Upgrading from a dinosaur...

[thrand1]

Hi all,

I have a Linksys WRT300N that is dying a slow death after seven years of service. I have read the "How to Buy a Wireless Router 2017" guide, which was very helpful in sorting out the terminology and what is/isn't important. Here are some specifics for my situation:

General info: 2 people, living in 1400 sq ft 2 story house
Devices: 1 PC (wired), 1 wireless laptop (Macbook Air), 1 wired laptop (work/VPN), NAS, AppleTV (4th gen, AC wireless but currently wired to N bridge/adapter), 2 smartphones (iPhone 6S), Raspberry Pi (wired to N bridge/adapter)

Not all devices are in use at same time. Primarily streaming from 30Mbps Internet, plus DLNA/UPNP streaming from NAS to Pi.

Budget: up to $200 (have $75 in gift cards to Amazon, so total purchase outlay would be $100-125).

The "How to Buy" article states that AC1900 routers are a good sweetspot. It is clear I don't cycle through routers very quickly, so would be willing to pay slightly more if it yields better performance to tide me over.

I am considering the following three models:
Asus RT-AC68U ($149)
Netgear Nighthawk R7000 ($159)
Netgear Nighthawk R7800 ($195)

Is the R7800 worth ~$40 extra now for newer (but not bleeding edge) hardware and capabilities? Keep in mind my router cost would be essentially $80 (Asus/R7000) or $120 post-giftcard. Given the relative age of the 68U and R7000, do you think the 7800 is worth the additional money?

Thanks very much in advance for your help,
Tyler

 

[thrand1]

Hi,

Any suggestions given my situation? Another thought I had was in relation to my media center which is on the first floor, while the router is situated upstairs on the second floor. Up until now, I have been using an N bridge with the Apple TV and Raspberry Pi, but sometimes get dropouts when streaming high-resolution audio downloads.

I am looking at Actiontec's MOCA adapters (our house does not have three-prong/grounded electrical outlets, so powerline options have not worked) to use between the media center and the office.

Would you get:
1) The MOCA adapters plus the Asus or R7000
2) Try with the R7800, and maybe buy the MOCA adapters later?

Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

Is the R7800 worth ~$40 extra now for newer (but not bleeding edge) hardware and capabilities? Keep in mind my router cost would be essentially $80 (Asus/R7000) or $120 post-giftcard. Given the relative age of the 68U and R7000, do you think the 7800 is worth the additional money?

Thanks very much in advance for your help,

the R7000 is pretty well regarded - it's an older device, but it's still very relevant, and the factory firmware is very mature and stable.

 

[System Error Message]

MOCA is only an option if you have the cabling already there otherwise powerline is better.

If your current wifi router has the range you want, upgrading to the r7000 will be much better and you wont need any moca or powerline.

 

[RogerSC]

Hi,

Any suggestions given my situation? Another thought I had was in relation to my media center which is on the first floor, while the router is situated upstairs on the second floor. Up until now, I have been using an N bridge with the Apple TV and Raspberry Pi, but sometimes get dropouts when streaming high-resolution audio downloads.

I am looking at Actiontec's MOCA adapters (our house does not have three-prong/grounded electrical outlets, so powerline options have not worked) to use between the media center and the office.

Would you get:
1) The MOCA adapters plus the Asus or R7000
2) Try with the R7800, and maybe buy the MOCA adapters later?

Thanks!

MoCA works very well assuming that you have cable TV coax in the walls. If not, you might as well put in ethernet cable *smile*. Also, it is more difficult with satellite TV, due to the frequency ranges. But if you're talking about MoCA 2.0, and you have relatively recent coax cables in your walls, that can do hundreds of thousands of bits per second, and can almost handle up to 1Gbps. If the cable in your walls is in really good shape *smile*.

Personally, I'm not a powerline networking fan, it just doesn't work well at my house. Probably not great wiring...MoCA on the other hand, does. And is also more reliable than powerline networking, since you have double-shielded coax versus Romex or whatever *smile*;.

I agree that the R7000 will probably fill your needs. And if you need MoCA for an AP with the R7000, you'll probably need it with the R7800. The R7800 is incrementally better for wireless, but not a lot better. I have both, and prefer the R7800 at this point, but, as I said, it isn't enough better than the R7000 that it's going to supplant using an AP.

 

[thrand1]

Hi all,

Thanks again for your replies, this has been extremely helpful.

If I wasn't clear before, I apologize. Yes, we have coax outlets in every room of the house, particularly the ones that need connectivity. The faster powerline adapters (which, to the best of my reading, utilize the third/ground prong to achieve higher transmit rates) is not possible for use. Our house was built in the 1930s so any three prong outlets are not truly grounded (the previous owners installed GFCIs and we had two different electrical inspectors come in and verify they were functioning properly) until we have more money to run true grounded lines. Line noise has always been a problem in the house, too, as we get the typical sags when appliances turn on, and there was a ground loop I had to chase down to a crummy termination at the breaker box. As a result, I looked to MOCA.

We have cable internet (no TV), and not satellite service, which I have heard can sometimes not be compatible with MOCA. I also have bought one of the inline filters to prevent the "leaks" of data streams outbound from our house. Even though MOCA is more expensive, given the location of the coax runs in our house (I have been inspecting and logging locations of any splitters to see if they need replaced with better ones), and as RogerSC noted, the wiring is much more recent and resistant to those external gremlins.

I just found that that the R7000 is on sale at my local Costco for $30 cheaper than Amazon, so I may go out after work and pick that up. I also agree with everyone that testing prior to getting seriously into MOCA is in order, and appreciate the suggestions.

Thanks again for your insights, everyone- it is very helpful to get other perspectives, and consider items that you may not have done analysis on before.