General : Routers for modem mode on a budget

[Harryn9000]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

D-Link DIR-890L/R AC3200 Ultra Wi-Fi Router - looks like a replicator from Stargate SG1






NETGEAR R8000 Nighthawk X6 Tri-Band WiFi Router - looks like one of the nanobots the Doctor developed in Star Trek Voyager to attack species 8472






ASUS RT-AC3200 Tri-Band Wireless Gigabit Router - looks like the router is trying to assimilate the house with Borg assimilation tubules







I hope so for your sake. I love it when you can get great stuff which doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Everyone loves to take the **** out of me for being a Linksys fan boy but that is because I started out 15 years ago with a Linksys/Cisco router which was great at the time and I never looked back. As technology has moved on over the last 15 years I updated my routers to keep up with the wireless and wan to lan throughput as I have always been on VM's highest tier. I have always had Linksys routers and each one has worked flawlessly and I have never had any dodgy lockups and needed to reboot. I have got a semi-demanding network in the house and I stream an awful lot of stuff between two nas servers and the tvs and we stream a lot of youtube content to the tv downstairs. I have got a networked laser printer in one room, Sky boxes in other rooms where we watch a lot of on demand stuff and that is without all the wireless from the tablets and phones. When you do a lot of stuff which all revolves potentially one device (your main router) then you want something which has great wireless, great performance, great reliability and you know it isn't going to let you down.
Each one of my Linksys routers has ticked those boxes over the years and until they do something to screw it up I'll continue buying Linksys routers out of brand loyalty. I see too many people come on this forum complaining about wireless speed, wireless range, wan to lan throughput, routers locking up and loads of other stuff (way too many dns issues), all of which can and could be avoided if they just brought a decent router.
The EA6300 does about 800mbits want to lan and then you have got ac wireless as well. I think it will be a perfectly solid router for you with ample future proofing.

I have dug out my trusty network diagram so you can see how important it is to have something which you can rely on and that you know is going to work:




I feel like a right spoon, having just looked at my diagram I have noticed that I have got a 6300 myself. It is setup as a switch and wireless access point atm. I bought it last summer because I needed to use it as a print server because the laser printer I had at the time was usb only but it has since been replaced with a proper network printer. Mine was £75 when I bought it in May last year so I think £50 is a very reasonable price for something which is very very good.

Just don't want to waste my money and not work like I need it to I just need to get ac adapter for my desktop but I'll wait for that thanks for your help much appreciated it

I have a large ground to cover 150m x100m, every room has been cat-6a wired, one archer c7 running the show another 2 acting as APs + the superhub 2ac acting as a switch/AP (all spread around). I have 8 wired-servers (Ubuntu/windows), 6 laptops, 6 phones (wife, kids and their girlfriends) running with no hitch. I can acestream HD over 5G with no buffering.
I can get these results on 5G



and on 2.4G



and wired



I tried an ASUS 68U, a solid performer but I got 3 C7's doing a better job for less money than the ASUS.

I have no brand loyalty... I am curious to hear what problems you have wth the C7.

[General Maximus]

Originally Posted by Carlos Carboni

I have no brand loyalty... I am curious to hear what problems you have wth the C7.

I don't know whether that was meant for me or Igni but I generally have a phobia about being cheap. You can tell me something is the best thing in the whole world and kicks ass over it's rivals but if you then tell me it is half the price, I won't have it. I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for and I appreciate that everyone has a budget but the way I look at it is that my main router arguably gets used more that anything else in my house so on the rare occasion that it gets replaced, I want it replaced with something very very good which I know is going to work and I know I am not going to have any problems with given how much our lives are going to depend on it (plus all the other reasons I mentioned above).

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I don't know whether that was meant for me or Igni but I generally have a phobia about being cheap. You can tell me something is the best thing in the whole world and kicks ass over it's rivals but if you then tell me it is half the price, I won't have it. I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for and I appreciate that everyone has a budget but the way I look at it is that my main router arguably gets used more that anything else in my house so on the rare occasion that it gets replaced, I want it replaced with something very very good which I know is going to work and I know I am not going to have any problems with given how much our lives are going to depend on it (plus all the other reasons I mentioned above).

I see your point but I bought the C7 on the grounds of the tests and the benchmarks. Also, it happened to find it dead cheap at Argos of all places. The OP poster said his budget was 50, but now the price of c7 is circa of 80 quid so...

The question was for igni's c7....

Also I am puzzled about this post of yours. Don't you mean

[General Maximus]

nope, I was winding Qas up, he has a thing for Cisco for some reason and I love to tease him about it.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by General Maximus

I don't know whether that was meant for me or Igni but I generally have a phobia about being cheap.

He says while seeding 31 torrents.

My C7's WiFi has never been quite right. Range has always been disappointing, speeds have always been disappointing.

I don't have a datacentre at home, I don't even have a NAS just a single Microserver, we just have the basics so don't need anything special, but two 5GHz bands would be useful so that I can dedicate one to wireless bridge duty.

[thenry]

Could you possibly have a dud?

[Eeeps]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

My C7's WiFi has never been quite right. Range has always been disappointing, speeds have always been disappointing.

Which hardware version do you have Igni? The only problem I've seen with my v2 C7 was on the 5GHz band when placed right next to an active WiiU.

I find the 5Ghz range really quite good and all of our 5Ghz capable devices are now on that band.

[thenry]

theres 1 left OP

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by thenry

theres 1 left OP

You're not the seller are you thenry ?

[thenry]

no. the op is after one.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Eeeps

The only problem I've seen with my v2 C7

Hmm good point, the wireless hardware was changed between the V1 and the V2

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Eeeps

Which hardware version do you have Igni? The only problem I've seen with my v2 C7 was on the 5GHz band when placed right next to an active WiiU.

I find the 5Ghz range really quite good and all of our 5Ghz capable devices are now on that band.

It's a version 2.

Maybe my expectations of WiFi range are unrealistic.

I am on the floor directly above the router, this is the current 5GHz performance:

[Kushan]

I think the performance of either frequency also depends on the material it's passing through?

[Ignitionnet]

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/asus-rt-ac5300u-router/