The Router Recommendations Thread (Consumer)

Ordered me an Edgerouter lite for my home. I was planning to build a pfsense VM, but this looks like a better way to go. Lower watt usage too. I'll use my current E4200 v1 as my AP.
 
Got the ERL up and running (replaced my old E4200v1). So far no issues. The web gui is okay but I think pFsense is better imo. I like the CLI, its similar to junipers OS. Currently I'm doing nothing fancy on it. LAN and a WiFi LAN.

For ~$100, this little guy has a lot to offer!
 
I got a Mikrotik Routerboard RB2011UAS-2HND-IN.

Those crappy consumer routers don't even start to compare to this thing in terms of power and features. I'm now seeing very strong wireless signals in parts of the house that were once complete black holes.

This is a very serious piece of kit though. It's not going to give you much hand holding and it expects you to already know a fair bit about networking. Getting it up and running seemed really daunting at first, until I discovered that there is a quick set option called "Home AP" mode that automatically enables all the settings needed for regular home use and brings up a menu that should be familiar to anyone used to setting up consumer type routers. I thought this was a great feature to get the router up and running quickly before I started drilling into all the other features of the router.
 
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maw said:
I got a Mikrotik Routerboard RB2011UAS-2HND-IN.

Those crappy consumer routers don't even start to compare to this thing in terms of power and features. I'm now seeing very strong wireless signals in parts of the house that were once complete black holes.

This is a very serious piece of kit though. It's not going to give you much hand holding and it expects you to already know a fair bit about networking. Getting it up and running seemed really daunting at first, until I discovered that there is a quick set option called "Home AP" mode that automatically enables all the settings needed for regular home use and brings up a menu that should be familiar to anyone used to setting up consumer type routers. I thought this was a great feature to get the router up and running quickly before I started drilling into all the other features of the router.
Click to expand...

My netgear took a crap last night and I'm back to using my old reliable wrt54g. Pretty sure I know the answer that the router you've got is miles a head of it, but I need some hand-holding with networking. Do you think the home-ap mode you've described will get the job done? I don't need anything fancy, just basic settings, but I'm looking to cover a large area. TIA
 
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maw said:
I'm now seeing very strong wireless signals in parts of the house that were once complete black holes.
Click to expand...

Like I said a few pages back, when I went from a DGL4500 to an Asus AC68r I had the same experience. It was like I was living in the dark ages of wifi then was brought into the light. Before the upstairs (actually ground level) could get no wireless at all and definitely no wireless outside of the home from any angle. With the new router I get strong good wireless signal from every point inside the house and in the yard. I even get wireless signal walking the dog in the park across the street. So I don't think you have to buy a pro router, or even the Asus that I have, I just think some routers are shitty and you just don't know until you get a good one. I had been using the stupid DGL series from the start of them, 4100 or something, and wow, what blinders...
 
Bigolac said:
My netgear took a crap last night and I'm back to using my old reliable wrt54g. Pretty sure I know the answer that the router you've got is miles a head of it, but I need some hand-holding with networking. Do you think the home-ap mode you've described will get the job done? I don't need anything fancy, just basic settings, but I'm looking to cover a large area. TIA
Click to expand...

The Home AP mode screen should be easy to figure out if you know the basics of setting up a consumer router. You do familiar things like name your Wireless Network, configure wireless security type and password, enter a LAN IP Address, setup DHCP address range, etc. However, I would not recommend getting the Mikrotik 2011 if you don't plan on doing anything beyond the basics.
 
Bigolac said:
My netgear took a crap last night and I'm back to using my old reliable wrt54g. Pretty sure I know the answer that the router you've got is miles a head of it, but I need some hand-holding with networking. Do you think the home-ap mode you've described will get the job done? I don't need anything fancy, just basic settings, but I'm looking to cover a large area. TIA
Click to expand...

maw said:
The Home AP mode screen should be easy to figure out if you know the basics of setting up a consumer router. You do familiar things like name your Wireless Network, configure wireless security type and password, enter a LAN IP Address, setup DHCP address range, etc. However, I would not recommend getting the Mikrotik 2011 if you don't plan on doing anything beyond the basics.
Click to expand...

I found the following YouTube video extremely helpful. It's from ISP Supplies, the vendor of the router on Amazon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDefmf1ces

I did a few tweaks here and there, but this will give you a rock solid router/firewall. Granted, it is more in depth than "Home AP mode."
 
lord_farfig said:
I found the following YouTube video extremely helpful. It's from ISP Supplies, the vendor of the router on Amazon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDefmf1ces

I did a few tweaks here and there, but this will give you a rock solid router/firewall. Granted, it is more in depth than "Home AP mode."
Click to expand...

Yeah I watched that video after I got the router and took a some notes. There is a LOT of stuff the router can do, but if you are a RouterOS newbie like me, it means spending a lot of time pouring through the documentation or watching videos just to configure the most basic settings.

Fortunately, the Home AP Mode got me up and going with a functional router while I take time to learn more about RouterOS.
 
maw said:
The Home AP mode screen should be easy to figure out if you know the basics of setting up a consumer router. You do familiar things like name your Wireless Network, configure wireless security type and password, enter a LAN IP Address, setup DHCP address range, etc. However, I would not recommend getting the Mikrotik 2011 if you don't plan on doing anything beyond the basics.
Click to expand...

So what would you recommend?
 
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I wouldn't bother too much about the setup video. If you select Home-AP, 99% of the configurations will be done by default.

What I recommend is:
1) update RouterOS
2) update Routerboard firmware (most likely to be out of date but check first)
3) reset configurations (reason for this is newer versions of RouterOS have different defaults)
4) select "Home-AP" in quickset
5) personalize router do your desires in the quickset menu (Make sure DHCP and NAT are enabled)
 
maw said:
I got a Mikrotik Routerboard RB2011UAS-2HND-IN.

Those crappy consumer routers don't even start to compare to this thing in terms of power and features. I'm now seeing very strong wireless signals in parts of the house that were once complete black holes.

This is a very serious piece of kit though. It's not going to give you much hand holding and it expects you to already know a fair bit about networking. Getting it up and running seemed really daunting at first, until I discovered that there is a quick set option called "Home AP" mode that automatically enables all the settings needed for regular home use and brings up a menu that should be familiar to anyone used to setting up consumer type routers. I thought this was a great feature to get the router up and running quickly before I started drilling into all the other features of the router.
Click to expand...

If I get this router, what do you recommend to extend the range? I have a large house that has a unique layout due to additions (I bought it that way). So I know I'll need extensions, and I've pre wired cat5e to that location. So hardwire from main router to ap.

Currently I have 3 apple extremes that are doing the duty. I upgraded so that is the main, newest one and I had the other 2 so I used them (but only needed 2 points).
 
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Mackintire said:
Ubituiti Edgerouter lite is $99, but its in the same class as the Mikrotik router.

each have pro's and cons. For $99 the Edgerouter is the undisputed king of pushing packets around (routing). But as I said before the devil is in the details, you need to know what you're looking for.
Click to expand...

I'll add a vote for the Edgerouter Lite. I've been using one for my home network I'm I'm real happy. The thing is seriously fast and stable. They aren't lying about their "wire speed" claims.

Also the GUI is pretty good these days. I only got one recently so I had no experience with the older version GUIs but the current (1.4.1) GUI is pretty good. You can do pretty much anything you'd want from it. The CLI offers way more options, of course, and isn't too hard to learn, but you probably won't need it at this point. You can set up NAT (including port forwarding), firewall rules, UPnP, DHCP, and PPTP via the GUI.

It has become my go-to recommendation now for a good home router. It's not the bet thing EVAR or anything, but it is exceedingly solid, particularly for the price.
 
Liver said:
If I get this router, what do you recommend to extend the range? I have a large house that has a unique layout due to additions (I bought it that way). So I know I'll need extensions, and I've pre wired cat5e to that location. So hardwire from main router to ap.

Currently I have 3 apple extremes that are doing the duty. I upgraded so that is the main, newest one and I had the other 2 so I used them (but only needed 2 points).
Click to expand...

I would say try it without any range extenders first. You might be surprised at just how powerful the wireless is on the Mikrotik. I'm not sure how Apple Extreme's work, but I think range extenders should be able to work with any router.
 
I recently upgraded my router to a netgear wndr4500v2 so I could use game stream for my Nvidia Shield. It's works great upstairs on 5G but downstairs the 5G signal starts getting very spotty.. it works good at my couch in the living room which is a pretty straight shot up the stairs to where my router is.. but when I move to the den where I have a loungy chair the signal isn't great. I have a TP-LINK (the "500" one with a gig port) connecting my ent cent downstairs... would dropping a range extender (like a WN2500RP) onto the switch the TP-LINK is on downstairs be an easy fix? I read that the shield is fussy unless the repeater is connected to the local lan via ethernet also.
 
Repeaters cut bandwidth by half because of the half-duplex nature of WiFi.
 
Ahh yeah, good point. Maybe I could setup a second AP downstairs connected to the TP-LINK network? I'm going do some more testing with game stream in various spots before I buy anything.. the router itself is in just about the best spot it could be unless I hung it from the ceiling in the stairway hall.. but I might try moving it around a little in my office..

edit: I added a little shelf to the side of my desk and put the router on that so it's away from my monitor and closer to the door... made quite a large impact on 5G range. I get 5 bars in the den now and 4 on the couch in the livingroom. bingo!
 
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Ubiquiti EdgeMax router upcomming firmware version 1.5 adds hardware PPOE acceleration.

The metrics are coming back as 600% to 800% the performance.

I expect the release in the next 45 days.
 
Mackintire said:
Ubiquiti EdgeMax router upcomming firmware version 1.5 adds hardware PPOE acceleration.

The metrics are coming back as 600% to 800% the performance.

I expect the release in the next 45 days.
Click to expand...

What are the wireless options to add to this router since it looks like it is only an ethernet router?


Seriously looking into the Mikrotik, it looks really nice.
 
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Dang. I never knew how big the networking world was after Asus, Linksys, and Netgear was after reading only a few pages.

So anyways, question, I have two horrible routers one being a Linksys ea6500 and a TWC modem/router.

I live in a duplex-type house and can never get consistent signal from top floor to bottom (router is on top floor). What is the best router overall? Best bang for buck in terms of reliability, range, and speed? I have a 50/5 connection but can barely stream. Is it the ISP? Router used? Or modem? At times, I feel like it's a lot less which is why I saw the Edgerouter Lite with it's million packets per second seem enticing. I also were looking at both MicroTik routers (RB951G or RB2011UAS). My knowledge on networking/routers are limited, I only know the basics but, as anyone can, I'm willing to learn if needed
 
@ Champ

It's probably a combination of both router and TWC modem/router. Quick question to you have TWC modem/router in bridge mode? Also how many bars do you get downstairs, if any?
 
It says I get full bars downstairs, but, of course, I get no connection or VERY SLOW connection. When I start moving up, pages start loading faster.

I was thinking it was the modem, but TWC doesn't charge me for the modem/router. I was possibly thinking about buying my own modem and buying a decent router like the ones I listed, but I'd rather not if I don't need too. I'm also trying to attempt to make sure there isn't a lot of interference with my network because I live in student-housing and they're a lot of routers everywhere.
 
Champ said:
It says I get full bars downstairs, but, of course, I get no connection or VERY SLOW connection. When I start moving up, pages start loading faster.

I was thinking it was the modem, but TWC doesn't charge me for the modem/router. I was possibly thinking about buying my own modem and buying a decent router like the ones I listed, but I'd rather not if I don't need too. I'm also trying to attempt to make sure there isn't a lot of interference with my network because I live in student-housing and they're a lot of routers everywhere.
Click to expand...

Wireless take two to communicate. Just because you get full bars on the client does not mean that the AP see's full bars from its perspective.
 
Yeah understood. Problem is the same router 5 ft away would be slow even with 100/10 connection
 
need a new router with Windows and Mac OS X compatible printer sharing for my Brother DCP-J152W and also my Synology box.

should I just get the Asus AC68U and run stock firmware, or find something that runs tomato / open WRT / dd WRT?
 
I'm looking for a new router to use with a VPN service (private internet access). I'm currently running pfSense on an old PC. I've also got the Actiontec router that Verizon gave me for wireless that I have set up on one of the LAN ports. Wireless is of minimal importance as my whole house is hardwired. Wireless is only used with a laptop that sits in the family room.

I'm no whiz when it comes to networking so I need something that's relatively simple to configure with the VPN service. I've been wanting to get something a littlle more energy efficient to replace the pfSense setup. Right now I'm looking at the Mikrotik RB951G-2HnD or the Edgerouter Lite, but I'm open to suggestions. I'd like to keep the cost around $100 or less.

I can probably muddle my way through the basic setup on either of the aforementioned routers. My main concern is finding something that can be configured with the VPN service without me having to spend a lot of time figuring out how to run command line operations and such for something that will probably take 5-10 minutes to set up.
 
Your main concern would be computing power for the VPN, the best one around (for now) would be TP-Link TL-WDR4900.
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
Your main concern would be computing power for the VPN, the best one around (for now) would be TP-Link TL-WDR4900.
//Danne
Click to expand...

Sounds good except that it does not appear to be available in the U.S. unless I want to buy one from China on ebay. Is there something comparable that's available in the U.S. market?
 
Spades45 said:
need a new router with Windows and Mac OS X compatible printer sharing for my Brother DCP-J152W and also my Synology box.

should I just get the Asus AC68U and run stock firmware, or find something that runs tomato / open WRT / dd WRT?
Click to expand...

Get the Asus AC68U and run the merlin firmware. If you want more QOS features you can install tomato on it instead but will lose a little wireless performance in exchange.
 
Not really, the TL-WR1043ND v2 should be pretty good although it doesn't 5Ghz which the WDR3600 or WDR4300 does. It's the same CPU in the WDR boxes while the 1043 has a slightly faster one. Either way, you're looking at ~10-20mbit/s OpenVPN performace at best. The WDR4900 possible does around 30-ish.
//Danne
 
Mackintire said:
Get the Asus AC68U and run the merlin firmware. If you want more QOS features you can install tomato on it instead but will lose a little wireless performance in exchange.
Click to expand...

I would go with TP-Link TL-WDR3600 running OpenWRT trunk, rock solid :)
//Danne
 
diizzy said:
Your main concern would be computing power for the VPN, the best one around (for now) would be TP-Link TL-WDR4900.
//Danne
Click to expand...

I just picked one of these up on ebay from a seller in Germany for only $112.50 with free shipping. I suppose I'll need to get a different AC adapter for it to work in the states. Does anyone know of a good source for an inexpensive adapter for this router? I saw one listed on ebay but it's about $20 with shipping.
 
You _probably_ only need a plug converter, my WDR3600's (EU model) PSU supports 100-240V.
//Danne
 
I can't decide between TL-WDR3500 (10/100 Mbps), TL-WDR3600 (gigabit), TL-WDR4300 (gigabit w/ 3 antennas instead of 2; 5 Ghz is 450 mbps instead of 300 mbps).

We're upgrading to a 50 mbps plan. My brother connects via wifi and is about 25 ft away; his PC is on the second floor and the router is on the first floor).
 
diizzy said:
Your main concern would be computing power for the VPN, the best one around (for now) would be TP-Link TL-WDR4900.
//Danne
Click to expand...
I just received the one I bought on ebay and it was from a seller in South Africa, not Germany, as I originally indicated. He sent me some Chinese brand (Tenda) that looks nothing like the WDR4900 so I'm seeing about sending it back. What's the best gigabit router for use with a VPN service that I can purchase from the U.S.? I don't want to deal with international sellers. I don't care all that much about wireless as my whole house is hardwired for gigabit ethernet.
 
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