Paralyzed by analysis - need some help!

[Timde]

been reading so many reviews and I’m stuck. I’d like to buy two quality routers
(one for my parents & one for my house)
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


ISP 200 mbps
Homes use streaming services, but no gaming
2000 sq ft coverage should be good although central placement currently not possible so range is key
10+ devices can be on the network at once
$100/ea price point ideal
Not concerned with Wi-Fi 6 or trying to future proof

 

[L&LD]

RT-AC68U with RMerlin firmware, on sale or used/refurbished if the price is really sensitive.

 

[Val D.]

I would get 2 x Netgear R6700 for $62/each or 2 x Netgear R6900P for $92/each. Both are currently on sale on Amazon US. R6700 is a stripped down version of R7000, one of the best performing WiFi home routers few years back. R6900P has even better WiFi throughput and range. Enough firmware options, very stable and fast. Very user-friendly to setup also, require no maintenance, just plug it in and forget about it. Get the routers first, see how it goes. Just the area of 2000sqf is not enough information to tell if a single router will work or not. Walls and floors materials, furniture materials and placement, noisy electronics, large appliances, other WiFi networks around... anything may affect the WiFi performance. You have to experiment. In case the coverage is not enough, plug an AC WiFi extender where needed. Since the requirements are not very high, keep things simple, especially in your parent's house. My advice is to stay away from used and refurbished equipment. And you don't probably need to bother with custom firmware on your routers.

 

[Klueless]

Get the routers first, see how it goes. Just the area of 2000sqf is not enough information to tell if a single router will work or not. Walls and floors materials, furniture materials and placement, noisy electronics, large appliances, other WiFi networks around... anything may affect the WiFi performance ... In case the coverage is not enough, plug an AC WiFi extender where needed. Since the requirements are not very high, keep things simple ... My advice is to stay away from used and refurbished equipment. And you don't probably need to bother with custom firmware on your routers.

Nice post Val, I agree.

Christmas specials; should be easy to keep within your price range. Myself, I lean towards Asus because I really like their "real time traffic monitor" but that's me.

2000 sq ft coverage should be good although central placement currently not possible so range is key

Too bad about "placement" issues. I had a placement issue at our house. I "fixed" it by getting an Asus Blue Cave. My wife found it cute enough that she allowed it to be moved up and out from a dark corner : -)

 

[RMerlin]

Recently had a customer who had coverage issues at his two houses (Netflix on the smart TV was unreliable at both locations). I had him replace both routers with an Asus RT-AC66U_B1 (lower cost version of the RT-AC68U), it resolved his coverage issues in both cases.

Don't remember what he previously used tho, and your mileage may vary based on your specific environment.

 

[Val D.]

I had a placement issue at our house... My wife...

Because you didn't advertise the new router properly.
I gave some advice to another member recently, may be helpful for you too:

- the new router has scientifically proven weight-loss effect, even Dr. Oz was talking about it on TV
- it improves significantly on-line shopping experience, price-matches and adjusts dress/shoes sizes automatically
- extends popular soup opera TV shows with up to 10 episodes per season, love birds get married, bad guy goes to jail

Try it next time, your wife may accept routers even uglier than ASUS RT-AC5300 or D-Link DIR-895L.

 

[Timde]

Appreciate everyone's input. custom firmware, alexa, smart set-ups are not necessary for my situation so just trying to decide what the best fit is and will test a couple out. Narrowed it down to 5 atleast!

Asus AC66U_B1
Asus AC68U
Asus ACRH17

Netgear 6700
Netgear 6900P

 

[Val D.]

Narrowed it down to 5 atleast!

ASUS AC66U_B1, ASUS AC68U and Netgear R6700 have very similar WiFi performance
Netgear R6900P has better range/performance than the ones above
ASUS ACRH17 is a region specific model, never seen one here in Canada

Update: Looks like Amazon is selling Netgear R6700 V2, a MediaTek chipset based router. The original Netgear R6700 is Broadcom based. I don't know what the performance looks like on V2 version, never played with one. I would say avoid this one.

 

[RMerlin]

The original Netgear R6700 is Broadcom based. I don't know what the performance looks like on V2 version, never played with one. I would say avoid this one.

In general, Mediatek is low-end, Broadcom is mid to high end (depends on the chipset), and Qualcomm is high-end.

 

[Val D.]

In general, Mediatek is low-end, Broadcom is mid to high end...

The interesting thing is Netgear offered the first R6700 with Broadcom chipset, then V2 with MediaTek, then V3 with Broadcom again. I know what the first R6700 is, but not the MediaTek version. Amazon does not specify any version numbers and some people purchased the router with an intention to install DD-WRT or Tomato on it.

 

[Timde]

Thanks for the info! All three seem to be great a fit and within my ideal price range.

ASUS AC66U_B1 - $80
ASUS AC68U - $100
Netgear R6900P - $93

 

[RMerlin]

The interesting thing is Netgear offered the first R6700 with Broadcom chipset, then V2 with MediaTek, then V3 with Broadcom again. I know what the first R6700 is, but not the MediaTek versio

Sometimes it's a matter of part availability. They might have inventory surplus of Broadcom chips, or a good deal from Broadcom provided they ordered a minimal amount of parts.

You want to be confused? Look at the WRT54G revision history...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series

 

[Val D.]

Sometimes it's a matter of part availability.

Sounds to me more like manufacturer faking their own product in order to maximize profits. Why cheaper hardware with the same product name? Reminds me of Kingston tricks few years back. They shipped some V300 SSDs to review sites for testing, got the good reviews, then offered the product to consumers with cheaper and about 50% slower memory.