Need a new router, under $250, please help.

[Kayan]

Hello everyone. I was directed here by a friend, and I need some advice. I've currently got a Ubiquiti AP-AC (older square model) and the 5ghz band took a dump a week ago from download speeds of 50+ Mbps to around 5-700Kbps. The performance on the 2.4 is kind of crappy as well. I'm trying to decide on something to replace it that will be stable and fast.

We have a 200 down/20 up plan from TWC. My wife works from home and needs a very stable connection (LAN) to do her job. Now, that being said we have a bunch of wireless devices -- 1 wireless desktop (PCE-AC88 adapter), 1 wireless printer, 2 cell phones, 2 tablets, an Xbox One S, Smart TV, and a Steam Link. The wireless desktop is used mostly for gaming, and streaming, and will get the most use out of all of the wireless devices, followed by the Xbox One S (gaming and streaming Netflix). The desktop and Xbox need to be quick and solid, I play lots of multiplayer games and MMOs.

I've narrowed my choices down to a few different options, but am really unsure of what to get and what will work best with my Wi-Fi adapter in the desktop. We usually have a few devices running at once, and at least 1 streaming, and 1 gaming, usually. Anyway, I'm looking at the following router/AP options:
Netgear r7800,
Linksys EA8500,
TP-Link Archer 3150,
Ubiquiti UAC-AP-Pro

We are in a 1300 sq ft apartment, and the building has 3 floors, with 8 units per floor, so there are a lot of wireless signals to contend with. I'm open to other suggestions as well, but will only be purchasing from Amazon in the US.

Thanks in advance.

 

[husky55]

Ubiquiti is an AP not a router as you must know. So your problem could be related to your setup or not. But if you really want a stable LAN and wireless then the Netgear r7800 is probably a good bet. Another option is the Asus rt-ac68u which has real good firmware options if that's your thing. I have both so speak from experience.

 

[Kayan]

Ubiquiti is an AP not a router as you must know. So your problem could be related to your setup or not. But if you really want a stable LAN and wireless then the Netgear r7800 is probably a good bet. Another option is the Asus rt-ac68u which has real good firmware options if that's your thing. I have both so speak from experience.

Yeah, I'm aware the Ubi is an AP. I've had my current setup for just shy of two years, and the Ubi AP wireless signals (bands) both just basically completely died. I'm pushing a signal to the AP from a gigabit router. That part works fine, just the wireless isn't good on the AP anymore, and the built in wifi that the gigabit router has is absolutely terrible.

I've never had a Netgear router before, and the one Asus router I had died in about 6.5 months.

 

[husky55]

Netgear has better hardware, Asus better firmware. Your high failure rate needs to be analyzed and fixed, these devices are designed for 24/7 for years.

 

[System Error Message]

The failures could be due to bad power supplied in your area or even something on ground/AC. You should get that checked.
See if replacing the PSU works. Another thing you should check are ambient temperatures. wifi chips work best when they're below 50C as they're sensitive. The higher temperatures can cause performance degradation.

If the PSU or power source is the problem, see about getting a decent UPS with smoothing for AC circuit.

 

[Kayan]

Replace the PSU for the router? I've lived in apartments for a while now. I swear I haven't had a good router since my DIR-655, back in 2009. I've lived in and had issues in multiple apartments in multiple states. I've had a new router almost yearly since 2010, except for the last 18 months.

I'm at a loss as to what is happening. I have terrible luck, heh. I don't do any of the electronic sins. Network stuff is never in anything closed and is either wall mounted or on a shelf not completely blocked in, nor surrounded.

Anyway, back on track.... You guys suggest a UPS for just the network equipment? How much power do I need for that?

And the netgear has better hardware vs better firmware on Asus? I've had terrible service from Asus before, so I tend to stay away from them unless necessary. I've used Linksys and Dlink before, and usually look at Dlink first, but they don't seem to be very highly regarded anymore.

 

[System Error Message]

Both netgear/asus can give terrible service, its more to do with who in the company you talk to. I once had to RMA an ASUS GPU and i searched for a specific contact in the company and got it replaced within 2 months( the whole process of sending and receiving a new GPU).

Things can change in some areas, Check if you have brownouts or other power issues. A lot of the PSUs that come with these routers arent exactly great and you should check your ground that it is not being shared with other houses too. some UPSes can smoothen the AC output so its not about the battery life, more about the features it has. For 1 router and 2 APs, 100W for UPS is enough, for bigger networks perhaps 300W.

A lot of recent routers have learnt from this and now come with good PSUs, so go with a model released this year or last year. I've seen this on asus, netgear perhaps.

 

[sfx2000]

Hello everyone. I was directed here by a friend, and I need some advice. I've currently got a Ubiquiti AP-AC (older square model) and the 5ghz band took a dump a week ago from download speeds of 50+ Mbps to around 5-700Kbps. The performance on the 2.4 is kind of crappy as well. I'm trying to decide on something to replace it that will be stable and fast.

We have a 200 down/20 up plan from TWC. My wife works from home and needs a very stable connection (LAN) to do her job. Now, that being said we have a bunch of wireless devices -- 1 wireless desktop (PCE-AC88 adapter), 1 wireless printer, 2 cell phones, 2 tablets, an Xbox One S, Smart TV, and a Steam Link. The wireless desktop is used mostly for gaming, and streaming, and will get the most use out of all of the wireless devices, followed by the Xbox One S (gaming and streaming Netflix). The desktop and Xbox need to be quick and solid, I play lots of multiplayer games and MMOs.

I've narrowed my choices down to a few different options, but am really unsure of what to get and what will work best with my Wi-Fi adapter in the desktop. We usually have a few devices running at once, and at least 1 streaming, and 1 gaming, usually. Anyway, I'm looking at the following router/AP options:
Netgear r7800,
Linksys EA8500,
TP-Link Archer 3150,
Ubiquiti UAC-AP-Pro

We are in a 1300 sq ft apartment, and the building has 3 floors, with 8 units per floor, so there are a lot of wireless signals to contend with. I'm open to other suggestions as well, but will only be purchasing from Amazon in the US.

Thanks in advance.

Simple answer actually - keep the constraints tight, and the one AC1900 class Router/AP that meets all stated requirements...

Airport Extreme AC - honestly - it does what you want, meets requirements (e.g. stable), and it's under the bar of $250USD...

 

[pege63]

Isnt it better to separate his wifes "business" network from the rest of the home network to?

 

[System Error Message]

Isnt it better to separate his wifes "business" network from the rest of the home network to?

Not necessarily. A lot of home offices involve 1 or 2 people. Its when the business has a few people that it needs to be seperate from home network. This is because you would want resources to be shared. With 1 or 2 people it is unlikely there would be a seperate NAS, a seperate printer so printer and NAS sharing is lost when segmenting network.

Usually the best way would be to have 3 segments, home, business and services (NAS, printers, servers, etc). both the home and business segment should be able to communicate with services via layer 3 but not layer 2 and neither layers with each other. The concept of segmentation is hard to grasp for many which is why we dont see configurable routers every where and the lack of routers with LAN VLAN is also apparent.

 

[pege63]

Usually the best way would be to have 3 segments, home, business and services (NAS, printers, servers, etc). both the home and business segment should be able to communicate with services via layer 3 but not layer 2 and neither layers with each other. The concept of segmentation is hard to grasp for many which is why we dont see configurable routers every where and the lack of routers with LAN VLAN is also apparent.

Perhaps it is such 3 segments/layers setting configuration table he is looking for.
Maybe you should write down such settings for him and for all others here as an example, Just a thought that struck me.

 

[System Error Message]

Perhaps it is such 3 segments/layers setting configuration table he is looking for.
Maybe you should write down such settings for him and for all others here as an example, Just a thought that struck me.

Its simple, we call home network vlan1, business network vlan2, services network as vlan3. We give each of the networks their own ip segment and the router will route between them except between home and business. And thats that. It requires a router and switch that supports vlans and ip segmentation. The configuration is pretty straight forward except for the drop for traffic between home and business (use firewall/route for this)

 

[pege63]

Something like this you mean:

 

[Kayan]

Wow, a lot happened overnight. In response to the separation between home and business, I don't think it is really necessary to do that. Her computer is hardwired in, and will be on the new router/AP, whichever we decide. Everything else will be connected wirelessly. The only thing that we share would be the occasional print job. The extent of our home office is her PC that she uses mostly for work, but the occasional MMO as well.

I think we've narrowed down the router choice to either the Netgear r7800, or the Asus RT3100. We'll likely grab the Netgear since it's a tad cheaper, although I wish I would have seen the deal on the RT3100 for 190 earlier last week. Oh wells.

A few of you have mentioned getting a UPS. How would I go about picking one that would be good for our modem and future router? That is all that would be attached to it.

 

[System Error Message]

Something like this you mean:

no, rather like this
Router --- L3 switch---- Services (192.168.3.0 vlan3)
---------------!------business (192.168.2.0 vlan2)
---------------!------home (192.168.1.0 vlan1)
---------------!------admin( 192.168.4.0 vlan1,2,3,4) (only for bigger networks)
---------------|------guest (192.167.1.0 v vlan5)

Route settings (configure on both switch and router):
drop for home and business (192.168.1.0->192.168.2.0. 192.168.2.0->192,168.1.0)
Drop for guest (192.167.1.0->192.168.0.0. 192.168.0.0->192,167.1.0) (note: you define the 192 network as 255.255.0.0 when doing this route for simplicity).

 

[pege63]

Wow, a lot happened overnight. In response to the separation between home and business, I don't think it is really necessary to do that. Her computer is hardwired in, and will be on the new router/AP, whichever we decide. Everything else will be connected wirelessly. The only thing that we share would be the occasional print job. The extent of our home office is her PC that she uses mostly for work, but the occasional MMO as well.

I think we've narrowed down the router choice to either the Netgear r7800, or the Asus RT3100. We'll likely grab the Netgear since it's a tad cheaper, although I wish I would have seen the deal on the RT3100 for 190 earlier last week. Oh wells.

A few of you have mentioned getting a UPS. How would I go about picking one that would be good for our modem and future router? That is all that would be attached to it.

There are NO Vlan/Bridge settings in FW in the R7800 (V1.0.2.04) yeat only in R7000 (V1.0.7.2_1.1.93) or is the advanced routing/Static Routes the same "System Error Message"?

 

[System Error Message]

Wow, a lot happened overnight. In response to the separation between home and business, I don't think it is really necessary to do that. Her computer is hardwired in, and will be on the new router/AP, whichever we decide. Everything else will be connected wirelessly. The only thing that we share would be the occasional print job. The extent of our home office is her PC that she uses mostly for work, but the occasional MMO as well.

I think we've narrowed down the router choice to either the Netgear r7800, or the Asus RT3100. We'll likely grab the Netgear since it's a tad cheaper, although I wish I would have seen the deal on the RT3100 for 190 earlier last week. Oh wells.

A few of you have mentioned getting a UPS. How would I go about picking one that would be good for our modem and future router? That is all that would be attached to it.

In your case you dont need to worry about vlans or segmentation. Just have everything on the same network. Your network isnt big enough in terms of users for segmentation.

 

[RMerlin]

A few of you have mentioned getting a UPS. How would I go about picking one that would be good for our modem and future router? That is all that would be attached to it.

Depends on the desired uptime. Personally, I use a sub-100$ Cyberpower (forgot what capacity, and I'm not at home atm) which gave me around 2 hours of uptime for a router, cablemodem, ATA and DECT 6.0 phone. That should be enough if your primary concern is protecting your equipment. For your needs, I would look for something around 75$ (and try to get one that has a replaceable battery - those have a typical life expectancy of 3-5 years at most).

 

[CaptainSTX]

Also look for a UPS where you can disable the alarm so it doesn't go off when there is a power outage. Very annoying to have it sound in the middle of the night and then have the wife start yelling about all the frigging gadgets, the blinking lights and noises they make.

No matter how quiet you think the alarm is during the day at 3 AM you can hear it.

For that reason I picked the Tripp Lite ECO650VA 325 watts. In addition to being able to turn off the alarm it has a very nice LCD display showing what the current load it and how long it could run using the battery along with other statistics.

 

[Kayan]

We decided on the r7800, and this is the UPS I'm leaning towards, what do y'all think?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001Q3MA4O/?tag=snbforums-20

the slightly larger model is only 5 dollars more on Amazon. Should I do that or just stay with the linked one?