Open Forum: Which wireless router are you using?

[bexwhitt]

Virgin Superhub 2 which has surprisingly weak signal but is fast as it's in the room over my head through a wooden floor.

 

[Neebsgaming]

I use netgear wdr3700v3 with DD-WRT firmware works great for last few years

 

[lripplinger]

Asus RT-N16, with DD-WRT on it. This router is so stable now, it is unbelievable. I wish I had put DD-WRT on it years ago. Asus's firmware, while better than ever before, is still crap in comparison. It is just not stable. I had to reboot the router frequently because of it, but with DD-WRT on this router I have no problems.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Netgear Nighthawk X4. Loved it when I first got it, despite the bugs. Streamboost QOS has made a huge difference with my "barely HD" 5 Mbps connection. As time passed, the firmware updates started breaking more than they fixed. Then they stopped altogether.

The X4 suddenly got a 2.0 version (hey we're still here? Gonna throw us a bone? No? Wow) and then they declared the X4 AND its successor both EOL. Seriously? They abandoned the X4 and its replacement in a span of less than two years.

I'm still using it, though. Despite horrendous support from the company, it works like a charm. I give most of the credit to the Streamboost, which they didn't even develop. And now the Streamboost database updates have slowed to a crawl, with Netgear giving the equivalent of "meh" when asked about the scarcity.

The updates are crucial to the effectiveness of the Streamboost. Now that the X4 owners know how much Netgear cares, it doesn't take an expert to read the tea leaves to know how this ends. I'm already looking for a suitable replacement.

Honest Netgear marketing:

The Nighthawk X4: it could have been amazing, but screw it. We don't need customer satisfaction. We already have their money. Who wants ice cream?

Sadly Netgear notorious for this. I did buy again but lower end. Their bleeding edge bugs are very annoying.

 

[cartera]

Asus RT-N66U running DD-WRT Mega as a firewall and 2x Ubiquiti UAC-AP-PRO for wireless access. Runs flawlessly and seamless transfer between the access points allows streaming and voip calls to stay connected even when passing from one access point to the other.

 

[Andreas Linden]

I'm using Asus RT-AC68U using latest Merlin firmware. The router totally covers 160 m2 on 2 stores. Wooden walls makes the signal totally OK in any part of the house and a good distance outside. Been thinking about upgrading to something new but it's still AC wireless so it just doesn't feel necessary. Got 7 wireless devices and 5 wired devices on a 100/100 connection.

 

[oldikes]

I use whatever router my ISP shoves in my face. A router is a router as far as I'm concerned just as long as it does what it advertises. There is a lot more interesting hardware to be picky about than dull, boring routers.

Id agree. Its regrettable that its increasingly difficult to find a damned router that actually consistently works.

 

[Dyson Parkes]

For routing I'm running a Mikrotik RB2011-UiAS-RM (a routerboard) which has been absolutely brilliant.
For Wi-Fi I've got my home server (with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials) running a UniFi controller, with a Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-LR for the radio. I started off with a plain UAP, then moved to a place that needed more coverage so replaced the unit.
Absolutely happy with this combination, as the packet transfer from LAN1<->LAN2(WLAN)<->WAN has no errors whatsoever. Brilliant. It's the most stable network I've run in years (for home, at least).

 

[TadMSTR]

For routing I'm running a Mikrotik RB2011-UiAS-RM (a routerboard) which has been absolutely brilliant.
For Wi-Fi I've got my home server (with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials) running a UniFi controller, with a Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-LR for the radio. I started off with a plain UAP, then moved to a place that needed more coverage so replaced the unit.
Absolutely happy with this combination, as the packet transfer from LAN1<->LAN2(WLAN)<->WAN has no errors whatsoever. Brilliant. It's the most stable network I've run in years (for home, at least).

We've got UniFi stuff at work. Hadn't heard of them before but seems pretty good. Web interface looks very well designed. My coworker got me looking into the MikroTik routers. Have no immediate need for one but might eventually get one to tinker with.

 

[robmp11]

LINKSYS EA9500 MAX-STREAM AC5400 MU-MIMO GIGABIT ROUTERwith a LINKSYS RE7000 MAX-STREAM AC1900+ WI-FI RANGE EXTENDER Still new so no custom software on them yet.

 

[MoeJoe]

LINKSYS EA9500 MAX-STREAM AC5400 MU-MIMO GIGABIT ROUTERwith a LINKSYS RE7000 MAX-STREAM AC1900+ WI-FI RANGE EXTENDER Still new so no custom software on them yet.

Same here.
I've never owned a router as rock solid as the EA9500.

 

[DJMIKE25]

No wireless router. Using a 5 port Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X and a Unifi AP Pro Access Point.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Id agree. Its regrettable that its increasingly difficult to find a damned router that actually consistently works.

Strangely enough, of all the routers I've had (mine get replaced every 2 years when I renew my contract with my ISP) I've never had any problems with any of them, they've all done what they were supposed to do, and reliably.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

100% disagree routers are not made equal that is why they all vary in price.

Your ISP router meets your needs which is fine, but that won't be the same for everyone.

Isn't that supposed to be the same for everything?

 

[Arris]

TP Link Archer C2600, first TP-link hardware I've owned. Very nice for the price I have to say. 866mb/s is quite decent wireless performance.

 

[cartera]

Strangely enough, of all the routers I've had (mine get replaced every 2 years when I renew my contract with my ISP) I've never had any problems with any of them, they've all done what they were supposed to do, and reliably.

Do you do anything that would potentially push the router to its limits though?

If all your doing is basic web browsing and the occasional download/ stream 9/10 the ISP's hardware will work fine. If you are connecting lots of devices and require QOS or other more advanced settings it isn't going to be fit for purpose. However like you mentioned, that's the same with most things and not just tech.

 

[Dyson Parkes]

We've got UniFi stuff at work. Hadn't heard of them before but seems pretty good. Web interface looks very well designed. My coworker got me looking into the MikroTik routers. Have no immediate need for one but might eventually get one to tinker with.

I thoroughly recommend the MikroTik kit. If you're looking for a solid router, I have yet to find someone that can beat their price point. There's a few in town handling routing of a whole Wide-Area-Network, with some pretty hefty load balancing taking place. They're absolutely brilliant.

 

[misor]

Previously used tp-link 741n for my Huawei WiMAX modem. now I just used built-in wifi from my Huawei B593 LTE modem.

 

[Kelly Kufeldt]

Linksys WRT1900AC with 2 matching Linksys WRT 8-Port Gigabit Switches.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Do you do anything that would potentially push the router to its limits though?

If all your doing is basic web browsing and the occasional download/ stream 9/10 the ISP's hardware will work fine. If you are connecting lots of devices and require QOS or other more advanced settings it isn't going to be fit for purpose. However like you mentioned, that's the same with most things and not just tech.

No. I was just speaking from a personal point of view. I fully appreciate and understand the fact that an ISP supplied router is not going to serve everybody's needs.

 

[cartera]

No. I was just speaking from a personal point of view. I fully appreciate and understand the fact that an ISP supplied router is not going to serve everybody's needs.

It is a good sign, at least here in the UK anyway. 5 years ago most people would moan about ISP supplied hardware, now it seems the big providers have realised that crap wifi to the uninitiated means a crappy line. The new hardware from BT, Sky & Virgin does a decent job, ordinary consumers are getting a better deal IMO.

I am liking the Mikrotik stuff too, never heard of them until I saw theses comments today. Really tempted by some of their rack mounted routers. It would clean my cabinet up of a few wires.

 

[DDG4005]

I'm Asus's RT-AC68R. The company still supports it with firmware updates it's worked perfectly from the day I bought it.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It is a good sign, at least here in the UK anyway. 5 years ago most people would moan about ISP supplied hardware, now it seems the big providers have realised that crap wifi to the uninitiated means a crappy line. The new hardware from BT, Sky & Virgin does a decent job, ordinary consumers are getting a better deal IMO.

I am liking the Mikrotik stuff too, never heard of them until I saw theses comments today. Really tempted by some of their rack mounted routers. It would clean my cabinet up of a few wires.

I renew my contract with my ISP every 2 years and they always supply me with a very decent router. The quality of the router also depends on my contractual plan, the more 'budget friendly' the contract, the crappier the router. I guess that's the way things work.

 

[DelJo63]

Gateway router is primative,old and only serves wired devices, but sufficient to support Mac Address Reservation for <= 10 devices. That matches my firewall rules for who gets access to my shares.

The EoP carries signal to the other end of the house where the Netgear WNR2000v4 performs WiFi duties.
Depending upon who's home, 2 wifi TVs, 1 wired TV, 3 cellphones, 3 iPads. At the moment, there's only seven active connections(all types).

Both routers are set to MTU 1492 to disallow packet fragmentation.

Then from time to time, I bring up my Apache web server(wired) for testing.

inSSIDer reports my channel has 1 co-network and 6 overlapping, but also drowns the neighbors with at least -13db stronger signal.

 

[Gabriel Pike]

My gateway router is a Mikrotik 2011 UiAS. It does all of my fairness queueing and VLANs. I use a Unifi AP-AC-LR for wireless. It has pretty good range and when configured with advanced settings has good balancing between 5GHz and 2.4 GHz. I typically have about 20 devices connected to the wireless. I have band steering enabled to prefer 5 GHz. I also have airtime fairness enabled. With these settings no single device is allowed to use all available bandwidth based on the caps set on the routers PCQ queue.