What's the best router for me?

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pwrmngr

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Feb 19, 2016
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I currently have 2 routers, ASUS RT-AC87U and a TP-Link Archer C7 V2. The ASUS I bought and 3 months later it started breaking down on me and ASUS would not ROE me a new one on warranty untill I sent the old one back. I explained its for a business and I am using the hard line as it only works and I can't send it back. They said send it back and we will try and fix it and send you a refurbished one in 6 weeks if we can't fix it. I was angered :)

I replaced it with the TP-Link and that worked great except for the USB 2/3 for 5TB drives. Support was good and sent me a firmware that would fix this but now, 5 months later it keeps dropping offline and cutting out.

I am looking at 2 routers with max distance and max hardware attached LAN and WI-FI. They are D-Link Ultra Performance Series Wireless AC3200 Tri-band Gigabit Router and the Amped Wireless Athena High Power AC2600 Wi-Fi Router RTA2600. I've read good and bad reviews on these. Can anyone give me insight on these OR point me in the direction of a GREAT wifi router that will last longer than 4 months?

Thanx and thanx for letting me join
 
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So I decided on the D-Link Ultra Performance Series Wireless AC3200 Tri-band Gigabit Router as per a friends recommendation. After spending $319 I got it home, opened the box and found out it had been opened before and had the "seal or guarantee". Hokked it all up, only using one of my external drive to test it out, 1TB,. All seemed to work great, configured the wifi and then did a speed test from my ISP connected direct at 1GB to my pc. I was unable to connect my D-Link Wi-Fi security cameras to the router, even know the everything is D-Link. I pay for 100Mbps and I tested at 56Mbps and 84Mbps. I was extremely dissapointed,

I connected my laptop and iPad 2 Air to the 5GHZ and barely scraped off 30Mbps. Decided to do a firmware...
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abailey

abailey

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Don't get caught up in the marketing hype of some of these routers. The problem with most of the "hi power", or "long distance" routers is that yes they may have a stronger signal, but that is only half of the communication. Your device (whether it be a laptop, tablet, phone, etc) has not increased its out put. So your device may be able to see the signal from the router further than before but it does not have enough power to talk back that distance to the router so you are no better off than a standard wireless router. There are a few cases where the router has larger or more sensitive antenna to pick up weaker signals. This can work well if you are out in the country all by yourself, but is can be a nightmare in the city where now your router catches all sorts of signal interference because its antenna are so sensitive. This makes your wifi even slower. Also, being on the leading edge of technology is not a good thing when you are looking for stability. Those devices simply have not been out long enough for all the bugs to be worked out. Even the Asus RT-AC87U is known to have issues. My recommendation would be to get an AC1900 class router. They are the best price/performance wise of what is available and stable right now. In that category I would recommend Asus or Netgear but many people have had luck with TP-Link. Personally I would stay away from D-Link.
An example of a good stable router would be the Asus RT-AC68U.
 
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pwrmngr

Commendable
Feb 19, 2016
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pwrmngr

Commendable
Feb 19, 2016
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Thanx for the fast response abailey. I have read good things about the Linksys and the Netgear. I also read amazing reviews on the current ASUS I have now and I wouldn't tell anyone to buy it as it is junk. Just at a loss of what to get. I have a 5000sq foot house and the ASUS used to cover it and eosnt now, the TP covers it but low signal.

argg LOL

Thanx
 
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abailey

abailey

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Yea and it may can send a signal that far but getting the return signal from the device is the problem. In fact many times these devices make it harder to figure out what the problem is. I purchased a Ubiquiti Long Range AP. I thought it was great as I was getting full bar signal on my devices where I was only getting one or two before. I could not understand why my devices still were not working. It threw me off as I looked elsewhere from problems thinking the wireless could not be the problem since I had such a strong signal. Then someone mentioned to me about the power of the actual device on the return signal. I ended up going back to a regular AP where at least I can get a truer picture of the signal strength for both send and receive.
 
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pwrmngr

Commendable
Feb 19, 2016
6
0
1,520
So I decided on the D-Link Ultra Performance Series Wireless AC3200 Tri-band Gigabit Router as per a friends recommendation. After spending $319 I got it home, opened the box and found out it had been opened before and had the "seal or guarantee". Hokked it all up, only using one of my external drive to test it out, 1TB,. All seemed to work great, configured the wifi and then did a speed test from my ISP connected direct at 1GB to my pc. I was unable to connect my D-Link Wi-Fi security cameras to the router, even know the everything is D-Link. I pay for 100Mbps and I tested at 56Mbps and 84Mbps. I was extremely dissapointed,

I connected my laptop and iPad 2 Air to the 5GHZ and barely scraped off 30Mbps. Decided to do a firmware update, as it said there was a new one. Updated the firmware and the router bricked. So it lasted 2.5 hours. Needless to say I was displeased.

Took the router back after reading on the Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router Model R8000 I was sold and purchased this for $370 with a 3 year extended warranty. Got it home, unboxed it, plugged it all in, including my 1TB and 5TB external drives into the USB 2.0/3.0 ports. The router found everything with amazing ease, and the ReadySHARE Vault by Netgear. It found all the external drives and did not have to configure samba or anything like that. All Drives were there, woohoo. I setup the D-Link camera's withing 5 minutes and works like a charm. Now the test comes, I did a speed test from my PC with the 1GB card and pulled a 141.60Mbps download, 41 over what I pay for. from my Acer Laptop connected at 300Mbps to the router I tested 129.97Mbps. Now comes the final test, the iPad Air 2 on the other side of a 5000sq foot house in the basement. I tested it from my ISP and got a 119.86Mbps. The winner by clear knockout is the Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router Model R8000. I didn't care about cost. The dashboard is AMAZING and there is no cons.

Thanx everyone for all the help.
 
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