Advice needed - Asus AC-RT68U needs to be replaced?

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entropism

2[H]4U
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Dec 23, 2004
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OK, so here's my situation, maybe I can get some advice.

The problem, first and foremost: Out phones (2 iphone XS, 1 Samsung S10e) and iPads have stopped connecting to the wifi, unless we reboot the router. This is an issue. In fact, this is the ONLY issue we're having. Before this, the wifi worked well for the space we have.

I currently rent one side of a duplex. 2 stories + basement, about 60' deep being very generous. I have a Gigabit connection from Comcast (950ish down, 45ish up), and I currently have an RT68U upstairs connected to the modem (Arris CM8200) and an 8 port switch. DNS is handled by a Raspberry Pi running Pi-Hole.

Downstairs I also have an 8 port switch. Everything is connected by a pair of MOCA adapters, and it's working great. I have my AV setup wired up, and my Apple TV is seeing about 850-900 down, 45 up when I run a speed test. My Apple TV routes through a VPN during hockey season (NHL.tv), so I can stream my local team without having a TV subscription.

I'm also planning on buying a house in the next 1-2 years, and I expect to need a more robust setup to go with the increased space. I'm figuring a mesh network or a router/converted desktop with a few APs. I don't really have the space to run a separate desktop currently. I wasn't planning on replacing/upgrading everything until we got the new place.

Now that that's out of the way...

A: Do I go with something like an Asus RT86U for $130ish off Amazon Warehouse and figure out another solution when I buy my place?

B: I can get a TP-Link Deco M5 trio for about $135 off Amazon. This WOULD have ethernet backhaul through the MOCA adapters. I found a pair of Netgear Orbi on clearance at walmart for $75 (https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Orbi-Ultra-Performance-Whole-System/dp/B01K4CZOBS) and found out it doesn't support outgoing VPN connections, just VPNing IN to your network. How could I add to this to provide an outgoing connection through OpenVPN?

C: I can go whole hog, and pick up a router/AP, and eventually add another AP when I move. If I go that route, what would be a good router that can handle VPN duties? Since I'm saving for a house, I'd prefer not to spend a ridiculous amount. My original plan in the new house was to get a $150-200 desktop, learn a NIX based firewall setup, and have that running file server, firewall and ad blocking duties. I've heard the UniFi Edgerouter X doesn't do well when trying to handle gigabit + VPN, and anything else I found is in the $300-400 range.

So there we have it. Sorry for the long winded post, I wanted to be as detailed as possible.
 
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One question in regards to using the Edgerouter, in this case the 10X: How is it handling VPN alongside gigabit connection speeds?

Also, how difficult is all of this to configure? I'm watching a setup video on youtube that looks relatively easy, but then I'm reading how to set up the router as a VPN client, and it seems to be all CLI.
 
entropism said:
One question in regards to using the Edgerouter, in this case the 10X: How is it handling VPN alongside gigabit connection speeds?

Also, how difficult is all of this to configure? I'm watching a setup video on youtube that looks relatively easy, but then I'm reading how to set up the router as a VPN client, and it seems to be all CLI.
Click to expand...
Yeah the VPN client is CLI. So many people have documented it that up should only need to mindlessly issue some commands, then test. Just make sure you hold on to the commands that you issued, so that if you run into trouble you can tell us what you did.
I can't personally speak on VPN client and 1gbps.
 
entropism said:
The problem, first and foremost: Out phones (2 iphone XS, 1 Samsung S10e) and iPads have stopped connecting to the wifi, unless we reboot the router. This is an issue. In fact, this is the ONLY issue we're having.
Click to expand...

If ethernet stuff stays connected, then you can just grab access points and change essentially nothing. Something like a UAP-AC-Lite or UAP-AC-Pro would work, hook one up to each switch, and enjoy effortless wifi. If you want fine-grained control, you can toss the Unifi Controller onto your RPi.
 
Just turn off the Wi-Fi of your existing router and add a dedicated WAP. This gets you up fast with better Wi-Fi than you ever can with a combo unit, and you'll be well suited for when you want to move into the new house and want to use a mesh system.
 
FNtastic said:
Pfsense comes to mind
Click to expand...

But if coming from an ASUS consumer router and a smidgen of CLI use is overwhelming... well, I'd rather have Ubiquiti's CLI on an Edgerouter than be trying to do complex stuff with pfSense.

I still want to roll a pfSense router, and I haven't gotten around to tackling that whilst I'm still running my Edgerouter 4- and the CLI process for setting up an OpenVPN endpoint was quick. I was remoting home from Starbucks that morning.
 
And still, the OP reads as "router works great, WiFi broke", which means that tossing any AP onto a wired section of the network would get WiFi back up.

I don't see why this is hard.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
And still, the OP reads as "router works great, WiFi broke", which means that tossing any AP onto a wired section of the network would get WiFi back up.

I don't see why this is hard.
Click to expand...

So a question for you: I was looking into picking up a pair of TPLink APs (on sale for $45 each), but I have yet to return the Netgear Orbi I picked up yesterday. I know that the TPLinks won't roam without an additional $75 hardware controller, but will the Orbis roam in AP mode?
 
Are you using Merlin firmware by chance?
If you aren't, flash it, see if it makes a difference. It made a huge difference in the stability of my 68u.


https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/

(Looks like I currently have 24 clients connected and everything is buttery smooth.)

Also, I had a problem with the physical connector of my power button on my 68u, this was fixed with a rubber band and some tape, even if it looks kinda bad.
 
entropism said:
So a question for you: I was looking into picking up a pair of TPLink APs (on sale for $45 each), but I have yet to return the Netgear Orbi I picked up yesterday. I know that the TPLinks won't roam without an additional $75 hardware controller, but will the Orbis roam in AP mode?
Click to expand...

I would check reviews. I don't know enough about the Orbis to answer that, and you'll want to find reviews that take into account as much of your environment as possible.
 
I was having similar problems with a 68u running Merlin myself, with wireless dropping. The radios were actually repeatedly turning off (wifi/professional/enable radio/off). I had temporary reprieves with full resets and even added a blowhole and fan (this worked the longest until peak summer temps), but I never really nailed things down and eventually broke down and bought an ER. I dug out an older 66u for AP, switch and USB printserver duty and it has been solid so far.

Merlin's VPN setup is pretty easy and well supported by my VPN provider. I just started researching this for the ER, but haven't found anything newb friendly yet.
 
I had an 87U and 88U, and moved to pfsense afterwards. VPN setup was actually a little easier on pfsense than ASUS running Merlin firmware. Since then, the pfsense router has only been rebooted 2-3 times in the past couple years only only due to blackouts making it shut down. Never touched the VPN stuff again as it has worked flawlessly


But IdiotInCharge is right, if it is just a wifi problem the simplest solution is to just buy an access point or two and connect them to the existing router. You would be buying those same APs anyway for an Edgerouter or pfsense so might as well get them now and just put them on the asus
 
Ruiner said:
but haven't found anything newb friendly yet.
Click to expand...

It's not point and click, though it should be, however it's also not that big of a deal to do over an SSH session.

I would also say that setting up a VPN on an Edgerouter over SSH would be a good learning project for someone unfamiliar with the process.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
It's not point and click, though it should be, however it's also not that big of a deal to do over an SSH session.

I would also say that setting up a VPN on an Edgerouter over SSH would be a good learning project for someone unfamiliar with the process.
Click to expand...

I was able to come up with this: which has about as much handholding as I, or anyone coming from consumer grade, will probably need.
 
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