TheUn4seen
New Around Here
First post, so hello to all and straight to the point:
The situation:
-I recently got a 1000/60Mbps connection as an upgrade from 250/50Mbps;
-I currently have an Asus RT-AC56u running Merlin 384.6
The router tops out at ~800Mbps for a single machine, less if two or more load it at once. This isn't a problem per se, but this particular router has flaky 2.4GHz band (occasionally drops out completely or doesn't work after a reboot), so , after several years of loyal service, this might be a good opportunity to get another one.
Currently I see a few ways of going about it:
1. Get a Mikrotik hEX for LAN and leave the AC56u as an access point. The problem here is that I need the 2.4 band for legacy devices and my AC56u is a bit unreliable.
2. Get the hEX and a cheap 802.11ac access point (if so, which would be the best mixed 2.4/5GHz ac/N for a small apartment?)
3.Get another consumer router - I'm thinking about Asus AC88u which should perform adequately and the 8 port switch is convenient, most of my devices work on wired LAN. This is the easiest way, but also the most expensive. And where's the fun in simply throwing money at a problem?
4.Get a cheap RT-AC5300 or an AC88u with faulty 2.4 band, use it only for LAN+5GHz and get a cheap 2.4GHz AP (which I could probably get for pennies if not free - it's just for legacy devices, doesn't have to be fancy) - right now I think this might be the most fun way to do it.
Which leads me to the question: What's going on with Asus' routers and 2.4GHz band? I just checked local eBay-like site and there are a lot of AC5300, AC3200, AC88u and others listed as "5GHz only" or "faulty 2.4GHz" going for as low as ~50USD. Is this a known hardware fault or something relatively easy to fix? I'm certainly not above buying and fixing a used router to save some hard earned money, and I know my way around a hotair station and JTAG interfaces.
But, If buying another router is the way, which one would be the best? I set my eyes on the AC88u, but am open to suggestions. The AC88u is probably on the top end of what I would consider sane to spend on a consumer router, but the less I spend the better, hence my idea of buying a cheap Asus and supplementing it with a separate AP.
Priorities:
-WAN-LAN throughput is the main concern
-WiFi performance is not - I use WiFi mostly for my phones, Raspberry Pis and such. Anything on par with the AC56u would be enough (by which I mean 802.11ac on 5GHz and workable 2.4GHz g/N).
-Preferably two USB ports, just for the convenience of hooking up a portable drive.
-I lean towards Asus routers just because I got used to Merlin software and general feature set. I need the router to be able to function as an openVPN server, USB+Samba is nice to have, I find myself using AIcloud if I need to offload photos and so on.
Sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance for any input.
The situation:
-I recently got a 1000/60Mbps connection as an upgrade from 250/50Mbps;
-I currently have an Asus RT-AC56u running Merlin 384.6
The router tops out at ~800Mbps for a single machine, less if two or more load it at once. This isn't a problem per se, but this particular router has flaky 2.4GHz band (occasionally drops out completely or doesn't work after a reboot), so , after several years of loyal service, this might be a good opportunity to get another one.
Currently I see a few ways of going about it:
1. Get a Mikrotik hEX for LAN and leave the AC56u as an access point. The problem here is that I need the 2.4 band for legacy devices and my AC56u is a bit unreliable.
2. Get the hEX and a cheap 802.11ac access point (if so, which would be the best mixed 2.4/5GHz ac/N for a small apartment?)
3.Get another consumer router - I'm thinking about Asus AC88u which should perform adequately and the 8 port switch is convenient, most of my devices work on wired LAN. This is the easiest way, but also the most expensive. And where's the fun in simply throwing money at a problem?
4.Get a cheap RT-AC5300 or an AC88u with faulty 2.4 band, use it only for LAN+5GHz and get a cheap 2.4GHz AP (which I could probably get for pennies if not free - it's just for legacy devices, doesn't have to be fancy) - right now I think this might be the most fun way to do it.
Which leads me to the question: What's going on with Asus' routers and 2.4GHz band? I just checked local eBay-like site and there are a lot of AC5300, AC3200, AC88u and others listed as "5GHz only" or "faulty 2.4GHz" going for as low as ~50USD. Is this a known hardware fault or something relatively easy to fix? I'm certainly not above buying and fixing a used router to save some hard earned money, and I know my way around a hotair station and JTAG interfaces.
But, If buying another router is the way, which one would be the best? I set my eyes on the AC88u, but am open to suggestions. The AC88u is probably on the top end of what I would consider sane to spend on a consumer router, but the less I spend the better, hence my idea of buying a cheap Asus and supplementing it with a separate AP.
Priorities:
-WAN-LAN throughput is the main concern
-WiFi performance is not - I use WiFi mostly for my phones, Raspberry Pis and such. Anything on par with the AC56u would be enough (by which I mean 802.11ac on 5GHz and workable 2.4GHz g/N).
-Preferably two USB ports, just for the convenience of hooking up a portable drive.
-I lean towards Asus routers just because I got used to Merlin software and general feature set. I need the router to be able to function as an openVPN server, USB+Samba is nice to have, I find myself using AIcloud if I need to offload photos and so on.
Sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance for any input.