Best Router For The Money

[Durvelle27]

Looking for the best router I can find that's not very expensive. Getting ready to switch internet providers to Xfinity with the 75MBs plan and I need a router that won't choke . Needs gigabyte ports as my PCs all utilize wired connections and maybe 3 tablets, 3 phones, and 3 laptops that use wifi.

 

[GhostRyder]

Looking for the best router I can find that's not very expensive. Getting ready to switch internet providers to Xfinity with the 75MBs plan and I need a router that won't choke . Needs gigabyte ports as my PCs all utilize wired connections and maybe 3 tablets, 3 phones, and 3 laptops that use wifi.

Depends how much you want to spend overall. There are alot of routers in this day and age that go well beyond that and can handle quite alot of people at home.

Personally speaking, I have a Netgear that I just got (NightHawk X4S) and before that I had a Linksys. Both brands are fine and pretty similar at least to me, the others I have had/seen issues with (Friends of mine bought that Asrock router and had me set it up, not a fan just to put it lightly).

 

[Kursah]

• What's your budget?
• What are you looking for?
• What is your network experience?

I'm not a fan of the AIO home-grade routers. For the price ($300) of the fancy ones...I'd buy an Ubiquity EdgeRouter Lite-3, an 8-port Netgear/TP-Link switch, and an Ubiquity UniFi AC-Pro access point for wifi. You'd have a great gateway and firewall, a rugged switch that can handle your home network with ease and a very good quality wireless network that was easy to manage from a web browser-based GUI. Would be more work than your standard home-grade router, but would be worth it IMHO.

I have an ERL3 actually, it is my failover as I built a small ITX PC as my PFSense PC, that ran me around $250 because I wanted to have Squid proxy cache capabilities so extra RAM and SSD space was needed. But I have run a VM of PFSense with 1 core and 512MB RAM and it handles my network without issues too.

I do prefer PFSense over Ubiquity's ERL UI, but both are very serviceable. Though to get the most form the ERL you'll need to get familiar with command line, which really isn't that bad. You can type up a config and upload it too which is pretty handy. If you're into networking, it's a great way to cut your teeth and learn how to manage networks at a higher level.

PFSense I never use command line with. There's TONS of documentation for both EdgeOS and PFSense. But depending on your network, how much you want to manage it, and how easy or complex you want it to be, this might be the wrong direction. Also depending on your skill level, skill set, knowledge, experience and patience...this might or might be the wrong way to go as well. I highly recommend it...but I realize some users prefer the easy and less secure route.

I do use my Asus AC66U (well R for refurbished, but it's a refurbished U) as my access point, but thats a very good home-grade router, especially with MerlinWRT as the firmware. Though check out this thread to get Merlin on can be a little bit of work if you buy a new one...mine was purchased over 2 years ago so I had the older AsusWRT firmware that didn't have the lock.

Regardless it has been a fantastic little router overall, but can't keep up overall with better devices.

Here's some reading material for you if you're interested in going away from the overpriced home-grade shit:

• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...build-faces-better-tests-tougher-competition/
• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-building-a-linux-router-from-scratch/
• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...-realize-how-terrible-consumer-wi-fi-gear-is/

If you want something more AIO, hopefully the first link gives you an idea of what to look at. The nice thing about an access point is you can replace it should it fail, they offer a lot more to manage a wireless network or networks, and you can add more later...plus you can install it where it will provide you the best signal...so long as you have an Ethernet run there!

 

[Durvelle27]

Depends how much you want to spend overall. There are alot of routers in this day and age that go well beyond that and can handle quite alot of people at home.

Personally speaking, I have a Netgear that I just got (NightHawk X4S) and before that I had a Linksys. Both brands are fine and pretty similar at least to me, the others I have had/seen issues with (Friends of mine bought that Asrock router and had me set it up, not a fan just to put it lightly).

Was hoping to stay under$100 USD

 

[Kursah]

You might look at TP-Link with the plan of flashing to DD-WRT. They offer some decent routing hardware that doesn't have the best software, but DD-WRT adds some great capabilities.

The TP-Link Archer C7 might be an option, here's some DD-WRT info for it.

Frankly I still suggest the Asus AC66U, it's just over your budget. I paid more than that for my refurb and this is a brand new item. MerlinWRT is excellent and maintains the factory firmware and adds features, performance, stability and capability.

For $100, you can get something decent for a home-network for sure, but don't expect an excellent product that is perfect in all respects. Unfortunately that costs $$$ to achieve. But both options I provide can handle upwards of close to gigabit WAN speeds, can handle gigabit LAN speeds, and provide Wireless AC.

If wireless speeds aren't as critical to you, then you could drop down to the Asus N66U, which is an excellent router and also greatly beneifts from MerlinWRT and runs below budget.

 

[GhostRyder]

Was hoping to stay under$100 USD

Try one of the following, for that range I listed them in order of my preference (Top first choice)

Linksys AC1900 Dual Band

Linksys AC1200+ Dual Band

NetGear R6220-100NAS AC1200 Dual Band

I have had experience with the two top ones on similar variants and they worked great, the last Netgear I recommended I have heard good things about as well from a friend who bought one recently.

Personally, when it comes to routers I would say get the top one as it has alot of extra power for multiple users.

 

[v12dock]

I'm not a fan of the AIO home-grade routers. For the price ($300) of the fancy ones...I'd buy an Ubiquity EdgeRouter Lite-3, an 8-port Netgear/TP-Link switch, and an Ubiquity UniFi AC-Pro access point for wifi.

+1 I use an Edge Router X and a Unifi AC-Pro for my setup, it's the most bulletproof setup for under $200. I use a Lite-3 at my parent's house I go 6+ months of uptime only to restart for OS updates.

 

[P4-630]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/226752

 

[erocker]

Make sure your modem is up to the task as well.

 

[Kursah]

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/226752

That's 2.5X his budget...

Was hoping to stay under$100 USD

@v12dock has a good point, the EdgeRouterX is a great little device! That plus a UniFi AP are an excellent combination for sub $200... still twice what the OP wants to pay...but would be an excellent option with some better quality gear! @remixedcat I'm sure will have some info to share on this front as well!

 

[Jetster]

You might look at TP-Link with the plan of flashing to DD-WRT. They offer some decent routing hardware that doesn't have the best software, but DD-WRT adds some great capabilities.

The TP-Link Archer C7 might be an option, here's some DD-WRT info for it.

Frankly I still suggest the Asus AC66U, it's just over your budget. I paid more than that for my refurb and this is a brand new item. MerlinWRT is excellent and maintains the factory firmware and adds features, performance, stability and capability.

For $100, you can get something decent for a home-network for sure, but don't expect an excellent product that is perfect in all respects. Unfortunately that costs $$$ to achieve. But both options I provide can handle upwards of close to gigabit WAN speeds, can handle gigabit LAN speeds, and provide Wireless AC.

If wireless speeds aren't as critical to you, then you could drop down to the Asus N66U, which is an excellent router and also greatly beneifts from MerlinWRT and runs below budget.

That TP-Link Archer C7 is a fine router for the money. You don't even need DD WRT unless you want to do some band shaping. Forget the Asus N66U The ASUS RT-AC54U maybe

 

[jboydgolfer]

Ac 66 u

 

[remixedcat]

Ubiquiti for consumer/prosumer and Ubiquiti/Meraki for enterprise.

Also pick up some Unifi AC-AP (2nd gen) into the mix and then you'll have "surround wifi" which is better than just one high power router. AIO is out and seperates are in.... Just like hi-fi wifi is workin the same for yah

 

[Athlon2K15]

Do you have a time frame on this purchase?

 

[RejZoR]

Get ASUS RT-AC87U. This thing is absolute beast and for the price now it's actually quite affordable. When I bought it it was 260€. Now it's 184€.

Hands down the best router I've used and I've had quite few high end models from Linksys and Netgear. It's really powerful and the Automatic QoS is by far the best I've seen to date. And has amazing range even though I'm running it's 2.4GHz antenna on Power Saving power mode.

 

[Solaris17]

• What's your budget?
• What are you looking for?
• What is your network experience?

I'm not a fan of the AIO home-grade routers. For the price ($300) of the fancy ones...I'd buy an Ubiquity EdgeRouter Lite-3, an 8-port Netgear/TP-Link switch, and an Ubiquity UniFi AC-Pro access point for wifi. You'd have a great gateway and firewall, a rugged switch that can handle your home network with ease and a very good quality wireless network that was easy to manage from a web browser-based GUI. Would be more work than your standard home-grade router, but would be worth it IMHO.

I have an ERL3 actually, it is my failover as I built a small ITX PC as my PFSense PC, that ran me around $250 because I wanted to have Squid proxy cache capabilities so extra RAM and SSD space was needed. But I have run a VM of PFSense with 1 core and 512MB RAM and it handles my network without issues too.

I do prefer PFSense over Ubiquity's ERL UI, but both are very serviceable. Though to get the most form the ERL you'll need to get familiar with command line, which really isn't that bad. You can type up a config and upload it too which is pretty handy. If you're into networking, it's a great way to cut your teeth and learn how to manage networks at a higher level.

PFSense I never use command line with. There's TONS of documentation for both EdgeOS and PFSense. But depending on your network, how much you want to manage it, and how easy or complex you want it to be, this might be the wrong direction. Also depending on your skill level, skill set, knowledge, experience and patience...this might or might be the wrong way to go as well. I highly recommend it...but I realize some users prefer the easy and less secure route.

I do use my Asus AC66U (well R for refurbished, but it's a refurbished U) as my access point, but thats a very good home-grade router, especially with MerlinWRT as the firmware. Though check out this thread to get Merlin on can be a little bit of work if you buy a new one...mine was purchased over 2 years ago so I had the older AsusWRT firmware that didn't have the lock.

Regardless it has been a fantastic little router overall, but can't keep up overall with better devices.

Here's some reading material for you if you're interested in going away from the overpriced home-grade shit:

• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016...build-faces-better-tests-tougher-competition/
• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-building-a-linux-router-from-scratch/
• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015...-realize-how-terrible-consumer-wi-fi-gear-is/

If you want something more AIO, hopefully the first link gives you an idea of what to look at. The nice thing about an access point is you can replace it should it fail, they offer a lot more to manage a wireless network or networks, and you can add more later...plus you can install it where it will provide you the best signal...so long as you have an Ethernet run there!

i built my own but for anyone on a budget ERL and Unify APs all the way.

 

[JalleR]

If you don't want to spend much the ASUS AC-68U should be one of the best for the buck. I regred not bying that instead of the Linksys linksys wrt1900acs

 

[Durvelle27]

If you don't want to spend much the ASUS AC-68U should be one of the best for the buck. I regred not bying that instead of the Linksys linksys wrt1900acs

Man i ended up getting a Arris Dualband AC Gigabyte router for now

 

[eidairaman1]

Man i ended up getting a Arris Dualband AC Gigabyte router for now

I hope it does ok, the ones ATT and comcast used were utter crap

 

[Durvelle27]

I hope it does ok, the ones ATT and comcast used were utter crap

It's through Comcast

And honestly they work really really well and offer great range

 

[R-T-B]

It's through Comcast

And honestly they work really really well and offer great range

Comcast ARRIS models are almost all Puma6 based, which means their ping times suck under load. If you don't have really latency sensitive gaming, or were lucky and got one of the few ones that aren't Puma6 based, you might be ok.

Read if you wish:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...ncy-issues-many-cable-modems-affected.232517/

 

[Durvelle27]

Comcast ARRIS models are almost all Puma6 based, which means their ping times suck under load. If you don't have really latency sensitive gaming, or were lucky and got one of the few ones that aren't Puma6 based, you might be ok.

Read if you wish:

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...ncy-issues-many-cable-modems-affected.232517/

Worst my ping has ever gotten is 15ms under load from multiple 4K streams

 

[R-T-B]

Worst my ping has ever gotten is 15ms under load from multiple 4K streams

Sounds like you got one of their few "golden" broadcom based ones then. Treasure it.

 

[Durvelle27]

Sounds like you got one of their few "golden" broadcom based ones then. Treasure it.

I could always check

I know our modems are XB3s which are made by Cisco, Technicolor, Arris, and Samsung. All look exactly alike under the same name

 

[R-T-B]

I could always check

I know our modems are XB3s which are made by Cisco, Technicolor, Arris, and Samsung. All look exactly alike under the same name

There is one model XB3, an Arris I believe, that uses broadcom.

Do yourself a favor though: If you like the performance for your needs, quit worrying and enjoy it.