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The Router Recommendations Thread (Consumer)

Skyblue said:
I'm getting a new doorlock witch needs Matter and Threads. My old Asus router might be up for an upgrade, but I cannot find any normal routers that supports Threads. Why isn't it just build in?
Click to expand...

I'm kind of into networking, - like obsessively so - and I don't even have a clue what either Matter or Threads are :p

Then again, generally my opinion is if a device is "wifi connected" or "smart" it comes nowhere near my home. That, and I generally frown upon anything "mesh". I hardwire both every Wifi access point and every device on my network that doesn't need to be mobile, using Wifi as sparingly as possible.
 
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Zarathustra[H] said:
I'm kind of into networking, - like obsessively so - and I don't even have a clue what either Matter or Threads are :p

Then again, generally my opinion is if a device is "wifi connected" or "smart" it comes nowhere near my home. That, and I generally frown on anything "mesh". I hardwire both every Wifi access point and every device on my network that doesn't need to be mobile, using Wifi as sparingly as possible.
Click to expand...
Yeah, me too. It's up there with Bangers and Mash. At first it sounded like a movie or a law firm, lol. And I pretty much do the same on my network as well. :)
 
I have an Asus RT-68U router with Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 b4 firmware. I wanted to upgrade security to WPA3, so I ordered a TP-Link BE9300-Archer BE550. I discovered that Roku and a few of my IoT devices do not support WPA3. Also, the BE550 did not have nearly the range that my RT-68U has, so I returned the BE550.

I have decided to go a bit of a different route and keep the RT-68U and get a small, second low cost router and place it at the other end of the house.

Questions:
1) Is there a small, low costl router that will work well as a second router?
2) Is it better to use just wifi to connect to the second router or make use of the home wiring ethernet devices (like this).
3) Is there a better way I haven't thought of?
 
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I've been looking at the Archer GE800. Next time it goes under $400 at Best Buy I'm going to bring one of my old routers to get the 15% trade-in discount and pick one up.
 
WilliamJones said:
I have an Asus RT-68U router with Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 b4 firmware. I wanted to upgrade security to WPA3, so I ordered a TP-Link BE9300-Archer BE550. I discovered that Roku and a few of my IoT devices do not support WPA3. Also, the BE550 did not have nearly the range that my RT-68U has, so I returned the BE550.

I have decided to go a bit of a different route and keep the RT-68U and get a small, second low cost router and place it at the other end of the house.

Questions:
1) Is there a small, low costl router that will work well as a second router?
2) Is it better to use just wifi to connect to the second router or make use of the home wiring ethernet devices (like this).
3) Is there a better way I haven't thought of?
Click to expand...
option 2 can be better and is the preferred way to have a dedicated back hual. be warned depending on where the the devices live on your power circuits can affect latecy and performance. I would find a cheaper version of your Asus router and run the same custom software for best compatibility. look into mocha adapters if you have coax near both routers
 
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Wag said:
I've been looking at the Archer GE800. Next time it goes under $400 at Best Buy I'm going to bring one of my old routers to get the 15% trade-in discount and pick one up.
Click to expand...
Costco has the TP-Link Archer BE19000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router - BE805 for only $300. Not the same router of course but the low price might be something you are interested in?
 
WilliamJones said:
I have an Asus RT-68U router with Asuswrt-Merlin 386.1 b4 firmware. I wanted to upgrade security to WPA3, so I ordered a TP-Link BE9300-Archer BE550. I discovered that Roku and a few of my IoT devices do not support WPA3. Also, the BE550 did not have nearly the range that my RT-68U has, so I returned the BE550.

I have decided to go a bit of a different route and keep the RT-68U and get a small, second low cost router and place it at the other end of the house.

Questions:
1) Is there a small, low costl router that will work well as a second router?
2) Is it better to use just wifi to connect to the second router or make use of the home wiring ethernet devices (like this).
3) Is there a better way I haven't thought of?
Click to expand...
1. You don't want a second router--you just need an access point. I'd pick up a used RT-68U and put it in AP mode since it works well for you.)
2. Wired > wireless always. I would use a pair of powerline adapters, but the newest av2000 ones as they will hit 200Mbs in me experience. If you want faster and have coaxial cable in your house, check out moca adapters.
3. Most good wireless systems consist of a router and dedicated access point units. By adding an access point to the end of the house, your set up will fall into that model. :)
 
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Wag said:
I've been looking at the Archer GE800. Next time it goes under $400 at Best Buy I'm going to bring one of my old routers to get the 15% trade-in discount and pick one up.
Click to expand...
That is an obscene price for consumer hardware. :eek: You can literally buy enterprise grade stuff at that price point.
 
kindasmart said:
Costco has the TP-Link Archer BE19000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router - BE805 for only $300. Not the same router of course but the low price might be something you are interested in?
Click to expand...
Still an obscene price, lol.

I wouldn't spend more than $40 for consumer stuff and I'd buy it used and just as an AP. For routing, nothing beats a used enterprise router--uptimes in years in a consumer setting.
 
SamirD said:
Still an obscene price, lol.

I wouldn't spend more than $40 for consumer stuff and I'd buy it used and just as an AP. For routing, nothing beats a used enterprise router--uptimes in years in a consumer setting.
Click to expand...
I was young and uneducated about routers once. While I don’t personally recommend the used enterprise route due to some horrendous fan experiences, buying these expensive routers is just silly.
 
Randall Stephens said:
I was young and uneducated about routers once. While I don’t personally recommend the used enterprise route due to some horrendous fan experiences, buying these expensive routers is just silly.
Click to expand...
Interesting as I've got some fortigates that are fanless. If you get the nuclear bomb level of overkill vs bazooka or rocket launcher, then you'll have fans.
 
SamirD said:
Interesting as I've got some fortigates that are fanless. If you get the nuclear bomb level of overkill vs bazooka or rocket launcher, then you'll have fans.
Click to expand...
I'm old and uneducated on routers now :) I reckon 75% of the forum users here at [H] are IT professionals or homelab folks. I don't even remember what I bought but it was recommended on one of the forums as a good place to start. I quickly realized I didn't need/want a lot of what the enterprise stuff offered, and happily made my way over to pfsense on an old dell optiplex SFF.
 
Randall Stephens said:
I'm old and uneducated on routers now :) I reckon 75% of the forum users here at [H] are IT professionals or homelab folks. I don't even remember what I bought but it was recommended on one of the forums as a good place to start. I quickly realized I didn't need/want a lot of what the enterprise stuff offered, and happily made my way over to pfsense on an old dell optiplex SFF.
Click to expand...
Yep, depending on how long ago it was, the learning curve used to be pretty steep. It's a lot easier now. But pfsense is fairly solid for home/smb use. Beats anything the consumer companies make.
 
SamirD said:
That is an obscene price for consumer hardware. :eek: You can literally buy enterprise grade stuff at that price point.
Click to expand...
Generally I wouldn't but it doesn't seem too bad considering what you get- it is essentially a managed 10G switch w/SFP+ support and 4 2.5G ports. Sure I could use my Unraid setup with a dual-SFP+ card, a switch and PFSense docker but it's a pain and I'm lazy, and I wouldn't be saving much.

I'll wait for the prices to drop first- right now I'm using a FIOS CR1000a which has 2 10G and 2 2.5 ports, and I picked up for $80 used. Fios decided to cripple two of the ports to 2.5G for some reason even though the chipset supports 10G on all of them.
 
SamirD said:
That is an obscene price for consumer hardware. :eek: You can literally buy enterprise grade stuff at that price point.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but if you are committed to this router, be aware that the gummint may ban this router from the US market due to CCP espionage concerns. At which point, probably no more support or firmware updates.
 
I can't believe I just found this thread.
Milehigh said:
Thanks for the detailed advice... as luck would have it, due to a basement finish and having to downsize some storage, I got rid of some older PC stuff laying around which would have worked perfectly. With that said, I'm retired so can spend some time researching building my own with either solution you suggested. My buddy probably has a ton of stuff I could utilize, need to get him over for a beer and discuss :)
Click to expand...

I just spent the last month playing around with OPNsense on a soft router I bought from AliExpress. Another option you might consider is something like a Firewalla. I setup 3 or 4 VLANs on my network and made firewall rules so the IOT VLAN couldn't talk to the Main LAN, etc. in about 5 minutes.

In OPNsense, I had to look up a guide to tweak the firewall rules and I had to write 3 different ones for each device after configuring the interfaces beforehand. I'm not saying that OPNsense is bad in any way, but I found that Firewalla is a lot easier to use for non-network admin types.

I coupled that with an Alta Labs AP6-Pro at my house which lets me use one SSID for all my devices and then based on the password you enter, places it in the correct VLAN.
 
i have just had BeFibre installed, 900mbps up and down. I was getting 8mb/s on a phone line which was ok for my purposes (occasional downloads and games) , the new "Heights" router is strange. There seems to be no where to change the password and username , also the wifi seems to be just on all the time. I clicked and applied to disable it but it never goes off. looking through the settings it seems like there are far more settings in this setup. I noticed a section referring to 5g(i dont have any 5g devices) and seemingly there were logs of a significant amount of data downloaded through there. i have tried to get help from the provider and received a new router from them, but it seems all the same problems. Does anyone know what might be happening here. I was considering buying my own router and was hoping someone could point me to a relatively simple one that possibly has a vpn built in. I live in the uk .
Any help would be amazing
thankyou
pop
 
Ubiquiti has released a pile of new and powerful router options and as of the UniFi Network Application 9.0.108 release Zone Based Firewalls are back.

They seem to be on a roll again. Maybe Firewalla finally lit a fire under their rears.

​

 
I managed to get a refurb TP-Link BE800 for around $200. Wifi 7 is excellent but the 5G channel is very weak. Still playing around with it.
 
My cable modem and router are old.

Does someone make a combination unit that does both that works with Comcast? Should I get separate units? I'd like to run a Pihole but I understand if that's something that I need to set up separately.

Basically I'm so out of the game that I don't know where to begin again. Any and all help is welcome.
 
Axman said:
My cable modem and router are old.

Does someone make a combination unit that does both that works with Comcast? Should I get separate units? I'd like to run a Pihole but I understand if that's something that I need to set up separately.

Basically I'm so out of the game that I don't know where to begin again. Any and all help is welcome.
Click to expand...

It may cost a little more, but I'd strongly recommend getting a separate modem and router. I've always found the combo units to be limited, and you have to toss the entire thing should the situation change.

I can't really say for consumer-market routers. I've always gone with more prosumer/SOHO/SMB-grade stuff and a separate access point (e.g., OPsense/pfSense, the Ubiquiti stuff, etc.).

As for modems, apparently Comcast just upgraded their up- and download speeds, but only certain DOCSIS 3.1 modems are supported at the higher rates? I'm not getting the improved upload speeds despite getting notice that I've been upgraded. Admittedly I've not yet looked into it too closely. Basically, make sure whatever modem or combo unit you buy supports their upgraded speeds.

What are you looking to run the Pi-Hole on? IIRC OPNsense may have a plug-in that provides similar functionality (Ad Guard? Ad Aware?). Any other services you're also looking to run?
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
What are you looking to run the Pi-Hole on? IIRC OPNsense may have a plug-in that provides similar functionality (Ad Guard? Ad Aware?). Any other services you're also looking to run?
Click to expand...

I have a NanoPi R5S that I've been tinkering around with. I wanted to set it up as a router but my firewall kung fu got my ass kicked. So I'm open to some off-the-shelf options.
 
kindasmart said:
Costco has the TP-Link Archer BE19000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router - BE805 for only $300. Not the same router of course but the low price might be something you are interested in?
Click to expand...
On sale for $190. Price good till 10/26/25. Free shipping.

- WIFI 7.
- 10G WAN port.
- 10G LAN port.
- 4x 1G LAN ports.
- 2x USB 3.0 (type-A) ports.

Consumer router = crap? What's an equivalent "enterprise" router w/ 10G/10G ports?
TP-Link=chyna back door? Is this really a concern for a broke guy?

Don't want to "build my own," flash firmware, etc. The WIFI 6 stuff with 2.5G WAN/LAN ports aren't much cheaper, so why not 10G.

Question, Comments, Concerns? I await your roasting of purchasing a consumer router. ;)
 
kindasmart said:
On sale for $190. Price good till 10/26/25. Free shipping.

- WIFI 7.
- 10G WAN port.
- 10G LAN port.
- 4x 1G LAN ports.
- 2x USB 3.0 (type-A) ports.

Consumer router = crap? What's an equivalent "enterprise" router w/ 10G/10G ports?
TP-Link=chyna back door? Is this really a concern for a broke guy?

Don't want to "build my own," flash firmware, etc. The WIFI 6 stuff with 2.5G WAN/LAN ports aren't much cheaper, so why not 10G.

Question, Comments, Concerns? I await your roasting of purchasing a consumer router. ;)
Click to expand...
Recent reviews look horrible and my experience with TP LINK is not great. I wish there were better options in the consumer realm without having to build my own.
 
I got a BE900 for free (shipping mixup). I'd say it's just about worth that price.

I'm really hoping it gets openwrt support at some point.
 
kydsid said:
Still gotta add an AP for wifi. But I'd pay for that over TPlink Archer. and well i did exactly that Ive got Omada APs with the UCG
Click to expand...
I'm pretty happy with my openwrt flashed omada AP, especially since I can make multiple stations on each radio (have one for a/n wpa3 and one for b/g wpa2 on the 2.4g radio). Makes supporting legacy devices less of a pita. Eventually maybe I'll set up vlans and stuff, too.
 
kydsid said:
Still gotta add an AP for wifi. But I'd pay for that over TPlink Archer. and well i did exactly that Ive got Omada APs with the UCG
Click to expand...
That's not exactly an entirely true statement.

If you are willing to drop down one level on performance/product line, from the models that have 5Gbps of throughput (UCG-Fiber and UGX-Fiber) down to 2.5Gbps of throughput, Ubiquiti does sell an all-in-one Prosumer option: https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/all-cloud-gateways/products/udr7

And if you are willing to lose all the other Unifi services and just want a router/AP device, they have that as well: https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/cloud-gateways-wifi-integrated/products/ux7

Note that the latter product has roughly 30% less AP range than the UDR7 due to smaller internal antennas.
 
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Thanks for the replies and discussion.

My router (WIFI-4 standard) is on its last legs with a non-functional power switch. It's been nearly 18 months since my band-aid fix. I've been lucky but feel I'm on borrowed time. I have 5Gb/5Gb FTTH available so I don't want to buy a crap router now, then buy another router in a year or three when financial situation improves and I upgrade. Plus when niece and nephew visit with wireless laptops, phones, ipads they will have access to faster WIFI speeds.

Sigh. I guess I'll hold off for another 6 months and then you guys can talk me out of another router then. LOL.

Probably should just buy a cheap 1 Gb WAN w/ 4x 1 Gb LAN wifi 6 router then buy again in a few years.
 
If you want to take advantage of 5Gb FTTH, then you're going to have to pay up a little bit.

I really liked the GL.iNet Flint 2 when I had it, and I would probably buy the Flint 3 if I were looking for an all in one router and AP, but the WAN port might be limited to 2.5Gb. I haven't looked lately.
 
German Muscle said:
Keep in mind on these consumer/prosumer stuff that having a 10g port != 10g routing. Also for the few that can its only with intrusion detection and protection disabled.
Click to expand...
That is usually true.

The Ubiquiti UGX-Fiber that I have CAN do 10Gb inter-vlan routing, but since it only has x1 LAN 10Gb SFP+ port , you need to trunk the LAN port to a 10Gbp capable switch. The now sell a 10Gbe SFP+ RJ45 copper transciever for a resonable price now as well. I have mine connected to my 16 port Ubiquiti switch via 10Gb fiber.
The rated WAN to LAN speed with IDS and IDP enabled is 5Gbps for this model. If you disable those services along with content filtering and QOS it can get real close to 10Gbps WAN to LAN throughput. The only real test I've seen was a guy with a 7Gbps symetrical fiber optic connection to his ISP. But yes, with the same model I have he was able to route at at least 7Gbps to his 10Gb enabled desktop.
 
SamirD said:
1. You don't want a second router--you just need an access point. I'd pick up a used RT-68U and put it in AP mode since it works well for you.)
2. Wired > wireless always. I would use a pair of powerline adapters, but the newest av2000 ones as they will hit 200Mbs in me experience. If you want faster and have coaxial cable in your house, check out moca adapters.
3. Most good wireless systems consist of a router and dedicated access point units. By adding an access point to the end of the house, your set up will fall into that model. :)
Click to expand...
AP mode works pretty well on asus routers, so well in fact that I recycled them and instead bought gateway, switches, and access points when an electrician friend owed me a fairly large favor.
 
Wade88 said:
AP mode works pretty well on asus routers, so well in fact that I recycled them and instead bought gateway, switches, and access points when an electrician friend owed me a fairly large favor.
Click to expand...

Wade's post is almost identical to one I made several year ago.

With that said I'll comment

With UDP packets, wired > wireless.

Gen 3 Powerline AV2000 works fairly well but 60-100Mbit is more likely than 200Mbps and THATs IF you have both plugged into the same phase of wiring in the house and you have good quality wiring. If you plug into the same branch circuit, yeah you'll see 200Mbps and maybe more. I typically see +3-4ms over powerline networking. Perhaps if I was on the same circuit branch I'd have better latency?

The latest MoCA adapters are finally better than Powerline networking. They now make 1Gbit and 2.5Gbit MoCA adapters, now also keep in mind that MoCA acts more like a hub and not like a switch, so the bandwidth is shared between all of the adapters



The 2 worst mistakes people make with wifi are:
Turning up the AP power to get a stronger signal... Ideally your client should have nearly the same signal from the AP as your AP does from your client. "Symmetrical signal strength is the goal"
Increasing the channel width when there is interference or other APs broadcasting on the same or adjacent channel.
(The Why) Not understanding that you functionally need a 6db stronger client signal for every 20Mhz increase in channel width, or inversely, you need the interference to be 6db lower to not get packet drops or packet retries

I'd rather have a slower connection rate with Zero packet drops than a higher connection rate with 5% packet drop
 
Mackintire said:
Wade's post is almost identical to one I made several year ago.

With that said I'll comment

With UDP packets, wired > wireless.

Gen 3 Powerline AV2000 works fairly well but 60-100Mbit is more likely than 200Mbps and THATs IF you have both plugged into the same phase of wiring in the house and you have good quality wiring. If you plug into the same branch circuit, yeah you'll see 200Mbps and maybe more. I typically see +3-4ms over powerline networking. Perhaps if I was on the same circuit branch I'd have better latency?

The latest MoCA adapters are finally better than Powerline networking. They now make 1Gbit and 2.5Gbit MoCA adapters, now also keep in mind that MoCA acts more like a hub and not like a switch, so the bandwidth is shared between all of the adapters



The 2 worst mistakes people make with wifi are:
Turning up the AP power to get a stronger signal... Ideally your client should have nearly the same signal from the AP as your AP does from your client. "Symmetrical signal strength is the goal"
Increasing the channel width when there is interference or other APs broadcasting on the same or adjacent channel.
(The Why) Not understanding that you functionally need a 6db stronger client signal for every 20Mhz increase in channel width, or inversely, you need the interference to be 6db lower to not get packet drops or packet retries

I'd rather have a slower connection rate with Zero packet drops than a higher connection rate with 5% packet drop
Click to expand...
Yeah, 5% drop means more than 5% increase in transmissions to/from tcp clients, more latency, just overall worse experience.
 
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