New router (after RT-AC87U fiasco)

[Bronek]

Hi,

Few weeks ago I switched from a slow DSL link to fast fiber one. That forced me to say goodbye to my old Netgear. For some time I was using ancient TP-Link. Coverage was quite good - just few problems with very far corners of my house.
I decided to upgrade to something newer and dualband to get: better WAN speed, better coverage and to distribute clients (about 20 devices total) between 2.4 and 5GHz.

Internet speed improved as expected.
However, Asus with its 4 proud antennas has much worse coverage than 10 years old TP-Link with a humble single antenna. Additionally, it looks like I don't have easy "classic" way of using IP filters like on an old Neatgear allowed me to do (simultaneous white and black listed entries with easy way to turn them off/on).

As for the coverage problem I already tried changing antennas, multiple configuration options and various configuration tricks discussed on this forum (until I found this post which took all the hope away from me).

I need some advice on what to buy next:

The router is located upstairs, in a central point of 2 floor house of quite regular shape.

Must have:
-dual-band
-really good wi-fi coverage - ancient TP-link shows that it can be done
-just in case: ability to boost tx power above the standard 100mW allowed in EU

Nice to have:
-IP filters: both "allow" and "deny" active at the same time, ability to define filter orders and turning the individual filters on and off.
-setting nicknames for devices of manually configured DHCP IP addresses (now half of my devices have names like "android876797765" )

So, what should I buy?

Thanks
Bronek

 

[nova]

How deep are your pockets

 

[jevel]

Had the RT-AC87U myself, but did not have range issues as bad as you describe, but my 5 GHz radio was not stable at all. (On the firmware where my media bridge works, that is. Newer firmwares seems to have fixed the 5 GHz...)

Did a little reading and decided on a AC3200-class to be able to dedicate a radio for my NAS. Can report that I find the coverage of the TP-Link Archer C3200 to be quite a bit better than the RT-AC87U. Just stay away from the "Smart Connect" feature. Made my network connections unstable and unreliable.

-KJ

 

[Bronek]

@nova: I was hoping to get something for more less the same price as RT-AC87U, say max 50% more.

 

[mattiL]

I'm playing with an Ubiquiti Edgerouter X and one POE access point now, my RT-AC87 is still on though. This router is not for everyone..

 

[psychopomp1]

I went from an AC87U (which I found as buggy as hell) to a Linksys EA8500 running DD-WRT fw and the Linksys is brilliant. Maybe its something to do with Qualcomm radios on the EA8500 but I found it even gives better wifi coverage than the newer Broadcom based routers such as the AC88U.

 

[Bronek]

Thanks for all the responses. Ubiquiti Edgerouter X is the solution now.
Some bugs in web gui but otherwise quite fun to use.
AC87U degraded to AP function and moved to more central place in the house.

 

[Trip]

Was going to say, if you're at least semi-skilled and you're looking to shape/queue your traffic with something like fq_codel/HTB, for the money ($50) the ER-X is where it's at for an out-of-the-box solution. And it's often a better bet to handle wifi with separate APs; either consumer all-in-one routers set as APs or purpose-built entry-level mesh stuff like Unifi, Open-Mesh, Eero, etc.