Recommend me a new wireless router.

boyfalldown

boyfalldown

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Hugh
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I'm confused as to what to pick. Priorities are

Dual band (simultaneous)
Fast as possible
Range
Reliability


Meant to add cable broadband

Cheers

Hugh
 
Last edited:
I'm currently using an Asus RT-AC66U and have nothing to complain about....
The wireless range is sufficiently better than my previous Netgear router that I've turned off the access point I had in my workroom.
 
Obvious question is 'what's wrong with the router from your Broadband supplier' ?
 
boyfalldown said:
I'm confused as to what to pick. Priorities are

Dual band (simultaneous)
Fast as possible
Range
Reliability


Meant to add cable broadband

Cheers

Hugh
Click to expand...

I would just disable the Wireless on the Super Hub and buy a new Wireless Access Point.

The VM hub is fine in terms of throughput speed and mine has never been unreliable.
The built in AP however is not great so I just use two Cisco AP's off it (via a PoE switch), one at the front of the house and one at the back.
 
I had that years ago, it was the cordless house phone. I changed the channel on the router and that sorted it. The superhub 2 has two wireless frequencies 2.4 and 5Ghz. I got the new router when they sent out the Tivo box to replace the V+............didn't cost anything. I'd give them a call before spending any dosh
 
boyfalldown said:
I only have the 1 but have some serious issues with interference on the 2.4 gig channels (due to living in a very busy wifi area) and throughput
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Did you try installing something like Inssider?
It can show you which channel is best in your area. They even do an App, although its only for Android.

2,4Ghz is becoming more and more congested and as there are only three non overlapping channels, its only likely to get worse.
Most devices have dual band capability now so at home I have switched off the 2.4Ghz frequency and use 5Ghz, work much better :)
You need a decent Wireless AP to do this though, I am not sure if the consumer ones provide that ability.
 
noneforit said:
Did you try installing something like Inssider?
It can show you which channel is best in your area. They even do an App, although its only for Android.

2,4Ghz is becoming more and more congested and as there are only three non overlapping channels, its only likely to get worse.
Most devices have dual band capability now so at home I have switched off the 2.4Ghz frequency and use 5Ghz, work much better :)
You need a decent Wireless AP to do this though, I am not sure if the consumer ones provide that ability.
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Thanks - I'll try that. Interference on 2.4 ghz is a big issue round here. I can detect up to 12 other routers from my office
 
I have a TP link one with a bunch of devolo wifi powerline extender things. Works fine. The superhub 2 didn't play well with our office voip so needed to use it as a modem.
 
I'd suggest going for a ASUS RT-AC68U Wireless Router - AC1900.

This is dual band (2.4/5.0) and supports all the general wireless standards including AC.
The range is phenomenal compared to the likes of your Superhub, and speed does not drop off when your further than 3 feet away! It also is supported by DD-WRT if you want to customise it further.

Added bonuses are it has 4 gigabit Ethernet ports, and 2x USB ports (1x 3.0).

They claim 1300 Mbps on 5GHz, I've not seen speeds this fast but easily getting transfers well above 60 MB/s on my laptop/tablet two floors down.
 
I got a dlink one that looks like a cylinder. About £70 I think. Put superhub in modem mode and then it works reliably. The SH2 was still a donkey. I think it's had one reboot in the year I've had it. The SH needed constant attention. Complete junk!
 
I've recently upgraded to the ASUS RT-AC68U, couldn't be happier, running 12 - 14 devices through it at a time and the processor in the router is handling all with ease, lightning fast and great wireless coverage, way better than my Netgear WNDR 3700 (N600)
 
Oh I should have said. My vm superhub 2 and TP link router didn't work terribly well using virgins dns. I changed the dns to open dns and it has worked great since without any issues.
 
I have experience with the following 3 higher end consumer Wireless Routers.

Asus RT-AC68U
Netgear Nighthawk R7000- Has been superceeded- But i still own the R7000
Linksys EA 3500

All of which work very well for multiple streaming devices, high speeds data transfer, and low latency game streaming (I use Nvidia Shield devices for that, lag free in the LAN and great performance on the WAN)

I'd say the Asus is probably the highest performance out of the bunch, but all work great assuming you have a decent Wireless AC adaptor running on the 5GHZ network, although you may find you receive more range on a 2.4Ghz
 
noneforit said:
I would just disable the Wireless on the Super Hub and buy a new Wireless Access Point.

The VM hub is fine in terms of throughput speed and mine has never been unreliable.
The built in AP however is not great so I just use two Cisco AP's off it (via a PoE switch), one at the front of the house and one at the back.
Click to expand...
Coverage is reasonable, I don't have issues with the superhub 2. I have a Cisco ap in the log cabin covering the garden.
 
So what range do you need, have you mapped your existing coverage. Would it help to move your current location. We've ours high on a bookshelf in the middle of the house.
What sort of cost as the good ones will cost you.
There's some nice apps on phones etc that will map your wifi state.
If you need more than one, the I'd look at the unifi range. If you only want 2.4ghz the the unifi ap is £50 per access point. Comes with an app to control all the ones you add together, ap pros are about £150 each but have 120m range, 2.4ghz and 5ghz. Don't think about bridging, connect them wired to your internet connection.


All sorts of options but really it depends on your house plan, construction, requirements for coverage and budget.
 
If you want an all in one solution that's well featured and futureproof, go for fritzbox.

If you want to keep your existing router, have a look at Ubiquiti Unifi. They look nice, but they have Enterprise features at very affordable prices, currently from £60 on Amazon. N models have a feature called "zero handoff" which when you use multiple access points, automatically direct clients to use the access point that will give the best Wi-Fi experience. This feature doesn't quite work yet on the AC models but a firmware update should fix it. They work with POE switches, although an adapter maybe required. And if you have a smart switch, you can use VLANs to segregate traffic from different SSIDs. That means, when configured properly, guests can connect to your Wi-Fi and access the internet but not your internal network.
 
afasoas said:
If you want an all in one solution that's well featured and futureproof, go for fritzbox.

If you want to keep your existing router, have a look at Ubiquiti Unifi. They look nice, but they have Enterprise features at very affordable prices, currently from £60 on Amazon. N models have a feature called "zero handoff" which when you use multiple access points, automatically direct clients to use the access point that will give the best Wi-Fi experience. This feature doesn't quite work yet on the AC models but a firmware update should fix it. They work with POE switches, although an adapter maybe required. And if you have a smart switch, you can use VLANs to segregate traffic from different SSIDs. That means, when configured properly, guests can connect to your Wi-Fi and access the internet but not your internal network.
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Unless something has changed, they don't support standardised PoE, hence the need for the injector, or the Ubiquiti switch. Good AP's though.
 
Put the VM hub into modem mode and get a netgear. what issues are you having ? i have a superhub 2 and its great if set up correctly and your network adaptor is set up right too.
 
SAM-H-P said:
Put the VM hub into modem mode and get a netgear. what issues are you having ? i have a superhub 2 and its great if set up correctly and your network adaptor is set up right too.
Click to expand...

A Netgear? :nailbiting:

If you are going to spend money, get something decent.
Maybe I am just a snob as I work in IT Networking but Netgear is one of the worst brands in existence.

The VM superhub is fine as a router, its just the built in Wireless AP that seems to struggle.
Turn off the Wireless and hang a decent AP off one of the LAN ports.
 
I wouldn't be spending any dosh till I tried the Super Hub 2
 
I just use the VM superhub. Netgear is what I used to have. But I'm not a IT pro. Lol
 
Neilc28 said:
Unless something has changed, they don't support standardised PoE, hence the need for the injector, or the Ubiquiti switch. Good AP's though.
Click to expand...

Yup they do support standardised POE, just 802.3AT not the lower power 802.3AE, which usually comes in the cheaper poe switches. As I said in post #18, AP's are only 2.4Ghz, AP Pro are dual band but 3 times the price. Both happily handle zero handoff roaming and can be mixed and matched in the same network (as can all their models).

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/

But again, as I said in post #18, you cant make recommendations without knowing more details as it will it depends on the house plan, construction, requirements for coverage and budget.
 
Byker28i said:
Yup they do support standardised POE, just 802.3AT not the lower power 802.3AE, which usually comes in the cheaper poe switches. As I said in post #18, AP's are only 2.4Ghz, AP Pro are dual band but 3 times the price. Both happily handle zero handoff roaming and can be mixed and matched in the same network (as can all their models).

https://www.ubnt.com/unifi/unifi-ap/

But again, as I said in post #18, you cant make recommendations without knowing more details as it will it depends on the house plan, construction, requirements for coverage and budget.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the clarification, although as you mention PoE+ is required. The UAP, UAP-LR and UAP-PRO require the software controller though don't they? Which is no problem for people who have a 24/7 PC or server, but it's still something to bear in mind, and as I recall it is most definately required for the zero-handoff capability.
 
Software comes as free, includd with the device (or downloaded). You don't need it running the whole time as it writes the config to the AP's, you only need it to setup the AP's, including the zero handoff. Basically you just use the software to set up a wifi network with the AP's allocated to it. There's a few other neat bits like a map showing locations, monitoring alerting and reporting, but there more for the corporate or large environment. We've doen three in someones house though for full coverage, including garden...
 
This thread has become a networking analyst wet dream- I don't know whether the Op was looking to segregate out VLANS in his original request or look for POE, but IT guys do love to show off their skillz! ;-)

I'd not touch anything else except for Cisco Enterprise WAPS for enterprise level requirements. But then it should be plugged into enterprise networking gear/firewalls so your VLANS or whatnot actually tag the traffic past the WAP otherwise it's somewhat pointless. Not sure if a Cable modem is going to achieve that.

As always with Wireless it is such a subjective answer due to the different environmental variables. Lots of advice here, so hopefully you find what you're after!
 
rich_ said:
This thread has become a networking analyst wet dream- I don't know whether the Op was looking to segregate out VLANS in his original request or look for POE, but IT guys do love to show off their skillz! ;-)

I'd not touch anything else except for Cisco Enterprise WAPS for enterprise level requirements. But then it should be plugged into enterprise networking gear/firewalls so your VLANS or whatnot actually tag the traffic past the WAP otherwise it's somewhat pointless. Not sure if a Cable modem is going to achieve that.

As always with Wireless it is such a subjective answer due to the different environmental variables. Lots of advice here, so hopefully you find what you're after!
Click to expand...

As a Cisco guy, I struggled when I started my current job as they used Ruckus and I looked down my nose on it.
Now I have used it for 2 years, I actually quite like it and its on a part with Cisco (almost).

Like you said, its much of a muchness and for home use a £400 access point is overkill unless you don't have a budget.

I got my Cisco ones from work, they are not the latest models but do 802.11n and I just broadcast 5Ghz only, works like a dream.
 
Ruckus, Aerohive, Cisco all expensive for AP points and overkill for the home market, which is why some of us recommended the Ubiquiti AP at £50 each and expandable. It's not about willy waving at all but trying to suggest a solution and possible issues for the OP to look out for, positioning, construction, coverage required etc. Most of that could be covered by testing with the existing point unplugged from the network and coverage measured with a smart phone wifi app.
 
There's no sugar coating. Consumer grade routers are pants. They are often full of holes from a security perspective and even by my recent experience, can even be used by ISPs to force marketing on people.

It is possible with a little effort to build a much more secure home network. It just takes a small amount of expenditure and a little research.

Broadband suppliers 'free' modem/router in bridge mode, connected to the WAN port of a PfSense firewall, switch connected to LAN port with another 'free' modem/router as an access point. The firewall can take care of tagging traffic for use with something like an Ubiquiti Access Point. Most modern switches will retain the vlan tags in the TCP headers.

I have actually built two PfSense firewalls now, one set me back ~£40 and the other ~£120. It helps that I work in IT but the information required to use these things in their simplest configurations is out there and easy to find.
 
In my experience being an effective IT consultant is to recognise that non IT savvy people won't necessarily want to jump through tech hoops and research to achieve their simple goal orientated requirements (Goal- to receive fast secured network connectivity in a room further away)..

Sure, a C level exec who has a company with techs underpinning them can have a enterprise grade solution designed and delivered to securely connect them into a larger infrastructure, otherwise high end consumer grade WAPS can serve 99% of the population without any issue from a security and feature perspective! Our own perspectives of technology 'requirements' aren't always the same as the regular non tech-savvy user.
 
Byker28i said:
Ruckus, Aerohive, Cisco all expensive for AP points and overkill for the home market, which is why some of us recommended the Ubiquiti AP at £50 each and expandable. It's not about willy waving at all but trying to suggest a solution and possible issues for the OP to look out for, positioning, construction, coverage required etc. Most of that could be covered by testing with the existing point unplugged from the network and coverage measured with a smart phone wifi app.
Click to expand...

I guess Ubiquiti AP's may be ok for the home market but they are far from enterprise, last time I used the controller software I wanted to pull my hair out.

Personally I would be happy to spend £100 on a second hand Ruckus/Cisco AP than mess about with home devices but its down to the person.

Configuring a Ruckus AP is a doddle, even for someone who is not a massive techie, it's no different than changing the settings on a home type router.
 
rich_ said:
In my experience being an effective IT consultant is to recognise that non IT savvy people won't necessarily want to jump through tech hoops and research to achieve their simple goal orientated requirements (Goal- to receive fast secured network connectivity in a room further away)..

Sure, a C level exec who has a company with techs underpinning them can have a enterprise grade solution designed and delivered to securely connect them into a larger infrastructure, otherwise high end consumer grade WAPS can serve 99% of the population without any issue from a security and feature perspective! Our own perspectives of technology 'requirements' aren't always the same as the regular non tech-savvy user.
Click to expand...

It surprises me how many non-IT folk are interested in what it takes to create a more secure home network.
 
I'd go with TP Link personally - dual-band, quick, easy to setup, gigabit network ports on the back (if you need them) and reasonably priced. I've got one at home and it works for me. Replaced a Netgear router (the less said about that the better), which replaced the ISP provided router which died...
 
rich_ said:
This thread has become a networking analyst wet dream- I don't know whether the Op was looking to segregate out VLANS in his original request or look for POE, but IT guys do love to show off their skillz! ;-)

I'd not touch anything else except for Cisco Enterprise WAPS for enterprise level requirements. But then it should be plugged into enterprise networking gear/firewalls so your VLANS or whatnot actually tag the traffic past the WAP otherwise it's somewhat pointless. Not sure if a Cable modem is going to achieve that.

As always with Wireless it is such a subjective answer due to the different environmental variables. Lots of advice here, so hopefully you find what you're after!
Click to expand...
Oh I'm not so sure. Aruba networks is fantastic for enterprise wireless. Especially from a security and defensive mechanism perspective, both automatically and manually.

Nicely integrates with Cisco as well.

It does all seem to go unnecessarily far for the op request :)
 
noneforit said:
I guess Ubiquiti AP's may be ok for the home market but they are far from enterprise, last time I used the controller software I wanted to pull my hair out.

Personally I would be happy to spend £100 on a second hand Ruckus/Cisco AP than mess about with home devices but its down to the person.

Configuring a Ruckus AP is a doddle, even for someone who is not a massive techie, it's no different than changing the settings on a home type router.
Click to expand...
But what makes something enterprise? I mean from a security perspective the Ruckus aren't event CAPS approved, nor FIPS. From a security perspective they aren't any better than normal consumer grade devices.

For a home that may not matter, for many corporates it may not matter (should in my opinion) but if you want to protect your network properly you just wouldn't go there.
 
Wrong thread for this type of discussion really, but Airtights integration with ruckus is fantastic. So excellent air-quality combined with top-class WIPS.
 
Snapsh0t said:
I'm currently using an Asus RT-AC66U and have nothing to complain about....
The wireless range is sufficiently better than my previous Netgear router that I've turned off the access point I had in my workroom.
Click to expand...

Another vote for this one. Excellent range, very stable.
 
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