Best and cheapest gigabit LAN / wireless ac router modem

[DrPips]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum, a friend recommended me come here to ask my question.

Basically I have a powerline network which I use to stream HD movies around my house. I wasn't getting the speeds I wanted. The adaptor sim using are all TP Link 600 Mb/s. I fully understand that this is only ever going to be a theoretical maximum and never fully achievable in real world conditions, but it want to try and get closer to the 80Mb/s I'm getting at the moment.

I think my Sky Hub is the limiting factor at the moment, and after having read about it, I can see it's not highly thought of. It only has 10/100 Ethernet ports and sngle channel wireless n wifi. (Sorry for posting about wifi in this forum, but couldn't see anywhere for both)

So can anyone recommend a router with gigabit LAN and dual band wireless ac wifi? What's the least I should pay for one?

My current setup has the modem and router as one box. Not sure if that's the norm, but what would my best option be? My ISP uses phone lines, (ADSL?)

Thanks,

Dom

 

[netwrks]

Best and cheap don't go hand in hand.. I suspect, you do not want a modem.. Check out this link for routers. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/router-chooser/chooser

 

[DrPips]

Hi,

I understand what you meant about best and cheapest, but I mean the right balance of both, so it will do what I want without breaking the bank.

Why do you say I don't need a modem?

Thanks

 

[netwrks]

If your current ISP modem can be bridged (turned into a modem only), then all you need is a third party router, to suit your needs. If it cannot be bridged, ask your ISP what they have that can be set to modem only (bridged - or maybe they have just a plain modem). The reason your current ISP router modem combo only has a 100mb LAN port is because it's a DSL service. That will certainly be your bottleneck. If you are planning to move to a broadband service, (Cable / fiber) then it would make sense to move to a higher end 3rd party router that has gig WAN and LAN ports. What ever decision you make, the link I provided up above, will describe the router features and price point. You can also look at this link. It is more detailed.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/view

 

[DrPips]

I'm currently with Sky and have their fibre broadband service. I just did a speed test and get 17mbps down and 5 up. That's wireless at the far end of the house from the router.

I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if the hub I have can be bridged. Just out of curiosity, is the huge difference in quality between say the TP link archer D5 (which is a router and modem) and the C5 which is a router only. There's only £10 difference in price and I'd rather just have 1 box to keep things neater and save on plug sockets!

 

[netwrks]

I'm currently with Sky and have their fibre broadband service. I just did a speed test and get 17mbps down and 5 up. That's wireless at the far end of the house from the router.

I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if the hub I have can be bridged. Just out of curiosity, is the huge difference in quality between say the TP link archer D5 (which is a router and modem) and the C5 which is a router only. There's only £10 difference in price and I'd rather just have 1 box to keep things neater and save on plug sockets!

TPLINK has just started to become popular(ish) in my part of the world, and I have not been following their products. But, they are starting to gain marketshare. I'm sure they have a forum, or someone else here will chine in..

EDIT: typically, ISP wifi router / modem combos have a less than desired overall experience, on the wifi side..

 

[System Error Message]

wifi router/modem combos actually use less power and are cheaper overall. There are some asus AC routers that have built in DSL modem. There might be an asus ac68 variation with dsl modem. If you arent using any variation of DSL than you can go with SFP although the only router i know that has SFP, gigabit and wifi is mikrotik's RB9xxx, some of their older routers and some of their CRS switches. Technically you can add usb wifi to routerboards with usb ports but they have a low range of compatible products in that respect. Mikrotik routerboards have more wifi range compared to consumer(max transmit power of 1W or 1.5W) but they are difficult to configure for the unskilled.

 

[Trip]

Hi DrPips - The TP-Link WDR3600 ($50), WDR4300 ($65), Archer C5 ($90) or C7 ($100) paired with Gargoyle have all proven to be pretty reliable for me. Going up the range, you're just basically increasing flash/ram, CPU and bandwidth in the 5Ghz spectrum, incrementally. I do 3600s all the time for clients (10+ now) now that they've proven reliable in my tests... Nine times out of ten they're set and forget, if you know what you're doing of course.

 

[ulaganath]

D7000 recently launched so that you can goahead and try getting it.