Hey folks, it’s been about 2 years since anyone posted a question about wireless routers so I couldn’t find much up to date info.
I am in the process of a very big long distance move and have a need to get a relatively cheap router. To be clear, I will be building my own in the coming months, but I need something in the next couple of weeks just to get the home office up and running.
I’d prefer a router that has some decent security options and that isn’t affected by the latest known rooting exploits.
100-200 bux is my preferred budget range.
So, anyone got some recommendations, or if possible, some sites I can read up on the latest options that isn’t full of spam and lies?
Highly recommend the Ubiquiti Amplifi router (see link below). Haven’t used it personally but I work with Ubiquiti products constantly for work and have been nothing but satisfied and happy with them! Laurence Systems and Network Chuck on youtube cover their products regularly and pretty in depth too. Short story its mostly full featured and easy to setup. Offers great coverage and performance at a decent price. https://store.amplifi.com/products/amplifi-hd-mesh-router
Mikrotik hAP ac² is about $70… But you might as well get the real thing now. Unifi NanoHD or Unifi FlexHD access point, or a Unifi Dream Machine all in one.
I’d grab a cheap last gen or (the gen before) Asus flagship. AC68U or something. (AC87U or AC3200 if you want to be slightly spendy - should be in your budget if/when discounted - and that happens often)
Generally for the Asus routers - out of the box the stock firmware is friendly and okay. For the flagships you can also count on Merlin third party firmware that builds on the stock firmware and adds (mostly) minor updates and opens up things a bit.
Unifi is nice if/when you have a dozen or more devices and need a friendly dashboard. Hardware is nice though. I wouldn’t be caught dead with one at home. (Yes, even after the updates that make them easy to use with an app and no controller.)
Mikrotik is a small(?) security nightmare. But I guess the hardware itself is fine-ish. I wouldn’t pick a router from them if I had literally any other choice.
Finding the right device for Openwrt is a bit of a bother. Personally I don’t want to put in that effort when an Asus with Merlin gets the job done perfectly. Depends on what you’re after though. I’d look for a Openwrt-friendly TP-Link router with lots of antennas if I were to go that way.