Time for a new router...possibly?

Robzere31 · 13 Nov 2018 at 00:27

Currently have an Asus rt-ac66u router supplying the wifi to the house.
Does a decent job, but as its getting on a bit now & technology has moved on somewhat over the years thinking of replacing it with something newer.

What would be the recommend router for a budget around £200, perhaps a bit more depending on whats out there.

Main job would be to supply wifi for approx 6 devices, phones, laptop, tablet, sky Q, prime etc & one bieng a plex server which needs to be on wifi unfortunately due to not bieng able to hard wire to the TV.

I'm on virgin 200mb, with the sh2 in modem mode, if that makes any difference.

What's the goto router these days, as it's not really something I've kept up with.

bremen1874 · 13 Nov 2018 at 00:34

Why change it if it's still doing a decent job?

What does the new router need to do better than the old one?

Avalon · 13 Nov 2018 at 07:28

What you have supports up to 1.75Gbps via wifi, you are limited to 200Mbit WAN, what are you wanting to improve? Your SkyQ won't play significantly quicker, your Amazon Prime Video will still only be a few Mbit/s, your phone/tablet will still be a low bandwidth device (you aren't likely to download a few hundred GB to them in a go), that leaves Plex... Personally Plex on wifi is an abomination, 'not being able' sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, between flat cable, external runs, power line or splitting the virgin feed and relocating the modem, something should be possible and will likely cost a lot less and give vastly superior results than throwing money at another router for the sake of it.

zom247 · 13 Nov 2018 at 08:33

Like the OP this is something I have been looking at for the past few months, I currently have an ac68u. However, I think it's more a need to have something new rather than a need to replace something faulty. I've gone through the Ubiquiti thread and picked out what I want but afterwards in the cold light of day I realise that I don't need to change my router. It still does the job and I doubt if I'd notice much difference if I did fork out for a new router. Save your dosh for something else and just change your router if it's broken.

Avalon · 13 Nov 2018 at 14:00

zom247 said:
Like the OP this is something I have been looking at for the past few months, I currently have an ac68u. However, I think it's more a need to have something new rather than a need to replace something faulty. I've gone through the Ubiquiti thread and picked out what I want but afterwards in the cold light of day I realise that I don't need to change my router. It still does the job and I doubt if I'd notice much difference if I did fork out for a new router. Save your dosh for something else and just change your router if it's broken.

For all i'm questioning what the op's reasoning and expectations, I moved away from an AC56U running Merlin (same ARM CPU/RAM as AC68U, his AC66U is an older/slower mips unit) to what eventually became a pfsense box and Unify AP set-up. Moving to a dedicated AP mounted centrally in the property has been a significant upgrade to overall coverage. On a smaller property, or one with a different construction type or mounting the AC56U somewhere similar - it'd look a bit daft mounted to the ceiling though - may have yielded similar results, but having gone Unifi, I wouldn't go back.

Robzere31 · 13 Nov 2018 at 14:51

Indeed, it is more of a want than a need. Current router is fine but as with all things it's always nice to upgrade.

I don't expect sky or prime to be any quicker, it's really plex that I want to improve. Not that it has many issues, just high bit rate 4k content can occasionally buffer for a few seconds which is annoying.

As to hardwiring it, yes technically I can do it however, its not really what I want to do.

Thanks for the advice though.

bremen1874 · 13 Nov 2018 at 23:06

Robzere31 said:
it's really plex that I want to improve. Not that it has many issues, just high bit rate 4k content can occasionally buffer for a few seconds which is annoying.

Replacing the router may not help with this.

The existing router's wireless is pretty good (on paper at least).

What wireless capabilities does the receiving device have?

Have you checked that the problem goes away if you temporarily run a cable?

Robzere31 · 14 Nov 2018 at 01:20

Decided to look into hardwiring the AV setup. Got 25m cat6 cable coming along with a 8 port switch & some patch cables for starters.

bremen1874 · 14 Nov 2018 at 01:52

That sounds like a good plan.

Leave wireless for portable and low bandwidth devices.

bledd · 14 Nov 2018 at 10:42

bremen1874 said:
That sounds like a good plan.

Leave wireless for portable and low bandwidth devices.

Yup

Avalon · 14 Nov 2018 at 11:32

bremen1874 said:
Leave wireless for portable and low bandwidth devices.

Can’t we make it so that before anyone posts in the networking forum they are required to read that statement 10 times?

C’mon @bledd with great power comes the ability to abuse it

Teh_Next · 14 Nov 2018 at 17:43

I have the same router and was also thinking of upgrading.
There's currently 9 wireless devices connected to it. 4 mobile phones, 2 games consoles, 1 laptop, 1 TV stick, 1 Desktop PC.
There's also a VM V6 TiVo on Ethernet and I haven't even turned on my main gaming PC yet.
Add to that both my kids will be on half decent gaming rigs (wireless) after Christmas.
It's a great router and hasn't dropped a wireless signal yet but I'm more worried about the amount of devices connected and the vying for CPU cycles. Number one priority is my gaming PC lol.
So I was also looking for something more up to date with more emphasis on power along with decent radio.

bremen1874 · 14 Nov 2018 at 17:53

Why replace the router because of a problem that may, or may not, exist in the future?

You've still got a small number of devices.

If you do find that the current router is struggling it'll only be a minor inconvenience and you'll be able to get a new one the next day anyway.

If you really care about having the best connections try to install Ethernet.

Robzere31 · 17 Nov 2018 at 00:27

Hardwired installed. All good, took about 3 hours to install the cable to my liking IE I couldn't see it but a worthwhile job. Total cost £40.

Teh_Next · 17 Nov 2018 at 00:50

I'm totally lost since the past two posts.

Robzere31 · 17 Nov 2018 at 01:18

Teh_Next said:
I'm totally lost since the past two posts.

Quite simple, decided to forget wifi for the main items IE sky Q & plex. Ran a 20m cat 6 cable from the upstairs router to a switch behind the TV.

So now AV all hardwired & mobiles, laptop etc on wifi.
Happy with outcome, plex streaming 4k content with no issues.

Teh_Next · 17 Nov 2018 at 09:16

Nice.
How much hassle was it to run the cat6?
Was it quite rigid compared to cat5?

bledd · 17 Nov 2018 at 10:34

Cat5e would be fine, make sure it's solid core and not cca

Avalon · 17 Nov 2018 at 11:32

Teh_Next said:
I have the same router and was also thinking of upgrading.
There's currently 9 wireless devices connected to it. 4 mobile phones, 2 games consoles, 1 laptop, 1 TV stick, 1 Desktop PC.
There's also a VM V6 TiVo on Ethernet and I haven't even turned on my main gaming PC yet.
Add to that both my kids will be on half decent gaming rigs (wireless) after Christmas.
It's a great router and hasn't dropped a wireless signal yet but I'm more worried about the amount of devices connected and the vying for CPU cycles. Number one priority is my gaming PC lol.
So I was also looking for something more up to date with more emphasis on power along with decent radio.

The scenario you describe would be best served by using wired connections for fixed/higher bandwidth devices (PC's etc.), however CPU cycles on simply routing packets won't be a problem, look at the actual CPU usage on the main page after logging in.

Robzere31 said:
Hardwired installed. All good, took about 3 hours to install the cable to my liking IE I couldn't see it but a worthwhile job. Total cost £40.

Wired gigabit on Plex makes life so much easier, i've seen people replace clients (usually following the generic 'buy a Shield' advice) in an attempt to resolve buffering issues, it's even more funny when they advise friends/family connected remotely to do the same only to drop the 'server on wifi' bombshell at a later date.