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Looking for a router that can reach the closest to 1GB Down/UP on wifi

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yourworstfears

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I'm planning on getting gigabit internet from AT&T next month because I need to update to a new internet package deal.
The majority of my devices are connected to wifi so I would wish they could benefit from gigabit speeds on wifi.
As for range, I live in an apartment ~1500 Sqft
I do have some wifi 6 devices so a wifi 6 router would be nice to get.
 
RT-AC86U, RT-AX88U, RT-AX86U. In order of highest to lowest latency. With RMerlin firmware, of course, these are the creme of the crop.

Choose your poison based on their cost in your region. Don't expect to have actual 1GbE speeds over Wi-Fi with any of them. At least, not at any real/important distance/obstacles from the router. ;)
 
Wifi 6 is primarily built for efficiency gains, not so much speed increases; actual throughput improvement over 802.11ac is only about 11%. With your typical 2x2 client at normal distances around your apartment, the best you can expect is about 600-700Mb/s, and that's if the client can hold 256-QAM negotiation on an 80Mhz channel at -55dB or better signal quality... a potentially tall ask, depending on interference and/or client chipset quality (or lack thereof). For more of an education on the nuances of Wifi 6 and what you can actually expect as far as real-world throughput, see this excellent Duckware article, specifically section 11, "Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) 5 GHz (HE: High Efficiency)".

In layman's terms: you're not going to get gigabit from most any mobile client, even with an AX router. However, there are (or will be) other reasons to buy an AX router anyways, and @L&LD's suggestions are three to look at for sure. Flash with Merlin for stability and away you go.
 
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The highest sustained downlink speeds on HT80 I’ve seen is ~800-850 Mbps with Intel AX200s in a few of my Dell Laptops, the lower end sustained being around 10-15 ft from my RAX120 one flow below it. Uplink was generally around 2/3 of that. If you need gigabit you’d need HT160 enabled, in which case I can get around 1100-1200 Mbps sustained at similar ranges and peak burst of around ~1300-1350 Mbps. Once again uplink was like somewhere between around 65-70% of that.

If it’s something like an iPhone 11/12 I think I’ve seen around 600-700 Mbps on AX. Granted on a phone or tablet you’d likely not be doing anything requiring such high bandwidth. Even streaming 4K would use only a fraction of that.

Of course type of router, client, home building materials, proximity of neighbors WiFi and location of router/client all come into play in terms of how fast a transfer rate you can get. More drywall wood interior the better signal propagation vs concrete walls and granite flooring for example. Also take into account umber of active users on the selected band which would also affect speeds.
 
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Welcome @agntorange to the forums.

Tell us how your network is used by you and the devices and load you put on it. What are your ISP speeds? Are they increasing in the near future? What is your home construction like (concrete/brick or gyprock)?

The budget that you have and your local price differences between the two routers may make a difference too, on what may be suggested.

The short answer: if you don't need to upgrade to either router, today, then wait. This summer is expected to give us Wi-Fi 6E which I'm expecting to be a big jump over what we have today (in performance and price too). If you do need to upgrade today and tend to keep your router for as long as possible, and the RT-AX86U is within your budget, it will prove to be a considerable improvement over the RT-AC86U, particularly as you add more modern client devices to your network over time.

If however, your ISP speeds are below 200Mbps up/down and you live in a smaller home (2K SqFt or less on up to two floors), then the RT-AC86U is more than enough router and you can put any savings towards a Wi-Fi 6E router sooner.
 
Welcome @agntorange to the forums.
Thank you! :) Sincerely appreciate the welcome.



Tell us how your network is used by you and the devices and load you put on it. What are your ISP speeds? Are they increasing in the near future? What is your home construction like (concrete/brick or gyprock)?
We mostly use LAN wired(thats why i choose the AC86U due to the 8 LAN ports) since we do not like to run the wifi due to health concerns. We run a small family business but nothing too intensive bandwidth wise. Other then personal youtube use, etc. We rarely watch TV but when we do, we fire up the wireless and watch Amazon Prime through that. Once we are done we power down the radios. Our ISP is 1gig down with about 40MB up. I asked about increases in the future but could not get a solid answer. We do no gaming or anything like that. Our place is a triple wide trailer, 1900 square feet. We will have family visiting at times so want to provide good wifi when they are here, and one of them will have an RV they will park near us so hoping they can get some wifi too. With that said, we are not too bandwidth intensive it seems, but would definitely like to have a robust system if and when needed to support the pipe we have in. I could spend up to $300 or a little more if needed.

I would say the biggest thing for me is also security. Want the most secure router possible. I just flashed Merlin and will start looking into security options.
 
Neither the RT-AC86U nor the RT-AX86U have 8 Ethernet Ports.

The router you want is the RT-AX88U. Or better (and probably cheaper, wait for a sale on them) the RT-AX86U + a cheap and cheerful 8+ Port 1GbE switch instead.

You can also add the switch to the RT-AC86U you bought, of course. But with a Gbps ISP connection today, I would not be putting money in an AC class router.

Again, the above assumes you need to buy a router today. If you can make do for a few more months, your possible (Wi-Fi 6E) purchase will be that much more valuable into the future, or at the very least, you will have saved some money from buying one of the same router choices today, but at a lower price.

For security, buy yourself a USB drive (Patriot Elite 128GB or larger is my suggestion, or even better, a UGREEN PCIe SSD external USB enclosure and a 128GB or larger PCIe m.2 SSD), and follow the guide below to get the drive prepared for amtm, Entware, a 2GB swap file and the following scripts. Skynet, Diversion (if you want adblocking on your network), Unbound, YazFi and ntpMerlin.

Just ignore the part where it says to 'install' amtm. That hasn't been needed since RMerlin firmware 384.15_0 when amtm was included as part of the firmware. :)

amtm Step-by-Step https://www.snbforums.com/threads/amtm-step-by-step-install-guide-l-ld.56237/#post-483421

amtm - the Asuswrt-Merlin Terminal Menu - Diversion

After setting up the USB drive in the proper file format the router expects, creating a swap file, installing Enware (via Diversion 'Lite', if you plan to use it), and enabling the disk checker script in amtm 'dc', you can hit 'i' to see what other scripts (including the scripts above) you want to install. Note that you can't install all of them together. Depending on the script, it may be one choice or another.
 
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