Looking for low cost AC router

ikissfutebol · Jul 11, 2014

I currently have the Medialink N router with rave reviews that was sitting as the top seller on Amazon for months and month after I purchased it. Unfortunately, it's a piece of junk. I had an issue with connectivity dropping and at least resolved it by reserving/assigning IP addresses for my various devices. Even prior to moving to a house from an apartment, I was ready to replace it because the range on it wasn't wonderful. Then comes the fact it just snuffs out my speed. I currently have 15 meg internet and would be shocked if I get much more than 2-4 down on average (1.8 on my current check). Yes, I am in the basement, but the router is literally right above my head through the floor.

For what it is worth, I had never heard of Medialink at all and still bought their router simply based on Amazon reviews. I'm looking to spend as close to $100 or less for an AC router. I'm not concerned so much with having some crazy theoretical throughput or tons of features- the standard ones plus perhaps 1 guest network, but even the guest network isn't a deal breaker. My main concerns are being very reliable, having the signal strength to reach all parts of my new house and being able to handle multiple devices streaming/downloading at the same time. I don't think the Medialink router literally has the hardware to properly handle that much data routing, being that it is a very budget device.

I've read some of the reviews on Amazon, Newegg, and Microcenter (I have a location within driving distance). I had never heard of TP-Link prior to starting my search several months ago, but at least it seems to be a lot more reputable than Medialink. I am looking at either the TP-Link Archer C7 or Asus RT-AC56U. I'm open to other brands or models so long as they have the signal strength (two story house + basement, ~1800 sq ft. and router on main floor) and routing capabilities for my needs. I realize it isn't necessarily a complete apples to apples comparison between these two models, but I would like something that I can buy now and not have to really worry about replacing any time soon.

Any and all advice would be very much appreciated! We have two streaming boxes, two computers, a tablet, and two smartphones, all of which could be in use and half of the streaming things at the same time!

Thanks

abailey · Jul 11, 2014

I think both the TP-Link Archer C7 and the Asus RT-AC56U are solid routers. I don't know about your Medialink but I can say that many things other then the fault of the wireless router can be your problem. If your using the 2.4Ghz wireless band you could be getting alot of interference. If your using 5Ghz then it does not do well going through floors and walls. Also wireless routers and AP's have much better range on the horizontal plane than the vertical plane. So if you are above or below the router it is not going to perform as well. The best thing for a multilevel house is to have more than one wireless AP located on different floors. Then if you can use the 5Ghz band that is best. If you have to use the 2.4Ghz band make sure you set your router to either channel 1, 6, or 11. With channels 1 and 11 being the least likely to have interference. Streaming wirelessly is also a challenge, especially for a single AP. Consider the following:
Think of wireless Ethernet like a CB radio (or walkie-talkie). Only one person can talk at a time and you can only talk or listen at one time but not both. That is exactly how wireless network radios work. So if you have 5 devices in your house using your wireless that is like having 5 people using CB radio's together. Only one person can talk at a time. Lets say your neighbors also use CB radios. Lets say they use the same channel as your CB radio's. Lets say they also have 5 people talking. Now you can only talk when the other 9 people are not talking. This is how you get interference from your neighbors on WIFI networks if they are on the same channel. Now your Wifi is encrypted so your neighbors can't get your data. So for the CB analogy, lets say your neighbors use a language you cannot understand and you use one they can't understand. So your conversations are still private but you have to share CB airtime with them because they are on the same channel.

All of this to say you will be better off with two or three AP's in your house rather than purchasing one to do it all. Purchasing one, even a nice expensive one, will probably not produce the results you are looking for.

ikissfutebol · Jul 12, 2014

Thanks for your response. I have my Medialink set to channel 1. I guess I should have been more specific- my old apartment was a single floor. My desktop was ~20-30 feet away with 2, maybe three walls (dry wall/plasterboard) and I would often see only 2 signal bars. I currently get a full 5 bars directly below in the basement. I haven't checked on my desktop since moving, but I know I was connecting in my apartment at only 5.5 meg to the router (according to Windows). Transferring data from my desktop to my wife's laptop was moving about 300-600 K... a far cry from even 802.11b speeds. Even connecting both with the router via Ethernet and disabling wireless gave NO difference! That's why I think it is probably that the Medialink is severely unpowered. There will be times when I'm streaming something in the same room (and only one streaming) as my current router and HD video from a YouTube or VEVO will be very grainy and then randomly get HD crisp and back to grainy.

I guess my main thing is trying to wade through paid or highly bias reviews (like on CNET) and trying to figure out if a reviewer on Amazon/Newegg is being unrealistic with expectations, reviewing shortly after opening, etc.

bill001g · Jul 12, 2014

If you connect both devices to the router via ethernet and you still have issues I would be suspect of one of the end machines. When you do this it is the same as connecting via a dumb switch. Almost all routers can transfer data at the full port speed of 100m or 1g if that is what the router has.

The 5.5m connect rate is a very telling number. This means you are connecting using 802.11b. It likely means you have a 802.11b nic card in your device. It is highly unlikely any 802.11n or 802.11g nic card would ever choose to connect at that rate. Most times you will see them connect at 6 or 7.2m as the minimum. I would set the router to disable the support for 802.11g and 802.11b cards if all your devices are 802.11n. This should increase your performance.

If you are actually running 802.11b as the data encoding protocol I could easily see you only get 600k throughput. Even 802.11n devices that claim 450m many times gets well under 100m.

To use 802.11ac you will need to also replace all the nic cards in your end devices. They too must be 802.11ac to actually use the feature. If you have older cards you are wasting your money on features you won't use. If you take a old 802.11b card and connect it to 802.11ac router it will likely still connect at 5.5m or whatever.

It is almost impossible to tell how a router will perform in a particular house that is why reviews are all over the place. It also greatly depends on the end device you are testing with since they are half the equation so someone would have to have exactly the same mix of devices you have.

The key factor is there are only a couple of major chipset manufactures that make the radios and processors for routers. All device with a similar chip should have about the same performance.....other than some very cheap unknown brands who skimp on antennas design and such.

You can find what parts are used on a site wikidevi.com, most this data is extracted from the FCC filings. A site that attempts to compare routers is called www.smallnetbuilder.com. Even they warn to not compare their results with other sites and not compare results even within their tables that use different testing methods.

ikissfutebol · Jul 13, 2014

bill001g :

Thank you for this website! I've been looking for a place that has this kind of information. I'm not entirely sure what I am going to pick yet, but I feel like I can make a much better decision.

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