Looking for recommendations for a new home router
I currently have a Netgear R6700 - Nighthawk AC1750 router that has reached end of service and am looking for a replacement.
When I set up the router, I had issues with some of my devices not connecting to either WiFi 6 or the 5 GHz band (I can’t remember which was the issue) so I had to set up a guest network for those devices to live on.
I would like, if possible, to have one network that everything in my house can connect to, but that’s a preference not a necessity. Are modern routers fully backwards compatible with older devices?
I’d also like something with a relatively long life ahead of it (though security is paramount and I’d rather have a secure router that I have to replace sooner over an insecure one that lives longer).
My house is just over 1000 square feet so coverage area doesn’t need to be huge. I do stream a lot of games to my laptop via Moonlight though, so being able to continue to do that without lag/hiccups is a necessity for me.
Let me know your recommendations and avoids, as well as any advice you have.
I'll write a proper comment later today and message you the hardware I used but right now I'll say:
Get a generic router mini pc off amazon. Install opnsense on it (easy for you, you already use Linux).
Buy a few Grandstream wireless access points. These do the actual WiFi. The router mini pc just does the wired connectivity. These access points seamlessly mesh and can all be managed from a single master AP.
Opnsense is an open source "turn my computer into a network router" distribution of BSD. It's easy to install (easier than a Linux distro I'd say) and will get updates and security patches as long as the opnsense project stays alive. No more "sorry your router hardware is arbitrarily old so we won't support it anymore" BS
Grandstream seems to be a mostly unknown brand but their stuff is comparable to unifi and I've had great success using it at home. They have WiFi 6e and 7 access points available
I went the opnsense route about 5 years ago and have no regrets. I grabbed a cheap fanless bare bones PC off AliExpress, put a small SSD in and it's been running flawlessly since.
I also second the idea of keeping WiFi separate from the router, being able to upgrade your WiFi or router without affecting the other is always useful. Personally I've got a cheap Tenda mesh system in place right now, with 99% of the features turned off. It works, can't really recommend it though!
This is exactly the network setup I use.
Did exactly this but with a pcengines board and opnSense, and a unifi AP. And a media converter for fibre to Ethernet. It’s a very flexible setup and I don’t need any ISP’s crap box/router anymore (caveat: I never use their iptv and voip services)
Does a mesh network (and by that I just mean a multi-access point system) like that make sense for only 1000 sq ft? That's a pretty small space.
Might
I’m happy with my Synology RT6600ax. Easy to setup VLANs and I trust Synology to push updates and security fixes even if I don’t trust them to not be greedy on the NAS side of their business.
I don’t have any issues streaming 4K from a media server upstairs to a client downstairs over wireless, but placement and wall material and floor plans can impact that a lot so…
Should work with just about any device.
Some IoT type things struggle to connect to routers if 2.4 and 5 share an SSID, so you have to split them to connect. You can merge again after they connect for the first time if I recall correctly but it’s annoying. And it’s a device issue not a network issue. I keep IoT on a VLAN with firewall rules to prevent WAN access and only broadcast in 2.4.
I don't have for-recommendation but I have been using Asus ZenWifi AX whole home mesh for a while and I do not recommend it. If I were to sum up the problem in one sentence it would be that when the firmware is kept up to date and using relatively simple out-of-the-box settings there is a consistent problem with devices dropping their connection, especially laptops or phones.
Yes. Well actually no, but effectively yes. I don’t think modern routers support original 802.11 or 802.11a, but I don’t think there are any consumer devices that uses these revisions. And I am pretty sure your current router doesn’t support these, so if everything you have now works on your router, it will work on a new router.
Anyway, I have an eero, and I quite like it. If you want to set WiFi up once and ignore it forever, eero will be perfect. If you want to tinker, set up vlans, have multiple networks, or do other fancy things, you will want something different. Apple used to make a router, and it was loved by many people for « it just works » (and it actually did, unlike some modern Apple devices). Many people consider eero to be the spiritual successor to the Apple routers. I never used an Apple router, but the eero routers « just work » for me. I have had eeros at my parents house now for probably 4 years. They have WiFi issues every so often. But the number of times it was caused by the eeros is exactly zero.
AFAIK the biggest reason why old WiFi standards are not supported is not the radio issue but encryption. The old standards used WEP, which has been broken, and so new routers do not even have that option anymore.
I would recommend Amplifi because they are the consumer version of Ubiquiti and have their quality behind them in addition to a great app that makes network admin tasks really easy. But it seems that the latest router they offer is the Alien, which is one I bought many years ago. I have no idea when they will drop support but it doesn’t seem like any time soon. It’s also the only one in the lineup that supports WiFi 6, but it doesn’t support 6E. Also be aware that if you want mesh networking you will need to buy a matched pair ahead of time because you cannot add more later.
If you are ok with those caveats, I still think it’s pretty much the perfect home router.
I have Ubiquiti gear and it’s great - the Dream Router seems like a good fit here. Easy to manage, and would cover 1000 sq ft no problem.
I have this same router and I don't think I've ever updated the firmware. I've been very happy with it and would probably go with the same brand. I'll need something more powerful next time though because I've moved to a bigger house and it's way in one corner. The strength is lacking on the opposite side of the house.
If you're up for it (in terms of tech knowledge you'll need to have/learn during setup), I highly recommend everyone go the separate router + access point direction.
After setting up OPNsense on an old PC and some UniFi APs with the UniFi controller, it's been rock solid. But it also gives me the flexibility to add in some pretty advanced (compared to consumer equipment) firewall rules when needed.
I am about to upgrade from my ancient Apple Airport router to an OpenWRT One. Seems like a nice balance of open source software/hardware and semi-official support. And reviews seem really good from the community as far as performance, buffer bloat, etc is concerned. OpenWRT isn't the easiest interface but it isn't too bad, either. Might be worth considering, and at $89 it's more affordable than any other option out there!
I don't know if other WiFi routers have this problem or it's a Google WiFi thing, but I've had similar issues. Here's what I learned about backward compatibility:
For our new house we inherited some Google WiFi routers, which are a few years old. The primary network supposedly works with both 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz, but in practice, it tries to use 5 Ghz first, and old devices that only support 2.4 Ghz often don't connect. As a workaround, I connect them to the guest network instead, which is 2.4 Ghz only.
Other workarounds I've read about (but not tried) are to connect the device from far enough away so that only 2.4 Ghz works and then move the device closer, or to temporarily shut down WiFi, create a hotspot with the same name and password, and connect to that from the device. Apparently then it will be able to connect normally, after restarting the main network.