Best Router brands with bandwith control

[mroofie]

Title

 

[INSTG8R]

I’m pretty sure any WRT router will offer it, in fact I would think any modern router should allow it.

 

[remixedcat]

budget?

Low: Ubiquiti has been very nice, very cheap too for the controls it gives you. Linksys WRTAC1900 performed very well with DDWRT. See my blog for more ubiquiti reviews.

Medium: Pick up a Cisco Meraki Z series. I had a Z1 as my main for a while and it was very nice for the 179+SW lic. They have even better models out around that 180-300 USD price range

High: Meraki MX series. MX64 user here and it's done paid for itself.

 

[dorsetknob]

any Decent Router within your Budget with QOS settings

 

[mroofie]

budget?

Low: Ubiquiti has been very nice, very cheap too for the controls it gives you. Linksys WRTAC1900 performed very well with DDWRT. See my blog for more ubiquiti reviews.

Medium: Pick up a Cisco Meraki Z series. I had a Z1 as my main for a while and it was very nice for the 179+SW lic. They have even better models out around that 180-300 USD price range

High: Meraki MX series. MX64 user here and it's done paid for itself.

<100$

Im currently eyeing the tp archer c7

 

[remixedcat]

any Decent Router within your Budget with QOS settings

Not necessarily, some do it better than others or those don't even work.

 

[mroofie]

Not necessarily, some do it better than others or those don't even work.

Indeed

Im pretty sure my current router should not have qos.

 

[Kursah]

With that budget look for a used business grade router like SonicWall, Cisco, Fortinet,etc. Or consider using a cheap chinese SoC PC or an old build with an added NIC card to run PFSense or OPNSense, etc.

 

[mroofie]

With that budget look for a used business grade router like SonicWall, Cisco, Fortinet,etc. Or consider using a cheap chinese SoC PC or an old build with an added NIC card to run PFSense or OPNSense, etc.

Damn do i need to spend more?

 

[Durvelle27]

<100$

Im currently eyeing the tp archer c7

Same router I’m using

Works great and does allow bandwidth control and even setting limits on specific devices.

5GHz is really good in terms of performance it the 2.4GHz isn’t all that great with speeds above 100mbps

My ISP is 350/25 and over 5GHz I can see upto 300 but 2.4 never above 90mbps

 

[mroofie]

Same router I’m using

Works great and does allow bandwidth control and even setting limits on specific devices.

5GHz is really good in terms of performance it the 2.4GHz isn’t all that great with speeds above 100mbps

My ISP is 350/25 and over 5GHz I can see upto 300 but 2.4 never above 90mbps

Good to know

 

[remixedcat]

custom firmware is a must for consumer routers.

 

[Kursah]

Damn do i need to spend more?

Not necessarily, either find a decent home grade router that can take custom WRT firmware or buy an older bilusineas grade router or turn an old PC into a PF/OPNSense box. But it also depends on the level of control you want over the bandwidth and how effective you want that control to be. Also buying an Ubiquity router is a good way to go, like any router it takes time to learn. Going the side of UniFi control makes that process easier than EdgeOS for many with it's more modern and simpler UI.

Frankly there's other features, especially with firewall filtwring and control capabilities that makes a better router worth it IMHO. That and the ability to use SSL VPNs to securely access your network while away can be extremely useful. There's a handful of other features that some folks will find useful...many hours e users however will not.

I only go for TPLink in the most budget of situations. I'd rather take a hundred bucks and invest in an OLD PC plus an Intel dual port NIC card.

There's other questions that need answered tho.

1. Why do you feel you need QOS for your network?
2. What's your ISP rated speed?
3. Does the router need to provide WiFi?
4. If yes, would you consider using your current router as a wireless access point only to use a better grade router?

I ask because most business routers or PFSense builds on a budget don't have WiFi capabilities. Luckily most home grade routers can go into what is called AP mode pretty easily even with stock firmware.

Cheers!

 

[mroofie]

Not necessarily, either find a decent home grade router that can take custom WRT firmware or buy an older bilusineas grade router or turn an old PC into a PF/OPNSense box. But it also depends on the level of control you want over the bandwidth and how effective you want that control to be. Also buying an Ubiquity router is a good way to go, like any router it takes time to learn. Going the side of UniFi control makes that process easier than EdgeOS for many with it's more modern and simpler UI.

Frankly there's other features, especially with firewall filtwring and control capabilities that makes a better router worth it IMHO. That and the ability to use SSL VPNs to securely access your network while away can be extremely useful. There's a handful of other features that some folks will find useful...many hours e users however will not.

I only go for TPLink in the most budget of situations. I'd rather take a hundred bucks and invest in an OLD PC plus an Intel dual port NIC card.

There's other questions that need answered tho.

1. Why do you feel you need QOS for your network?
2. What's your ISP rated speed?
3. Does the router need to provide WiFi?
4. If yes, would you consider using your current router as a wireless access point only to use a better grade router?

I ask because most business routers or PFSense builds on a budget don't have WiFi capabilities. Luckily most home grade routers can go into what is called AP mode pretty easily even with stock firmware.

Cheers!

It's just a contingency plan.

My first plan is a extra wisp connection hopefully it doesn't cost too much.

My current connection is a 8MB dsl connection.

 

[Kursah]

What's your upload speed provisioned at?

Of you're going dual WAN are you looking to load balance the potential WISP connection with your existing DSL or purely failover?

Be careful with WISP's. I've dealt with many, few are reliable or can provide promised speeds consistently due to being forced to oversaturate and overprovision what they have allocated to make a profit. Be careful with the little guys. While I root for them to be successful, many don't have the technical abilities or actual bandwidth to be truly competitive. At least in the areas I've worked.

Also watch out for places like SpeedConnect, bigger company, worse performance and reliability than many little guys.

There's satellite options as well...if latency and cost (depending on speed needs) doesn't matter.

Many home grade routers don't or won't handle dual WANs very well or at all. I'd definitely consider a used SonicWall, Fortinet, Cisco, Sophos, Netgate, etc. Or building a PFSense/OPNSense box. Or getting a Ubiquity router, the ERL-3 and a few others can do MultiWAN pretty well, especially for home use.

 

[E-curbi]

I like the WRT32X from Linksys. Blue LEDs hypnotize me.

 

[MatGrow]

I'd go with a Meraki Z1 and 3yr license. It has the bandwidth management and is configured on the cloud. Makes it pretty easy!