Looking for router

[swill]

I know a few people are always keeping an eye open for deals. Thank you missalaire.

I am looking for a high quality wireless router to replace my current one. If you guys see any good deals in your searching, I would appreciate the help.  I know this is not the way this usually goes down in this subforum, but with black Friday coming up and such, I thought I could potentially get some help with my search.

Thank you friends... 

[rm-rf]

heya! save yourself some money
buy a used router that is supported by this...

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

goodwill or similar places usually have them for 5$
its a game changer!
definitely worth looking into.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F

[asdfjkl36]

What's your current router?
So there is a point of reference on what would be better

[swill]

What's your current router?
So there is a point of reference on what would be better

I currently have a dlink dir-628. Its about a $100 router (or was when I bought it a few years ago). I have 3 or 4 routers here and they all suck. I have one or two linksys routers as well.

I am expecting to be buying a router in the $200 range. Well, I want to get a $200 router for about $100 ideally.

My issues with this router is that it drops WiFi connection way too often. It is getting worse and is getting really annoying. I end up resetting it every day or two.

[swill]

heya! save yourself some money
buy a used router that is supported by this...

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

goodwill or similar places usually have them for 5$
its a game changer!
definitely worth looking into.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F

I will check it out. I basically just flash a new firmware?  Should I be expecting connection flakiness to go away with this?

[njbair]

heya! save yourself some money
buy a used router that is supported by this...

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

goodwill or similar places usually have them for 5$
its a game changer!
definitely worth looking into.

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F

Maybe check to see if any of your existing routers are compatible, then give it a try on that before spending more money.

Personally, I gave up on DD-WRT because support was too flaky, and just bought a Netgear Nighthawk. The 5GHz band works much better in my area. But the real difference came when I rewired my house to put all the networking gear in a high shelf in the central hall closet. There's an electrical outlet in the ceiling and everything. And because it's up high and central, I get 4 or 5 bars everywhere in the house.

[swill]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

[njbair]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

That's a unique feature. Was it formerly a duplex or something?

[heedpantsnow]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

That's a unique feature. Was it formerly a duplex or something?

Prison?  Castle?  Prison in a castle?

[user 18]

My dad runs (or ran, I can't keep track of what he does anymore) a dir-628 with dd-wrt at his place.

He says he noticed an improvement from the original firmware, but issues didn't go away entirely.

[Snowdog993]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

One idea that comes to mind is having your router on one side, and a repeater on the other side.  I have done that successfully before.  Right now I am just using a TP-Link Wireless Router TL-WDR4300.  You would need a switch to do this.  You run a network cable to a gigabit switch on the other side of the wall.
Attach the repeater to the switch!  Viola!  Solid wireless on both sides of the house!

[swill]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

That's a unique feature. Was it formerly a duplex or something?

Prison?  Castle?  Prison in a castle?

Haha. No, a small stone house from the 1940s with an extension.

[swill]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

One idea that comes to mind is having your router on one side, and a repeater on the other side.  I have done that successfully before.  Right now I am just using a TP-Link Wireless Router TL-WDR4300.  You would need a switch to do this.  You run a network cable to a gigabit switch on the other side of the wall.
Attach the repeater to the switch!  Viola!  Solid wireless on both sides of the house!

Ya. I was thinking of doing this, but I don't have much of an issue with signal.

[Melvang]

I just bought a Linksys WRT1900AC.  I got it on sale at Best Buy for $205.  the WIFI signal reaches out to the garage even with the router below grade.

[Snowdog993]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

One idea that comes to mind is having your router on one side, and a repeater on the other side.  I have done that successfully before.  Right now I am just using a TP-Link Wireless Router TL-WDR4300.  You would need a switch to do this.  You run a network cable to a gigabit switch on the other side of the wall.
Attach the repeater to the switch!  Viola!  Solid wireless on both sides of the house!

Ya. I was thinking of doing this, but I don't have much of an issue with signal.

Then why in the world did you mention this?  I was actually trying to be helpful.

[swill]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

One idea that comes to mind is having your router on one side, and a repeater on the other side.  I have done that successfully before.  Right now I am just using a TP-Link Wireless Router TL-WDR4300.  You would need a switch to do this.  You run a network cable to a gigabit switch on the other side of the wall.
Attach the repeater to the switch!  Viola!  Solid wireless on both sides of the house!

Ya. I was thinking of doing this, but I don't have much of an issue with signal.

Then why in the world did you mention this?  I was actually trying to be helpful.

I don't have a problem of the signal dropping, I have a problem of the connection dropping even with full signal bars.

However, it is not the modem connection because the same router serving a wired connection does not drop.

[Snowdog993]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

One idea that comes to mind is having your router on one side, and a repeater on the other side.  I have done that successfully before.  Right now I am just using a TP-Link Wireless Router TL-WDR4300.  You would need a switch to do this.  You run a network cable to a gigabit switch on the other side of the wall.
Attach the repeater to the switch!  Viola!  Solid wireless on both sides of the house!

Ya. I was thinking of doing this, but I don't have much of an issue with signal.

Then why in the world did you mention this?  I was actually trying to be helpful.

I don't have a problem of the signal dropping, I have a problem of the connection dropping even with full signal bars.

However, it is not the modem connection because the same router serving a wired connection does not drop.

Okay.  Good luck with whatever you do.

[swill]

Ya. I have mine in as good a location as I can have it in my house. I have a 2 foot thick stone wall that splits my house in half. I have it at a doorway in this wall, but it can't be helping my situation.

One idea that comes to mind is having your router on one side, and a repeater on the other side.  I have done that successfully before.  Right now I am just using a TP-Link Wireless Router TL-WDR4300.  You would need a switch to do this.  You run a network cable to a gigabit switch on the other side of the wall.
Attach the repeater to the switch!  Viola!  Solid wireless on both sides of the house!

Ya. I was thinking of doing this, but I don't have much of an issue with signal.

Then why in the world did you mention this?  I was actually trying to be helpful.

I don't have a problem of the signal dropping, I have a problem of the connection dropping even with full signal bars.

However, it is not the modem connection because the same router serving a wired connection does not drop.

Okay.  Good luck with whatever you do.

Thanks.  I appreciate the ideas and support.

[Snowdog993]

Thanks.  I appreciate the ideas and support.

Here is another idea.  Maybe a visual will help.

[SamirD]

Weird problem, especially with full signal.  Have you tried changing channels or frequency (if that's possible).

Something like that is most likely from some sort of interference, so I don't think a newer router would necessarily change anything.  But here's a thought--get a cheap access point and connect it to your existing router in the exact same spot where your current router is (your signal should be about the same).  Make sure this ssid is different and then you can try both and see if the second one drops too.  If so, then you'll have to isolate the interference or go wired (powerline adapters would work well for this problem).

I have to manage all sorts of networks in addition to all the other hats I wear, so feel free to pick my brain.   

[TalkingTree]

buy a used router that is supported by this...

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

Or this.

[heedpantsnow]

I've had a few routers "go bad" over the years and this is the typical MO. You have full signal but no internet or dns fails or you "can't connect to this network".

One option is to separate out your components (wireless, switching, and routing), which IMHO gives you more performance and reliability. You can even possibly extend your router's usability by offloading the wireless duties to a dedicated AP. I've done this with a Ubiquiti UniFi and I love the reliability and performance.

If you just want a new router, I pretty much tell people to buy whatever thewirecutter.com recommends.

Edit: also I've run dd-wrt on two routers and never had any reliability issues. But both of them were original WRT-54G's so having the original hardware it was written for could make a difference.

With the features I've found in today's routers I don't think it is as useful as it used to be.

[swill]

I've had a few routers "go bad" over the years and this is the typical MO. You have full signal but no internet or dns fails or you "can't connect to this network".

One option is to separate out your components (wireless, switching, and routing), which IMHO gives you more performance and reliability. You can even possibly extend your router's usability by offloading the wireless duties to a dedicated AP. I've done this with a Ubiquiti UniFi and I love the reliability and performance.

If you just want a new router, I pretty much tell people to buy whatever thewirecutter.com recommends.

Edit: also I've run dd-wrt on two routers and never had any reliability issues. But both of them were original WRT-54G's so having the original hardware it was written for could make a difference.

With the features I've found in today's routers I don't think it is as useful as it used to be.

This is some helpful advice.  Thanks... 

If my router has 'gone bad' in this way.  Is the router salvageable (get rid of this problem) by flashing new firmware or something like that, or is this more likely a hardware issue at this point?

I love your idea of a dedicated AP for wireless, that is a good idea.

[Homenubbie]

I just bought a Linksys WRT1900AC.  I got it on sale at Best Buy for $205.  the WIFI signal reaches out to the garage even with the router below grade.

The NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1750 has an amazing signal.

[heedpantsnow]

I've had a few routers "go bad" over the years and this is the typical MO. You have full signal but no internet or dns fails or you "can't connect to this network".

One option is to separate out your components (wireless, switching, and routing), which IMHO gives you more performance and reliability. You can even possibly extend your router's usability by offloading the wireless duties to a dedicated AP. I've done this with a Ubiquiti UniFi and I love the reliability and performance.

If you just want a new router, I pretty much tell people to buy whatever thewirecutter.com recommends.

Edit: also I've run dd-wrt on two routers and never had any reliability issues. But both of them were original WRT-54G's so having the original hardware it was written for could make a difference.

With the features I've found in today's routers I don't think it is as useful as it used to be.

This is some helpful advice.  Thanks... 

If my router has 'gone bad' in this way.  Is the router salvageable (get rid of this problem) by flashing new firmware or something like that, or is this more likely a hardware issue at this point?

I love your idea of a dedicated AP for wireless, that is a good idea.

I tried reflashing, holding down buttons to clear ram, etc.  All are temporary fixes when it starts doing this.

My router was unusable in December; it was routing, switching, and doing wireless.  In February we moved into the new house and I bought the UniFi from ebay for $45 shipped and a $25 unmanaged name brand switch from NewEgg.  Reducing the load on the router gave it a new lease on life and only now is it starting to have intermittent issues again.  So that bought me about 9 months, but not forever.

I've found that anything you can do to reduce the processing the router has to perform can help.  So disable QoS, traffic shaping, etc.  Lower the power output if you can and lower the encryption if you can (I can't b/c of my home network).

Any of those will buy you a bit of time, but you'll eventually have to get a new router.

Edit: Here is the post of what I ended up with; you can look through that thread from last January when I was thinking through my setup.
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67841.msg1658413#msg1658413

[Snowdog993]

I've had a few routers "go bad" over the years and this is the typical MO. You have full signal but no internet or dns fails or you "can't connect to this network".

One option is to separate out your components (wireless, switching, and routing), which IMHO gives you more performance and reliability. You can even possibly extend your router's usability by offloading the wireless duties to a dedicated AP. I've done this with a Ubiquiti UniFi and I love the reliability and performance.

If you just want a new router, I pretty much tell people to buy whatever thewirecutter.com recommends.

Edit: also I've run dd-wrt on two routers and never had any reliability issues. But both of them were original WRT-54G's so having the original hardware it was written for could make a difference.

With the features I've found in today's routers I don't think it is as useful as it used to be.

This is some helpful advice.  Thanks... 

If my router has 'gone bad' in this way.  Is the router salvageable (get rid of this problem) by flashing new firmware or something like that, or is this more likely a hardware issue at this point?

I love your idea of a dedicated AP for wireless, that is a good idea.

I tried reflashing, holding down buttons to clear ram, etc.  All are temporary fixes when it starts doing this.

My router was unusable in December; it was routing, switching, and doing wireless.  In February we moved into the new house and I bought the UniFi from ebay for $45 shipped and a $25 unmanaged name brand switch from NewEgg.  Reducing the load on the router gave it a new lease on life and only now is it starting to have intermittent issues again.  So that bought me about 9 months, but not forever.

I've found that anything you can do to reduce the processing the router has to perform can help.  So disable QoS, traffic shaping, etc.  Lower the power output if you can and lower the encryption if you can (I can't b/c of my home network).

Any of those will buy you a bit of time, but you'll eventually have to get a new router.

Edit: Here is the post of what I ended up with; you can look through that thread from last January when I was thinking through my setup.
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=67841.msg1658413#msg1658413

A wired connection is always better than any wireless connection.  If you must go wireless, the wireless bridge setup is really a good way to go.  You can always add a repeater on the bridged side.  (Which is what I have done, but didn't show in the diagram.)  This lets the main router do it's job, and allows the repeater to carry the signal to where there is little to no signal.
I'll just kick back and enjoy the conversation from here.

[swill]

Thanks again.  I turned off Traffic Shaping (which also turns of QoS).  I left on the firewall features because I can't really expect much security on the different devices in the house.

Why did you add a dedicated switch behind the router and not let the router do the switching too?  Are you doing any sort of interesting switching in your home network or is there a more general benefit in doing this that I am just not aware of?

I think I will pick up a dedicated wireless AP and turn off all the wireless capabilities on my router.  Since it seems to only be the WiFi that is having problems, this will probably permanently fix my problem (for now).  I have never had issues with my wired connection through this router (knocking on some wood right now). 

Thanks again for all your advice, this is very helpful...

[Snowdog993]

Why did you add a dedicated switch behind the router and not let the router do the switching too?  Are you doing any sort of interesting switching in your home network or is there a more general benefit in doing this that I am just not aware of?

Thanks again for all your advice, this is very helpful...

Well, the first setup?  This allows the traffic to be dedicated on the other side of the wall, so you can have more wired connections.  If you don't use a switch, you won't have that option.  I suppose you could use a wireless router as a repeater and configure it as such. 

Edit:  If you do this, you must NOT connect the second router to the "internet in" port.  Just use one of the switch ports.  Then configure it as a repeater.

[swill]

Why did you add a dedicated switch behind the router and not let the router do the switching too?  Are you doing any sort of interesting switching in your home network or is there a more general benefit in doing this that I am just not aware of?

Thanks again for all your advice, this is very helpful...

Well, the first setup?  This allows the traffic to be dedicated on the other side of the wall, so you can have more wired connections.  If you don't use a switch, you won't have that option.  I suppose you could use a wireless router as a repeater and configure it as such. 

Edit:  If you do this, you must NOT connect the second router to the "internet in" port.  Just use one of the switch ports.  Then configure it as a repeater.

Sorry, I was actually referring to @heedpantsnow's suggestion.  I am planning to have my modem which then connects to my router (which is acting as my switch right now) and then add a dedicated WiFi access point (wired to my router) and disable the problem WiFi on my router.  If I do this setup, I was trying to understand why heedpantsnow also added a dedicated switch.  Since my router is doing the switching as well and it is all via wired connections since I am disabling WiFi completely, I am trying to figure out if there is any benefit to adding a dedicated switch and not just let my router do the switching...

[heedpantsnow]

Why did you add a dedicated switch behind the router and not let the router do the switching too?  Are you doing any sort of interesting switching in your home network or is there a more general benefit in doing this that I am just not aware of?

Thanks again for all your advice, this is very helpful...

Well, the first setup?  This allows the traffic to be dedicated on the other side of the wall, so you can have more wired connections.  If you don't use a switch, you won't have that option.  I suppose you could use a wireless router as a repeater and configure it as such. 

Edit:  If you do this, you must NOT connect the second router to the "internet in" port.  Just use one of the switch ports.  Then configure it as a repeater.

Sorry, I was actually referring to @heedpantsnow's suggestion.  I am planning to have my modem which then connects to my router (which is acting as my switch right now) and then add a dedicated WiFi access point (wired to my router) and disable the problem WiFi on my router.  If I do this setup, I was trying to understand why heedpantsnow also added a dedicated switch.  Since my router is doing the switching as well and it is all via wired connections since I am disabling WiFi completely, I am trying to figure out if there is any benefit to adding a dedicated switch and not just let my router do the switching...

I added the switch because it is cheap and I use my home wired network a ton for backups and streaming from my Plex server. I'm not 100% sure it adds any speed, but just manually timing very large backup jobs seem to be faster by 5-10%. Plus it takes the switching duties off the router. I feel that for me it was $20-25 well spent.

[njbair]

Swill, if your house is a small 1940s home then I presume the lots are also pretty small, which means you probably see at least 30 wifi connection nearby. Interference from these other networks could be causing the dropouts. So your router didn't get worse, your neighbors just started crowding the radio waves. This was the case in our house until I went to 5GHz. Now my neighbors can do whatever they want with their 2WIRE1234 or whatever routers, and I only have to share the 5GHz band with like 2 other neighbors.

You may be thinking, that's all well and good until everybody upgrades to 5GHz. But that's the best part. 5GHz doesn't travel as far and doesn't penetrate through as many obstacles, which means it tends to stay within a smaller radius. Thus, less interference from the more distant neighbors. It's a win-win.

So whatever router you end up with, just make sure it supports 5GHz.

[yomammary]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320174

I have an RT-N66U at home and I love it.
The AC is just a newer version.

[heedpantsnow]

One issue that I've encountered recently: Apple has been cheating out on the wifi chips in recent devices (seen this on newer iPad mini and MBA), and the newer chips done support sidebands. So you lose that major feature for boosting speed in the presence of other networks. The ac bands become even more important if you're using these types of devices.

I don't and I like the range of 2.4 so I'm happy humming along on that plus sidebands.

[swill]

Swill, if your house is a small 1940s home then I presume the lots are also pretty small, which means you probably see at least 30 wifi connection nearby. Interference from these other networks could be causing the dropouts. So your router didn't get worse, your neighbors just started crowding the radio waves. This was the case in our house until I went to 5GHz. Now my neighbors can do whatever they want with their 2WIRE1234 or whatever routers, and I only have to share the 5GHz band with like 2 other neighbors.

You may be thinking, that's all well and good until everybody upgrades to 5GHz. But that's the best part. 5GHz doesn't travel as far and doesn't penetrate through as many obstacles, which means it tends to stay within a smaller radius. Thus, less interference from the more distant neighbors. It's a win-win.

So whatever router you end up with, just make sure it supports 5GHz.

I used to live in a duplex with a crapload of networks around, so I know what you are talking about.  I did all sorts of stuff like you are suggesting as well as picking my channels manually and such to minimize their affect on my network.  That is not the case now.  My nearest neighbor is at least 100 ft away and I only ever see 1 or 2 other networks available, so the air wave pollution is much better here than it was before.  Good recommendation though, I think your suggestions apply to most people's problems in this regard.

[swill]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320174

I have an RT-N66U at home and I love it.
The AC is just a newer version.

Ya, this is one of the routers on my short list if I replace my current one.    Thanks...

[swill]

One issue that I've encountered recently: Apple has been cheating out on the wifi chips in recent devices (seen this on newer iPad mini and MBA), and the newer chips done support sidebands. So you lose that major feature for boosting speed in the presence of other networks. The ac bands become even more important if you're using these types of devices.

I don't and I like the range of 2.4 so I'm happy humming along on that plus sidebands.

Fair enough.  Ya I tried to use 5Ghz a year or so ago when I was in a heavily congested area and I was amazed how few devices actually supported it at the time.  I had to go back to 2.4Ghz because too many of our devices just didn't work on 5Ghz.  I have to admit, I was kind of pissed. 

[nubbinator]

If you're willing to buy from the US, the TP-Link Archer C9 is awesome and cheap right now:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704232&cm_re=TP-LINK_Archer_C9-_-33-704-232-_-Product

It's what I'm using at home.  It's easy to set up and super stable.

[jamster]

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

[dgneo]

Thanks again.  I turned off Traffic Shaping (which also turns of QoS).  I left on the firewall features because I can't really expect much security on the different devices in the house.

Why did you add a dedicated switch behind the router and not let the router do the switching too?  Are you doing any sort of interesting switching in your home network or is there a more general benefit in doing this that I am just not aware of?

I think I will pick up a dedicated wireless AP and turn off all the wireless capabilities on my router.  Since it seems to only be the WiFi that is having problems, this will probably permanently fix my problem (for now).  I have never had issues with my wired connection through this router (knocking on some wood right now). 

Thanks again for all your advice, this is very helpful...

If you do go with the standalone Wireless AP, I'd recommend Ubiquiti. They get very solid reviews. I've used them a couple times, and they're crazy easy to setup, and provide some very very good range. Ars Technica did a great review on them here.

[nubbinator]

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Archer C7 and C9.  The Archer line, in general, has been well received and reliable.  All the teardowns of it have it with a nice oversized heatsink and with good quality components.  And, as far as I know, TP Link has been a long time recommendation for people wanting something cheap, simple, and reliable. They're not always the fastest out there, but they are stable.  The IT people I know have mostly said to avoid most Linksys/Cisco routers since they tend to be crap and are generally a PITA to work with. 

Asus seems to be well received these days, but you could never convince me to buy anything Asus.  Their customer service and support is just horrible, so if something goes wrong, you're screwed.  That leaves Netgear and Buffalo, neither of which are fantastic unless you get a DD-WRT or Tomato compatible router, then you have to be a little more tech oriented.

[Snowdog993]

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

That's pretty sad actually.  If you never had a TP-Link router, you are missing out.  Not a bit of trouble with mine. 

http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-9_TL-WDR4300.html#reviews_awards

[dgneo]

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Archer C7 and C9.  The Archer line, in general, has been well received and reliable.  All the teardowns of it have it with a nice oversized heatsink and with good quality components.  And, as far as I know, TP Link has been a long time recommendation for people wanting something cheap, simple, and reliable. They're not always the fastest out there, but they are stable.  The IT people I know have mostly said to avoid most Linksys/Cisco routers since they tend to be crap and are generally a PITA to work with. 

Asus seems to be well received these days, but you could never convince me to buy anything Asus.  Their customer service and support is just horrible, so if something goes wrong, you're screwed.  That leaves Netgear and Buffalo, neither of which are fantastic unless you get a DD-WRT or Tomato compatible router, then you have to be a little more tech oriented.

My current router is an Asus RT-N66U. It's been rock solid since day one once I put AsusWRT on there. Only issue I've had with it is the power button randomly stopped depressing. Ended up snapping a tooth pick off in it to make sure it wouldn't power off again.

[nubbinator]

More

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Archer C7 and C9.  The Archer line, in general, has been well received and reliable.  All the teardowns of it have it with a nice oversized heatsink and with good quality components.  And, as far as I know, TP Link has been a long time recommendation for people wanting something cheap, simple, and reliable. They're not always the fastest out there, but they are stable.  The IT people I know have mostly said to avoid most Linksys/Cisco routers since they tend to be crap and are generally a PITA to work with. 

Asus seems to be well received these days, but you could never convince me to buy anything Asus.  Their customer service and support is just horrible, so if something goes wrong, you're screwed.  That leaves Netgear and Buffalo, neither of which are fantastic unless you get a DD-WRT or Tomato compatible router, then you have to be a little more tech oriented.

My current router is an Asus RT-N66U. It's been rock solid since day one once I put AsusWRT on there. Only issue I've had with it is the power button randomly stopped depressing. Ended up snapping a tooth pick off in it to make sure it wouldn't power off again.

When Asus stuff works, it's great.  You pay a little more than other brands for similar performance, but it works well; HOWEVER, and I wrote that in all caps because it's a big however, if it breaks or needs repair under warranty in North America, you're screwed.  Asus has some of the worst customer service and support out there in NA.  There are countless horror stories about them damaging a customer's product, claiming the customer did it and it's out of warranty as a result, and that the repair will cost almost as much as the product did new.  The only place where they sometimes have decent support is if you buy an ROG product.

I just refuse to buy something from a company known for screwing longstanding customers over.

[dgneo]

More

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Archer C7 and C9.  The Archer line, in general, has been well received and reliable.  All the teardowns of it have it with a nice oversized heatsink and with good quality components.  And, as far as I know, TP Link has been a long time recommendation for people wanting something cheap, simple, and reliable. They're not always the fastest out there, but they are stable.  The IT people I know have mostly said to avoid most Linksys/Cisco routers since they tend to be crap and are generally a PITA to work with. 

Asus seems to be well received these days, but you could never convince me to buy anything Asus.  Their customer service and support is just horrible, so if something goes wrong, you're screwed.  That leaves Netgear and Buffalo, neither of which are fantastic unless you get a DD-WRT or Tomato compatible router, then you have to be a little more tech oriented.

My current router is an Asus RT-N66U. It's been rock solid since day one once I put AsusWRT on there. Only issue I've had with it is the power button randomly stopped depressing. Ended up snapping a tooth pick off in it to make sure it wouldn't power off again.

When Asus stuff works, it's great.  You pay a little more than other brands for similar performance, but it works well; HOWEVER, and I wrote that in all caps because it's a big however, if it breaks or needs repair under warranty in North America, you're screwed.  Asus has some of the worst customer service and support out there in NA.  There are countless horror stories about them damaging a customer's product, claiming the customer did it and it's out of warranty as a result, and that the repair will cost almost as much as the product did new.  The only place where they sometimes have decent support is if you buy an ROG product.

I just refuse to buy something from a company known for screwing longstanding customers over.

Couldn't agree with this sentiment more. I've had an ASUS motherboard fail on me, and essentially they told me to kick rocks.

Even worse was their laptops. When I worked at Geek Squad, they'd constantly deny repairs on laptops for the dumbest of reasons.

[jamster]

This is purely anecdotal, but in the circles I know (techies at work and techies socially) the two to common brands for APs that seem to get most frequently disparaged for reliability and longevity are TP Link and D-Link.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Archer C7 and C9.  The Archer line, in general, has been well received and reliable.  All the teardowns of it have it with a nice oversized heatsink and with good quality components.  And, as far as I know, TP Link has been a long time recommendation for people wanting something cheap, simple, and reliable. They're not always the fastest out there, but they are stable.  The IT people I know have mostly said to avoid most Linksys/Cisco routers since they tend to be crap and are generally a PITA to work with. 

Asus seems to be well received these days, but you could never convince me to buy anything Asus.  Their customer service and support is just horrible, so if something goes wrong, you're screwed.  That leaves Netgear and Buffalo, neither of which are fantastic unless you get a DD-WRT or Tomato compatible router, then you have to be a little more tech oriented.

Yeah, I've read reviews on the Archer line which suggests they are good. I think that the brand overall has just been tainted with their lower end offerings for years. That said, I still know tech people who do buy cheap TP Link/DLink, they just accept that home wifi routers are cheap commodity items that get replaced every couple of years. Huh, in fact, I've never even looked at home wifi routers as something where warranty or support would be a consideration... if one broke, I'd probably just buy another rather than wait for a warranty process that left me without the device for weeks.

In my opinion, the most important thing consideration with one of these devices is being able to run third party software, mainly because it's slightly less likely to have some crazy security flaw in it. I've run Linksys (the venerable WRTG54), a couple of Buffalos, an Asus. All have been fine. All have been capable of third party firmware.

Linksys/Cisco, I assume you mean Linksys, which is currently owned by Belkin. The Linksys brand was owned by Cisco for a while and positioned as their home brand. Nothing special, but from what I've observed (worked in a company that deployed a lot of these things) not particularly bad either. Real Cisco routers on the other hand are a completely different class of equipment for a different market. I am not even vaguely tempted to try using Cisco gear because I'd probably get the damn setup wrong and because it's impractically expensive.

[njbair]

If you're going for standalone router and access points, I've got to recommend Ubiquiti. I use their UniFi APs exclusively on our campus (I have 10), and the EdgeRouter Lite as the gateway. I also have a couple pairs of their NanoStation wireless bridges providing Internet access to satellite properties near the campus. This is all with Netgear Smart Switches and VLANs set up for different zones. The UniFi APs do a great job and they can handle about 50 or so clients each before I start to notice issues. At that point I just add more to decrease the client-to-AP ratio. They are cheap and the controller software automatically manages signal strength and radio channels to minimize interference. It's nice stuff.

[swill]

If you're going for standalone router and access points, I've got to recommend Ubiquiti. I use their UniFi APs exclusively on our campus (I have 10), and the EdgeRouter Lite as the gateway. I also have a couple pairs of their NanoStation wireless bridges providing Internet access to satellite properties near the campus. This is all with Netgear Smart Switches and VLANs set up for different zones. The UniFi APs do a great job and they can handle about 50 or so clients each before I start to notice issues. At that point I just add more to decrease the client-to-AP ratio. They are cheap and the controller software automatically manages signal strength and radio channels to minimize interference. It's nice stuff.

Ya. I think I will probably go this route.

[1391401]

WRT-54GL + DDWRT.  Set and forget.  Been using this for years.

[njbair]

WRT-54GL + DDWRT.  Set and forget.  Been using this for years.

But 802.11g has short range and lives on the much more crowded 2.4GHz band. And once you account for networking overhead you're only taking about 30mbps combined up/down throughput, which is slower than a lot of mid-tier ISP connections these days.

If you like DD-WRT that's fine, but it's time to cash in that old blue router of yours and upgrade to 802.11ac.

[swill]

Yes, I have a 60+mbps connection, so I would like to use as much of that as I can.