Best router for multiple devices primarily hardwired

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dhodson66

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Nov 26, 2016
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I’ve been fiddling with my tp link 5400 (non gaming version) for months. It requires a reset twice a week and am getting tired of doing so. I have gigabit service and most of the devices are hardwired through switches. It seems to need a reboot after multiple people game and stream so I think it’s a heat issue dealing with all the traffic. Any recommendations for a new model that in particular can handle a lot of devices wired. I was thinking of getting one of the AX11000 versions which seems to be Asus or another tplink wondering if Asus is better or if I can get similar performance in regards to throughput for less.
 
If you're pushing that many connections / that much bandwidth, get a real, dedicated router:

Edgerouter 10X for US$110
Note: for the Edgerouters, do not buy anything cheaper, and if spending more, only look at the Edgerouter 4 if you don't need switch ports ($180), or the Edgerouter 12 ($250) if you do.

And then get something like their UAP AC Pro for $135 to handle WiFi.

These products are entry-level commercial grade / high-end SOHO and only need to be restarted for firmware updates and significant configuration changes, while being easy to set up for anyone with a basic understanding of networking as well as super flexible, configurable, and expandable.
 
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Hi I have a lot of devices. My mane router is a wrt3200acm flashed with openwrt. I then have two APs for hole house wifi. The 10 lan ports on the APs take cables to.
The OpenWrt router runs packages to make my network safe from all the shit adds and script kiddys. addblock, banip, https over dns proxy, a script that drops ips of ssh scans in to a black list, bcp38, sqm aka qos and mutch more if i want it.

You can pick up refferbed wrt3200acm or wrt1900ac up off ebay cheep
 
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Been using Linksys routers for years with no issues with plenty of hardwired PC's and half a dozen or so mobile devices on the network.
Currently using the Cox supplied Docsis 3.1 Modem/Router hooked to a Linksys switch for more ports as the Cox device only has 2 ports on it.
 
Thank you for the responses.

Please let me know if these details change the recommendations.

I have a pace 5268 AC router from ATT because its also the modem. I have set to DMZ mode to avoid it doing the routing and have its wifi off. The modem is hardwired to the tplink 5400 and from that i have an araknis gigabit switch connected and connected to that switch are multiple other small 5-8 port switches (for instance one port from the araknis might go to the tv room and in the tv room is a small switch that has the tv, directv, gamebox, and other sonos hard wired to it). The araknis was placed several years ago by a professional with a basement remodel.

I apologize for my lack of knowledge but can someone explain the benefit of the dedicated hardwired router in my setup. I guess what i am having trouble grasping is that if you look at the processing power of lets say the newer asus or tplink 11000 routers, they have a processor just as fast and then 3 coprocessors so to my simple mind, they should work better. I imagine if i put a wired router then i can just place the old wifi router in the house and turn off the dhcp so its just an access point. Probably wouldnt need rebooting often with the lower load.

Again thanks for assistance.
 
dhodson66 said:
I imagine if i put a wired router then i can just place the old wifi router in the house and turn off the dhcp so its just an access point. Probably wouldnt need rebooting often with the lower load.
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This is likely very easy to do and will likely behave as you expect, unless there's something actually failing.
 
I do think I can make the addition but would you mind explaining how the edge router will outperform the ax11000s given they seem to have more processing power or is it just about reliability?
 
dhodson66 said:
I do think I can make the addition but would you mind explaining how the edge router will outperform the ax11000s given they seem to have more processing power or is it just about reliability?
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Reliability under load, as well as flexibility.
 
given the throughput on the 10x is very near my internet connection speed, which model would you recommend above the 10x. looking at their site, probably the only version i think it too expensive is the er-8-xg since that's almost 2k. My main switch is rack mounted so i can go either rack or not rack mounted and be fine with it.
https://www.ui.com/edgemax/edgerouter-infinity/
 
Since you are using directv and not uverse TV. You may want to checkout this thread:

https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31900599-ATT-TrueBridge-Mode-for-for-Ubiquity-Security-Gateway-USG

There are several other threads in the same sub-forum about possibly removing the flaming PoS that is the 5268AC all together or in some cases at least bypassing it. It may be more work than you want to do but it is worth the time to investigate since you want to replace your existing router anyway. Please note that even in DMZ mode the 5268AC is still in the mix and impacting your traffic.
 
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yea i hate the pace. ive been hoping someone would come up with a better compatible modem solution. Thanks for the information. I had looked into that two years ago but the issue with losing service with power or reboots or other issues stopped me. Im not home several days per week and that would leave everyone else without internet until i returned and thats too much of a pain.
 
dhodson66 said:
yea i hate the pace. ive been hoping someone would come up with a better compatible modem solution. Thanks for the information. I had looked into that two years ago but the issue with losing service with power or reboots or other issues stopped me. Im not home several days per week and that would leave everyone else without internet until i returned and thats too much of a pain.
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There are some configurations where that is no longer an issue. Sadly, not the one I am using but, there are several options where the Pace can go back in the box and never be seen again until it is time to return it to ATT.
 
dhodson66 said:
given the throughput on the 10x is very near my internet connection speed, which model would you recommend above the 10x. looking at their site, probably the only version i think it too expensive is the er-8-xg since that's almost 2k. My main switch is rack mounted so i can go either rack or not rack mounted and be fine with it.
https://www.ui.com/edgemax/edgerouter-infinity/
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The Edgerouter 4 is the first one where performance jumps. The 10X is the same basic hardware as the ER-X, except it has more switch ports and double the undersized memory and storage of the ER-X.

I picked up the ER-4 for my personal homelabbing adventures, as I'm unlikely to need anything faster for speeds up to symmetrical 1Gbit.
 
ordered the 4 with the rack mount adapter from amazon. Ill start with that.
After i get that settled, ill relook into removing the PACE.
 
I use an openwrt router on an atom server. Works well, boots fast, light as hell.
 
Buy a PCEngines and do a PfSense box, then an AP as mention above behind that for wifi and off you go :D
 
my edgerouter 4 came in. Now i assume i just connect the cable from the pace to the "console" that was previously connected to "internet" on the tplink and then connect the switch to one of the gigabit ports and just keep the pace in dzm mode?
 
I highly recommend reading the manual...

The 'console' port is for a serial connection.
 
I think I found it
I guess it’s a manual not specific to that particular device

looks like I can put internet on eth0, switch on 1 and should hopefully be able to get to basic wizard
 
i was confused at first, i didnt understand how you had to connect it to "working network" first. I thought it would conflict with the dhcp server on the tplink but i have my wired connections working as far as i can tell. one thing i dont like is that the interface doesnt actually list all the clients. It sort of lists the "local" to the switch as one connection. the tplink would list all the devices/connections regardless of which switch they were connected to . It just makes it hard for me to know they are all working. tomorrow ill switch the tplink link to AP mode. I also at least at the moment disabled the firewall on the edge. I think it was interferring with my synology but i imagine ill eventually figure that out. I didnt notice any additional speed improvements (not unexpected) and of course too soon to know if it will be more stable.
 
If you're using the DHCP server on the ER-4, which you should be, then it will list all of the client address leases there.
 
Thx. I did finally. Not sure what eventually triggered it to work. I now have the WiFi setup as an AP. Still need to figure out the firewall situation and then if it’s feasible to remove the pace. Amazing how much I’ve forgotten since last I worked this system out.
 
dhodson66 said:
Thx. I did finally. Not sure what eventually triggered it to work. I now have the WiFi setup as an AP. Still need to figure out the firewall situation and then if it’s feasible to remove the pace. Amazing how much I’ve forgotten since last I worked this system out.
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I'm going to have to hack back in to my AP and switch... and piHole. I'd left it all alone for some time and then moved, and well, no idea what's what.

But it all still worked after plugging it back in at the new place ;)
 
dhodson66 said:
do you keep the firewall on the router on or off?
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I'd highly advise using the firewall in the ER-4. With respect to routing and firewalling, these two functions go hand-in-hand.

Initially, the ER-4 should be:
  • Firewall on all interfaces
  • Router between interfaces
  • DHCP server for addresses (which you can then make static)
  • Pass DNS server information when clients get their IP address
It can handle all of these things without issue.

You could replace the firewall by placing a discrete firewall in line with the router, i.e., internet -> firewall -> ER-4 or internet -> ER-4 -> firewall (or even both), however, both of these options present complications that you will want to research and prototype ahead of time. Note that by discrete firewall we're talking about 'next generation firewalls' that do IDS/IPS functionality, finer-grained QoS, and so on. These are great technologies that if implemented without care can really bork your internet access. So definitely research first.

You could replace the DHCP function with a domain controller; this might be something worth learning but isn't at all essential.

The easiest upgrade is for DNS. Here I suggest piHole, and running it on an actual Raspberry Pi. This allows you to easily filter DNS requests and provides an extra layer of protection on top of ad blockers as well as providing a convenient interface for blocking sites and seeing overall DNS usage.
 
I installed the 3 New APs by Ubiquiti.
Seemed simple although I seem to be limited to wireless speeds around 80 and some of my hardwired can get up to 800 so I’m not sure why so low or what I can do about it. The 800 is using ATT speed test site to a wired computer and the 80 is the throughput measurement from the Ubiquiti app on my iPhone.
 
Make sure if you have band steering enabled it is connecting your devices to the 5ghz network. In some cases it can be finicky and easier to just make a dedicated 2.4 and 5ghz network. You also may want to try adjusting your 5ghz channel width to 80MHz. I think the default is 40
 
As I explore all the options I see allow meshing between APs. This is by default on but wouldn’t it be better to turn that off?
 
dhodson66 said:
As I explore all the options I see allow meshing between APs. This is by default on but wouldn’t it be better to turn that off?
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If each of the APs is connected to the ethernet network, then mesh should probably be turned off.

Is each AP is set to a separate, non-overlapping (for 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz doesn't have overlap) channel? Have you run a scanner to make sure there's no interference from neighbors?
 
i think ive found the problem but i dont know how to fix it. When looking at the unifi network app, each of the 3 ap-ac-pros have uplink wired settings that seems to indicate 100 and not 1000 and im not sure why

UPLINK
(WIRED)
Uplink-
Speed100
DuplexFull duplex

i have it connected to a gigabit network and anything hardwired to the same device can reach speeds over 100. There does not appear to be any way to adjust or change that setting. Any thoughts?
 
Probably either bad cabling or the switch ports are fixed at 100/full (switch may be failing). Bypass the switch if possible. Pull down one of the APs and connect it to the switch with a different, known-good cable.
 
Slight threadjack regarding the edgerouters:
Firstly, I noticed that the new 2.0.8 hotfix 1 firmware offers a setting in basic setup to automatically choose 'fast public DNS servers' (google, cloudflare, etc) instead of your ISP's. thoughts?

Second, from what I've read the ER-X can't handle SQM over a certain speed, perhaps as low as 200 MB/s, since it can't offload QoS functions. What would be the next step up w/o breaking the bank?
 
Ruiner said:
Second, from what I've read the ER-X can't handle SQM over a certain speed, perhaps as low as 200 MB/s, since it can't offload QoS functions. What would be the next step up w/o breaking the bank?
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ER-4 is it, unfortunately.
 
Ruiner said:
Firstly, I noticed that the new 2.0.8 hotfix 1 firmware offers a setting in basic setup to automatically choose 'fast public DNS servers' (google, cloudflare, etc) instead of your ISP's. thoughts?
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Personal preference, mostly.

There may be some speed advantage to using Google/etc. resolvers. Use Dig to compare response times between them and your ISP's resolvers. Some shadier ISPs may also insert their own servers for some others or when no result is found.

AFAIK the Edgerouters do not have a DNS-over-TLS (DoT) or DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) client (e.g., Stubby, Unbound), so the ISP can still sniff any DNS queries from it should they be so inclined. I'm not sure if the Edgerouters support DNSSEC.
 
I have the system running well at this point

when I log into ubiquity’s software I always get a message from chrome that in essence it isn’t a trusted site and have to click advanced to accept. How do I get my system to recognize this as trusted?
 
dhodson66 said:
I have the system running well at this point

when I log into ubiquity’s software I always get a message from chrome that in essence it isn’t a trusted site and have to click advanced to accept. How do I get my system to recognize this as trusted?
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You'll need to add a certificate from a trusted CA; try these guys, you'll probably be able to find a guide to automate the upkeep:

https://letsencrypt.org/
 
when i use the unificontroller to monitor my wireless activity or change any settings (which i access via chrome from a desktop computer), it always gives me the impression that i dont have a unifi gateway. i do have it connected to the edge 4 but my reading online implies that this version isnt compatible with that software and thus there is no way to access and control the router from that app. Is this correct?
 
dhodson66 said:
when i use the unificontroller to monitor my wireless activity or change any settings (which i access via chrome from a desktop computer), it always gives me the impression that i dont have a unifi gateway. i do have it connected to the edge 4 but my reading online implies that this version isnt compatible with that software and thus there is no way to access and control the router from that app. Is this correct?
Click to expand...

Yes, that's correct. Although they often share hardware, the EdgeRouter and Unifi routers are different software, and the former isn't accessible through the Unifi controller.
 
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