Wired Router Recommendation (small business)

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SeaWulf

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 29, 2011
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I'm looking to replace a TP Link TL-R470T+ which cannot handle the demand of its application in a fraternity house. Looking for a router which will be reliable and handle at least 200 DHCP clients.


I can spend up to $700 for this, but as you can imagine this application is pretty bandwidth intensive so I'm not sure what I should even be looking at.


Suggestions?


Thanks
 
How fast is this connection and how many concurrent sessions are you seeing?
 
diizzy said:
How fast is this connection and how many concurrent sessions are you seeing?
Click to expand...

150mbps "business-class" broadband, which is the best package available in this area :rolleyes:


Not sure exactly how to determine the number of concurrent sessions aside from doing some handwaving...

36~ users * 2-3~ sessions per user ~~ anywhere from 72-108~ concurrent sessions worst case
 
How many wired clients and how many wireless? Pretty much any router should be able to handle 200 DHCP clients. The issue is the amount of wireless connections and how many access points you're going to need. Something like a Draytek Vigor 2600 offers bandwidth management up the wazoo but will cost you ~£220, and the Vigor access points will cost you from ~£65 for the AP610 to ~£150 for the AP910.

One other thing: you should try and reduce the WAN traffic as much as possible. To do that you should implement a proxy server. Just an old PC, a Linux distro, and a large HDD. You might also consider implementing a WSUS box and the Apple equivalent.
 
pfsense would be my go to for a frat house environment

Hardware could be anything, definitely doable for under $700 and gets you a ton of nifty features you may or may not need
 
SeaWulf said:
150mbps "business-class" broadband, which is the best package available in this area :rolleyes:


Not sure exactly how to determine the number of concurrent sessions aside from doing some handwaving...

36~ users * 2-3~ sessions per user ~~ anywhere from 72-108~ concurrent sessions worst case
Click to expand...

150 meg downstream seems like a bigger issue than which router you are using. That isn't a lot of data for 36 people to share, especially during streaming hours. 72 to 108 sessions seems like a low estimate :D Just a couple people doing file sharing can saturate the connection so I would take a look at really prioritizing traffic to minimize the impact a few bad eggs will have on everyone.

A TL-R470T+ isn't even a gigabit piece of equipment, it is unfit for trying to handle the connection it was on.
 
Another vote for the Ubiquiti Edgerouter. Very happy with it.
 
I'd much rather go for the Mediatek MT7621A platform such as the WiTi board or the D-Link DIR-860L (HW rev B1) it'll handle that connection without any issues at all running OpenWRT and be much more reliable to power outrages compared to the ERL.
 
I know the edgerouter lite can definitely handle that network. The only caveat that I've seen is some people have had hardware failures on the ubnt forum.
 
Ocellaris said:
150 meg downstream seems like a bigger issue than which router you are using. That isn't a lot of data for 36 people to share, especially during streaming hours. 72 to 108 sessions seems like a low estimate :D Just a couple people doing file sharing can saturate the connection so I would take a look at really prioritizing traffic to minimize the impact a few bad eggs will have on everyone.

A TL-R470T+ isn't even a gigabit piece of equipment, it is unfit for trying to handle the connection it was on.
Click to expand...

Agreed, you're gonna laugh but I just upgraded the house from a 14mbps DSL connection. No fiber in this area so 150mpbs is the best I could get :rolleyes:


The TP Link router doesn't even allow traffic management so I'm hoping a better router will allow traffic prioritization and help the issue a bit.
 
Quartz-1 said:
How many wired clients and how many wireless? Pretty much any router should be able to handle 200 DHCP clients. The issue is the amount of wireless connections and how many access points you're going to need. Something like a Draytek Vigor 2600 offers bandwidth management up the wazoo but will cost you ~£220, and the Vigor access points will cost you from ~£65 for the AP610 to ~£150 for the AP910.

One other thing: you should try and reduce the WAN traffic as much as possible. To do that you should implement a proxy server. Just an old PC, a Linux distro, and a large HDD. You might also consider implementing a WSUS box and the Apple equivalent.
Click to expand...

I'm already running the Unifi APs on this network but I'll check out that router, thanks.
 
SeaWulf said:
I'm already running the Unifi APs on this network but I'll check out that router, thanks.
Click to expand...

Throw an adult content blocker on the switch and that should clear up the bandwidth issues :D
 
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diizzy said:
I'd much rather go for the Mediatek MT7621A platform such as the WiTi board or the D-Link DIR-860L (HW rev B1) it'll handle that connection without any issues at all running OpenWRT and be much more reliable to power outrages compared to the ERL.
Click to expand...

I'll take a look at those too, thanks.
 
Maybe just get a second connection and put a multi-wan router in place instead then?
 
Wow. Definitely time to just replace it with something better. The edgerouter lite would handle this no sweat.
 
Cisco 1921 with IOS Zone Firewall - Will be a little more than $700.00 but I own one and use it at my home and I have went to 100mbps WAN via cable modem and it was at maybe 7% CPU usage.

That is with firewalling enabled. I love this little damn box.
 
SeaWulf said:
Will this router be able to support a large number of concurrent streams (video/music/games)? That's probably the biggest issue with the current router.
Click to expand...

My wisp uses these out on towers,the radios are replaced more than the erl's. The older ones have issues with the usb drive crapping out there's guides to flash a new drive if that happens. Firmware is in a usb drive/header on the board.
 
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diizzy said:
Even the newer models are plauged with this issue...

@ SeaWulf
http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/d-link/dir-860l - Some numbers
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/WiTi..._78_77_80,searchweb201644_5,searchweb201560_9 is also up now...
I'll be getting mine next week *crosses fingers*

By default you have ~16k session limit which you can adjust.

I wouldn't enable WIFI though if you're going to use it as main router...
Click to expand...

Sounds like the Ubiquiti + extended warranty might be the best bet for this application as an off the shelf product.

I might have to get a WiTi for myself though :D
 
Been very happy with the ERL. The current firmware makes basic adjustments easy to change without going to a command prompt. I am using it for my small business at home plus media stuff. Can handle anything I give it. Why would someone suggest an OpenWRT flashed router over the ERL? The only time my ERL reboots is when the power goes out. It just works which is more than I can say for the netgear routers that I tried DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Gargoyle on.

If I had to do it again, I would have bought the ERL with POE ports for future security cameras. I would also get the frat guys to run CAT6 cables to each room to get away from wireless where its not needed.
 
travanx said:
Been very happy with the ERL. The current firmware makes basic adjustments easy to change without going to a command prompt. I am using it for my small business at home plus media stuff. Can handle anything I give it. Why would someone suggest an OpenWRT flashed router over the ERL? The only time my ERL reboots is when the power goes out. It just works which is more than I can say for the netgear routers that I tried DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Gargoyle on.

If I had to do it again, I would have bought the ERL with POE ports for future security cameras. I would also get the frat guys to run CAT6 cables to each room to get away from wireless where its not needed.
Click to expand...

Good to hear, I'm planning on ordering one tonight.

Every room has cat5 fed to two 3COM switches (probably should be replaced too lol :rolleyes:) which connect to the router. Everyone knows that wired is better but they're still gonna use wifi for the convenience and bitch when it's slower :rolleyes:
 
SeaWulf said:
Good to hear, I'm planning on ordering one tonight.

Every room has cat5 fed to two 3COM switches (probably should be replaced too lol :rolleyes:) which connect to the router. Everyone knows that wired is better but they're still gonna use wifi for the convenience and bitch when it's slower :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Just tell them that if they want to run wireless, they're welcome to join a sorority because real men use cables and this is a man's house.

That should be enough bravado to at least make it a topic of discussion, lol.
 
@ travanx
Because it's much faster than the ERL in software mode and it works great, also more flexible. No FS corruption issues too...
//Danne
 
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