The best home use modem/router wi-fi combo unit

Investing in my own system and need more information to help match 250/250 fiber with the best possible modem / router combo unit for my personal network. Literally all i can find so far is a bunch of aging cable modems.

Don’t get a combo unit. Get a cable modem and pair it with a separate router/AP. Be sure to confirm the modem will work with your ISP before buying it.

So my suggestion is to not get a combo unit. I would just pick up a the cheapest modem from a decent brand that hits your speed. My suggestion for the best router for 95% of people is the TP-Link archer c59. You can get it for around $60 and it has mimo and can do network drives. it is an ac1350, which is more than most people need. Good luck with all of this.

Yes …for the most part wi-fi is just a secondary and not supremely important but it would be nice to have something that functions decent in both regards.

Question…what is the reasoning behind avoiding the combo units ?

They are just shitty. I’m using one currently and it can’t handle my 75Mbps connection without a lot of latency. Any time people are streaming or my brother is gaming while my mom watches Netflix I get latency spikes while I’m trying to game. My guess is that it’s probably some single core CPU that just can’t process all of that.

My dad just got an NVR too with just 4 720p camera feeds and while they broadcast to the NVR on their own wireless network, that thing is constantly feeding that to the Internet (I think) and ever since I have to turn it off while I’m home and feel like gaming. No way it’s soaking up my connection that bad though.

To someone who may know better than me, is that NVR constantly using my upstream to the Internet? Or only when someone wants to view it remotely?

I would say you can buy decent ones, but they usually cost more than they should. Also if the modem unit goes out, you have to replace the whole thing.

Combo units offer poor performance on the router and wireless AP side. They’re just overall inferior to getting a separate modem and router/AP. Since you’re posting the question on a forum like L1T, I assume you care about that sort of thing.

Pretty much. I wouldn’t recommend a combo unit to anyone except the elderly

Also with fiber isn’t there not a modem? Should be Ethernet coming from whatever box your ISP terminated to

Don’t know ? There already exists a fiber system and it has a modem and a wifi router. I am assuming I at least need a modem for my own system. I am just forcing in my own personal. I have to admit the wifi is not that important but the best performance for the money is.

I can’t speak to all fiber, but with Verizon FIOS you get a gigabit ethernet port directly out of the ONT only if you don’t have TV or phone service from Verizon. That’s how my gigabit fiber is setup right now.

If you do pay for TV or phone service from FIOS, then you need to plug their combo router/AP/MOCA unit into the ONT and then distribute service throughout your home. It can be setup in bridge mode for internet so you can still use your own router/AP. And that’s what you should do.

The reason for this is they use MOCA (ethernet over coax cable) to distribute the IP TV throughout your home.

Only need and want internet connection. 250 up 250 down and have no interest in renting their modems. I see I need to have a discussion directly with my provider first to determine what equipment is needed and compatible.

If your ISP will let you use it, unifi (edit: sorry, that’s ubiquiti) edgerouters make for nice routers, and their Wifi APs aren’t bad either. Alternatively, something from Mikrotik, same deal there.
Both require you to set up the devices yourself, so you need a little experience setting up networking.

Ubiquity is nice for large areas with lots of users, but the cost is to much for most people on a home network. But if you need that level of performance they make some great stuff.

I can vouch for those ERs man. Even the Lites. They have horsepower and once you learn the CLI they are amazingly capable for the price. Not really needed if you don’t do much advanced routing though.

Throw in a UniFi AP and you’ll be rockin \m/

Its about time I learn :slight_smile: Its the one thing I have managed to avoid since this level of networking tech did not exist when I started down my pc path.

Yes, it’d be about twice as expensive as getting a decent wifi modem. I just suggested it because hey, we’re on level1tech, chances are they’re also new toys to play with for @thevillageidiot :wink:

fair enough

Should be fine with only 250/250 service, but with gigabit service you can’t use an edgerouter (or most SOHO routers, really) with most of its features activated, because that disables hardware NAT acceleration/offloading and curtails your speeds to 350Mbps or so. The only way to do neat stuff like QoS and VPNs and such at gigabit speed is a serious business-class router or PFsense.

Pfsense is in my future yes… but i have to get the gear first. I will revisit this after having a discussion with my fiber isp. Just looking to avoid any miss steps and over purchasing.