Please Help me chose a router for a 4000+ sq foot home

[brennan2973]

Hi Folks,
I am in a constant dilemma with my routers. I have Time Warner Cable in the USA with a 17 down 1 up connection. For my needs I am fully satisfied when it is all working perfectly. Inevitably my routers all start to go bad every 1-3 years. My most recent router that I am using is a Netgear r7000. I read many reviews at the time and decided I would go for this even though it was a bit more than I wanted to spend on something that I have been replacing routinely. Despite laying out the extra money, I still find myself having to reboot the router often because many computers in the house are not able to connect to the internet despite being connected to the wifi.

I have close to a 4500 sq foot home with a finished basement included in that sq footage. I have 6 family members who are all using the internet frequently. In addition much of the programming I watch on TV is also streaming of some sort. When the router is functioning perfectly, none of this load is a problem on my connection speeds but when I have router problems, clearly my home is at a loss.

My current setup contains a powerline adapter for the basement and a range extender for the upstairs but my main usage is on the primary level of the house. Ideally I would not have to use additional equipment as that would contain more components to replace in the event of failure. I will continue to use the additional equipment if the new setup is not able to reach every area of the house.

With a 17 down connection, I feel that I honestly would be fine with a very low end router and would still get my maximum speeds. I do know however that cheaper equipment may not have the range that the r7000 does. I also have tried additional firmware like ASUS Merlin or DD-WRT but found that there were more features than I wanted and I still end up with wireless dropping. I assume that since I am having to reset this router all the time daily and sometimes hourly, that I am in need of a new one.

Please help me find the router with good range and reliability that is kind to my wallet. If it ends up that my experience is typical with any router, I would even consider an N300 if it gave me the range I needed while maintaining my 17 down 1 up connection on up to 10 different devices at once.

Thank you for any and all input

 

[Trip]

So you've got a 17Mb link, an R7000, a 2-point powerline feed, a dozen or two endpoints, mostly LAN-to-WAN traffic movement, and your issues are with wifi range/reliability as well as routing and switching consistency. Got it.

First, let's keep in mind that purchasing the next overpriced behemoth router will probably net you results akin to Einstein's definition of insanity. That said, if it's indeed mostly lightweight wifi endpoints (phones, tablets, lower-use laptops) and not a ton of intra-LAN streaming, backups, file-transfers, etc., I would echo you don't need to go nuts with higher-bandwidth wifi or even additional wired infrastructure. N150 or 300 broadcast properly, plus your powerline run, stands a high chance of doing just fine.

To make it happen, I'd start by decoupling wifi from routing/switching and giving that role to 2 or more access points, perhaps even a a whole-house mesh such as Eero (point to multi-point) or Orbi (star); you could even use the powerline connection for increased backhaul from at least 1 satellite AP to the hub AP. Then factory-reset the R7000, load the latest stable Netgear firmware, reset again, then reconfigure. In doing so, make sure to disable AP functionality on the R7000, so as to not interfere with your new wifi setup, or only use it hidden for out-of-band management on a non-overlapping channel. Now, sit back and give the Netgear firmware a fresh shot at wired duty only. If poor traffic flow is still noticeable under moderate or greater network loads, replace the Netgear firmware with AdvanceTomato for better QoS and general stability. If after that R7K is still failing to route/switch or run services adequately, you may want to scrap it for a more proven wired unit -- and you don't have to go spending big bucks either. Since your link is well under a few hundred Mb/s and traffic flow is mostly LAN-WAN, a $50 EdgeRouter-X with Smart Queue QoS turned on will more-than-likely solve all your traffic flow issues.

Abide by the above or similar approach, and you'll be well on your way to easy street.

 

[brennan2973]

I appreciate your help with my situation. I assume by your reply that you feel the problem is likely not a bad router or you are trying to rule out the router as a problem at the very least. On average it seems like everything goes well with the router for 1-2 days (sometimes longer) with any major reset of the device (ie. 30-30-30 reset and reconfigure with the latest firmware) but then it seems like some of the laptops are having a difficult time connecting or staying connected wirelessly. One of my laptops begins to throw DNS errors but I think that might be the problem with the laptop as the other laptops all running windows 10 do not state any DNS errors. At this point I am forced to unplug the cable modem and the router for 1 minute and then plug them back in. This usually takes care of repairing the wireless functionality for a day or so. Currently I have 3 devices hardwired, a desktop used only for the main TV, a laptop, and an Amazon Fire TV. The remainder of the LAN ports are Ethernet drops to the basement.

I prefer to stay away from Eero or Orbi or even Google Wifi as they are more than I want to spend on my budget. I was thinking of possibly purchasing and TP-Link archer c7 or c9 or maybe even ASUS RT-AC68U but not above that in cost unless it is going to give me years of stability. I prefer to stay away from access points because it then puts more routers in the mix and I have very rarely if ever have been able to get routers and access points (old routers used in AP mode) to play nice together. These have always been different models and or brands.

If I decide to give the r7000 another shot by disabling wireless and adding an access point, can you recommend one? I have 1 wifi repeater for the upstairs and a powerline adapter wired in the basement, do I just get one access point for the main level then?

Finally, if in fact, the r7000 is just shot, do you think the TP-Link archer c7 or c9 or maybe even ASUS RT-AC68U are the way to go or do you recommend a better router?

Thank you again for all the help

 

[Trip]

Hi Brennan,

I hope you weren't too overwhelmed with my geek-speak; I came out a bit guns-blazing on the vocabulary, sorry.

Moving on, proper network gear with correct configuration really shouldn't have to be reset/rebooted all that often (if ever) -- definitely not every every day. If that's the case, then you've likely got a firmware/software issue with the device(s) in question, and/or that device/those devices has/have been configured improperly. Plain and simple. The laptops, for example, are probably functioning just fine, save the one whose wireless performance is flaky, and good for you for being able to troubleshoot that -- that's the best way to know, testing in similar groups and ruling out certain role-players by process of elimination.

Re- budget, I would encourage you to look at things from a value perspective, as opposed to cost, but to each their own. As for the C7 or C9, or AC68U, range most likely won't be quite as good as the R7000 with TP-Link, and maybe equal with the Asus but probably no better. I would perhaps play with router placement and channel selection to see if you can find a more optimal location and congestion-free broadcast.

If you're still up for adding more wifi but doing so on the cheap, I would keep wifi active on the R7K, then add perhaps another powerline adapter of the same model for the top floor. Then you can (hopefully) hookup the wifi repeater in access point mode to restore full wireless bandwidth and lower latency upstairs, then do another AP in the basement off of the original powerline run, if needed. The Asus RT-N12 for $30 is super-stable as an access point with AdvancedTomato on it. Then just run all wifi broadcasts as N300 or N150 using the same SSID, but on non-overlapping channels of 1, 6 and 11. You won't have zero-handoff or some other nice features of a mesh product, but you will grow your wireless capabilities at as low a cost as possible.

 

[System Error Message]

mikrotik routerboards are known to be more robust, give them a try. They are also inexpensive too.

 

[brennan2973]

Thank you both for your input. I went and tried tomato shibby and ran into a situation and was unable to communicate with the r7000. I ended up figuring that out by making my computer have a static ip, I was able to talk to the r7000. The fear of possibly having bricked my router made me go back to stock firmware ultimately. I reset 30/30/30, went to stock, reset then upgraded and reset. Right now the router is running fine. One tip I came across in my hours of frustration was putting the router on a laptop cooling pad, so I did and I am hopeful this will help extend the longevity of the router.

I am weary of mikrotik routerboards because it looks much more technical than I think I can handle. To begin with, I only see them as boards without a case and assume they get mounted in some sort of rack and require advanced user knowledge to set up. I will surely research this more though if you have any user friendly articles somewhere.

I think if I go south again, I will suck it up and either get another nighthawk or ASUS. Part of me wants to go the Airport Extreme route as they are usually praised for their ability to just work, work for a very long time, and ease of integration with airport express. However, I still see reviews saying the opposite.

All in all, every bit of information I get helps me make my final decision a comfortable one. Thank you for your help as always.

 

[Trip]

I would steer clear of MikroTik --not because they aren't perfectly capable, which they are, but moreover due to the fears you outlined. Truth be told, they take an almost CCNA-level skillset to confidently setup and administrate, not to mention working knowledge of RouterOS itself. FYI, though, they do sell just the boards (for custom embedded projects) but much of what they sell does come completely pre-assembled: board + enclosure + power supply -- this is probably what SEM meant by his suggestion. Still, I don't think it's appropriate for this use-case.

As for Apple, if you weren't aware, they just pulled out of the networking game altogether, so that's probably another no-no.

After hearing of your concerns fully now, I'd stick with main-stream consumer products and stock firmware (latest version) for your choices. If you want to step it up a notch, perhaps just have someone come in and let him/her handle the upgrade for you. Opportunity cost is a real consideration with this stuff, and there's nothing wrong with just paying someone else to handle it -- be it in beers for a friend, or a check written to an IT consultant.