Advice for router recommendation

[JohnnyS.]

Hello all,

I am tired of getting high ping towards the night, it happens every time and my cousin with the same provider deals with the issue as well. We live very nearby and we are looking for a router that could possibly improve our gaming experience, its annoying when your fine one hour and then at around 1030+ the ping goes crazy. I was looking at the
-ASUS Wireless-AC1700 (RT-ACRH17)
-TP-Link AC1200 Smart WiFi Router (Archer A6)
-ASUS Dual-Band 2x2 AC1300 Super-Fast Wifi (RT-ACRH13)

As you may noticed most of these are under 90 dollars which I would like but if I can get any other recommendations and advice that be nice. Heres some more things you should know, its a 2 story house (not sure of sqft). I currently live in FL, and use Spectrum. There is a family of 5 so many devices connected, thats why I heard Mu-mimo is super important for a lot of devices but I am still new to this information.

Couple other questions
-is it worth to wait for black friday or cyber monday for a super deal on a higher priced one?
-Can I just plug and play and it works like that? (aside from setting it up, i mean more like I need to have spectrum do it)

Any help is appreciated.

 

[degrub]

Spectrum is providing cable tv in the area ?

What is going on after 10:30 ?

It may not be the router.

 

[Trip]

First order of business is to get a plain modem from Spectrum. Not an all-in-one modem + wireless router unit; just a plain modem. Arris, Technicolor, whatever they're doling out in your market.

Second order of business is to cut out all other network devices, including any router, and hook the modem up directly to a PC and game with it during the time at which you're noticing the spikes. If you notice them again, then, as @degrub said, it could very likely be Spectrum's problem upstream from you, for which you'd want to call in and report, so they can test and confirm, then hopefully dispatch a tech to fix. Just a warning: the fix for such an issue, especially if it's neighborhood or even city-wide, may take weeks or even months to fix. Remember, you're dealing with a very rich, happy and consequently slow-to-fix-itself cable provider -- not exactly 911-level of responsiveness.

Presuming that gets remedied, or if the modem test checks out OK from the get-go, then it's onto picking a router (whose WAN port you'd connect to the single ethernet port on the modem). I'd probably pick a more mainstream choice than any of the three you've listed, primarily for more bugfixed firmware, and/or third-party options, such Merlin for an Asus model. At your budget, the RT-AC66U at $95 is still not a bad choice, and is Merlin-compatible. Make sure to research how to turn on and properly set fq_codel QoS queuing choice in Merlin, and you'll be bufferbloat-free as well.

Also, don't wait for Black Friday or any other trigger-pull sales to influence you. Just get something for a good price now that is mature and proven (ie. bugfixed) and get it into service. That's my $0.02 anyways.

 

[JohnnyS.]

Spectrum is providing cable tv in the area ?

What is going on after 10:30 ?

It may not be the router.

Spectrum provides cable tv and internet. I get speeds up to 100Mbps. After around 10:30 or around that time, my ping goes up very high a lot, playing overwatch I get 70ms then around that time it goes up to 130ms. My cousin deals with this as well and he lives couple streets away. I also have a PS4 that is wired directly to the router and at this time too it deals with that high ms as well.

 

[JohnnyS.]

First order of business is to get a plain modem from Spectrum. Not an all-in-one modem + wireless router unit; just a plain modem. Arris, Technicolor, whatever they're doling out in your market.

Second order of business is to cut out all other network devices, including any router, and hook the modem up directly to a PC and game with it during the time at which you're noticing the spikes. If you notice them again, then, as @degrub said, it could very likely be Spectrum's problem upstream from you, for which you'd want to call in and report, so they can test and confirm, then hopefully dispatch a tech to fix. Just a warning: the fix for such an issue, especially if it's neighborhood or even city-wide, may take weeks or even months to fix. Remember, you're dealing with a very rich, happy and consequently slow-to-fix-itself cable provider -- not exactly 911-level of responsiveness.

Presuming that gets remedied, or if the modem test checks out OK from the get-go, then it's onto picking a router (whose WAN port you'd connect to the single ethernet port on the modem). I'd probably pick a more mainstream choice than any of the three you've listed, primarily for more bugfixed firmware, and/or third-party options, such Merlin for an Asus model. At your budget, the RT-AC66U at $95 is still not a bad choice, and is Merlin-compatible. Make sure to research how to turn on and properly set fq_codel QoS queuing choice in Merlin, and you'll be bufferbloat-free as well.

Also, don't wait for Black Friday or any other trigger-pull sales to influence you. Just get something for a good price now that is mature and proven (ie. bugfixed) and get it into service. That's my $0.02 anyways.

Sorry forgot to specify, it is not a all-in-one, its a standalone modem and a standalone router. I will do testing when hooked up with the modem but last time I tried to test the modem only I didnt get internet, do I have to do something for the modem to work with my laptop for example, or should it just be plug and play. If I remember correctly when I was trying to do tests for ping it didnt let me not sure why.

 

[CrystalLattice]

It also provides capabilities unavailable in a real house, including highly controllable test network topology, signal levels and motion emulation

 

[Trip]

It also provides capabilities unavailable in a real house, including highly controllable test network topology, signal levels and motion emulation

Huh?

Sorry forgot to specify, it is not a all-in-one, its a standalone modem and a standalone router. I will do testing when hooked up with the modem but last time I tried to test the modem only I didnt get internet, do I have to do something for the modem to work with my laptop for example, or should it just be plug and play. If I remember correctly when I was trying to do tests for ping it didnt let me not sure why.

Got it. I would disconnect the ethernet cable from your modem, power off the modem for a good couple minutes, then power it back on, wait for it to get an upstream and downstream cable signal lock and display as "online", then connect your PC. Make sure your PC's ethernet adapter IPv4 properties are set to get an IP via DHCP, as opposed to a static. Also, make sure DNS is set as auto, not to any static IPs. If you don't know what any of that means or you've never touched those settings before, then they're both probably already set to DHCP/auto and no changes are needed. After 30 seconds or so, you *should* get an IP address. If you bring up a session of Chrome, you should be able to browse the internet.

 

[aaronwt]

Hello all,

I am tired of getting high ping towards the night, it happens every time and my cousin with the same provider deals with the issue as well. We live very nearby and we are looking for a router that could possibly improve our gaming experience, its annoying when your fine one hour and then at around 1030+ the ping goes crazy. I was looking at the
-ASUS Wireless-AC1700 (RT-ACRH17)
-TP-Link AC1200 Smart WiFi Router (Archer A6)
-ASUS Dual-Band 2x2 AC1300 Super-Fast Wifi (RT-ACRH13)

As you may noticed most of these are under 90 dollars which I would like but if I can get any other recommendations and advice that be nice. Heres some more things you should know, its a 2 story house (not sure of sqft). I currently live in FL, and use Spectrum. There is a family of 5 so many devices connected, thats why I heard Mu-mimo is super important for a lot of devices but I am still new to this information.

Couple other questions
-is it worth to wait for black friday or cyber monday for a super deal on a higher priced one?
-Can I just plug and play and it works like that? (aside from setting it up, i mean more like I need to have spectrum do it)

Any help is appreciated.

I use a couple of the RT-ACRH13 models in AP mode with 5Ghz. I can easily get 400Mb/s throughput over wireless AC with low latency. And they have worked great for the last two years. Plus I only paid around $30 for each of them on Ebay. I have been very pleased with them. I never need to reboot them, I get great speeds, and they run 24/7/365 with zero issues.

I recently got a third one for only $20 on ebay. As a backup or to replace one of my two RT-N65U routers in AP mode I use for 2.4Ghz wifi.

 

[coxhaus]

I use a couple of the RT-ACRH13 models in AP mode with 5Ghz. I can easily get 400Mb/s throughput over wireless AC with low latency.
.

How much latency is added through how many walls or floors? What is your wireless latency from to what? I am trying figure this all out in general.

 

[JohnnyS.]

I use a couple of the RT-ACRH13 models in AP mode with 5Ghz. I can easily get 400Mb/s throughput over wireless AC with low latency. And they have worked great for the last two years. Plus I only paid around $30 for each of them on Ebay. I have been very pleased with them. I never need to reboot them, I get great speeds, and they run 24/7/365 with zero issues.

I recently got a third one for only $20 on ebay. As a backup or to replace one of my two RT-N65U routers in AP mode I use for 2.4Ghz wifi.

$20 for used or open box?

 

[aaronwt]

$20 for used or open box?

They were open box/ used. That's how I've purchased most of my routers/APs over the years. They have always worked great.

This week I received an RT-ACRH17 from ebay for around $39 after shipping. Which I am using as an AP. Which works even better than the ACRH13 models I am using. But is also much larger.

 

[Bib Jab]

aaronwt: Would you mind sharing what firmware you run? I run an RT-ACRH13 and am having issues, tried a few different firmwares so far.

 

[K-2SO]

After around 10:30 or around that time, my ping goes up very high a lot, playing overwatch I get 70ms then around that time it goes up to 130ms.

Sounds like ISP's network congestion. You can't fix that by changing your hardware.