Router/AP for office with 15 clients

L

levak

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
386
Hello!

We are in need of a new router or AP. Currently we are using the old faithful WRT54GL but it is slowly showing signs of age...

So we are looking for something new:
- around 15 clients over wifi
- 4-5 clients over LAN (we have another switch)
- AC support
- PPPoE support

What is the proper replacement for WRT54GL?
What do you recommend?

Matej
 
I would go with a unifi. I am not a sales rep for them, but I am humping their leg and being a nut swinger.
 
I'd say TP-Link TL-WDR3600 or WDR4300 running OpenWRT (trunk) but that's just me.
//Danne
 
For business use, use real business hardware. I'm currently a fan of Zyxel USG for a router/firewall and Unifi for wireless. Both are still cheap compared to enterprise level stuff, but are far superior to trying to shoe-horn a consumer grade device into an installation it wasn't designed for. You might try an edgerouter, too. I haven't played with one yet, but I've heard good things.
 
UBNT Unifi Pro

Nuff said

Avoid the 802.11ac as they aren't mature yet. The pro is dual band and when paired with a controller they can do seamless roaming.
 
I am leaning towards UniFI as well. Actually, I can use WRT54GL as router and add UniFi as AP.

I can later upgrade WRT to EdgeRouter. I have it at home and it's quite nice, although I miss some features in web interface. Not much of a problem for me, since I mainly configure it in CLI, but some noobs will be using it in the company and then don't like CLI:)

I guess UniFi AP it is...

Matej
 
If anything, you'd want Pro... UniFi is pretty much like a 40$ router/AP otherwise.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
If anything, you'd want Pro... UniFi is pretty much like a 40$ router/AP otherwise.
//Danne
Click to expand...

Why would he want the Pro exactly? The Unifi AP is perfectly fine for 15 users. It's also only an AP, not a router.
 
AMD T-type said:
Why would he want the Pro exactly? The Unifi AP is perfectly fine for 15 users. It's also only an AP, not a router.
Click to expand...

Pro is dual band and solves the now commonplace 2.4ghz spectrum interference problems. Don't get me wrong, 5ghz has some offenders also but far fewer overall.
 
Unifi is not a bad solution at all, though in the SMB range Meraki AP's can make some sense. You get all the options you would normally only get with a controller based AP network. The caveat is that if you don't maintain the support contract, your hardware becomes a brick, but they're really not that expensive if you can take advantage of the some of the feature set. Of course if all you want is wifi and maybe a guest network, it's probably not your deal. A lot of small businesses make stupid choices over a couple of hundred dollars difference though. I've got 3 MR18's for my home wifi right now...but I'm not normal. :D

They just released their MX64W that might have some appeal for you. It's an all in one security appliance with wireless. Supports IPS, VPN, web content filtering, malware protection, etc... all in a single box that has a surprisingly intuitive cloud based configuration portal. They'll do free trials, it might be worth checking out.
 
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@ AMD T-type
What bds1904 said, the WDR3600 is also dual band would handle 15 users fine too.
//Danne
 
Have a look at the forums (UBNT) also, 11ac hardware used is first gen and we all know how well that works ;-)
11n is on third/fourth gen depending on platform (recent ones at least in general).
TL-WDR3600 is using third gen by Atheros (QCA) which is what the Unifi also uses AFAIK while fourth gen is slowly hitting the market.
//Danne
 
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