Router Suggestions

It doesn’t have to be mesh, just want it to be able to add to it in the future if I want to add a device to the network ie WAP etc.

Also from the ASUS routers I linked above. Which one would you all recommend? They all seem good enough for my current use case and good enough if I upgrade to gigabyte in the future.

I would say the RT-AX68U (RT-AX3000), just because it’s the one I have and it works well for the price and do not have gaming non-sense. (and it’s quite small suprisingly).

And in the future, if you want more speed, you could get a Wifi 6e AP when those will be made, and use previous ones to get better coverage in a small part of your house less better covered.

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lmao

Ouch.

Just from its name, this is a WiFi 5 router (I like that Asus makes their naming schemes relatively easy to understand). You need to look for (802.11)AX, which would be WiFi 6.

True, I think Asus nailed it with their “AI Mesh.” I haven’t used it personally, so I cannot recommend it, but Ii heard many good things about it.

It depends. True network experts suggest stuff based on the customer’s needs and budget (like any good expert in anything). WiFi is cheap and if latency or speed isn’t an issue, then we’re all set. If you have some speed requirements and long distances, some APs come with 2 port switches, so you can plug one cable to an AP, then go from it to another AP and so on (chain them together). It’s better than mesh, cheaper, easier to install, but not as good as if you’d have gone with one cable to each AP, as the closer you get to your switch / router, the more the traffic bottlenecks. You may or may not have congestion, depending on the traffic. Also, POE goes out the window.

I would suggest checking out any Asus router that has AsusWRT-Merlin (AX-56, 58, 68, 86, 88 and 1100).

But, as the DIY fanatic that I am, I always recommend people build their own routers or buy routers that have basically indefinite support (like Netgate 1100) and buy a 12 or 24 port managed switch (with POE if needed) and however many APs you need. Gets a little pricey, but you basically have support for many years to come, when all the cheap setups will just become part of a botnet. You can get managed gigabit switches cheap on the 2nd hand market. The APs are the issue here, you basically need either cheap all-in-ones (routers) that can run any kind of WRT or Tomato and put them in AP mode, or switch your APs whenever a better WiFi standard comes out that makes it worth changing (like getting WPA3 and stuff, I honestly believe 802.11n is still fine if you don’t live in a place with lots of signals, otherwise 802.11ac is still ok, but if you have problems with electromagnetic waves, just use good shielded cables wherever you can and limit the WiFi stuff).

You are going to get multiple opinions. Mine is that ease of use matters more for routers than for most other gear, because hackers constantly change their game. I mean, unless you are an expert and/or like to tinker with your router.

From that POV, I would suggest that you are on the wrong track with a non-mesh purchase. Whatever you get, you are setting yourself up to have to manage it. I’ve tried to do it myself, and it was just an exercise in frustration. I’ve used a dozen different routers, including Ubiquiti, and I also used WRT for a while. Hackers are relentless, and they caused trouble with all of them; knocking them offline periodically, or requiring reboots, etc.

(Maybe I am just not smart enough to manage my own router, but I’m a pretty experienced technologist in other areas).

When I switched to a mesh router managed by professionals, it changed my life. I haven’t had to touch it, and speed and reliability have been flawless.

This is where a limited feature set is actually an advantage. Maintenance-free and mostly bulletproof count for a lot.

Most of the other recommendations on this thread are for traditional routers, with lots of options. I’m sure that is fine for the people who recommend them (or their clients/friends). I’m just saying that, if you don’t manage routers routinely, then there is a benefit in having a router that manages itself. An important advantage, IMHO.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

If you have a modem / router that can only do 1Gbps, would you get 10Gbps between two computers connected to the same expensive switch?

Yes if the traffic is on the same subnet it never has to hit the router.

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I mean aren’t all of the Asus “mesh” routers because they have AIMesh capability.

Building off this:

Eero Pro mesh routers are about as plug n play as possible. They’re also very, very solid feature and spec wise, with lots of handy built in things like VPN and adblocker services.

Love em when they work. Hate them when I want to do literally any version of self-maintenance / debugging or advance user configuration.

I don’t think it’s the same thing. It appears from the literature that “AI Mesh Compatible” means that it is a traditional router that you can configure to create a mesh network if you want (among many other options).

That is good as far as it goes, but there is a category of modern routers that are (or can be) managed by a service. I have been calling them “mesh routers” because that is what the manufacturers call them, but perhaps it is imprecise terminology.

Google Nest (or Google WiFi), Eero, Netgear Orbi (and at least one NightHawk system), Asus ZenWiFi, Linksys Velop, and TP-Link Deco are commonly-recommended by reviewers. The only one that I have first-hand experience with is a Google WiFi unit that I bought for $100, but the descriptions from reviewers (as well as risk and aj0413, above) are consistent with what I have tried to describe. TomsHardware has an article that might give more perspective.

(Note that TomsHardware’s actual review of mesh routers includes their “favorite” which is more like the AI-Mesh-Compatible routers on your list than it is like the rest of the simple mesh systems. Shrug… the article was probably written by network experts, so you might expect a similar experience to this forum. :slight_smile: )

In the end, I’m not saying that any of the other recommendations are necessarily wrong… I’m just suggesting a different path. Leave the network management to network managers, and go live your life without having to worry about it.

The only downside is what aj0413 just pointed out:

Yeah, the service does everything, which is what makes these “mesh routers” easy and secure. It also means that you cannot tweak things that you may be accustomed to tweaking. So far I have not had a need to do that.

Think of mesh routers as the iPhone of routers. :slight_smile:

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Lol “iPhone of mesh routers”

That’s actually a really good way to put it; ironic, too, since the only way to interact with an eero is through the damn iOS app.

…A little salty about that, but would still recommend them to non-advance users in a heart beat. It’s actually fairly simple to get a tech on the phone who knows what he’s doing when you call customer support.

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Should I still be considering a mesh router even if I only want to use one device? Meaning I do not add any more devices to the network, because what ever device I decide to get is good a good enough job.

Yes; all of the advantages are true for a single node. That’s my current setup. When I need to expand coverage, it’s just another node.

Same as this guy. I use a single node in my apt. And the complex uses multiple nodes in other areas as needed

The “mesh” part of “mesh routers” make people think of them as this wholly separate product category.

It’s still just a router/AP combo product; the “mesh” part is just an additional feature like anything else.

True. And I would argue that the “managed by service” feature is more important than the “mesh” feature (although both are nice for multiple nodes).

But “mesh router” sounds snappier than “service-managed router”.

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@astimp13 ; any chance you could get a Belkin RT3200 or a Linksys E8450 on some kind of discount for in between 80-100 USD/EUR/GBP ?

The two models are the same except different color plastic and a good bang for the buck, and well supported by OpenWRT if you ever need anything advanced

(It’s a dual core [email protected] / 512MB ram/128MB nand; plenty for small network services ; gigabit ports and wifi6 of course)

The chipset/wifi is very similar to ubiquiti u6-lr which I’m using, and that does 500-700Mbps over WiFi from an ac client in a next room. And does 900+/900+ from a 2x2 wifi6 client in a same room… Not sure if it’ll perform the same - some folks say it’s good.

From an open source perspective, it would still be best if you could flash a custom router firmware for when your manufacturer decides to EOL a still functional machine (The recent western digital fiasco comes to mind).

Yes its a genuine pain to flash it but the benefits are there to offset it.

The cheapest one that could be recommended fir this is probably Asus RT-AC1900UHP (less than 100 USD). But flashing it was a pain. It failed once and I needed a Win10 machine to recover from my mistake.

i am sure to some degree im preaching to the choir.

I like using a mini/tiny pc with 2x network adapters as my router and then dedicated access points for wireless.

In my situation I had to modify a Mini Dell to add a second network, but it was worth it.

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will do this in the future. have a bunch of sff i5s/i7s doing nothing

which ones? Sell them, they make awesome small nodes for K3/8’s.

Thinking about selling them. I5 2400/i7 2600 and higher models. Thinking about selling them ready to go with ssd and windows 10 installed. I will see if it is even worth the effort.