Need Advise

[ColinTaylor]

Granddaughters do a lot of moving streaming
Wife binge watches Netflix

Yep! Missed that one! fairly consistant ave 34 ping, 5mbps down and 2.5 up

Ouch. Netflix uses 3Mbps for SD and 5Mbps for HD.

 

[degrub]

Is this DSL service from the ISP ?
If so, check the physical link page for SNR (signal to noise ratio), dB budget , etc. The ISP should be able to see this, but sometimes it helps if you print out the report and tell them and a tech comes out to physically check the line installation.
i had dropped connections on Uverse with difficulty syncing that turned to be the result of open cable, poor connections, a flakey modem, and a cross connect in the DSLAM box down the street courtesy of another technician's activity.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Is this DSL service from the ISP ?

My guess is that it's Zeecon point to point wireless so there's nothing to check his end.

 

[Klueless]

Maybe, but I don't think so because I contacted them about a month ago and they are using their system to monitor the issues. They are pretty good about taking care of issues and would have change the modem if they were concerned.

Sure. But they said they were seeing errors from you to them. In this case "you" is their modem, is it not? While I do think you've problems with your router I remain unconvinced that they don't also have some problems.

 

[anaron]

Ouch. Netflix uses 3Mbps for SD and 5Mbps for HD.

Yep! Netflix had to do a customizing of the settings in order for it to run on Zeecon which is a point to point wireless. My pickup point is about 600 yards from my house on top of a water tower. Only internet available in this area that does not have data caps. We really have no choices. I am looking at adding another Zeecon setup, one for Netflix and one for everything else. Dang rural areas are a real problem for internet.

I remain unconvinced that they don't also have some problems

Very possible as there have been problems in the past but they usually are on top of it before we can report issues.

 

[Klueless]

Wow ... sure is a lot to digest. Maybe next time you fail simply spray your router with a bunch of pings? But, before it fails, spray it with pings to make sure it answers them. (Some devices ignore pings.)

 

[Klueless]

have you ever failed long enough to plug directly into your ISP's device and watch it fail without any of your equipment attached?

Thanks to Collin I understand your Zeecon system better. So you could connect a PC directly into that long Ethernet cable that comes into your house when it all fails.

 

[anaron]

Have had the isp connected to one computer since you mentioned it yesterday. So far, no failure.

 

[anaron]

Did get some good news today. Zeecon has added some new equipment that will increase my speed from 5 to 7mbps and will be out Mon to install it.

Also got a call from our local cable company and they can now supply me with 24 mbps internet at a really good price but the data is capped at 250gb which worries me.

Router research is rather slow. Way to many routers (one company sells over 500 different routers) and way to many options most of which I know nothing about. It is however very educational.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Good to hear about the upgrade and new cable service availability. 250GB/month isn't too bad all things considered. Maybe the cable company has a way for you to track your usage, so you can balance your devices between the two services.

I know what you mean about the routers, too much choice.

I have an RT-AC68U and it's a solid, inexpensive router with a good track record. If I were to replace it today I think I'd get the RT-AC86U because it's a major step up in hardware. It has a few issues because it's so new but Asus seem to be getting on top of them.

 

[anaron]

What is your opinion of the Asus RT-AC88U appears in the top five of more review comparisons than any other router? I am leaning toward the 88. However, the RT-AC86U is rapidly attaining the review level of the 88 but only has 4 ports so I would have to buy at least a 5 port switch which puts the cost at or above the 88. The 86 does have a 1.8 ghz cpu vs 1.4 for the 88. The 86 is also a newer product.

 

[ColinTaylor]

The RT-AC88U appears to be a very good choice from what I've read in these forums. It is one of the "next-gen" routers that Merlin has already developed his 3rd-party firmware for (which is a good endorsement ).

The RT-AC88U was on my wish list but it's very expensive here in the UK, so that's why it was usurped by the RT-AC86U.

 

[System Error Message]

Actually i always recommend the AC3100 over the AC88U. This is because the extra 4 ports are bottlenecked by 1Gb/s to everything else. The AC88U is the AC3100 with 4 extra ports.

You dont buy a router based on number of ports, you gotta look at the architecture. I bought my AC88U from UK for £180. Prices for many electronic things in UK are high and its because people are ripping off the brits in this thing. Anything media promoted gets a price bump in UK and ASUS being famous for performance gets a huge price bump in UK for no reason.

 

[Klueless]

Good to hear about the upgrade and new cable service availability. 250GB/month isn't too bad all things considered.

Maybe you have (or can get) from your current company how much you're been using all these months, 8GB a day might not be an issue. I think (as you shop around for routers) Netgear will give you monthly tallies and I know Asus will (as well as daily, real time, etc.).

Also, most don't just cut you off after you reach your cap; some just throttle your speed, others simply charge for overages.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Actually i always recommend the AC3100 over the AC88U. This is because the extra 4 ports are bottlenecked by 1Gb/s to everything else. The AC88U is the AC3100 with 4 extra ports.

I did start writing about this in my previous reply but then deleted it for the sake of brevity. As you say, it's only a concern if you have multiple simultaneous data streams that collectively exceed 1Gb/s going between the first 4 ports and the last 4. That's a very specific scenario that probably doesn't apply (or can be worked around) by the OP. I think most people would be more concerned about the price differential between an 8 port router vs. a 4 port router + 4 port switch.

Another thing to consider is, if he gets second internet feed, what is he going to use as a wireless router for that? I guess the cable company will supply him with one so it might be a moot point.

 

[System Error Message]

I did start writing about this in my previous reply but then deleted it for the sake of brevity. As you say, it's only a concern if you have multiple simultaneous data streams that collectively exceed 1Gb/s going between the first 4 ports and the last 4. That's a very specific scenario that probably doesn't apply (or can be worked around) by the OP. I think most people would be more concerned about the price differential between an 8 port router vs. a 4 port router + 4 port switch.

Another thing to consider is, if he gets second internet feed, what is he going to use as a wireless router for that? I guess the cable company will supply him with one so it might be a moot point.

There is price difference between the AC88U vs AC3100 + switch. The AC88U costs a lot more in the UK.
When the AC3200 came out it costed around £300 in the UK. When the AC88U came out it costed about the same too or more. The AC5300 isnt even available.

 

[anaron]

Maybe you have (or can get) from your current company how much you're been using

Did ask and no, they do not monitor the usage since they have no data caps.

8GB a day might not be an issue

Would be with us. Netflix uses 1 to 3 gb per hour. Between the wife and grown daughters, I estimate they use about 300 gb per month.

I think most people would be more concerned about the price differential between an 8 port router vs. a 4 port router + 4 port switch

.
Sorry about the UK electronics issues - that sucks!
AC88U $253 - AC3100 $243 +$25 switch - AC86U $200 + $25 switch
I was always led to believe that the switch vs router ports could create a bottle neck due to cable connecting the two. Is this correct?

 

[ColinTaylor]

I was always led to believe that the switch vs router ports could create a bottle neck due to cable connecting the two. Is this correct?

It's true that there is a bottleneck when all the traffic goes through a single link (or cable). That is what S.E.M. was referring to. Internally the AC88U has 2 separate 4 port switch chips, the link between them is 1Gb/s. So that creates a bottleneck between the first 4 ports and the second 4 ports. Of course there is no bottleneck between devices connected to the same switch chip. So you have to think whether there's going to be situation where you'll need to transfer more than 1Gb/s of data between ports 1-4 and ports 5-8.

EDIT: Looking at it another way. If you took a separate 5 port switch and attached one of the ports to a 4 port router with a gigabit cable you'll end up with the same bottleneck.

EDIT 2: I understand S.E.M.'s argument for using the router primarily as an internet gateway device. You could then connect a 24 port switch to it (for example) and run your LAN devices off that and uplink internet-only traffic to the router. But we're not even taking into account wireless connections and whether they're LAN to LAN or LAN to WAN, which is another bottleneck.

 

[RMerlin]

It depends on what you would use the extra 4 ports for. A game console will never download faster than your Internet connection. If you're going to use the extra 4 ports to connect an ATA, a game console, a media streamer, etc... then you will never notice the bottleneck. If you intend to connect a NAS with computers, then you'd want these to be either together on the four Broadcom ports, or together on the four Realtek ports.

This is no worse than people cascading a switch, and splitting clients between the switch and the router - you still have a 1 Gbps bottleneck between the two, unless you put everything on the switch.

 

[st3v3n]

Sure wish we had 1 GB down, not relevant of course No complaint or bottleneck here, but no real NAS either. Our AC3200 isn't in the same league as the AC88, it was around $179 US last year, this year it's hanging at $200 on Amazon.

The best bandwidth the previous local ISP provided was 4-5 Mbps down on a good day. The owner thought that was 'good enough' for rural customers and sat in his office watching what folks looked at. We used 100 Gbs one month, so he naturally assumed we were engaged in some form of nefarious conduct (must have been all those farm reports that bottle-necked us back then). The new company tied everyone into fiber about 1/2 mile away, but we don't get near the mystical 1 GB down. In KC area to the west, if you're lucky enough to belong to an electric coop or have Google fiber, it runs about $50 per month for 1 GB.

Our total monthly total is 2-350 GBs using a managed switch behind the 3200 plus WiFi traffic. With two opvn tunnels, I've never noticed bottlenecks, and Netflix or Amazon 4K UHD streams can go as high as 13-14 Mbps, but normally average 3-10 Mbps, plus whatever downloads are going on. Cheers.