TechAddict
New Around Here
First post here on what I've found to be a superb forum for reading up on networking issues and specific hardware / comparisons. Rather than asking for the best router or the best from a range of routers I'm maybe better describing the problem I have and then see if the new router I'm contemplating might offer a solution.
Currently I have an Apple AirPort Extreme 5th gen (so no AC wifi) and I've never been that impressed with it performance wise TBH, OK in terms of stability but I was particularly disappointed with its wifi performance, which in terms of signal strength in rooms different to where it was located, was barely better than the cheapo router supplied by the ISP (when I bought it - around 4-5 years ago).
I still use the AEBS and have 3 devices connected to its LAN ports and use mainly my MacBook, Galaxy s7 and iPad mini 4 on it wirelessly. Performance in that regard is OK, nothing where I think "I need to improve on this". At times however I notice the MBP is a bit slow to load pages. The main issue I have however is that I use a Fire TV 2 (soon to be replaced with a Xiaomi Mi Box 3) in the main bedroom and it connects over wifi. I use that for Netflix, YouTube and Plex for local media (movies and music) daily but at times the Plex playback buffers despite being in direct play mode so it's not transcoding.
Clearly one thing I could do is try a couple of power line plugs to provide a LAN connection to the Fire TV. Don't want to go that route however as the Mi box is wifi only so it'll be a defunct solution. Also have the problem that the AEBS has only 3 LAN ports all of which are in use so I'd need a hub too.
So I'm contemplating a new AC 1900 (which I think will be enough) router and so far have been dodging about between the Asus RT AC86U, the Linksys EA 6900 and the Netgear Nighthawk 7000, hoping that the new router alone will improve enough on the wifi performance of the AEBS to improve, if not fully resolve, the problem. I do really like the Asus and can get it at a great price BUT I have a problem in that where I need to put the router is height restricted due to carpentry in the house and locating it somewhere else is not practicable in terms of cable runs. The max headroom is 24cm and I think that Asus, with their non to helpful forced upright design decision, have ruled their routers out of the equation, aside from the dated 66U and the (for me) over-priced, overkill (and I think still problematic) 88U. I fancied the Asus brand because I might need to load a router based VPN at some stage and I believe the Merlin firmware makes that easy. That said, both the Linksys and Netgear routers can take the DD-WRT firmware so it's doable.
I'm not sure if the Asus will fit where I need to put it, I think not (not found a height from tip of arial to base anywhere) and even if it did, I'd still need an ethernet hub to trail the ethernet connection to the devices I need so I'd have just one trailing ethernet cable, not 3! So it all starts to get clunky. As such a lay flat router would be better and I'm wondering which of those I listed would be better, or if there's other options.
More importantly though, are these routers likely to be better than the AEBS for the wifi problem I'm trying to solve. The other thing that might help of course is the wifi performance of the Mi box which I'm told is much better than the Fire TV 2, so that might resolve or reduce the problem anyway. I'm happy to buy a new router, just want to avoid doing so if there's no point.
Any advice appreciated.
Currently I have an Apple AirPort Extreme 5th gen (so no AC wifi) and I've never been that impressed with it performance wise TBH, OK in terms of stability but I was particularly disappointed with its wifi performance, which in terms of signal strength in rooms different to where it was located, was barely better than the cheapo router supplied by the ISP (when I bought it - around 4-5 years ago).
I still use the AEBS and have 3 devices connected to its LAN ports and use mainly my MacBook, Galaxy s7 and iPad mini 4 on it wirelessly. Performance in that regard is OK, nothing where I think "I need to improve on this". At times however I notice the MBP is a bit slow to load pages. The main issue I have however is that I use a Fire TV 2 (soon to be replaced with a Xiaomi Mi Box 3) in the main bedroom and it connects over wifi. I use that for Netflix, YouTube and Plex for local media (movies and music) daily but at times the Plex playback buffers despite being in direct play mode so it's not transcoding.
Clearly one thing I could do is try a couple of power line plugs to provide a LAN connection to the Fire TV. Don't want to go that route however as the Mi box is wifi only so it'll be a defunct solution. Also have the problem that the AEBS has only 3 LAN ports all of which are in use so I'd need a hub too.
So I'm contemplating a new AC 1900 (which I think will be enough) router and so far have been dodging about between the Asus RT AC86U, the Linksys EA 6900 and the Netgear Nighthawk 7000, hoping that the new router alone will improve enough on the wifi performance of the AEBS to improve, if not fully resolve, the problem. I do really like the Asus and can get it at a great price BUT I have a problem in that where I need to put the router is height restricted due to carpentry in the house and locating it somewhere else is not practicable in terms of cable runs. The max headroom is 24cm and I think that Asus, with their non to helpful forced upright design decision, have ruled their routers out of the equation, aside from the dated 66U and the (for me) over-priced, overkill (and I think still problematic) 88U. I fancied the Asus brand because I might need to load a router based VPN at some stage and I believe the Merlin firmware makes that easy. That said, both the Linksys and Netgear routers can take the DD-WRT firmware so it's doable.
I'm not sure if the Asus will fit where I need to put it, I think not (not found a height from tip of arial to base anywhere) and even if it did, I'd still need an ethernet hub to trail the ethernet connection to the devices I need so I'd have just one trailing ethernet cable, not 3! So it all starts to get clunky. As such a lay flat router would be better and I'm wondering which of those I listed would be better, or if there's other options.
More importantly though, are these routers likely to be better than the AEBS for the wifi problem I'm trying to solve. The other thing that might help of course is the wifi performance of the Mi box which I'm told is much better than the Fire TV 2, so that might resolve or reduce the problem anyway. I'm happy to buy a new router, just want to avoid doing so if there's no point.
Any advice appreciated.
