What's new

Stable router around 100€ supporting VLAN tagging/IPTV, media share (upnp/dlna) and usb ports

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

cifroes

New Around Here
I've been using an Archer C7 v2 that now died during firmware upgrade and I'm looking for a replacement. To be honest, I was happy with the C7 except the DLNA server worked very poorly since many times it didn't index the media files or stopped working altogether.

So here's my wishlist:
  • most important of all: stable, that doesn't give problems with 5 or 6 clients connected, 1 with torrents, no reboots needed, time is money so I can pay more to have peace of mind;
  • VLAN tagging / IPTV (this is a must have since it's to replace my ISP fiber router like I had my archer C7). That means tagging internet ports to vlan 100 and iptv box to vlan 103.;
  • 1, preferably 2 USB ports to share usb pen drives. It needs to have samba share and DLNA/upnp that works nicely;
  • custom firmware: dd-wrt or similar is a must.
  • must have 5GHz.
  • range isn't very important, it's a 4 bedroom apartment and router can be more or less in the middle.
  • budget can be higher if it's worth it or lower if it's good enough

Please note I do understand this is a router, not a full media center. It really just has to serve some media files to my TV for the kids to enjoy. I fully expect to have some limitations there. Also usb speed I can live with slow since I'll put there usb sticks that aren't fast to begin with.

In my country it's very easy to buy Asus, TP-Link or D-Link. Netgear is a bit harder. Some netgear routers are also available. Now for prices it's a different beast, here are some examples:

- Archer C7 - 69€
- Asus RT-AC66U - 105€
- Asus RT-AC68U - 138€
- Asus RT-AC85P - 124€
- Asus RT-AX56U - 130€
- Asus RT-AC1750U - 88€
- Asus RT-AX58U - 170€
- Asus RT-AC86U - 140€
- Netgear R6400 - 119€
- Netgear R6700 - 133€
- Netgear R7000 - 187€
- D-Link DIR-1960 - 114€
- D-Link DIR-882 - 130€
- D-Link DIR-2660 - 114€ (on sale, normal 138€)

I'm used to Archer C7 and it's good enough for me except the media share so maybe I'm looking at very expensive models than I need?

Right now I'm leaning either to get another Archer C7 or Asus RT-AC66U.

Archer C7 because I already know how to use it and in the future get a raspberry pi or something for DLNA component.

Asus RT-AC66U because it's very compatible with DD-WRT and it seems like a time tested stable product at a good price. From the manual it seems Asus software is already very good and does all I need. I think it's a very old router but I don't know what's the model replacing it.

Also inclined to Asus RT-AC1750U since it's cheaper and I don't know what it's missing comparing to AC66U

1) As you can see, all of those already exceed my budget. Any other models with USB ports I can check?
2) What would you get from these brands and why?
3) Any preference in brands from asus, netgear and d-link in terms of stability, software quality, media share abilities?
4) Any brand offering 3 or more years of warranty? (that would be a nice plus)
 
Last edited:

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!
Top