The Router Recommendations Thread (Consumer)

Hi guys,

Im searching for an alternative to:
Cisco SRW2024

It should have:
from 12 to 24x Gigabit
2 SFP / SFP+
JumboFrame & Link Aggregation & Port Mirroring
Fanless

The thing is, this switch has a very loud fan and I use it in a quiet place, so it's the only high audible thing.
In addition to that, this switch doesn't work very well with nowadays browsers, and only works good with IE6
I am aiming for a 100-150$ equipment (possibly ebay)
Besides these problem this is a strong switch with hundreds of configurable things and nice throughput

If you can tell me some good options I have, I would be very thankful
 
I currently have a Netgear R6300 (newer AC model) and when i was maxing my download speed (50/10mbps from comcast) while downloading a game (warthunder) my router would stop working and the internet would go out. This is over wired, however both wired and wireless would stop working. I was downloading at approx. 6MBPS and it would just kill it. I hooked up my older netgear WNDR3700 and it did the same thing. Anyone have any rourter recommendations? I would think that the Netgear R6300 should be able to hand that speed easily.
 
p0lish said:
I currently have a Netgear R6300 (newer AC model) and when i was maxing my download speed (50/10mbps from comcast) while downloading a game (warthunder) my router would stop working and the internet would go out. This is over wired, however both wired and wireless would stop working. I was downloading at approx. 6MBPS and it would just kill it. I hooked up my older netgear WNDR3700 and it did the same thing. Anyone have any rourter recommendations? I would think that the Netgear R6300 should be able to hand that speed easily.
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I don't really know what I'm talking about but I think it has to do with more of you're saturating the connection.

I used to run into a similar thing so I implemented QoS on the router (have 3700rev2 using gargoyle OS) and use net-limiter to make sure my PC doesn't download over a certain speed.
 
Ya i thought about limiting it, but I thought the router should be able to handle that much speed. Thanks.
 
p0lish said:
Ya i thought about limiting it, but I thought the router should be able to handle that much speed. Thanks.
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I don't think it's just speed. I think it's also how many connections are being made to the router.
 
Dallows said:
I like it. My 3700 has been very stable and the added features and much improved QoS controls are great.
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sybreeder said:
+1 I switched to Gargoyle because of its great QoS. OpenVPN is also very simple to configure.
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Dallows said:
It really works too. I'm able to download stuff without affecting my GF's online gaming or mine even.
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I have a 3700v4 flashed to DDWRT. Did any of you guys upgrade from that? Would you recommend it?

I'm thinking of getting the next model up and I will be streaming Netflix, downloading, and gaming. Maybe all at the same time....
 
hity645 said:
I have a 3700v4 flashed to DDWRT. Did any of you guys upgrade from that? Would you recommend it?

I'm thinking of getting the next model up and I will be streaming Netflix, downloading, and gaming. Maybe all at the same time....
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I bet that router could handle it, and it would depend on your internet connection too.

I went from stock firmware to gargoyle.
 
In my opinion - yes

Regarding upgrading from ddwrt to openrt - i recommend to go back to stock and then flash openwrt gargoyle
 
Gargoyle disparately needs IPv6 support. I prefer Gargoyle over Luci or the cli in OpenWRT.
 
best gigabit+wireless SOHO router for the money? RB951G-2HnD

--Atheros AR9344 CPU, 600 Mhz
--128MB DDR2 onboard memory
--5 independent 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet ports
--802.11b/g/n @ 1watt (1000mw)
--no external antennae, they are built-in, so they can't break off

i buy my MikroTik stuff from Flytec Computers (currently sold out, but can be found elsewhere)...you can buy directly from routerboard.com, but if you don't order at least $1000 worth of stuff, there's an additional $50 processing fee.

i will never go back to a standard, off-the-shelf consumer-level router again after having dealt with MikroTik stuff for the past 6 - 8 years. almost infinite configurability, rock-solid stability (my personal RB493G was online for almost a year without any issues, and the only reason it wasn't up longer is because i had to unplug it to move it to another area of the house).

one of the main things that i like about MikroTik stuff is that the router doesn't have to reset itself (knocking everyone offline briefly), just for making a simple change like adding some port forwarding or something like that.

even with DD-WRT on most routers, when you make a change, then hit the "Save" button, it causes all network connections to stop until everything gets reloaded into memory.

there is a bit of a learning curve with RouterOS, but once you know how it works, you'll never wanna use DD-WRT again, much less any other stock firmware.....
 
xXaNaXx said:
best gigabit+wireless SOHO router for the money? RB951G-2HnD
--Atheros AR9344 CPU, 600 Mhz
--128MB DDR2 onboard memory
--5 independent 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet ports
--802.11b/g/n @ 1watt (1000mw)
--no external antennae, they are built-in, so they can't break off
Click to expand...

Do you know if this is noticeably better than the RB751 for a small household network consisting of 4 PCs, one file server and a couple of tables?
 
xXaNaXx said:
best gigabit+wireless SOHO router for the money? RB951G-2HnD

--Atheros AR9344 CPU, 600 Mhz
--128MB DDR2 onboard memory
--5 independent 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet ports
--802.11b/g/n @ 1watt (1000mw)
--no external antennae, they are built-in, so they can't break off
Click to expand...

Hmmm, wondering how this compares to a N66U, which is almost double it's price. Anybody know?
 
Lepard said:
Hmmm, wondering how this compares to a N66U, which is almost double it's price. Anybody know?
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RB951G-2HnD is lacking these features:
  • not dual band
  • doesn't have build in cloud (NSA Spy Services:D) services
  • doesn't do file sharing well (either does any other router, key word is well)
  • wifi isn't as fast
  • interface is a lot more complicated

so really the only thing you'll miss from the N66u is the slower wifi (150mbps max). That being said the RB951G-2HnD has a 1000mw transmit power and it shows. The wifi coverage and signal quality goes farther than any router I have ever used.

personally, i run 6 RB951G-2HnD's and they are rock solid and never mess up. They even have a hardware watch dog so they really take care of themselves.

All in all the RB951G-2HnD is a very very very good choice for anyone that isn't the average network user. They do everything from VPN to walled garden. There really isn't much that RouterOS can't do.
 
I got a TP-Link Archer C7 for $120 at microcenter last week and it did not work properly. I had to return it, now I wonder if I should get the AC1900 routers from Asus or Netgear? Smallnet builder has the Netgear R7000 as the better router.
 
If you want 11ac I'd say wait for rev2 hw by Atheros, you'll probably find consumer hardware after christmas I'd guess.
//Danne
 
What hardware / OS should i go with? The setup: several users who want to stream junk from client to client and from internet, torrent, and have crazy fast Lan speed for moving massive work files around. Right now a asus n-16 with ddwrt just can't handle the load. It locks up and needs a reset 2x/day. It's because it just can't handle the huge number of connections and runs out of resources... nothing to do with lack of bandwidth. Wireless isn't nearly as important as wired for this.

What should i be looking for? There are some good reccomendations here but it seems like i should maybe just pick the router with the absolute fastest cpu or something. Or would getting a router that supports like open-wrt be a better bet then dd-wrt?
 
I need pure power to cover some distance. At the most I will have 6 to 8 devices connected at any one time, but I need to reach a nearby house with enough bars to provide internet if not to stream TV.
I can just barely pick up the signal from any one of my half dozen units right now. Linsys, Netgear, all in the $49.00 to $89.00 range. Some run DD-WRT and I have tried boosting the output by steps all the way to the 251 max on one unit but see no gains after about 120mw.

Will the MikroTik with the 1 watt output make a significant difference. Thinking about the RB951G-2HnD

I don't care about features, I live in the woods and only the NSA could get close enough to snoop, which also means there is no nearby interference.
Anyone have any information from experience on the range? I need to go from one house, two walls, 250 ft. to a second house, maybe one wall, maybe two. As I said with an external Rosewill antenna stuck on the wall I can sometimes connect but not often and not with any speed.
 
narsbars said:
I need pure power to cover some distance. At the most I will have 6 to 8 devices connected at any one time, but I need to reach a nearby house with enough bars to provide internet if not to stream TV.
I can just barely pick up the signal from any one of my half dozen units right now. Linsys, Netgear, all in the $49.00 to $89.00 range. Some run DD-WRT and I have tried boosting the output by steps all the way to the 251 max on one unit but see no gains after about 120mw.

Will the MikroTik with the 1 watt output make a significant difference. Thinking about the RB951G-2HnD

I don't care about features, I live in the woods and only the NSA could get close enough to snoop, which also means there is no nearby interference.
Anyone have any information from experience on the range? I need to go from one house, two walls, 250 ft. to a second house, maybe one wall, maybe two. As I said with an external Rosewill antenna stuck on the wall I can sometimes connect but not often and not with any speed.
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Router transmit power doesn't do anything if the client doesn't have great transmit power too.

In other words if you want to cover outdoors, put an AP outdoors. If you want to cover another house set up a bridge with 2 AP's between the houses and then set up a WAP in the second house. Doing this with directional antenna's on the 5ghz range will get you great throughput between the to AP's, then the clients connect to the WAP in the second house. Mikrotik RouterOS is great at Point-to-Multipoint connections.
 
Educational. I had not considered the client side transmit power. Any chance you can whip out some crayons and give me a simplified start up? I don't need a step by step gamer type walkthrough but want to avoid the most obvious missteps. I hope to follow your directions and use my existing equipment.

I will start researching what you have given me, but have one question. Does transmit client power affect the received signal strength? I would think that I could get 5 bars but be unable to talk to the originating switch. Are the bars a measurement of round trip traffic?
 
Have any of you been working with 802.11ac routers/waps yet? I'm eyeballing the Nighthawk AC1900, and wondering if any of you have played with it yet.
 
Ruoh said:
Have any of you been working with 802.11ac routers/waps yet? I'm eyeballing the Nighthawk AC1900, and wondering if any of you have played with it yet.
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Looking at the Nighthawk as well. I had the TP link C7 Archer but became frustrated with all the issues and returned it.
 
I might order the r7000 tonight, I don't really need ac but my linksys e3000 is taking a dump, I have to restart it every couple days. I have the top lid off and I have a fan on it, otherwise the wireless craps out within hours with out the fan.

I prefer external antennas, they seem to have better range at my house, and might as well get an ac router to go along with my new retina macbook
 
munkle said:
I might order the r7000 tonight, I don't really need ac but my linksys e3000 is taking a dump, I have to restart it every couple days. I have the top lid off and I have a fan on it, otherwise the wireless craps out within hours with out the fan.

I prefer external antennas, they seem to have better range at my house, and might as well get an ac router to go along with my new retina macbook
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The R7000 does look like a monster. I am most interested in the wired performance, and the USB3 performance, although reliable wireless of any speed would be a step up from what I have now :p
 
Liggywuh said:
The R7000 does look like a monster. I am most interested in the wired performance, and the USB3 performance, although reliable wireless of any speed would be a step up from what I have now :p
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For me I am interested in how well it can handle transfer loads. I do a lot of in home streaming and I have a shit ton of devices, my DIR-825 starts to take a dump when I try to stream HD stuff to more than one device at a time and needs a reboot every week. Also interested in wireless signal strength.
 
Ordered the r7000 from amazon, ill let you all know how it goes, my e3000 2.4ghz has taken a dump it has terrible speeds now even after a reboot.
 
Got the r7000 today, this thing is huge! Like twice the size of my e3000. I can actually get my full internet speed on wireless now (only 50mbps, the e3000 couldn't do it). So far it seems to be going great. I'll keep you all updated.
 
I was getting ready to order a N66U. Glad I read this thread. I think I'll order the r7000 instead.
 
The r7000 has been going good so far, I had some issues with the 5ghz being slow, but I noticed it was on the exact same channel as my other 5ghz router so I changed channels. I'll let you know if there are any other issues, but its been great so far.
 
munkle said:
The r7000 has been going good so far, I had some issues with the 5ghz being slow, but I noticed it was on the exact same channel as my other 5ghz router so I changed channels. I'll let you know if there are any other issues, but its been great so far.
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Thats great. I am about ready to buy one, just waiting on black friday first before I do.
 
I purchased the AC68 from Asus and wow, what a great upgrade from that DLink DGL4500 pos. The coverage map for wifi is just silly now compared to that old thing. The setup is easy and performance is so much better. The bells and whistles are pretty nice too. It was kind of a toss up between this unit and the nighthawk. The nighthawk has faster cores and probably benches better, but some of these features on the ac68 are nice. Anyways, happy with my purchase.

Now, should I get rid of the DLink 8-port switches with something new?
 
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