I guess I could always go with a common wifi router that has gigabit ethernet ports, but it seems most only have about 4 ports.

dlink has a pretty cheap 8 port switch (www.amazon.com/D-Link-8-Port-Gigabit-Desktop-DGS-1008G/dp/B003X7TRWO), so I guess if I could find a similarly priced router with gige ports it would work, preferably one capable of running tomato. Any suggestions?

 

[CaptainSTX]

I'd like to revive this thread with the same basic question. I currently have my AP in my office with a connected NAS full of media. Some of the media is blu ray rips that stutter on my home theater pc across a wireless connection. I have fiber to the premisses and would like to put a router right where the ethernet enters my basement and run cat 6 to at least 5 other locations in my house.

I guess the "enterprise" way of doing this would be to use a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite or TP-LINK product plus a gigabit switch, but now we're talking more $$ than I'd care to spend. I guess I could always go with a common wifi router that has gigabit ethernet ports, but it seems most only have about 4 ports.

dlink has a pretty cheap 8 port switch (www.amazon.com/D-Link-8-Port-Gigabit-Desktop-DGS-1008G/dp/B003X7TRWO), so I guess if I could find a similarly priced router with gige ports it would work, preferably one capable of running tomato. Any suggestions?

I have been using the TP Link TL R860.

It does not have Gigabyte ports but it has been working well for me. Have six devices plugged into the router including two APs.

Very stable and the firmware is flexible enough to meet my requirements. At $27 a very good deal.

I, like you, would have liked a unit with Gigabyte ports, but doesn't seem to be anything on the market for the home market at a reasonable price.

If you have to have Gigabyte it probably will mean purchasing a consumer grade Gigabyte unit with WiFi and then hanging a Gigabyte switch off one of the LAN ports.

It just depends on your applications if you need LAN speeds over 100 Mbps. My internet connection is 10 Mbps and I use an USB drive attached to one of my APs to back up files on the network. With that interface I can read files at a maximum of 32 - 35 Mbps. Paying a lot more for a Gigabyte router wouldn't have gotten me anything more than a bigger VISA bill.

 

[Turick]

Well I guess the router itself doesn't need to have gigabit ports since my internet connection is only 10mbps (hopefully 40 soon). I have a spare Asus wl-500g v2 router and a spare Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 router. Maybe I'll just use one of those connected to that cheap D-Link DGS-1008G 8 port switch and run all my connections from there.

I really want the gigabit speeds inside the house -- I have a few uncompressed blu ray rips weighing in around 30gb and several other hi def movies around 5gb. Lots of smaller sized tv shows and music. At any given time 2-3 members of my house might be streaming them from our NAS.

 

[thiggins]

I really want the gigabit speeds inside the house -- I have a few uncompressed blu ray rips weighing in around 30gb and several other hi def movies around 5gb. Lots of smaller sized tv shows and music. At any given time 2-3 members of my house might be streaming them from our NAS.

If you want Gigabit speed, use Gigabit Ethernet. You won't get wireless to provide anything as fast or reliable.

 

[Turick]

ooh or this switch... even cheaper

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001QUA6RA/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[Turick]

If you want Gigabit speed, use Gigabit Ethernet. You won't get wireless to provide anything as fast or reliable.

Absolutely... that's why I'm trying to figure out what "backbone" router/switch combo to use to wire everything in.

I actually currently use a Cisco/Linksys e4200 with Tomato firmware in my living room as a wireless ethernet bridge to connect my HTPC, PS3, receiver, TV and DirecTV box to the network. Once I wire in the CAT6 I was just going to use it as a gigE switch, but I just realized I won't have enough ports.

So now I'm thinking about using the e4200 as the primary router where the ethernet enters my house, then connecting it to the 8 port trendnet switch listed above... then using a second trendnet switch in my living room where the Cisco originally was.

Now I'm just curious... does it matter if I just run long cat6 cables from monoprice and use the coupler keystones in the wall plates or should I just buy a big box of cable and actually punchdown the cables with a traditional keystone. Then I don't know if I should just crimp ends on all the cables at the backbone switch or punch those down on a patch panel. Seems it would be cheaper if I just bought a bunch of cables from monoprice and used the couplers in the wall but I'm just not sure about performance. Do the keystones or couplers need to be rated as cat6?

 

[coolspot]

I really want the gigabit speeds inside the house -- I have a few uncompressed blu ray rips weighing in around 30gb and several other hi def movies around 5gb. Lots of smaller sized tv shows and music. At any given time 2-3 members of my house might be streaming them from our NAS.

If it's intranet transfers (within the house) your router won't have an influence on the speed since it won't be routed through it.

Just pick up a 20.00 gigabit switch and hook all your devices up to it. Then connect your switch to your router. Viola, gigabit speeds inside your house.

A
Now I'm just curious... does it matter if I just run long cat6 cables from monoprice and use the coupler keystones in the wall plates or should I just buy a big box of cable and actually punchdown the cables with a traditional keystone. Then I don't know if I should just crimp ends on all the cables at the backbone switch or punch those down on a patch panel. Seems it would be cheaper if I just bought a bunch of cables from monoprice and used the couplers in the wall but I'm just not sure about performance. Do the keystones or couplers need to be rated as cat6?

A pre-made cable is fine, especially for residential use.

However, solid core wiring (the type used with punch down jacks) is easier to run since it is stiffer and therefore holds its shape better in wall. Also, in-wall wiring sometimes has fire resistant jackets. Finally, sometimes people want to do a custom punch down to a jack (i.e. USB to Ethernet, or Serial, etc.). If none of these matter to you, then a pre-made cable with couplers is fine and easier for the average home owner to run.

 

[Turick]

Well after reading more posts I see there are several wired only routers, tplink seemingly being the most popular. Their SOHO routers are extremely cheap and I have no use for dual-wan, so I'm not sure that those would perform better than my cisco e4200. Would that be a safe assumption? I have 20mbps internet service and I'm mainly after high throughput internal lan speeds, so I should be fine using that as my primary router using some cheap gigabit switches, right?

 

[tipstir]

Well after reading more posts I see there are several wired only routers, tplink seemingly being the most popular. Their SOHO routers are extremely cheap and I have no use for dual-wan, so I'm not sure that those would perform better than my cisco e4200. Would that be a safe assumption? I have 20mbps internet service and I'm mainly after high throughput internal lan speeds, so I should be fine using that as my primary router using some cheap gigabit switches, right?

TP-LINK SOHO (small office / home office) those model are limited to the number of WiFi connections. TP-LINK said they were coming out with SMB (small business ) Enterprise version. That would blow out the e4200. Although the two they have now Ultra the Black Dual Band seem okay but then again don't expect much for them. Wired Router TP-LINK is stronger than their WiFi Router. ESR600H or ESR750H are much better for WiFi router both are the same except for the extra 450 side where the 600H only 300mbps. That's what I have really great 256MB of RAM full throughput on the LAN or WAN WiFi has 4x ANT two 5dbi = 10dbi and two internal. Range is excellent can go right through concrete cinder blocks no issues.

So the bucks stops at ESR600H (300 + 300) or ESR750H (300 + 450).