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Wireless router up to 40 active users

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Logray

New Around Here
Hi!
I'm looking for a wifi router which can handle about 40-45 active devices at the same time.
(20 employee who has smartphone and about 15 laptop, but guest can arrive)
Can someone help me? The price must not be over 200$.
Thank you!
 
If the activity is more than just checking e-mail 40-45 users on a SOHO router is a disaster waiting to happen. 10 -15 users is a more realistic number which means you should be looking at a router and two WiFi APs.
 
As suggested with 2 wifi APs, you can get 2 stream AC wifi APs for $80 each. Im hoping you already have a dedicated router that can handle all that activity.
 
As suggested with 2 wifi APs, you can get 2 stream AC wifi APs for $80 each. Im hoping you already have a dedicated router that can handle all that activity.
Hi!
Thank you for the information, but this number is just the active connections. If somone uses their mobile phone/ laptop they don't use the other device. At this point 2 54mbps really old (from around 2007-2008 possibly) routers handle that traffic.
 
I have contacted Linksys support, and they said that EA6900 can do this, 32 users on the main network and 50 users on the guest network at the same time. Do you think it is possible?
 
I have contacted Linksys support, and they said that EA6900 can do this, 32 users on the main network and 50 users on the guest network at the same time. Do you think it is possible?

I find that unlikely, but depends on the actual network utilization.

Simply being connected is not the issue as your old routers indicate. The actual work that each device demands of the network is what will determine if they can handle it or not.

And by handling it, I mean in a stable and reliable fashion, with no reboots needed or other glitches on the network.
 
I've owned the EA6900 and I can't imagine it would be able to handle that much traffic without MELTING.

It gets REALLY hot under load and that's with 8-10 simultaneous clients.
 
few Consumer WiFi products would cope well with 40 very active clients. Best to spread the load on 1-3 added Access Points on different channels 1, 6, 11 in 2.4GHz.
of course, a beefy ISP WAN speed is needed - more important factor than WiFi.
 
AC66U with Merlin fw - has been running in the office for a year with more than 50 simultaneous wireless clients daily on both bands, no problems.
 
I've owned the EA6900 and I can't imagine it would be able to handle that much traffic without MELTING.

It gets REALLY hot under load and that's with 8-10 simultaneous clients.

The 50 users on Guest Network seems odd - IIRC the WRT1900ac, which has a lot more resources, only allows for 5 guest users...
 
I've owned the EA6900 and I can't imagine it would be able to handle that much traffic without MELTING.

It gets REALLY hot under load and that's with 8-10 simultaneous clients.

Maybe just dumb luck for me - but both the WRT1900ac and the Airport Extreme AC have well designed heat-sinks and active cooling... I've always been a bit surprised with folks complaining about overheating on AC1900 class devices, but many are passively cooled with small, and perhaps insufficient, heat sinks and ventilation...

Getting back to OP's original question - many AC1900 class routers can support up to 50 users, but not all on WiFi without having some performance impact. Even with 3rd Party SW (which then allows the vendor to say "not our problem")
 
Thank you all! We have decided to give it a try. I will update this post as soon as we have some experience with the setup.

Edit: At this time we arre running a test device: TL-WR841D, 30 active connections, normal browsing speed, no reboot, no glitch . ~running 8 hrs, Casing just warm, about 37-38°C
 
Last edited:
The 50 users on Guest Network seems odd - IIRC the WRT1900ac, which has a lot more resources, only allows for 5 guest users...

No, it's configurable in increments of 5, from 5 all the way up to 50.
 
Maybe just dumb luck for me - but both the WRT1900ac and the Airport Extreme AC have well designed heat-sinks and active cooling... I've always been a bit surprised with folks complaining about overheating on AC1900 class devices, but many are passively cooled with small, and perhaps insufficient, heat sinks and ventilation...

I never noticed any heat on any of the AC1900 routers I tested, other than the EA6900. You could literally cook on the top surface of that thing, it got so hot.
 
As I promised: WR841N after 1 week: no glitches or bugs, avarage active connections: 25-26, peak: 41, and the device is around 38°C
 
Just curious - are you running factory firmware or open-source; if open-source, which variant? Thanks.
 
Just curious - are you running factory firmware or open-source; if open-source, which variant? Thanks.
We use factory firmware:
Firmware Version:
3.12.5 Build 100929 Rel.57776n
Hardware Version:
WR841N v6/v7

But after the final device arrives, I'm going to install dd-wrt.
 
I'm running a RT-AC68P as my main router and a TL-WR841N as an AP. My set up handles my 40-45 devices beautifully. Even when I have parties it has up to 60-70 devices connected and still runs great.
 
We use factory firmware:
Firmware Version:
3.12.5 Build 100929 Rel.57776n
Hardware Version:
WR841N v6/v7

But after the final device arrives, I'm going to install dd-wrt.
Instlled dd-wrt, the download speed boosted from 65-70mbps to 95-98mbsp.
 
The number of connected device doesnt matter. What matters is how much load can it support such as if every device connected is using it at the same time. For a consumer router and low end wifi devices this number is 32 but if the router has better hardware it can support more. If you have 10 wifi devices try to get all of them to perform heavy tasks continously and see if they can do it without disconnecting or dropping out.
 

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