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Wifi 6 Router recommendation

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kisseri93

New Around Here
Hello!

I would like to ask for help in choosing a router.

■ In what environment (number/material of walls, distances, levels, neighbors) would it be used?

I want to cover an area of roughly 60 square meters with it. The maximum number of walls between my devices and the router are 2 concrete walls of 10 cm. The building has 1 floor and has 4 neighbors.

■ How many and what kind of client device/adapter would you use? How many of these are phones, tablets or laptops that know the AX (WiFi 6) standard?

About 20-25 devices wireless - half of them are AX
3 wired at the moment, but I would like to transfer 1-2 more wireless devices to wired, so I will also need a switch.

■ What net speed should the device be used with?

Gigabit


■ What other requirements do you have for the router?

Basically, I'm looking for a solution that perfectly serves the gigabit internet in the current apartment. We are moving to a bigger house in about 2 years, so I would like the system to be expandable with another router / ap.
It is important that I also use apple devices, where my AC87U router was sometimes not perfect, it was not stable.
From now on, please note that I stream 4K movies from a Synology NAS (Synology ds 218+) via cable to the TV using Plex and I want to use the remote control service for the PS5, i.e. play remotely on the PS. + downloads go day and night :R

Tank you:)
 
After considerable research, RT-AX86U would be my recommend ... it has great range, ample grunt, is flexible with features and Merlin support & highly reliable at a decent price.

It will max out a 1Gbps line and link aggregate for a potential NAS upgrade. Later in new house it can become the base of a mesh.

I just bought an RT-AX86U for $180 (unopened box w 3 year guarantee) and am awaiting delivery. My plan is to use it with an RT-AX82U (for $100) as node to cover a large house from 1Gbps FTTH, with NAS attached.

This is the kind of thing I would bid for:
 
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RT-AX86U is popular, but an updated model RT-AX86U Pro is coming soon. If you can wait a bit @kisseri93, monitor the new model availability and use holiday discounts. Other option is GT-AX6000, available now.
 
Getting closer:


One review suggests RangeBoost is a 16% improvment in range, presumably over the AX86U.

When ASUS claimed RangeBoost was a 20% improvement in range for the AC86U vs the AC68U, they were about right.

OE
 
So, 8 whole feet further range. Great.

I'd take it (given everything else is equal to or better than the RT-AX86U), but nothing to wait for, today.
 
All new high-end Asus routers use the same Broadcom SoC and I would buy the Pro version just because of longer support chances. I wouldn't be surprised if current AX86U/S will be discontinued soon.
 
So, 8 whole feet further range. Great.

Well, it doesn't sound so great when you put it like that. I think the improvement is more about effective link rate, not feet.

OE
 
The range is in linear feet. Link rate should translate to higher throughput to the same client at the same distance/location.

The latter is where newer routers shine vs. their older cousins. And what I have reported (repeatedly).

This is another way statistics (16% more range!) cons the average consumer.

I would not buy a new router if the range were the only important criterion (I'll state it again, the longest range router I've ever seen is the RT-AC3100).

So yes, for range, my statement is correct. With the data, we have to today.
 
The range is in linear feet. Link rate should translate to higher throughput to the same client at the same distance/location.

Emphasis on effective link rates.

The latter is where newer routers shine vs. their older cousins. And what I have reported (repeatedly).

Agreed. The new AX86U Pro with newer WiFi silicon and so-called RangeBoost+ can be expected to have more effective link rates at the same distance/range.

OE
 
I'm not following your distinction between 'effective link rates' and 'link rates'. They're the same to me, as I'm using them here.

If the RF design of the newer router (hardware and drivers/software SDK) is superior, it will give a significantly better signal at the same location to the same device at the same orientation, and throughput should be observably higher.

That is not the same as having a greater range though. And 8 feet more (when the base is around 50 feet for the RT-AX86U) isn't anything to celebrate wildly here, even if it is a welcome, but modest benefit.
 
If the RF design of the newer router (hardware and drivers/software SDK) is superior, it will give a significantly better signal at the same location to the same device at the same orientation, and throughput should be observably higher.

Qualcomm Atheros radios, IMHO, are better here... they can leverage into Qualcomm's 5G-NR experience with both Client and Small Cell development, and they do... I've been working recently on an IPQ60xx platform, helping out, and it's surprisingly performant for a low end solution...

Same goes with the networking flow offloads - QCOM's NSS vs FlawAccelerator that Broadcom has... closed source SDK's, both are very close.

MediaTek is much more open on their WiFi driver, and flow offload is clean with upstream kernel support, but SoC is still having some performance issues compared to QCA and Broadcom. They're still in that first generation of chipset development, but future SoC's likely will be much better
 
Qualcomm Atheros radios, IMHO, are better here... they can leverage into Qualcomm's 5G-NR experience with both Client and Small Cell development, and they do... I've been working recently on an IPQ60xx platform, helping out, and it's surprisingly performant for a low end solution...

Same goes with the networking flow offloads - QCOM's NSS vs FlawAccelerator that Broadcom has... closed source SDK's, both are very close.

MediaTek is much more open on their WiFi driver, and flow offload is clean with upstream kernel support, but SoC is still having some performance issues compared to QCA and Broadcom. They're still in that first generation of chipset development, but future SoC's likely will be much better

What’s the go to for Qualcomm? I remember the r7800 as being great with openWRT support. No idea why it’s no longer available. But I haven’t seen anything for WIFI 6. I’m seeing some development for MediaTek for 6 over at openWRT. But it looks super limited.
 

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