Looking to replace r7000

[Perpetually Frustrated]

I have had the r7000 for a number of years and it has been the first router I have owned that has lasted that long. It has suited me well up till now. I have a 3 floor, 4500 sq ft home and the r7000 has provided the entire house with all the internet needed. I have 4 teenage boys living in the house and my sole source of entertainment is streaming to each TV in the house. I also have a Spectrum 200 Mb download connection.

I am concerned with using more than one device because any time I have tried to add an extender or use an old router as an AP, they always ultimately fail and usually within a month. I would rather have one device so that I can troubleshoot easier and just focus on one device if there is a problem. Lately I have had to reboot the r7000 at least once every other day because of lost internet so I am assuming it is on it's way out. I have had probably a dozen routers over the years and they all seem to flake out requiring restarts over and over and eventually stop working entirely.

I am looking for a relatively inexpensive router (ideally under or close to $100) that can handle the load, is reliable, and has the range I need. I wish Spectrum had a router that could handle the range I need so that when it fails, it is their problem, not mine, but they don't.

any and all help is greatly appreciated

 

[Clark Griswald]

Welcome to the forums.

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...86u-dual-band-ac2900-wireless-router-reviewed
I recommend you invest in an AC86U with RMerlin fw. If the R7000 was working for your environment, then this will be a significant upgrade in performance for you, IMHO.

 

[Smokey613]

I had an R7000 ever since they came out. It was rock solid for years. A few months ago I started having connectivity issues with it. I tried everything and nothing worked. I even loaded WRT on it which “seemed” to help but after more issues I gave up. I got a used RT68U off eBay, loaded Merlin on it and now I am back in business. No more needing to reboot every couple of days. I went with the 68U because of the price I was able to get it for. I was also bidding on an 86U but the price got more than I wanted to spend. I love this 68U. It has been workin great from day one.

 

[Trip]

Have you made sure the R7000 is running the latest firmware from Netgear? Perhaps try a factory reset and manual reconfig of your network and see how stability is from there? You could monkey with a third-party firmware such as a stable version of DD-WRT, etc. to see if that runs better as well.

If you're still convinced it's burning out or you're simply ready for something new, I would probably agree with @Clark Griswald and look to an Asus AC86U running the latest version of Merlin firmware for stability. It should offer even slightly better range and performance than the R7k, especially when your boys are all wirelessly connected and stressing the radios at the same time.

The other option would be to go with a wired router plus a distributed wifi system, either hooked together through ethernet or MoCa-based hardwire backhaul if you have that wiring in the house, or in a wireless mesh. You could do this with a whole-house consumer product such as Eero Pro or even more business-type products such as Ubiquiti UniFi or TP-Link Omada.

If you just want to keep it simple stupid (KISS), I don't blame you, and in that case I would go with an Asus AC86U running Merlin.