Hello!
I'm looking to upgrade my Asus RT-AC68U mainly because of not strong enough WiFi signal, and can't decide between the RT-AC86U or the Netgear X4S R7800.
I live in a 2 storey house with hydronic underfloor heating, and all the water in the floors is very efficient at preventing the WiFi signal penetrating upstairs. I don't need high throughput, I just want to be sure that the smart bulb that is in the far corner of my bedroom or the babycam that is in the far corner of the babies room don't lose signal and that I can watch Netflix (preferably 4K) on my laptop in bed, the router being positioned downstairs. I get lost connections and choppy Netflix occasionally with the AC68U.
I don't use VPN at the moment, but I might. I have an HDD connected to the USB3 port that I use for DLNA, SMB, torrents (Transmission on router) and intend to set up a file sharing or sync service on (at least an FTP server if I can't get anything more advanced to work; I tried OwnCloud and some other things on the AC68U and it was just not powerful enough for that). Since I live in a somewhat remote location and, even though I have a 1000/500 Mbps fiber connection, it sometimes fails and takes some time to be fixed, I use dual WAN with a 3G USB stick, which works well with the latest Merlin firmware, even the failback.
As I'm used with Asus (I've had only Asus routers for the past 5 years) I would have gone for the AC86U, but seeing the Netgear R7800 priced more than 50 € cheaper (151 vs 209 for the AC86U on amazon.de) I'm wondering if it is not a better option. Reviews generally say the Netgear has a better Wifi (even though I haven't seen a clear range comparison).
Any advice? Or maybe there's another router under 200 € that I should have a look at?
I'm looking to upgrade my Asus RT-AC68U mainly because of not strong enough WiFi signal, and can't decide between the RT-AC86U or the Netgear X4S R7800.
I live in a 2 storey house with hydronic underfloor heating, and all the water in the floors is very efficient at preventing the WiFi signal penetrating upstairs. I don't need high throughput, I just want to be sure that the smart bulb that is in the far corner of my bedroom or the babycam that is in the far corner of the babies room don't lose signal and that I can watch Netflix (preferably 4K) on my laptop in bed, the router being positioned downstairs. I get lost connections and choppy Netflix occasionally with the AC68U.
I don't use VPN at the moment, but I might. I have an HDD connected to the USB3 port that I use for DLNA, SMB, torrents (Transmission on router) and intend to set up a file sharing or sync service on (at least an FTP server if I can't get anything more advanced to work; I tried OwnCloud and some other things on the AC68U and it was just not powerful enough for that). Since I live in a somewhat remote location and, even though I have a 1000/500 Mbps fiber connection, it sometimes fails and takes some time to be fixed, I use dual WAN with a 3G USB stick, which works well with the latest Merlin firmware, even the failback.
As I'm used with Asus (I've had only Asus routers for the past 5 years) I would have gone for the AC86U, but seeing the Netgear R7800 priced more than 50 € cheaper (151 vs 209 for the AC86U on amazon.de) I'm wondering if it is not a better option. Reviews generally say the Netgear has a better Wifi (even though I haven't seen a clear range comparison).
Any advice? Or maybe there's another router under 200 € that I should have a look at?
