Please recommend a new router

[Bustergordon]

Hi everyone!

I'm in need of a new router. A bit of background...I'm currently using an Asus NT-16. Last year, I decided to upgrade, and bought a Netgear R7000, which was a disaster. It dropped the wifi connection constantly - every 15 minutes or so, everything would drop out. Then, every several hours, it would completely disconnect, and we'd have to hard reboot it. Netgear tech support was non-existent, so I went back to the NT-16.

The NT-16 is now finally starting to die after many years of tireless service. I'm looking for a new router, but am gunshy after the last experience. Here's what we currently have connected wirelessly at the house (which is a 2 story, 3500 square foot house):

* 2 TVs (one Sony Bravia, one Chromecast)
* as many as 4 computers
* 3 phones, 2 tablets
* one smartwatch
* one printer
* 2 kindles

Honestly, I'm sure I'm missing stuff - it seems like every new household product we buy wants to connect to the internet. We stream Netflix and other services, and we download/upload using bittorrent.

I'm leaning toward another Asus product given that the NT-16 has served us so well, but looking at the reviews on Amazon make it seem like a total crapshoot like the Netgear router. I'm not super comfortable with flashing the router to new firmware unless someone can explain it like I'm 5. My brother flashed the NT-16 to Tomato for me before we hooked it up, but he lives far away now and that's not an option, lol.

Thanks so much!

 

[Hawk]

Hi everyone!

I'm in need of a new router. A bit of background...I'm currently using an Asus NT-16. Last year, I decided to upgrade, and bought a Netgear R7000, which was a disaster. It dropped the wifi connection constantly - every 15 minutes or so, everything would drop out. Then, every several hours, it would completely disconnect, and we'd have to hard reboot it. Netgear tech support was non-existent, so I went back to the NT-16.

The NT-16 is now finally starting to die after many years of tireless service. I'm looking for a new router, but am gunshy after the last experience. Here's what we currently have connected wirelessly at the house (which is a 2 story, 3500 square foot house):

* 2 TVs (one Sony Bravia, one Chromecast)
* as many as 4 computers
* 3 phones, 2 tablets
* one smartwatch
* one printer
* 2 kindles

Honestly, I'm sure I'm missing stuff - it seems like every new household product we buy wants to connect to the internet. We stream Netflix and other services, and we download/upload using bittorrent.

I'm leaning toward another Asus product given that the NT-16 has served us so well, but looking at the reviews on Amazon make it seem like a total crapshoot like the Netgear router. I'm not super comfortable with flashing the router to new firmware unless someone can explain it like I'm 5. My brother flashed the NT-16 to Tomato for me before we hooked it up, but he lives far away now and that's not an option, lol.

Thanks so much!

What kind of budget you have in mind?
Personally I have RT-AC68U and quite happy with it, you can look at that and see if it fits the bill.

 

[Bustergordon]

If I could get a reliable router, I'd pay up to $200. Of course, I spent close to that on the Netgear and got burned... Are you running stock firmware on the RT-AC68U? I was looking at that one and the N66U as possibilities.

 

[sfx2000]

Netgear R7000

Still have it on the shelf?

Netgear has made a fair amount of progress on the firmware for the R7000...

 

[Bustergordon]

Still have it on the shelf?

Netgear has made a fair amount of progress on the firmware for the R7000...

Nope. Tried updating it a couple of times, still had problems, so gave up.

 

[Klueless]

Just on the off-chance you missed it (and at the risk of everyone calling me Captain Obvious) ...

• http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools

I found it helpful when I was looking for a new router just a couple of months ago. Do let us know what you wind up with?

 

[Bustergordon]

Thanks Klueless. Yes, I saw those, and that is what sort of prompted me to post here, because they all kind of sounded good, but then you read the Amazon and Newegg reviews, and 15% of people seem to absolutely hate their router! That's kind of what happened to me - my brother had the R7o00 and it performs flawlessly for him, and terribly for me.

What did you buy, and are you happy with it?

 

[L&LD]

The RT-AC68U (or 'P' version) is the current RT-N66U that was router champ 3 or more years ago.

I would not recommend the 'N66U unless you get a smoking deal. The 'AC68U is the much better buy today (performance, features, hardware and firmware).

 

[Klueless]

What did you buy, and are you happy with it?

I bought the RT-N66R (aka RT-N66U) for work. Even though we have about 25 clients (12 PCs, 4 printers, 2 servers and several phones & iPADs) our needs are modest. We only have a 15 x 1.5 service and most of our work day is just "Web". We do not do anything demanding like BitTorrent.

What I liked/needed was; EZ to use, traffic monitor, QoS / bandwidth limiter (which was preset to optimize "Web"), dual band, multiple SSIDs, displays of clients connected.

... then you read the Amazon and Newegg reviews, and 15% of people seem to absolutely hate their router! That's kind of what happened to me - my brother had the R7o00 and it performs flawlessly for him, and terribly for me.

Almost didn't buy it because of crappy reviews (newegg for one) then I noticed most of the reviews were for the refurbs. I then checked out some sites that only sold new and the reviews were much better.

I bought local because of the generous return policy. Two days prior to the N66U I had bought something different, tried it, determined it was not what I wanted and simply swapped it for the N66U with no problems.

I did lean towards getting the N68U and quantity one I could have probably talked the boss into it but ... there was a chance that we would have to upgrade our other locations. One 68 costs a little more but four 68s cost a lot more.

 

[Trip]

Since you're used to Asus, a 68U is almost a no-brainer. Easiest path to stability would be going from stock to the latest Merlin firmware version. Alternatively, there's AdvancedTomato and Kong DD-WRT.

FYI, the R7000 should be just fine by now... at least I'd like to think that after 2+ years and more than a dozen sub-revisions, they could get their own firmware right by now...?!?! (lol). Otherwise, there's Kong DD-WRT, AdvancedTomato or an xVortex Merlin port as well.

 

[Corey Zamara]

Best on the market today are the RT-AC3100 or RT-AC88u.

 

[Trip]

The 3100/88U may be the "best" hardware-wise, but firmware is another issue altogether. If nearly every previous release serves as enough proof for you, I'd stay well away until those models have garnered enough widespread repute to assure the buyer of proper stability and performance. The opportunity cost of having to futz with betaware just isn't worth the hassle in most use cases. Best to stick with what we know works until enough of the majority confirms positive about a worthwhile successor.

 

[Corey Zamara]

Well I have the RT-AC3100 and it's been rock solid, so far all reviews I've read about it echo the same response.

 

[sfx2000]

I'm leaning toward another Asus product given that the NT-16 has served us so well

If you're used to the Asus platforms - the RT-AC68 series is a pretty good solution - stable and mature, with a rich 3rd party community...

RT-AC3100 seems to be the logical followup to the AC68 series, and initial feedback has been positive there..

With the product line where it is - shop around and fine an RT-AC68 series, as it's last years model, and still very good...

 

[htismaqe]

About NewEgg and Amazon reviews, I wrote this some time ago:

That's not the only problem, no.

The other issue, as is the case with me, is that they gave up on the router long before it was ever stable.

It's a question of lifecycle.

Many positive reviews, especially for wireless gear, are written during the "honeymoon" phase, when everything is freshly-unboxed and the "wow" factor is still present. Very few of those people go back and edit their review in a month when it becomes apparent that the router has to be rebooted every 3 or 4 days to keep it stable.

On the flipside, many of the negative reviews are posted during that 2nd window, when the router has to be rebooted all the time. Those reviewers very rarely make it to "stability" so they have no frame of reference to go back and update their reviews with current information. They've already moved on to some other model or brand of equipment.

 

[stevech]

Best on the market today are the RT-AC3100 or RT-AC88u.

Tried then all?

 

[Corey Zamara]

Tried then all?

I have [emoji3]

 

[RogerSC]

Hate to sound like a broken record, but I've had the R7000 for over 2 years now, and it is still going strong, and has plenty of bandwidth for me (15o/12Mbps internet). Haven't used the stock firmware much, mostly dd-wrt, also tomato and XVortex. I'd have to say the best has been Kong's dd-wrt firmare on the R7000. If you have over about 500Mbps internet download, you're going to want to use either tomato or XVortex firmware.

Also have the RT-AC68P, that comes in second here. For that one, I'd use RMerlin's firmware, no question. Also have an RT-N66U, used that for a couple of years and used RMerlin's firmware on it, learned to love it then, especially in comparison with Asus stock firmware *smile*.