SO anything better than the NETGEAR Nighthawk X6 AC3200?

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jordan12

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So for consumer use, is this still the very best router for home use?
 
Pretty much, I'm using the D-Link DIR-890L AC3200, which is essentially the same thing, except mine looks cooler. Uses the same Broadcom Chip as the X6 and has also has 6x Antennas.
 
Do either of the above routers do proper port triggering (not just forwarding)?

Thanks
 
pfsense on an intel avoton or rangley platform + supermicro 1u half depth case. Blows any consumer router away.
 
Sufu said:
pfsense on an intel avoton or rangley platform + supermicro 1u half depth case. Blows any consumer router away.
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Yes, because everyone wants/needs the complete overkill that such a platform delivers, when 100+% of their needs/wants can be met by a consumer device that has 1/3rd of the features and costs under $300.
 
Chas said:
Yes, because everyone wants/needs the complete overkill that such a platform delivers, when 100+% of their needs/wants can be met by a consumer device that has 1/3rd of the features and costs under $300.
Click to expand...

Well, this is HardForum. Overkill is an often underrated achievement.
 
Just years of dealing with "money conscious" (see "cheapass") clients and having to spitball solutions that still give them what they need. Also taking into account the possibility that the end-users are not just functionally computer illiterate, but TERMINALLY computer illiterate.

Seriously, we have a whole class of clientele that paid for several days of out-of-state, on-site work to be performed just to get them up and automated for remote control. Because they're incapable of performing difficult tasks such as:

  • Logging into a computer
  • Opening a web browser
  • Running an executable.
 
Chas said:
Yes, because everyone wants/needs the complete overkill that such a platform delivers, when 100+% of their needs/wants can be met by a consumer device that has 1/3rd of the features and costs under $300.
Click to expand...

With the prevalence of high speed ISP connections these days (many offering 1Gbps to the Internet) it's not overkill to use a router that can actually achieve those speeds (almost no consumer router can). Not to mention the fact that VPNs should pretty much be a requirement these days if you're ever planning to access your home network from the Internet. While many consumer routers "can" be used as a VPN server, once you see the speeds (even with 3rd party firmware) you can achieve over that connection it's basically worthless for many applications.
 
Most ppl here seem to blindly recommend pfsense for X even though it's completely overkill and doesn't really provide any real benefit compared to MIPS and/or ARM platforms. That said, I would take something running OpenWRT over a theoretical faster platform with no support. You have cheap platforms doing 500+ so performance isn't an issue.
//Danne
 
Try running OpenVPN on a consumer router with anything above a 30Mbps connection.
 
I'm digging my new Asus RT-AC3200. Just upgrade the firmware right off the bat.
 
@ jimphreak
As far as I know OpenVPN works on any kind of connection unless its extremely slow :]
That said, you have pretty fast ARM solutions that works well.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
@ jimphreak
As far as I know OpenVPN works on any kind of connection unless its extremely slow :]
That said, you have pretty fast ARM solutions that works well.
//Danne
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I just came from a R7000 with the CPU OC'd to 1.4Ghz and still couldn't push more than 3.5MB/s over the OpenVPN connection. With pfSense I'm getting 17.5MB/s and the CPU doesn't even reach 25%.

Sure it's twice the price of the R7000 but if you need a high speed VPN connection, stay away from consumer grade hardware.
 
...or just get a decent ARM platform, I do about 20 mbit without any heavy tuning on "slow" MIPS boxes.
//Danne
 
I'm a big fan of the Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite plus one or two of their Unifi WAPs. Tends to work just fine for the multiple deployments that I've done for family. The fastest connection that I've had one hooked up to was around 250mbps through Cox (was paying for 150, and easily getting 250 down) which it handled with ease.

Whenever anyone asks me for home router recommendations, the above is at the top of my list :)
Takes a bit of setup, but works wonderfully once configured.
 
It depends on your needs, budget and knowledge. I have plenty of consumer grade routers with wifi turned off which perform just fine (as long as you don't need VPN). The Archer C7 is a very fast router and cheap. I put these into 5 friends houses and in almost a year only two reboots (one after a storm) and they are just as fast as an ERL just not as flexible. The

The ERL is really flexible (policy based routing, etc...) but you need to be very comfortable with doing things in CLI and scripting it. Even on 1.6 several non-techie but capable friends (compiled their own kernel with minimal help, etc...) gave up getting it completely setup after a few days. I have yet to try the 1.7 beta. If it had hardware acceleration for openVPN I would have bought one for myself to play with, but a number of people report back 7-10 mbits on openVPN which is just too slow for my needs.

I also just go done with two Barracuda Web Filters (which were less then $100 off ebay. A 210 and 310). PFsense installed on one and Sophos UTM on the other. The Sophos UTM was handling a friends 50Mbit connection just fine (it peaked out at just under 55Mbit on a 150Mbit pipe). I never did test VPN on this since by the short time I was there he had mastered the UI and had taken over).
 
Im rocking the original R7000 Nighthawk. Best Router I have every owned. Fast and stable as a rock. Looks the best IMHO
 
@ jimphreak
OpenWRT trunk r41029, it's old and does have some security issues so you should probably use the newer version (which I haven't tested that much yet but it should be fine). Since I used polarssl and musl I'm not sure about it's performance but in theory it should be a bit faster.
http://projects.pyret.net/dump/openwrt/r45385/
//Danne
 
iamwhoiamtoday said:
I'm a big fan of the Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite plus one or two of their Unifi WAPs. Tends to work just fine for the multiple deployments that I've done for family. The fastest connection that I've had one hooked up to was around 250mbps through Cox (was paying for 150, and easily getting 250 down) which it handled with ease.

Whenever anyone asks me for home router recommendations, the above is at the top of my list :)
Takes a bit of setup, but works wonderfully once configured.
Click to expand...

What do you do if your house is not wired with cat5/6. How would you go about implementing this? And getting wifi to each end of the house. I'm interested in playing with more advanced stuff.
 
EdGaRRRRR said:
What do you do if your house is not wired with cat5/6. How would you go about implementing this? And getting wifi to each end of the house. I'm interested in playing with more advanced stuff.
Click to expand...

You run cat5 to each end of the house.
 
I run cat5e / cat6 everywhere, and drop two Unifi WAPs at opposing ends of the house. Covers everything just fine. I also hate using wifi unless I really need to, so.... cables in all the places!
 
iamwhoiamtoday said:
I'm a big fan of the Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite plus one or two of their Unifi WAPs. Tends to work just fine for the multiple deployments that I've done for family. The fastest connection that I've had one hooked up to was around 250mbps through Cox (was paying for 150, and easily getting 250 down) which it handled with ease.

Whenever anyone asks me for home router recommendations, the above is at the top of my list :)
Takes a bit of setup, but works wonderfully once configured.
Click to expand...

+1

It's easier than ever. Set and forget type of thing. It just works how it's supposed to.
 
Another Edgerouter + 2AP here.

Simply effortless abilities.

I use OpenVPN over my 50mbit connection, and I get 45-46mbit for those that
were talking about that as an issue.

Its wonderful hardware, for the price, its simply unmatched IMO.
 
To clarify, you won't get anything near 50mbit over OpenVPN unless you disable encryption. It does about 15mbit or so with OpenVPN.
//Danne
 
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