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Dieter
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Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 12:39 pm

I'm fortunate enough to have AT&T's GigaPower (U-Verse) internet service at home. It's currently 300/300mbps, but I recently received an email that they're going to be moving up to the full gigabit shortly.

I'm currently using a Netgear 3700 wireless router that has been rock solid for years and years. I think the last time I rebooted it, it had 450+ days of uptime, and I don't have any issue with drops or slowdowns. I can currently get 320/320mbps throughput on this router, which is really close to the ~340 that Small Net Builder shows this router can do.

Anyway, my router will be the limiting factor once I'm upgraded by AT&T, so I'm looking for a router than can handle the bandwidth. Netgear's R7000 is currently at the top of my list, mainly because of it's speed and reviews, but I'm really concerned about reliability. It seems it has a relatively high failure rate, and lots of people seem to have performance/reliability issues after a couple of months (ie -- outside of the return window, and Netgear support's reputation is not stellar).

I only use it for wired and wireless connections, not storage, so USB/VPN/<insert kitchen sink feature here> isn't important to me. I do use both 2.4 and 5GHz bands, and run a variety of devices (iPads, iPhones, Nexus devices, Kindles, Nooks, Chromecast, laptops, TVs, BluRays, Chromebooks, wireless ethernet converters, streaming video, printers, PCs (mostly hardwired), etc), so I need something that will work with most devices and provide good performance with lots of simultaneous wireless connections.

I also require a guest WiFi network on both frequencies, with the ability to isolate clients on the guest network so they cannot see each other.

The Asus RT-AC68U looks good as well, but it seems to have an even higher failure rate.

Performance is important, but stability and reliability are more important to me, as long as the performance is quite a bit better than what I have now.

Any suggestions for devices in the $200 range? I've scoured Small Net Builder, Newegg, Amazon, etc and it seems that the Netgear and Asus are the best, but it's a gamble on whether or not you get a good one. I expect to keep it for at least 5 years, so I'm willing to spend a reasonable amount on it.

BTW, I'm using AT&T's Motorola device as a "modem" only -- it has no part of my internal network. It passes all traffic to my router. It might be capable of the bandwidth, but I don't trust AT&T with my internal network, and the device is severely limited with options and configurability (the new made up word of the day!).

Thanks in advance!
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:00 pm

I just grabbed the Netgear 6300 V2 for our church a month or two ago, it is a pretty nice unit. Newegg reviews don't look promising for reliability, but we haven't had any problems (Yet). #1 selling point for me was the almost brainless DD-WRT flash process. Kong is doing active development on this unit which means you'll probably get more DD-WRT updates than factory firmware from netgear.

Relevant DD-WRT links:
http://tips.desipro.de/
http://desipro.de/ddwrt/K3-AC-Arm/


Again, I can't speak to the long-term reliability though, since it isn't old enough to hit the failure window.
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ptsant
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:06 pm

Dieter wrote:
I'm fortunate enough to have AT&T's GigaPower (U-Verse) internet service at home. It's currently 300/300mbps, but I recently received an email that they're going to be moving up to the full gigabit shortly.

I only use it for wired and wireless connections, not storage, so USB/VPN/<insert kitchen sink feature here> isn't important to me. I do use both 2.4 and 5GHz bands, and run a variety of devices (iPads, iPhones, Nexus devices, Kindles, Nooks, Chromecast, laptops, TVs, BluRays, Chromebooks, wireless ethernet converters, streaming video, printers, PCs (mostly hardwired), etc), so I need something that will work with most devices and provide good performance with lots of simultaneous wireless connections.


Don't spend your money on consumer stuff. Buy the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter POE (wired only, can route up to 1 Mil packets/sec) with the Ubiquiti UniFi wireless access point (up to 100 simultaneous clients). T
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Dieter
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:11 pm

Thanks highlandr.

WRT compatibility is a nice to have, but not a requirement for me. I read somewhere that not all WRT implementations have full hardware acceleration, so I'm wary of 3rd party firmware in this case, since in software I think most routers can only do ~200mbps. Merlin uses the Asus firmware so hardware acceleration is enabled AFAIK, but things like Shibby are software only (last I read). I'm not sure about Kong, but I'll definitely look into it!

I ran DD-WRT on Buffalo routers (before they offered it OEM) with great success for years, but that was on 20 or 30mbps connections, so doing everything in software was OK.
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:25 pm

 
Dieter
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 1:30 pm

ptsant wrote:
Don't spend your money on consumer stuff. Buy the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter POE (wired only, can route up to 1 Mil packets/sec) with the Ubiquiti UniFi wireless access point (up to 100 simultaneous clients). T


I briefly looked at Ubiquiti, but I couldn't figure out the right combination of router and AP for a reasonable price. Is there a specific combo you can recommend? It looks like maybe the Edgerouter Lite and UniFi AP AC?

Is their router just a router or does it have easily configured firewall features as well? Their quick specs don't really say. I also haven't looked at Ubiquiti's wifi featureset before, but I'm guessing you can do guest isolation and such? Or, is that done at the router level?

Sorry for all of the questions -- I have experience with Meraki APs but not Ubiquiti, and their site isn't as detailed as I expected.

Also, are they easy to configure? One thing going for home systems is that they're easy to configure, even for advanced features. I'd prefer to not wade through lots of technical references to do simple configuration changes. I'd rather leave work at work! :-)

Thanks!
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:52 pm

Dieter wrote:
ptsant wrote:
I briefly looked at Ubiquiti, but I couldn't figure out the right combination of router and AP for a reasonable price. Is there a specific combo you can recommend? It looks like maybe the Edgerouter Lite and UniFi AP AC?

Is their router just a router or does it have easily configured firewall features as well? Their quick specs don't really say. I also haven't looked at Ubiquiti's wifi featureset before, but I'm guessing you can do guest isolation and such? Or, is that done at the router level?

Sorry for all of the questions -- I have experience with Meraki APs but not Ubiquiti, and their site isn't as detailed as I expected.

Also, are they easy to configure? One thing going for home systems is that they're easy to configure, even for advanced features. I'd prefer to not wade through lots of technical references to do simple configuration changes. I'd rather leave work at work! :-)

Thanks!


I completely understand what you are going through. I did the same thing trying to find the "right" wireless router/AP combo and just decided to separate them. I decided to get the Edgerouter so I could relocate a ASUS RT-N56U to another part of the house and replace it someday.

I have had the Edgerouter lite for more than a year now. It has been stable for me. I'm not pushing the bandwidth by any means (Cox cable Preferred level about 30 - 35 Mbps).

It runs Debian Linux underneath with fork of the Vyatta router software. The web interface manages DHCP, static routes, OSPF, firewall, NAT and port forwarding settings. It uses DNSmasq which is more configurable at the command line than the web interface. The web interface manages the PPPoE settings and the VPN (PPtP or IPSEC). There is also a basic traffic dashboard on the interface.

You can also ssh into the router and manipulate the router in the router's "shell" or at the bash shell level. Also, you can access the command line from the web interface if you do not want to or cannot enable ssh. CLI access is useful to make changes that are not currently supported in the web interface.

You can install debian packages (OpenVPN or other things) if you want. Package changes are lost in upgrades, so you will need to keep track of changes you make at that level to reapply. There is a "safe" configuration area where you can put data/config files that survive upgrades.

Ubiquiti's support forum (community.ubnt.com) is good. IIRC, there are a couple of quickstart howtos there that are easy to follow. There are employees that participate when they can in the forum. Upgrades come every couple of months. There is an open beta program. And if you really want to play around, the router source is available for download. The Cavium MIPS compiler and SDK are downloadable from cnusers.org.

HTH,
Alan
 
divide_by_zero
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 4:27 pm

I'm in the same boat trying to decide on a replacement for my trusty V1 Netgear 3700. (Though I still have craptastic Comcast internet and am wanting to upgrade for the boosted AC throughput.)

First suggestion: Stay the hell away from the Linksys WRT1900AC. We got one for evaluation at work, and it couldn't reliably handle anything you'd want a router to do, wired or wireless.

Second suggestion: Anecdotal evidence from friends and colleagues has been very favorable regarding the higher end (relatively speaking) Asus stuff. Buddy of mine has a pretty darn speedy FIOS connection and a *lot* of wired and wireless clients, and it's been flawless with the latest stock firmware. Seems to do well on Smallnetbuilder reviews as well if I remember correctly.

The failure reports on the Asus reviews are a bit scary, but it's pretty tough to find a router with glowing reviews all around. Even the 3700 that you and I have had great luck with has plenty of awful, scorching, "total garbige i'll nevar by a nother netgear ever again!!!1!" type reviews.

FWIW, I'm probably going to ultimately go with the Asus and flash the Merlin firmware. If I get unlucky and get a flaky Asus, at least I'll have a fairly capable backup 3700 to put back into service.
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Wed Aug 13, 2014 5:06 pm

I can't vouch for it regarding gigabit internet, but at my previous gig we'd bought an Asus AC-66U (the new model is the 68U), and it was very much rock solid. The interface was really easy to work with, too.
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Dieter
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Thu Aug 14, 2014 9:35 am

Alan: Thanks for the detailed info on Ubiquiti. It's more than I want to pay, but might bite the bullet to get something that will last a long time and work well. Fortunately I'm not under any serious time constraints.

divide_by_zero: Mine's a v1 as well. Worth every penny for its years of solid service!

I'm tempted by the Asus routers as well (when they're good, they're good) -- I guess I'll just have to find somewhere with a really good return policy and stress test it heavily (maybe cover all the vent holes! -- just kidding!) early on.
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:57 pm

I could be dredging up an old topic, I know.

However, I've owned the ASUS RT-AC66U and now, the RT-AC87U. And I'd recommend (for most people) the RT-AC68U, even with a few failure reports.

The AC-68U and AC-87U build on the previous model by going to a dual-core processor. The reason this is a big deal is because the single-core CPU of the 66U is fine, until you want to use OpenVPN client or server on your router. The 66U's processor (a 600MHz MIPS) just can't handle the encryption without dropping throughput. The 800MHz dual-core ARM (1GHz dual-core ARM on the 87U) handles this without issue, and if you're going to use a VPN tunnel service like PIA, or one of the other proxies out there, this is really important.

Both the 68U and 87U have aftermarket firmware available, which is generally a polished, bug-fixed version of what ASUS is already doing. The 87U adds some features the 68U will probably get eventually (optional Automatic QoS and gateway antivirus done by Trend) and one feature that won't be useful for a bit: MU-MIMO for better multi-client wireless. The 5GHz wireless on the 87U has a CPU from Quantenna just to handle this frequency, which also offloads some from the regular CPU. Both routers have some of the highest throughput on the market.

As an alternate, the Netgear R7000 may be a good option. Also a dual-core CPU, and good performance. A number of people are happy with them, but I can only speak to ASUS, and my experiences have been pretty good.
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:04 pm

Another Nod for Ubiquiti. I do not have any experience with the EdgeRouter yet (I do have one in stock), but I love their access points.
 
divide_by_zero
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:40 pm

LoneWolf15 wrote:

The AC-68U and AC-87U build on the previous model by going to a dual-core processor. The reason this is a big deal is because the single-core CPU of the 66U is fine, until you want to use OpenVPN client or server on your router. The 66U's processor (a 600MHz MIPS) just can't handle the encryption without dropping throughput. The 800MHz dual-core ARM (1GHz dual-core ARM on the 87U) handles this without issue, and if you're going to use a VPN tunnel service like PIA, or one of the other proxies out there, this is really important.


This is an awesome, concise summary of some really key "need-to-knows" when deciding on which Asus to go with - many thanks!

Cheers!
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:52 pm

I have the AC66U and couldn't be happier with it.

However, as others have pointed out, it has a single-core CPU - which is way more than almost anyone needs, except for a company that needs to have a lot of employees in a VPN, at it only supports 16 simultaneous incoming VPN connections.

But anyone looking for that won't be looking at consumer routers anyway, so I reiterate: it's ossum.
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:08 pm

[quote="ptsant"][/quote]


I agree with ptsant. I did this commercially for ages, and consumer grade gear with ALWAYS let you down. Yes, enterprise can expensive, but if you look hard enough, you can find used Cisco/Juniper gear for incredibly reasonable prices. Hell, I've seen used multilayer (L2/L3) switches for $40 and less. WICs for certain model routers can go for less than $20.

Ubiquiti 802.11ac equipment isn't cheap, but you really get what you pay for, epecially since the newer ones have 6Gbps backplanes.

PM me if you want, and I can go into far more detail than I'm willing to here. It would devolve into tl;dr territory.
 
Hz so good
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:10 pm

morphine wrote:
I have the AC66U and couldn't be happier with it.

However, as others have pointed out, it has a single-core CPU - which is way more than almost anyone needs, except for a company that needs to have a lot of employees in a VPN, at it only supports 16 simultaneous incoming VPN connections.

But anyone looking for that won't be looking at consumer routers anyway, so I reiterate: it's ossum.



I disgree. If you read the specs on the newer gear, even a single core CPU is higly inadequate for a flippin line card used in aggregators. I don't think Cisco has used a single core Processor since the old MIPS days, and even those relied on secondary ASICs to speed up operations.
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:27 pm

Running the N version of the Asus 66U here and couldn't be happier. Flashed it to Tomato by Shibby and it's been rock-solid ever since. I don't ask it to do VPN or anything like that, nor do I have anything hanging off the USB ports, so I'm not exactly challenging it. The entertainment stack down in the living room has better signal strength in both directions and YouTube/Netflix doesn't stutter when the daughter watches her stuff, so it meets the implementation specs.
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:44 pm

Hz so good wrote:
I disgree. If you read the specs on the newer gear, even a single core CPU is higly inadequate for a flippin line card used in aggregators. I don't think Cisco has used a single core Processor since the old MIPS days, and even those relied on secondary ASICs to speed up operations.

Stop thinking enterprise and think home :).

Aside from Google Fiber, I don't see any home usage that needs more.
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Hz so good
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:59 pm

morphine wrote:
Hz so good wrote:
I disgree. If you read the specs on the newer gear, even a single core CPU is higly inadequate for a flippin line card used in aggregators. I don't think Cisco has used a single core Processor since the old MIPS days, and even those relied on secondary ASICs to speed up operations.

Stop thinking enterprise and think home :).

Aside from Google Fiber, I don't see any home usage that needs more.



But that's just it, as prices have fallen, enterprise grade equipment is becoming incredibly affordable for the home user. It's not like I'm trying to push NX-OS datacenter equipment or even loaded out Cat6500 switches where the line cards at $10K a piece. Even a simple 3550 Multilayer switch (with POE capable ports) can be had for $40, and I've seen 2621XMs go for less, with WICs that cost $15-20 at most.


That said, Ubiquiti 802.11ac's are expensive, but they are well worth it. A WISP I worked for tried to cheap out on APs, and they were nothing but trouble. The Smartbridges were theh worst. I've never been so happy as to find out that our shipment was embargoed in customs due to a patent dispute. Those things would lose their IP configs at least one a week, and would wreck havok on the network.

*disclaimer* I've not used the Mikrotik RouterOS based router/switches, so I can't make a qualified decision on those. I've heard both good and bad things about them, but it's all been second hand info.
 
divide_by_zero
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:06 pm

For me it's more about real-world usage than "enterprise vs. consumer". I certainly don't need a Cisco device (though it would be nice for increasing my limited admin skill set) but VPN is a must for our house and it sounds like having a multi-core proc in the router is a necessity for this. Guessing there's not going to be much used AC enterprise stuff out there at this point at a price point that I can justify. :)
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:10 pm

divide_by_zero wrote:
sounds like having a multi-core proc in the router is a necessity for this

Only if you need a lot of VPN connections. The A66U, for example, will do 16.
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Dieter
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:26 pm

No problem bringing back my old thread! :-)

I still haven't moved on this -- had a few big expenses/repairs around the house that made nice-to-haves like >420mbps internet low priority. I get about 420down/380up on my old 3700, which isn't bad at all. A 20GB game still downloads in about 5 minutes from Steam, so I can't complain!

I'm leaning towards the Netgear R7000; it's been out for a while and the firmware seems stable. I know the Asus are good, too. But, it'll probably be next year before I'm able to purchase (unless mine releases the magic smoke).

Please keep the comments coming!
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:17 pm

Dieter, I don't know what you have been reading about the Netgear Nighthawk R7000, but I have not had any issues whatsoever with my unit. ive had mine for a full year now. I bought it a week after they first came out last year. It does not run hot at all and has a plethora of options which includes turning off the super bright LEDs on the router. The wireless range is excellent on both the 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz bands and I have had no issues with disconnects. Netgear has been fairly consistent in updating the firmware over the last year too as I just updated to the latest firmware this morning. I have had as many a 15 devices connected to the router at the same time. I have 3 PCs, 2 network laser printers, an ultrabook, an iPad2, smart tv, denon receiver, directv receiver and genie go box, Blu-ray player, Xbox 360 and Xbox one, and 2 Samsung Galaxy S4 phones. I have 2 8-port Gigabit switches and a 10/100 5-port switch connected to the R7000 to get all those devices connected to router from multiple rooms. You require a guest network which the R7000 has and is available for both bands. You can also use the router as strictly an access point if you wish. I noticed last night that there is a newer version of the R7000 out now, the R7500. It looks very similar except it has 4 antennas. I didn't inspect the specs or the price of the new router so I cant tell you if its worth looking into but I can tell you Ive seen the R7000 as low as $160 on sale over the past few months. Its up to you whether you need a super high speed wireless connection but the R7000 works fast enough for me. My ultrabook is a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro. the wireless card it came with is a piece of crap. its a single band wireless N card, Intel 7260 rev 1. I upgraded the card to Intel 7260 rev 3 which is dual-band wireless ac and I have seen it connect to the R7000 as fast as 876 Mbps.
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Dieter
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:31 pm

Thanks ALIAS,

That's my feeling. It was even on sale at Staples this week for under $150, but unexpected home repairs have put this as a frivolity (for now!).

Of course Amazon and Newegg reviews have plenty of failed units, but as long as I get it from a good vendor, hopefully if it's going to fail, it'll do so quickly.

The 7000 meets my needs just fine. But Firestarter summed up my product indecision perfectly (spookily so!) just a few minutes ago in an unrelated thread:

http://techreport.com/news/27232/friday ... mma#857469

I do appreciate the overwhelming positive feedback, though. It just re-affirms my thoughts (which I'll still endlessly debate in my head until I eventually click the Buy button).
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:55 pm

divide_by_zero wrote:
For me it's more about real-world usage than "enterprise vs. consumer". I certainly don't need a Cisco device (though it would be nice for increasing my limited admin skill set) but VPN is a must for our house and it sounds like having a multi-core proc in the router is a necessity for this. Guessing there's not going to be much used AC enterprise stuff out there at this point at a price point that I can justify. :)



You can easily created multiple VPN tunnels on 2621XMs and 3550ML switches. Just saying. That's all part of the CCNP ROUTE exam. If it wasn't against the TOS, I'd point you in the right direction. ;)


Google the model Cisco router/multilayer switch you're looking for, and check out the ads for the used models. You'll be floored how much cheaper they are, than what you can buy off Best Buy, Fry's, or NewEgg
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:15 pm

Granted, the 3550s max out at 100Mbps per port, and only have 2 GBICs for Gigabit connectivity to another switch, but they can beform far more functionality than a netgear gigabit switch you can get at Best Buy. Those things can't even do VLANs, let alone QoS, or provide 45V power per switch for VoIP phones.
 
Hz so good
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:19 pm

you also always *could* buy a Mikrotik gigabit switch/router, but I'll be honest, they are nowhere as easy to use/setup than a Cisco or Juniper device.

*disclaimer* We did use Juniper VPN appliances at certain buildouts, but only because they cost less than the Cisco gear because we bought them in bulk, and they needed to be rebooted at least once a month.


All told, I'd get a cisco or juniper multilayer switch, and use Ubiquiti 802.11ac APs. They all work great, and have crazy uptimes. I think the record for a Cisco router was over 8 years uptime.
 
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:11 pm

Here's the one thing about buying an enterprise router:

If you don't have a contract for your Cisco enterprise router, you don't get OS upgrades. I'm guessing the same is true for Juniper. This is also true for midrange equipment, like Watchguard, Dell/Sonicwall, and others. Sure, there might be ways to get the upgrades in some cases, but they're not support-compliant, and some of the channels to get them are iffy.

High end home routers get free firmware/OS upgrades as long as the vendor is making them. Models from ASUS can let you either keep it easy through the GUI, or telnet in and work with a command-line if you want to take it there.

In my case, I may be planning on putting my ASUS in access point mode soon, but that's because getting one's Watchguard certification means you can get a $400-500 WatchGuard XTM-25W firewall for $100 with a year of UTM subscription, and I have some smart switches (a Cisco SG300-10MPP and a Netgear GS110TP) that I can run behind them. It's overkill, but I can use it for a test lab (which is why I also plan on linking the two switches via fiber (that, and I was able to order the SFP modules and fiber cable cheap). For anyone else, I'd go with a simultaneous dual-band 802.11ac router with a dual-core processor. The best in show are the ASUS RT-AC68U and the NetGear R7000; a budget third choice is the TP-Link Archer C7 v2, which is a great router on a budget price, but doesn't match the first two (and may not have the VPN support the first two do).
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Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:29 pm

LoneWolf15 wrote:
Here's the one thing about buying an enterprise router:



That is absolutely not true. Granted, I cannot tell you where or how to find it, since was I recently informed that it violates TR's TOS (even PMing me for details violates the TOS), but suffice to say, they ARE available out there in a multitude of places. Hell, a used 3550 MLS retails for$40. The 2621XMs aren;t that much more, and the WICs run from $15 to $40.

The only real issues you are likely to run across is with the newer revs of IOS (newer than 12.4 ), since they changed the licensing model, and if your router/switch/IDS/IPS dies, your warranty is voided.

That's why I said to look for USED multilayer switches and routers. Those can be found very inexpensively. It's not like subby is planning on getting a 6500 cat chassis (the Supervisor Engines and Blades run $10K EACH), or one of the newer NX-OS devices typically found in Data Centers and COs. Those are outrageously priced.

IF TR wasn't so strict, I could point out exactly where to locate equipment he could get for pennies on the dollar, along with any rev of IOS he would need (except for the newest ones). Far cheaper than either getting it from Cisco direct, or even off Ebay.
Last edited by Hz so good on Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
Hz so good
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Joined: Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:08 pm

Re: Good home wireless router for gigabit internet?

Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:38 pm

LoneWolf15 wrote:
Here's the one thing about buying an enterprise router:

If you don't have a contract for your Cisco enterprise router, you don't get OS upgrades. I'm guessing the same is true for Juniper. This is also true for midrange equipment, like Watchguard, Dell/Sonicwall, and others. Sure, there might be ways to get the upgrades in some cases, but they're not support-compliant, and some of the channels to get them are iffy.

High end home routers get free firmware/OS upgrades as long as the vendor is making them. Models from ASUS can let you either keep it easy through the GUI, or telnet in and work with a command-line if you want to take it there.

In my case, I may be planning on putting my ASUS in access point mode soon, but that's because getting one's Watchguard certification means you can get a $400-500 WatchGuard XTM-25W firewall for $100 with a year of UTM subscription, and I have some smart switches (a Cisco SG300-10MPP and a Netgear GS110TP) that I can run behind them. It's overkill, but I can use it for a test lab (which is why I also plan on linking the two switches via fiber (that, and I was able to order the SFP modules and fiber cable cheap). For anyone else, I'd go with a simultaneous dual-band 802.11ac router with a dual-core processor. The best in show are the ASUS RT-AC68U and the NetGear R7000; a budget third choice is the TP-Link Archer C7 v2, which is a great router on a budget price, but doesn't match the first two (and may not have the VPN support the first two do).



BTW, IIRC Juniper owns Sonicwall now. And if you're using SFPs, those area $100 a pop, even for just the 10Gbes, and I'm pretty sure that's overkill for what subby is after. The last time I used SPFs/XFP+s was installing aggregators in COs, so unless he's trying to become his own ISP (and those line cards were $2000 IN BULK), those aren't necessary.

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