Replacing my work horse Asus RT-56U

[Psycho Sonny]

How much more of a budget am I going to need? I believe this router was originally around £60 and has served me well for many years what advantages do I get from putting more money into a new router?

he's talking rubbish. netgear r6400 is all you need and can be found for £70ish

otherwise r7000 is currently £120 which is the next upgrade from it but it isn't really much better in the real world.

i spent £200 on a router then sent it back when it didn't do anything better than the £20 router it replaced. i used dd-wrt on a cheap router.

basically dd-wrt can turn a cheap router into a beast.

 

[bremen1874]

...talking rubbish. netgear d6400 is all you need...

R6400?

 

[Slade2]

I know I asked a similar question earlier, but other than basic router functionality, what's important to you? The budget isn't unreasonable, but if you're literally just wanting a basic router, then often your ISP can be persuaded to supply one FOC if you re-contract.

Very true, I could potentially switch over to the superhub 3 (currently just running in modem mode) and use that for wireless for now but I do plan on replacing it in the future.

Going forward and as my kids get older I want something that will enable me to have more control over whats connected to the network and doing that via the router is probably going to be the easiest solution. Restricting access to the network from certain mac addresses at certain times of the day for example along with some form of content control potentially via blacklists if that's possible at the router level would be something I like to be able to accomplish with a new router. I know is possible now to for example use Alexa to turn on and off your guest wifi, while features like that are not essential, if it means finding an extra few quid for the budget then I should be able to. I like the look of the WRT32X but also like the look of the MicroTek HAP AC stuff as well, all are around the same price point. I just need to know which would be the best to go for.

 

[Slade2]

I am not far off pressing the button on the Netgear R7000p Nighthawk Dual-Band AC2300. It currently fits my price point and will do everything I would like it to do to future proof and I like the fact I can mess with it on my phone, any reason I should go for it? or can I get similar for the same money? currently I can get it for £110.

Edit, after reading the amazon reviews I`m not going to get this as it clearly has issues with the 5Gz stuff and 38% of reviews are 1 Star. So its back to the drawing board unless someone can suggest some else.

 

[Slade2]

Just bringing this one back again.

I have lived with the same setup as in the original post. It has been working fine since with minimal issues but over the last couple of days the LAN ports have started to die and although I can get them to sometimes restart its becoming increasingly frustrating. The main issue is that one of the LAN ports goes to the upstairs AP and that then controls the heating switch so when it fails I cant turn the heating on and off.

So, can anyone recommend a suitable replacement router and or mess system that can be had for around £150-200. I think the plan would be to replace existing with some decent AP`s and then a decent router to drive them? along with the software requirements of potentially 2 separate SSID`s (so I have all my usual devices on one and then bribe the kids with doing there homework and cleaning their rooms before turning on the other one)

 

[Spudgun]

ASUS RT-AC86U is currently on offer for less than that and has what you need

 

[BigT]

So, can anyone recommend a suitable replacement router and or mess system that can be had for around £150-200. I think the plan would be to replace existing with some decent AP`s and then a decent router to drive them? along with the software requirements of potentially 2 separate SSID`s (so I have all my usual devices on one and then bribe the kids with doing there homework and cleaning their rooms before turning on the other one)

If you're going to introduce Mesh or dedicated Access points (I think a good idea) then that'll take care of your separate SSIDs and will handle more clients than you're likely to have at home. That just then leaves what you want to do with your router. If it's nothing more than acting as a DHCP server and basic routing then most anything will do I suspect since you've offloaded the WiFi, which is 90% most people's concerns with a router being inadequate. If, however any of the following is of interest:

• VLANs to separate IoT traffic or maybe your different SSID traffic
• router based VPN client either policy based or network wide
• router based VPN server for remote access to home
• bandwidth throttling per client device
• IDS, network wide ad-blocking, traffic monitoring or other advanced features

then something a little more prosumer based would be ideal. Being a pfSense fan I'd recommend home built or a Netgate SG-1100. If you're very familiar with networks then something from Mikrotik is always going to be stable and capable, albeit with a steep learnign curve. And depending on your wireless solution you may find something by the same manufacturer that is well suited. For example if you go with Ubiquiti access points then a USG or Dream Machine may be a better fit.

I run a home built pfSense box with six NICs, four UAPs and a 16 port Ubiquiti PoE Switch and couldn't be happier. At some stages I've run triple WAN connections and have all sorts of guest networks, different SSIDs, lots of VLANs, remote access to all my network, newsgroup traffic only routed via VPN and a well tuned setup that suits me and is almost infinitely configurable. However it may be a bit overkill for you. A USG and a UAP may give you everything you desire and lots of flexibility for <£200.

 

[Slade2]

Just bringing this one back again as I never did get around to sorting anything out and I have been looking at the Deco M4 system from TP-Link. I would purchase this with some additional switches for the wired stuff and use it to replace everything I have. Just wondering if anyone else has used it to replace a router? or do you run it with a router? I could actually get a router to go with it and the 3 pack would then give me decent wireless coverage around the rest of the house easily within my £200 budget.

 

[Rainmaker]

Jesus man, I've never seen such dithering... Near 18 months and you've still not done anything. As @Avalon said, swerve anything Asus unless you're buying cheap/second hand and know for a fact good open source firmware is available to slot straight onto it. Is there any reason you've not just put the Virgin Super Hub 3 into router mode and tried with that? With such basic requirements (again, 25 clients is nothing lol) it'll likely do you fine, and the wireless is a damn site better than on your old Asus for sure. If you start bumping into limitations with that, *then* I'd suggest looking to spend money.

Regarding content blocking and timed access restrictions; it's always tricky to solve a parenting problem with a technological solution. As it happens, the SH3 has time restrictions available on a per MAC address basis, so you're covered there. Go to Advanced Settings > Security > MAC Filtering after signing in at 192.168.100.1.

Look at the kids' devices too. Windows allows you to set up a 'Family' and govern content and time restrictions for children's accounts, iOS and macOS offer this with Screen Time, and I'm sure Android will have an equivalent. The SH3 will cover the Internet access aspect at least.

As for actual content blocking, like stopping porn/drugs/gambling/violence or whatever, you could run AdGuard Home and tell it to restrict your kids' devices. You can even use it to disable access to websites, using a block list and/or pre-provided services like TikTok, Steam, Discord, Cloudflare, Amazon, Netflix, Skype, eBay, Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram etc etc. Very handy, and free. You just need to a device to run it on - so if you really want to spend cash get a Raspberry Pi for about £50 and install it on there. Learning Linux and such will keep you busy while we're in lockdown.

 

[digitalwolf]

Jesus man, I've never seen such dithering... Near 18 months and you've still not done anything. As @Avalon said, swerve anything Asus unless you're buying cheap/second hand and know for a fact good open source firmware is available to slot straight onto it. Is there any reason you've not just put the Virgin Super Hub 3 into router mode and tried with that? With such basic requirements (again, 25 clients is nothing lol) it'll likely do you fine, and the wireless is a damn site better than on your old Asus for sure. If you start bumping into limitations with that, *then* I'd suggest looking to spend money.

Regarding content blocking and timed access restrictions; it's always tricky to solve a parenting problem with a technological solution. As it happens, the SH3 has time restrictions available on a per MAC address basis, so you're covered there. Go to Advanced Settings > Security > MAC Filtering after signing in at 192.168.100.1.

Look at the kids' devices too. Windows allows you to set up a 'Family' and govern content and time restrictions for children's accounts, iOS and macOS offer this with Screen Time, and I'm sure Android will have an equivalent. The SH3 will cover the Internet access aspect at least.

As for actual content blocking, like stopping porn/drugs/gambling/violence or whatever, you could run AdGuard Home and tell it to restrict your kids' devices. You can even use it to disable access to websites, using a block list and/or pre-provided services like TikTok, Steam, Discord, Cloudflare, Amazon, Netflix, Skype, eBay, Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram etc etc. Very handy, and free. You just need to a device to run it on - so if you really want to spend cash get a Raspberry Pi for about £50 and install it on there. Learning Linux and such will keep you busy while we're in lockdown.

Whats up with stock Asus firmware?

My RT-AC68u seems stable enough with 19 clients running on it.

 

[Rainmaker]

Whats up with stock Asus firmware?

My RT-AC68u seems stable enough with 19 clients running on it.

Sorry, busy day...

Asus are absolutely woeful when it comes to security patching, updates and even RMA. They were grossly negligent with their firmware on Asus routers to the point where they were trivial to hack, and indeed tens of thousands of them were. The US FTC ended up stepping in and suing them, and they were ordered to undergo twenty years of security audits to be allowed to continue selling technology. Here's a link, and here's another with some details. To put it bluntly, you may as well throw your money at a smack addict. At least then you can see the results of your rewarding bad behaviour (and your home would be safer at the end).

Here's another good piece on why this type of router is a bad idea, more generally speaking. If you really want a consumer router, at least get something half decent with a good history of patching bugs and offering firmware for longer than 6 months (if that) from purchase. Better yet, as I said in my last post, get something that you know is supported by one or more open source alternatives with a years-long support roadmap (OpenWRT, DD-WRT, Merlin, VyOS). Ideally, just build your own. Heck the amount of times we see threads like this I'm tempted to start selling in-house Linux and BSD routers with remote support and 10 year updates included. I'd clean up.

 

[Slade2]

S

Jesus man, I've never seen such dithering... Near 18 months and you've still not done anything. As @Avalon said, swerve anything Asus unless you're buying cheap/second hand and know for a fact good open source firmware is available to slot straight onto it. Is there any reason you've not just put the Virgin Super Hub 3 into router mode and tried with that? With such basic requirements (again, 25 clients is nothing lol) it'll likely do you fine, and the wireless is a damn site better than on your old Asus for sure. If you start bumping into limitations with that, *then* I'd suggest looking to spend money.

Regarding content blocking and timed access restrictions; it's always tricky to solve a parenting problem with a technological solution. As it happens, the SH3 has time restrictions available on a per MAC address basis, so you're covered there. Go to Advanced Settings > Security > MAC Filtering after signing in at 192.168.100.1.

Look at the kids' devices too. Windows allows you to set up a 'Family' and govern content and time restrictions for children's accounts, iOS and macOS offer this with Screen Time, and I'm sure Android will have an equivalent. The SH3 will cover the Internet access aspect at least.

As for actual content blocking, like stopping porn/drugs/gambling/violence or whatever, you could run AdGuard Home and tell it to restrict your kids' devices. You can even use it to disable access to websites, using a block list and/or pre-provided services like TikTok, Steam, Discord, Cloudflare, Amazon, Netflix, Skype, eBay, Facebook/Snapchat/Instagram etc etc. Very handy, and free. You just need to a device to run it on - so if you really want to spend cash get a Raspberry Pi for about £50 and install it on there. Learning Linux and such will keep you busy while we're in lockdown.

Sorry my dithering upsets you - I just wondered if anyone had any real life experience of the Deco M4 setup and wondered if its usable without a proper router. The plan was to have the SH3 still in modem mode and then one of the deco`s managing the network, connected into a switch that will serve the rest of the house with Ethernet back-haul to the switch to another switch and the other couple of deco units in the other areas of the house. Like I said just wondered if this would work and what real experience people had with this kind of setup. The software control via the app for the Deco`s looks really good, with the possibility to setup users who had levels of access and set timers for certain devices and it also has the guest wireless network so currently ticks all the boxes just not sure how it would be in practice.