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need buying advice for router/modem

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matt6789

Occasional Visitor
I'm looking for a router that can be used with different internet providers. I'm moving from ATT Uverse internet to a cable provider for a year, then to a fiber provider hopefully. It's getting old having to learn and reconfigure different provider hardware, so if I can get a router that I can configure and then just plug it into the provider's hardware life would be simple considering there are about 25 devices to connect and almost all are wireless.

The ideal router would have these features:
-multiple network capability, including a guest network, so I can lock down access and visibility of my NAS. Just 2 or 3 and a guest network would be great.
-the ability to limit remote access to a device by mac address (is that even possible?). Just trying to think of security measures.
-the ability to assign ip addresses. I like to organize devices into blocks of numbers, and the printer likes a dedicated address.
-not have to install tomato or whatever that open source stuff was. In case I have to reset the device, not have to be concerned about getting the same stuff to flash the router with to get back to normal. If I have to cobble stuff together, I won't remember what I did to make it work a year later when everything has to get reset.
-average range. The current AT&T supplied NVG589 is great and sufficient.

I may not have used the correct terms for some of this stuff, but I hope someone can understand what I'm looking for. I'd rather stay in the $100-150 range if possible. I don't think I have to move up to a $300 router to get these features but I could be wrong.

Suggestions?
 
You may want to take a look at a Cisco RV260P router. Then add a wireless AP of you choice. The RV260p already has POE+ built-in to run the wireless AP. This router will handle cable, DSL(PPPOE) or what ever. It will be simple to change just the ISP part as you change ISPs. The router will save all the local network settings and allow you to just change the ISP. Less than $200.
 
Thanks for that suggestion, but it may be a little overkill. And I know there will be no talking the wife through troubleshooting an issue when I get the call that 'the internet is broken'.

There is nothing I don't like about it, except that it's not an all-in-one solution. As for the features, it surpasses all expectations of the average home user. Those capabilities are very tempting if I figure out how to get this to work in the apartment since they don't allocate space for a tech closet.
 
Thanks for that suggestion, but it may be a little overkill. And I know there will be no talking the wife through troubleshooting an issue when I get the call that 'the internet is broken'.
Once you get out of consumer territory routers and move into small business routers you will not have to reset the routers as they will just work like an appliance.
 
For multiple segregated networks the right way, you're going to need VLAN support (along the entire traffic path from the endpoint to the internet and back), plus an investment of time and effort into learning how they work and how to configure them. This also means small-business class gear, as no consumer stock firmware supports VLANs out of the box, and as you said, you don't want to monkey with flashing third party firmware and hoping for the best (and honestly I don't blame you; I'm over it, too).

A less costly option than Cisco RV+WAP would be a $60 Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X (YouTube setup guides - most all under 15 minutes) plus a $62 TP-Link EAP225v3 wireless AP, which comes with its own PoE injector, so no PoE switches or extra hardware needed. A fairly easy combo to get setup, and once done, will stay that way. As I've said many times before here, your network will run more like an appliance and less like a toy. And you can transplant the combo from house to house and ISP to ISP with any problems whatsoever, provided, of course, the ISP-supplied gateway supports a pass-through mode of some kind (and nearly all of them do).

So there you go: rock-solid setup for $122.
 
Thanks to both of you. I will do some reading and get working. One more question. Would I be able to plug a switch into the Ubiquiti to get a few extra ports? Right now I've got 3 wired items. The new house will have a shop with a separate camera system and another wired item, so I could use at least 1 more port. Everything else is wireless.


you don't want to monkey with flashing third party firmware and hoping for the best (and honestly I don't blame you; I'm over it, too).

Yep, I'm past the days of having to modify things to make it work. Too many advances in tech these days. I don't miss needing to have manually configure autoexec.bat and config.sys file sets for each game you want to play because you need to squeeze every bit of that base 640k RAM from memory.
 

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