Best wifi router? Lot's of devices!

dubcat

dubcat

dubcat

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Joined
5 Jan 2005
Posts
753
Location
South East, UK
Hi, I have a 125mbps internet connection. I also have lots of wifi devices. 3 of these are smart tv's that can stream content from either my plex server on the internet or my home NAS. I also have a few computers, ipads, PS4, mobile phones, and sonos speakers using the wifi.

My trusty old DLink router keeps having to be rebooted. Time for an upgrade. What should I go for? Is the Netgear Nighthawk x6 a good choice? The x8 is double the cost - is it worth it? Something else perhaps?

Hope someone can advice - need to order something ASAP.

Dub
 
What's your budget?

How many of your devices are:
  • 2.4GHz only?
  • Support 5GHz?
  • Support 802.11ac?
What model is the current D-Link? Apart from the reboot issue does it meet your needs?
 
I've about 20 devices but not all are active at the same time, but i'm guessing most are connected to the access point much of the time.

My ISP is Virgin Media (125mbps connection). I've had the d-link DIR-655 for about 7 or 8 years now. Always worked absolutely fine until a few months ago.

I find that i now routinely have to go and repower it. Everything is fine after repowering it.

I was looking at the Netgear X6 but was wondering if maybe it's worth getting the X8 instead? However it is double the cost.

I haven't used any 'services' on my wifi router to date aside from port forwarding and port based firewall. i tend to run my VPN server on a raspberry pi and I stream my movies off my home NAS. That's not to say that this might not change if i was able to do those things on my wifi router - i've just never been able to do so to date.

Dub
 
If that's the case then I'm assuming the Virgin SH is in modem mode? If so, then I would turn the SH back into router mode, disable the wifi, and then as others have mentioned, getting a Ubiquiti AP. These APs offer fantastic coverage and speed considering the size, better than any router really. If you check this subforum you'll see a lot of people very happy with them.
 
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Thanks very much! I had not heard of them. They do not seem to support .ac mode according to the products i see on their website. Would that be a problem?
 
Oh blimey thanks. How have I never even heard of these? THey sound great - amazing reviews on amazon. So if I stick my Virgin thingy in to router mode, which ones of these do I need to buy and do i need more than one? I'm in a 5 bedroom detached house that is only about 15 years old so not some big thick Victorian walls or anything. As I said it's about 20 devices and only 3 or 4 pulling heavy bandwidth at any given time, although that will change as my daughters grow up.
 
Also sorry - is Dual Band all I need or should i be looking for Tri Band?

Struggling to find the Ubiquiti sub forum too *blush*
 
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One should be enough, the Lite model should be able to handle it but you can go for the LR/Pro model if you want a tad more coverage. Although looking at the price the Pro is half the price of the Nighthawk X6 router so might as well go for that :p.

If you find one is not enough, you can easily add another. They do seamless roaming as well so your device will not even notice it's changed to another AP.
 
Guys this is great! Thanks :) This also allows me to build my own router too :) I'm a tinkerer and would far rather have the control of a linux based solution that I control and can add features to than one provided by someone else where I am reliant on them for firmware updates.

Thanks very much :)
 
dubcat said:
Guys this is great! Thanks :) This also allows me to build my own router too :) I'm a tinkerer and would far rather have the control of a linux based solution that I control and can add features to than one provided by someone else where I am reliant on them for firmware updates.
Click to expand...

If you like that (I do too) you could get yourself a router/AP that supports a firmware of your choice (dd-wrt, openwrt, and tomato come to mind). Maybe a TP-LINK Archer C7, something like that.

E.g. for dd-wrt the list is: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
 
Bear it mind that it looks like you need to have a computer/server always running to have the Ubiquiti controller software installed to access some features, guest portal etc.

I personally use an Asus router and have had very good speeds and range.
 
joeyjojo said:
If you like that (I do too) you could get yourself a router/AP that supports a firmware of your choice (dd-wrt, openwrt, and tomato come to mind). Maybe a TP-LINK Archer C7, something like that.

E.g. for dd-wrt the list is: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices
Click to expand...

Thanks - I'm thinking I should just rely on the Virgin router or buy a Ubiquiti edge router lite.. have started another thread re this :)
 
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