Looking for upgrade from TL-WR1043ND

[Nextria]

Hello,

I am looking for some advise for a new router,
After almost 8 years I think my TP-Link router is losing wifi every couple hours and I have to reset it.
So its time for a new router,

I want to go for a Asus or a Netgear nighthawk, but am looking at the specs and can't make up my mind.

A little bit about my home, I have one server running WHS, this I use for my tv shows,
I watch the tv shows on my iPads with Kodi,

Beside the server I also have my Mac running, so its not a really big network,

2 computers, 2 iPads and 2 iPhone, and some handheld gaming.

But I download a lot of big files, and stream a lot to the iPads,
My home is a apartment and is not really big,

I first was looking for the Asus RT-AC87U, or the nighthawk 7800/8000.

I love the Merlin firmware on Asus and the mobile ap , I read it has many option with is good, with opening the ports for the server.

But the Nighthawk 7800/ 8000 has better specs,

what can you advise, there is also the AC88U option but it is a lot more expensive


Regards,

Robbert

 

[avtella]

Purely hardware wise the R7800's 1.7 Ghz Krait is probably the most powerful CPU wise (Similar to Cortex A15 ~3.39 DMIPS/Mhz) around 60-65% more powerful on paper compared to the Broadcom CPU at 1.4 Ghz (Cortex A9 ~2.5 DMIPS/Mhz) and also has the best 5Ghz performance. It also has a more mature MU-MIMO support, not that many people have MU-MIMO capable clients but they are coming.

The AC88U is also a good pick, it beats the R7800 in the 2.4Ghz range and you can use rmerlin firmware. The AC88U uses a Broadcom CPU similar to the R7000/R8000/AC68U/AC87U but higher clocked and has a newer WiFi chipset then those. They advertise NitroQAM for higher speeds on 5Ghz but be careful, as barely any client devices (ie laptops/phones) even support that proprietary feature, unless you go out and buy a NitroQAM supporting adapter separately.

UI and user options wise however ASUS has the upper hand in terms of stock firmware, though you could go open source for more features on either device.

I would avoid the AC87U mostly because of the Quantenna 5Ghz chipset with which there were many issues. Asus at least tried a bit to fix issues. Netgear gave up on the R7500v1 rather quickly, it also had the same Quantenna 5ghz chip issues.

Go for either the R7800 or AC88U. Being an R7800 owner, I lean more to it .

The R8000 is pretty much like the R7000 hardware wise except it has an extra 5Ghz band, but may not be worth paying extra over the others just for that.

In addition look at the R7000 and AC68U as well, they should be cheaper and handle your network just fine.

 

[System Error Message]

actually you're forgetting about another tp link as well.

The important thing is to first determine the hardware you need to support your needs, from WAN speeds to firewall features and so on, even wireless requirements.
Than you pick the brand that has the firmware you want.

We gotta start recommending brands other than asus and netgear, otherwise they'll be way overpriced and other decent brands wont get the recognition they deserve. Apparently people read snbforums and some determine pricing as well. Infact some of our attitudes towards the design of the ac87u dropped its price (though it is factually proven that it isnt suited for high performance).

There are really just many models to pick from. once you make a list simply post it here and others can tell you whether or not its a bad model or a good one.

 

[Nextria]

Thanks both of you for the replay,

I understand there are many more brands, but I already looked at them.
My brother also have Asus Ac87U, and he said it was a really good router.

My house is not really big and on the wifi side there will not be many devices.
On the lan side, I do have many items connected, like gaming consoles but they are rarely used.

The important part is that I can stream my movies, or watch Youtube and not get buffering when my wife also want to watch a movie.

What I also like, but don't know if it is possible to create a VPN server so I don't have to open any ports anymore,
Unfortunate the TP-Link really died yesterday . so I had to make a choice, I did go for the AC87U.

Can you tell me if I can create a VPN server with this one ?

I will get the router today, but if you suggest to go for the AC88U because its much better I can still order that one to and send the other one back.

 

[Nextria]

Hello,

Just a quick update, I decided to go for the AC-88U and I just installed it.
everything is working fine, and my download speed is 2 mb faster than before .

I am pulling now almost 17mb/s, so thats great.

I also setup a VPN server, it was really easy to do, but I still need to open one port on my modem (1194).
Is there a way around this. or do you always need 1 open port ?

In the past I have had many "Attacks" because a lot of Ports where forwarded to my server, so if I can have none open ports that would be the best.


In short I bought the AC-88U, it is fast, cool looking and easy to setup !