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Recommend router for wireless TV/Xbox/laptops

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Yeah I know wired is the best but it's not possible for everything at this point.
That being said, Xbox is about 50ft away in a bedroom, the other Xbox is 30ft. TV is about 30ft away.
Nothing is a straight line of sight.
Want to spend less than $200.
It's a B-day present for my kid's house.
Thanks

Was looking at this one:

Have no idea what's running 2.4 Ghz or 5 Ghz. Guess I'll have to look that one up.
 
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It's a solid router. Netgear nighthawk ac1900 is another option, it uses the same broadcomm chip as the Asus.
 
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There is nothing wrong with Asus routers but if I were you I would get a WIFI 6 router


Wifi 6 adapter cards can be had on Amazon for $30 or less and you will see the benefit in throughput.

There is nothing wrong with Asus routers but if I were you I would get a WIFI 6 router


Wifi 6 adapter cards can be had on Amazon for $30 or less and you will see the benefit in throughput.

Well I just read reviews and it seems this router has some teething issues.
 
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Well I just read reviews and it seems this router has some teething issues.
Most of the newer AX routers have some issues, I was looking at the big one from ASUS AX ROG 11000 and people have been reporting issues. I know my ASUS AC5300 router is a beast and works great. Back to OP @Rob94hawk That AC86 is a good unit and as @dirtyferret pointed out Netgear Nighthawk series are good too.
 
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I only buy the ones which are supported by openwrt because WiFi OEMs love to cut support just a year or two after they stop selling the device through official channels. My last router hasn't seen new firmware releases for over for years already, so I happily run openwrt instead.
 
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Most of the newer AX routers have some issues, I was looking at the big one from ASUS AX ROG 11000 and people have been reporting issues. I know my ASUS AC5300 router is a beast and works great. Back to OP @Rob94hawk That AC86 is a good unit and as @dirtyferret pointed out Netgear Nighthawk series are good too.

Yeah I was reading the reviews on the AC5300 & it is def a beast! I'll suggest it if they want to spend the money.
 
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The ASUS routers are pretty decent, but the customer support for the routers sucks.
 
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I would avoid any and all Wi-Fi 6 routers at this time until the market matures further

The hype machine pushing Wi-Fi 6 has been as shameless as the one behind 5G mobile technology. Both are pushing products that don't really deliver on their breathless promises of higher bandwidth, at least not without a lot of fine-print caveats...if you can find them.

But there's a difference between hype and flat-out misrepresentation. When router makers shipped routers without a key 802.11ac feature—MU-MIMO—working, they provided clear disclaimers, like "MU-MIMO ready". Hell, they even clearly stated in product specs that the products were based on the draft 11ac IEEE spec.

With AX, clear disclosure of product limitations and key missing features appear to be a thing of the past. As I said at the top of this piece, we're into year 2 of manufacturers shipping Wi-Fi 6 consumer routers that still don't support working OFDMA, a key feature of the (still) draft 802.11ax standard. And manufacturers still don't clearly disclose that fact.


Yeah I was reading the reviews on the AC5300 & it is def a beast! I'll suggest it if they want to spend the money.

It is a beast but the #1 problem virtually everyone complains about is their wi-fi is range and a large number on router doesn't mean better range or even throughput (especially when all your clients are 2x2).

Perhaps Wi-Fi router makers have finally jumped the shark with this latest class of "kitchen sink" routers and their too-big-to-be-believed numbers on the box. The 1x1 and 2x2 devices most of us have get no benefit from the two extra transmit / receive chains, no benefit from Broadcom's "Nitro-QAM" non-standard modulation and no benefit from the MU-MIMO that even ASUS admits won't be properly baked until sometime this summer. And unless you have a lot of dual-band devices in simultaneous use, you'll get no benefit from the second 5 GHz radio, either.

 
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virtually everyone complains about is their wi-fi is range
I have read that but I have no issues with range, I have great coverage and speeds while outside my home. But I digress because alot of people do not take into account walls, building materials and etc... I may have gotten a good build. Plus it is running on Merlin too. :)
You are correct about the large number thing as well.
Totally agree on the AX/wifi6 issue as well.
 
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I would avoid any and all Wi-Fi 6 routers at this time until the market matures further

The hype machine pushing Wi-Fi 6 has been as shameless as the one behind 5G mobile technology. Both are pushing products that don't really deliver on their breathless promises of higher bandwidth, at least not without a lot of fine-print caveats...if you can find them.

But there's a difference between hype and flat-out misrepresentation. When router makers shipped routers without a key 802.11ac feature—MU-MIMO—working, they provided clear disclaimers, like "MU-MIMO ready". Hell, they even clearly stated in product specs that the products were based on the draft 11ac IEEE spec.

With AX, clear disclosure of product limitations and key missing features appear to be a thing of the past. As I said at the top of this piece, we're into year 2 of manufacturers shipping Wi-Fi 6 consumer routers that still don't support working OFDMA, a key feature of the (still) draft 802.11ax standard. And manufacturers still don't clearly disclose that fact.




It is a beast but the #1 problem virtually everyone complains about is their wi-fi is range and a large number on router doesn't mean better range or even throughput (especially when all your clients are 2x2).

Perhaps Wi-Fi router makers have finally jumped the shark with this latest class of "kitchen sink" routers and their too-big-to-be-believed numbers on the box. The 1x1 and 2x2 devices most of us have get no benefit from the two extra transmit / receive chains, no benefit from Broadcom's "Nitro-QAM" non-standard modulation and no benefit from the MU-MIMO that even ASUS admits won't be properly baked until sometime this summer. And unless you have a lot of dual-band devices in simultaneous use, you'll get no benefit from the second 5 GHz radio, either.


Interesting post. While I cannot comment on WIFI 6 routers I can say that WIFI 6 adapter cards are great. The only issue is that you need to download the driver's from Intel's website before your PC will recognize them. The clock on the AX200 is 160MHZ vs the 9260 @ 40 MHz. I have mine paired with an AC router but I can do things I never was able to with just the adapter.
 
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I like dlink because they're cheap and have good security. For a gaming/multi user environment they have a traffic sharing option built in that works wonders when you set it up properly.

I'm using a cheap $30 2.4ghz and with 3-6 users average everyone gets some and nobody gets it all unless they're the only user and nobody has issues with speed and everyone watches videos and plays games and this is on a 5megabit connection. You also need to enable wireless enhance and multicast streams but on one of the cheapest routers they sell you get good performance with multiple users.

You can get a faster response with the new 5ghz AC so I would suggest a dlink with N and AC support for newest devices/consoles and maximum speed with minimal lag.

dlink.png
dlink2.png
 
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Anything here https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/
or here https://www.voxel-firmware.com/
As you'll have proper support without having to go with an open source firmware, which may end up not supporting all the features of the router you're getting.

Avoid 802.11ax for now, wait for second generation routers, as the current models are a mess. They either have poorly working firmware, lack support for some of the key 802.11ax features or claim to maybe getting them at some point in the future via a firmware update, or have potential hardware limitations which means that some things simply won't work, as in the case of some of Netgear's models, as per the linked to SmallNetbuilder article.

Interesting post. While I cannot comment on WIFI 6 routers I can say that WIFI 6 adapter cards are great. The only issue is that you need to download the driver's from Intel's website before your PC will recognize them. The clock on the AX200 is 160MHZ vs the 9260 @ 40 MHz. I have mine paired with an AC router but I can do things I never was able to with just the adapter.
That's not clock and isn't really related to 802.11ax.
What you're talking about is channel width.
You should in fact set your 2.4GHz radios to 20MHz or 20/40MHz if you have any neighbours, as otherwise you might interfere with them and them with you.
As for 160MHz channel width, it's useless if your router doesn't support it and very few routers have so far and that's only for the 5GHz band. Although most 802.11ax routers do, but there's the small matter of having a compatible adapter, of which your Intel one is so far, to my knowledge, the only one. I have an R7800 router that supports it, but I have no reason to turn it on.
Another thing to keep in mind, is that 160MHz channel width is terrible if you're using multiple devices with your router, although 802.11ax might've sorted some of that out.
You can read a bit more about it here.

I like dlink because they're cheap and have good security. For a gaming/multi user environment they have a traffic sharing option built in that works wonders when you set it up properly.

I'm using a cheap $30 2.4ghz and with 3-6 users everyone gets some and nobody gets it all unless they're the only user and nobody has issues with speed and everyone watches videos and plays games and this is on a 5megabit connection. You also need to enable wireless enhance and multicast streams but on one of the cheapest routers they sell you get good performance with multiple users.

You can get a faster response with the new 5ghz AC so I would go with a dlink with N and AC support for newest devices and maximum speed with minimal lag.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but D-Link has TERRIBLE security, they rarely if ever update their firmware and their routers are among the most prominent ones to get hacked.
In fact, they are so bad, the US FTC took them to court for their terrible security. Also, what you're showing are pretty standard router features these days.
I would not recommend anyone to buy D-Link if it's an internet facing device.
 
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Anything here https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/
or here https://www.voxel-firmware.com/
As you'll have proper support without having to go with an open source firmware, which may end up not supporting all the features of the router you're getting.

Avoid 802.11ax for now, wait for second generation routers, as the current models are a mess. They either have poorly working firmware, lack support for some of the key 802.11ax features or claim to maybe getting them at some point in the future via a firmware update, or have potential hardware limitations which means that some things simply won't work, as in the case of some of Netgear's models, as per the linked to SmallNetbuilder article.

Thanks! I'm a complete noob with regards to networking. I'm guessing those 3rd party firmware updates improve security & speed?

The only thing I have networking my own home is a Verizon M1424WR modem. If this Asus AC86U helps security maybe I'll get one myself.
 
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Thanks! I'm a complete noob with regards to networking. I'm guessing those 3rd party firmware updates improve security & speed?
for merlin, it's more bug fixes and ironing out of existing firmware
 

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Thanks! I'm a complete noob with regards to networking. I'm guessing those 3rd party firmware updates improve security & speed?

The only thing I have networking my own home is a Verizon M1424WR modem. If this Asus AC86U helps security maybe I'll get one myself.
Speed, maybe not, but security for sure, as they're updated much more frequently than the manufacturers firmware and with the latest patches for all the features, bit just a few. They also tend to add more features/options that might be missing. Both options are easy to install, just like the factory firmware.
 
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