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Looking for new AC1900 router - UK

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smurftech

New Around Here
Hi all,

It's time to replace my Trendnet TEW-812DRU V1.0, it needs restarting several times a week, can't be upgraded to DDWRT unlike the V2 and has been generally annoying me more and more for about 6 months now. Oh, and the 5Ghz band doesn't work with any 5Ghz compatible device i've ever tried, even when using separate SSID's, given up on my 5Ghz channel. It's the worst router i've ever owned. When it disconnects it drops wi-fi and LAN, it's connected via an openreach modem (ECI as my local cabinet is ECI), yet the openreach modem stays connected but the Trendnet just stops working and has to be restarted, totally random, several times a week, and can be very annoying.

So, i'm looking for something more reliable, main priority is stability and good 2.4Ghz / 5Ghz range. I live rural and have BT Infinity at ~50/8 speeds. No interference on 2.4Ghz from neighbours so no traffic or channel issues to worry about, I can have 1, 6 or 11.

I have 2 P.C's connected via LAN so gigabit ports are a must, everything else is a mixture of wireless devices, couple of HP laptops, ipad airs, various iphones, various android devices, xbox, sky wifi, etc - around 15 in total, mostly 2.4Ghz devices i imagine but some newer stuff from past 12 months, S7 edge, iphone 6S, new HP laptop i7 workstation, etc. Router USB connection speed not an issue - don't currently use it.

I was leaning towards the Asus RT-AC68U, AC1900 should be fast enough, just need that reliability and good signal (working 5Ghz would be nice too).

It's a bit over my budget of £100 but can be had cheaper than that when on offer. Is there anything else out there as good or better, especially on the stability front around the same price?

Thanks for reading the wall of text!
 
depends on your skills.
There are many AC1900 class routers that are stable. the 3 brands that i know are netgear r7000, tplink and asus. Asus has many variants for the AC68U.
Synology seems to be doing alright too in stability.
 
depends on your skills.
There are many AC1900 class routers that are stable. the 3 brands that i know are netgear r7000, tplink and asus. Asus has many variants for the AC68U.
Synology seems to be doing alright too in stability.

So, no clear winner for stability? Just wondered why you said it depends on my skills? (I work with routers/networking, only Cisco kit though)

Liking the r7000 from Netgear, good reviews around for that one, tp-link maybe less so...and also noticed the Asus RT-AC87U on amazon under £10 more than the RT-AC68U....choices, choices....
 
all that i mentioned are clear winner for stabilities, basically pick one which suits you best. On the consumer side i know tp link, asus, netgear and synology are doing well with stability for many of their routers but not all. Each of them have good or bad stuff.

The AC87U is good too but not the best choice if you plan to have gigabit traffic moving from both wire and wireless because of internal bottlenecks. i think my shaming of the AC87U may have brought its price down and the bad experience many have had with it in performance orientated situations.

When i asked about your skill this is because there are various options. Mikrotik has routerboards that might fit your use too which might be a good option for stability if you know how to configure them. Pfsense can as well if you grab a PC and add a usb wifi adapter with antenna or even a PCIe one. if you want to see how mikrotik routerOS looks like you can go to demo.mt.lv , configuring it can get complicated.
 
Thanks for the update, was unaware of the AC87U issue.

As mentioned, main priority is stability so the wife and kids don't moan due to bad wi-fi signal or wi-fi drops etc, ... looking for the best out of box reliability I guess, maybe a custom firmware change if stability will improve greatly. I can customise and change settings if needed, not after a custom P.C / Mikrotik setup, I don't use a VPN or need USB performance, just need reliability mainly...HD streaming, low latency for gaming, capable of multiple youtube streams, all family connected and happy is what i'm after, anything for a quiet life at home!

Priority:
1. Stability
2. Wi-Fi compatibility for range of devices (2.4 & 5)
3. Wi-Fi throughput performance
4. Wi-Fi signal range
5. LAN port performance for the 2 gaming P.C's

As long as the r7000 or AC68U can do the above i'll be happy.
 
the AC87U will have no stability issues for your usage as you arent using it for lots of bandwidth. When i say performance i mean transfers in many bits per second not latency. Gaming needs latency.

the ac68U, r7000, synology and tplink equivalents are all stable.
 
Ac68u vs r7000 it is like vanilla icecream vs. Chocolate icecream. Both are great.

Personally I have had the R7000 for some years now and it is the best router I have had. Running dd wrt kong builds. Extremely stable and handles all my wifi clients without a hitch. I am on 200/200mbit internet.

I am sure you will find similar reports for the ac68u.

AC1900 is awesome.
 
Ac68u vs r7000 it is like vanilla icecream vs. Chocolate icecream. Both are great.

Personally I have had the R7000 for some years now and it is the best router I have had. Running dd wrt kong builds.


ah but you have to go and put strawberry toppings on your icecream cause its not as good without


eg you cant really compare a netgear with 3rd party fw on it against stock asus even though imho the asus would still be better

unfortunately netgear persist in using that horrid genie gui and its lack of features , its one of the reasons you went to 3rd party fw

OP , unless you are prepared to use or be bothered with 3rd party fw you are far better going with an asus rt-ac68u and its stock firmware as its dam good at what it does and has a far greater feature set

naked wifi performance wise the r7000 and rt-ac68u are very similar mostly because they have such similar hardware

avoid the 87u like the plague , there is a reason they are so cheap as they are quite problematic

maybe a custom firmware change if stability will improve greatly.


3rd party fw doesnt improve stability , in fact in most cases it effects the performance as the 3rd party ppl have to use generic ac drivers

2. Wi-Fi compatibility for range of devices (2.4 & 5)
3. Wi-Fi throughput performance
4. Wi-Fi signal range


however if wifi coverage and performance are upmost i would actually suggest you spend more and look at the wave 2 2156M routers as there is a substantial increase in coverage compared to the 1900ac class

routers of note

asus rt-ac3100 / ac88u

netgear r8500

the big however is if wifi is such a concern i would be looking at a whole home wifi solution in the form of ether a mesh or distributed wireless system

the netgear orbi system stand out from the crowd and gives both unrivaled coverage and throughput but does cost a lot
 

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