Should I buy highend consumer router or set up a new business grade network for Gigabit broadband

[Grant]

Hi all,

I am living in the university's apartment and they provide Gigabit internet speed. And this is what I got by connecting my gaming pc to the wall port

I have my old TP-link ARCHER C2 which I use to provide WIFI for my laptop and phones (1 laptop, 2 phones, 2 tablets).

This is the result after I plugged in the archer c2 (Wall port>10m cat 5e calble> Archer C2>2m cat 5 e calble>Gaming PC).

I don't really have any serious problem with my network. I just want to know that can I squeeze more juices out of it?

I want to ask that if I buy a decent or high-end router or set up a network with Ubi ERL+UAP am I gonna gain some benefits?

I know that the wifi network must be tremendously better by the setups above. But my main priority is only for the wired gaming PC to have the lowest latency and highest throughput possible. My all wifi client devices are not really important (just for facebook and some web browsing at most) I am a serious competitive gamer and heavy torrenter looking for best performance of my network.

 

[coxhaus]

I would use a wired router and an access point. I would use only 5 GHz if all your devices support it and turn down the power so it is mostly in your apartment and not someone else's.

 

[Trip]

Congrats on the symmetric gigabit connection. Must be nice!

First off, I would see what kind of performance you get with you setup as-is. At 1Gb, you may simply never saturate the link enough to cause any real issues, and thus ping/jitter/packetloss stay well within acceptable limits for gaming, and your wifi may be "good enough".

If the above is true, then you won't gain much, if anything, by replacing with business-grade or higher-power DIY gear.

If you do desire more wifi throughput/performance, or just want the latest/greatest consumer all-in-one, you could certainly buy an R7800 or similar, but it probably won't give you much more performance in the places you're looking, all other requirements held constant. In fact, if it's just interference-free wifi that you're looking to add (especially in college dorms), you'd probably be best off with an affordable access point (per coxhaus's suggeston) or, if you feel up to it, working pull Ruckus 7352/72 off eBay for <$50.

The one place where things would require a change is if you do wish to run anything on the router that circumvents hwnat/CTF and requires traffic be routed in software. Then you'd have to look at something like a Tile or x86 platform, as no SoC-based gear would be able to drive 2Gb/s aggregate with non-offloadable services running. For Ubiquiti, their only option at that level would be the Infinity XG: way overpriced (and too loud and hot) for your use-case. There's always a Mikrotik CCR 1009 PC, but RouterOS can be anything but friendly for most people. The best option might be OpenWRT installed on an old PC or low-cost embedded kit with a 2+Ghz Pentium or i-series CPU.

All that said, this a bit deflating, but I would stick with your Archer C2 if you can get away with it. Because to enact the kind of changes you'd actually be interested in (truly better wifi, QoS that actually works, etc.) you'll have to throw more money and time at it than it's probably worth. Hope you found some of my guidance helpful, though!

 

[coxhaus]

I cannot read any of your response times as the pictures are too small and I cannot blow them up. But I think the C2 is too old. I would replace it.

 

[Grant]

I cannot read any of your response times as the pictures are too small and I cannot blow them up. But I think the C2 is too old. I would replace it.

Sorry for that it is my dual screen. Okay what response time you mean? ping? if you mean ping it is around 1-2 ms always

 

[coxhaus]

What is your through put?

The problem with the C2 router is I would guess it is not supported any more as the last firmware update was May of 2017 if you have the latest hardware version 5. There have been some hacks since then which I believe are probably not supported like KRACK maybe others. Consumer vendors like to sell you hardware but not really support them. Router hardware gets old fast and it is not a good idea to stay on not supported hardware.

 

[Grant]

What is your throughput?

The problem with the C2 router is I would guess it is not supported anymore as the last firmware update was May of 2017 if you have the latest hardware version 5. There have been some hacks since then which I believe are probably not supported like KRACK maybe others. Consumer vendors like to sell you hardware but not really support them. Router hardware gets old fast and it is not a good idea to stay on not supported hardware.

It is so old. I've checked and it is v1!! I should sell it to a museum instead haha Yeah I got your point clearly and actually I want to replace it. But still I am not sure what I will actually gain from replacing it:/ and as Trip's suggestion, it seems to be quite hard to get more out of my ISP. But yeah, still looking for some place to spend money on....

The throughput results were
D:916 and U 954 for direct wired from wall port
and
D 914 U 950 from archer c2

 

[Trip]

Cox raises a good point regarding security support. This would be an area where entry-level enterprise gear (UBNT, Mikrotik) and open-source firmwares (OpenWRT) do tend to win out over time. That said, it's also not that big of a deal to just buy the next generation all-in-one; you would get all the hardware and standards upgrades to boot...

If you do replace the C2 outright, I would focus on the best *wifi* performance for your buck. That way, if something on the wired/processing side falls short, you can simply re-purpose the all-in-one to access point duty only (turn off all other services -- DHCP, firewall, DNS, etc.), then drop in a proper wired router of adequate processing power, and switch(es) if necessary, and get the best of all worlds -- wifi upgrade + packet-pushing horsepower.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I can't work out if this is a serious question or you're just joking. From what you've posted you want to replace your existing equipment because you're loosing 2 to 4Mbps through the router. Really?

 

[Trip]

I can't work out if this is a serious question or you're just joking. From what you've posted you want to replace your existing equipment because you're loosing 2 to 4Mbps through the router. Really?

Haha, I was thinking that myself, but still a chance to at least educate the OP on what's out there right now in the way of options - even if no changes make sense at this point.

 

[Grant]

I can't work out if this is a serious question or you're just joking. From what you've posted you want to replace your existing equipment because you're loosing 2 to 4Mbps through the router. Really?

I am serious Since I am a competitive gamer, I just want to know that if I can improve something on my network to get more out of it...

 

[Grant]

Actually the main improvement I want is my latency in game. Now it is around 33 ms which is quite good but many people in this area can get like 10-15 ms which is fell far better when playing.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I am serious Since I am a competitive gamer, I just want to know that if I can improve something on my network to get more out of it...

Well the important thing for you is latency not bandwidth. But your tests show (if I read them right) the same latency of 2ms with and without your router. So you can't get better than that.

 

[Grant]

Well the important thing for you is latency not bandwidth. But your tests show (if I read them right) the same latency of 2ms with and without your router. So you can't get better than that.

So the rest 30ish is the uncontrollable factors from isp and game server right?

 

[ColinTaylor]

So the rest 30ish is the uncontrollable factors from isp and game server right?

I would think so. Presumably, as you're "serious" about gaming you have turned off your torrents while you play?

 

[Grant]

I would think so. Presumably, as you're "serious" about gaming you have turned off your torrents while you play?

of course!! when i play I turned every unnecessary thing off.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I suppose as confirmation you could plug your gaming PC directly into your internet feed again and compare the in-game latency with what you normally get with the router.

 

[Strong Lead]

You might also check your router settings to see if you're optimized for latency or throughput. Don't most university students want throughput (streaming, downloading, P2P) more than latency? Of course, I don't know what particular settings on your model affect latency, but this site has plenty of smart folks who know that kind of stuff.

I don't understand why you'd do anything wireless for gaming. As I understand things, wireless suffers from speed-sapping things like noise and signal loss, while hardwired connections are as fast as possible. I haven't read anything one way or another, but I would expect wireless connections to have more latency too. Did I miss something?