Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, Steel, notfred
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
divide_by_zero wrote:sounds like having a multi-core proc in the router is a necessity for this
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.
LoneWolf15 wrote:Here's the one thing about buying an enterprise router:
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).