Looking for a New Router. Suggestions?

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Hi all,

After several years, the home router provided by our service provider is starting to give continuous problems to our network - it keeps dropping the Internet connection and reconnecting after a couple of minutes. Asking devices to sign in, so on and so forth.

If I ask the service provider they will probably offer to change/upgrade it, but they will charge us for that and it will probably be a similar piece of...plastic that we already have. So I figure, "why not get something better?"

But my knowledge of routers is outdated, so I would like some opinions.

What are your suggestions? What are the pros and cons?

[spaceelf]

I've had better luck with ASUS routers than anyone else overall, though I haven't used one in a while.

I do love my current setup (iqrouter pro+3xEero 6)

Eeros are amazing for coverage but their Pro kit is expensive and the 6 has crap SQM.  They are well supported though and will probably beat most others in that regards.

My next kit is probably the Wyze Pro stuff, though I can't say how they are overall yet.

I've heard a *lot* of complaints about Orbi stuff so I doubt it's worth the money.

People seem to love Firewalla stuff, but the latency control is supposedly not amazing on those.  No personal experience of course.

[SnailSlug]

I have had three Asus RT-AC66 for a decade now. They all run DD-WRT. It has 256MB of ram, 128MB of flash, and 64KB of nvram. It is a gigabit wireless router. A common early configuration was to have two, one next to your ISP's jack, and another where your computers actually are.

The one thing it is short on is nvram, which allows for complex configurations. 128KB or 256KB would be better.

Anything that is supported by DD-WRT will be basically feature complete and rivaling IT hardware in features. This includes the fancy "mesh wi-fi" you see a lot.

You can also look for routers supported by Tomato and OpenWRT, but those have less supported devices than DD-WRT.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

I always used mini-computers (NUC) for a PfSense box. It's low powered, and more optimized than any router you can buy off the shelf.

 

For example, this is VERY similar to what I use for my PfSense box:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204196888417?hash=item2f8b153f61:g:Yo8AAOSw5EZj1csf&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4C%2Fd26SBLkGW6UIYKxh5np1cZr6YlR7UrGzmlNXia%2BKR8mAf0Xv69r%2BZQ%2BuhhudJRk0OV%2BPtsPCyf%2FYz3BLf3EsrJthyHmIb5RrN8yrwBnj4qmyjoIsofqEQPGxqo7HY7DdQd8BhWmAn4Z6yIRW%2B5MdQrQs1xxPdZW77rZAFQ3aiIc9XhZCbiD6BIdQkak0D0ZYTLYBUaLx0FXWdQzeXA6fVFlNS73i3sdDYmsysSE7V6Om09S1iTDXzwWYyv3M64pCjwvtUKbNFfCj6ah0qMc4Ij9El%2Ffm9WSuLpAI%2Bbow8|tkp%3ABFBM0rGewYxi

WAN and LAN ports, then goes to my switch (will soon be managed) which goes to the rest of the house.

[Mockingbird]

I have the Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200.

No complaints except for how expensive it is.

[binaryzero]

Fortinet\WatchGuard have nice table top appliances.

[blade1269]

Hey,

 

I have an old https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/RT2600ac router. Works Great, but can't get anymore updates. ATM Can't afford a new one. Only reason why i haven't upgraded.

[i_was_here]

On 28/05/2023 at 13:38, Mindovermaster said:

I always used mini-computers (NUC) for a PfSense box. It's low powered, and more optimized than any router you can buy off the shelf.

 

For example, this is VERY similar to what I use for my PfSense box:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/204196888417?hash=item2f8b153f61:g:Yo8AAOSw5EZj1csf&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4C%2Fd26SBLkGW6UIYKxh5np1cZr6YlR7UrGzmlNXia%2BKR8mAf0Xv69r%2BZQ%2BuhhudJRk0OV%2BPtsPCyf%2FYz3BLf3EsrJthyHmIb5RrN8yrwBnj4qmyjoIsofqEQPGxqo7HY7DdQd8BhWmAn4Z6yIRW%2B5MdQrQs1xxPdZW77rZAFQ3aiIc9XhZCbiD6BIdQkak0D0ZYTLYBUaLx0FXWdQzeXA6fVFlNS73i3sdDYmsysSE7V6Om09S1iTDXzwWYyv3M64pCjwvtUKbNFfCj6ah0qMc4Ij9El%2Ffm9WSuLpAI%2Bbow8|tkp%3ABFBM0rGewYxi

WAN and LAN ports, then goes to my switch (will soon be managed) which goes to the rest of the house.

Is the built-in wifi sufficient or are you using something else?

 

On 28/05/2023 at 20:56, blade1269 said:

Hey,

 

I have an old https://www.synology.com/en-us/products/RT2600ac router. Works Great, but can't get anymore updates. ATM Can't afford a new one. Only reason why i haven't upgraded.

The last update was on 2023-05-04. What do you mean it isn't getting updates?

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

I think installing pfSense / OPNsense on a low powered mini PC is the way to go. Your hardware is pretty much guaranteed to be supported for the lifetime its functional, you will also have access to features you'd probably have to flash custom firmware to consumer routers to otherwise have.

Protectli do some good devices that have multiple NICs with this purpose in mind.

I actually purchased an Lenovo m720q, got a PCI riser and then added a quad port I350-T4 V2 nic to it. That's run pfSense great for the last few years now. I could also upgrade it to 2.5 / 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the future if required.

You would have to use purchase some access points to have Wi-Fi going down this route however, depending what your current wireless setup is.

[ThaCrip]

Just a small comment, no real recommendations here since I am out of date to (but currently I don't have a big enough reason to update )...

I still run a old Wireless-G router (Linksys WRT54GS v1.1 (8MB(flash)/32MB(ram))) at home with DD-WRT (using DD-WRT r46640 from May 13th 2021).

but on the bright side, while this router is old and on the slower side (it's still much faster than my internet line on the wired part, which is why it's still worth using), it's rock stable and it's 'good enough' for my general day-to-day usage as it would be nice to get a faster router primarily for local wired transfer since my routers limit is 10-11MB/s where as newer tech I think would allow up to at least 100MB/s, which is plenty fast enough unless doing tons of transfers. but it's not often I transfer larger files across the local network, so it's generally not a big deal.

I am guessing wireless would potentially be much better to if I upgraded but really only for local network transfers as my internet lines "speed" is 400-420KB/s (0.4MB/s) MAX.

so all-in-all, short of limited amount of local network transfers I don't even really need to upgrade and I like the rock stable/reliable function of these older Wireless G routers (in fact, I replaced the capacitors in it about 2-3 years ago for good measure which my guess is this router will probably still function well for the foreseeable future as I would expect other things I have to fail before this).

but personally... if I ever do get another router ill probably want to get something that supports DD-WRT to help ensure it will have firmware updates past what the mfg gives you and is generally going to be more secure.

p.s. one last thing... even if I were to upgrade, I would not be a fan of spending more than around $50-75 tops on a router as those routers that cost $100-200+ just ain't worth it for most people in my estimations when you can probably still find something decent enough in the $50-75 range ($100 on the high end) off the top of my head without checking.

[+BudMan MVC]

On 28/05/2023 at 11:46, Nick H. said:

home router provided by our service provider

What exact device is this - and what is your internet connection exactly.

Do you have some modem that you own already?  The devices provided by cable isp is normally a gateway device, ie modem/router combo

You are going to either want to get a modem and then router, or another gateway.. I would highly suggest going with 2 devices.. This always you to replace only that 1 device if one fails, and to keep the router firmware/software updated - which is less likely to be able to happen with a "gateway" since it has modem in it - the isp provides the firmware.

So details of your actual current setup now and make model of the device your wanting to replace will be very helpful in providing your options on moving to your own hardware.

 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 29/05/2023 at 00:11, i_was_here said:

Is the built-in wifi sufficient or are you using something else?

 

it does have WiFi, But I didn't worry about setting it up. I have an ASUS AP in my livingroom.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

In the past I have used TP-Link routers flashed with DD-WRT and those worked quite well.  More recently, I have used models from Mikrotik and Amplifi (the consumer division of Ubiquiti) and those are working quite well.  The latter model is managed through a smartphone app, which I am personally not as fond of as a web-based or dedicated app.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky