Router Suggestions

[skyhawk]

Hi All,

 

Need to upgrade the wifi in my house. Current setup is ATT Uverse with their gateway/router. Well, the damn thing is wireless G, which means that I can mostly stream a single TV show at a time over wifi, but it tanks my browsing on other devices. 

 

Plan is to make the uverse gateway a modem only and run dhcp and everything else through the router (if anyone has experience with this, would appreciate being pointed in the right direction). Other option is dropping ATT for Comcast cable, which will cut my bill in half for the next year and will double my speed (from 12Mbps to 24Mbps).

 

I also would like something with easy VPN setup. I will be away from my house for the next 4 months and want to be able to access my network easily.

 

Pfsense is more than I have time to setup in the next few weeks before i leave (esp since i have 0 experience with it). plus i wont be there and it has to be wife friendly.  And, I need a set-it-and-forget it device as my next job will take all of my free time and stress me through the roof for the next 2 decades (hint - aviation, but not flying).

 

Leaning towards the

Archer C7 - $90

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BUSDVBQ

 

Dont really want to spend more than about $100, but will go up a few bucks if something is that much worth it.

 

House has Cat5e/gigabit from the pc's and router to unraid, so wireless transfer speeds are nice, but not the biggest feature that I need.

[trurl]

I am doing this with Uverse. The exact details probably depends on the gateway/router they have supplied. I have the 3800HGV-B. A Google search for Uverse passthrough or Uverse DMZ might get you going.

 

I have an ASUS NT-R66U router, and it has PPTP VPN and OpenVPN builtin, as well as DDNS through ASUS. Working great for me.

[c3]

I have an ASUS NT-R66U router, and it has PPTP VPN and OpenVPN builtin, as well as DDNS through ASUS. Working great for me.

 

+1 for the ASUS NT-R66U

 

You get three options for firmware:

ASUS, which is pretty good

Merlin, which is ASUS with fixes

TomatoUSB, which has even more features

 

[skyhawk]

i have the 3801HGV, and Ill google the passthrough... but Ill prob switch to comcast unless ATT retention drops my plan to $30 a month (they did this for me about 2 years ago for a 12mo period).

 

only gripe with the NT-R66U is that its a N band and Id prefer to get into AC. But then again, is AC overkill for most home networks?

 

newegg has the ASUS RT-AC66R (so AC band) for $90 refurb. Im sure if it works out of the box, it will work for the foreseeable future. would this make more sense than getting a NT-R66U for $120?

[jumperalex]

My suggestion is that whatever you get, it is dd-wrt compatible. even if you don't switch now or right away, you'll probably be happy in the future.

[trurl]

I was going to ditch AT&T when I cut the cable a couple of months ago, but they were very cooperative about getting rid of cable and increased my internet speeds for a lower price than they were already charging me for internet. No doubt the price will go up sometime but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

[c3]

i have the 3801HGV, and Ill google the passthrough... but Ill prob switch to comcast unless ATT retention drops my plan to $30 a month (they did this for me about 2 years ago for a 12mo period).

 

only gripe with the NT-R66U is that its a N band and Id prefer to get into AC. But then again, is AC overkill for most home networks?

 

newegg has the ASUS RT-AC66R (so AC band) for $90 refurb. Im sure if it works out of the box, it will work for the foreseeable future. would this make more sense than getting a NT-R66U for $120?

 

N and AC are not bands, but encoding methods. Each requires the clients to match.

 

The bands are 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. You want to be only using 5Ghz, unless you live on 1+ acre.

 

And that leads to the reason why you might want N. If you live in high density housing, the wider bandwidth requirement of AC (80Mhz vs 40Mhz) can be a problem. The 5Ghz band started out with 24 channels (much better than 2.4Ghz 3 channels), but AC cuts that in ~half by requiring double wide 80Mhz. If you want the speed you'll need 4 channels in a row (160Mhz), all clear of interference.  If you see more than 6 5Ghz AP from your location, AC is not likely to bring much advantage. If you see dozens of 5Ghz APs, you'll want N (an option on AC routers) since it will let you share better.

 

 

[kaiguy]

Another vote for an Asus router (with Merlin's firmware).

 

I have both the N66U and the AC68U.  For your stated reasons, I think you'd be just fine with the N66U.  It easily can handle your future bandwidth and VPN along with a whole host of features out of the box.  I wanted the AC wireless speeds as well as Time Machine support, so I made the upgrade.  But aside from that, unless you need the better CPU for gigabit internet speeds or some of the on-router apps, the N version is perfect.

 

Add Merlin's firmware, and you get the same Asus firmware with his fixes and enhancements.  In fact, most of his fixes are implemented into the official firmware.  Or throw on the many flavors of Tomato that are compatible with this router (shibby is one that I tried in the past). 

 

It's a great, stable router.

 

[skyhawk]

Called AT&T and told them Comcast had a better deal. They upgraded me to 48Mbps (from 12) and dropped the price down to 40 bucks a month (47 with hardware rental which you can't avoid). They are sending me a new gateway/router and I'm assuming it will have better networking, but I'll check out and then make the decision on the router for vpn and other goodies.

 

Keeping an eye on slick deals to see if another Asus goes on sale. The Asus ac router is ninety bucks, but it's a refurb and I hate 90 day warranties.

[dirtysanchez]

Another +1 for Asus routers. They make great equipment.

[korith]

Upgraded my old linksys wrt54g router to an asus rt-ac66u late last year. The 2.4 band at my place was getting too full, easily 25+ networks from nearby homes within range. The 5Ghz at the moment has just 2 routers using it. That alone made replacing the router worthwhile. I think the router was a bit under $100, bought during the black friday sales. Added dd-wrt  to the rt-ac66u. The stock software on router is perfectly fine, just like the ability to tinker with all the settings that dd-wrt provides.

 

Replaced the wifi cards in 3 of the laptops to take advantage of the speeds ac provides. The intel 7260 goes for under $20. Did end up getting one bcm4352 ($25) for a toshiba laptop that didn't play nice with the intel 7260.

[skyhawk]

Replaced the wifi cards in 3 of the laptops to take advantage of the speeds ac provides. The intel 7260 goes for under $20. Did end up getting one bcm4352 ($25) for a toshiba laptop that didn't play nice with the intel 7260.

thought about doing this. my laptop has a N card and connects at about 120mbps in the same room as the current N router. Are all laptop cards pretty much the same? I have an intel card in there now, so can I just buy practically any intel AC card and swap it in? the "teeth" look the same. I wasnt sure if they were mostly universal or like RAM and had different generations and types to sort through.

 

anyways, I decided against a few asus refurbs. I just dont have the time to deal with a DOA or a 100 day failure and essentially losing the money.

 

newegg has a asus RT-AC68W for $140 with free shipping ($200 router). I was looking for the best bang for my buck and this seems to be it. Router should be here in week. I saw some great deals on netgears and other manufacturers, but almost everywhere I looked, people who had ASUS routers seemed VERY happy with them. these things tend to last 5+ years, so its worth spending a few bucks on extra quality and better firmware IMO.

[ijuarez]

Pfsense is really not that bad.

Unless you're going to to some serious networking it no different than a consumer router

[korith]

thought about doing this. my laptop has a N card and connects at about 120mbps in the same room as the current N router. Are all laptop cards pretty much the same? I have an intel card in there now, so can I just buy practically any intel AC card and swap it in? the "teeth" look the same. I wasnt sure if they were mostly universal or like RAM and had different generations and types to sort through.

 

anyways, I decided against a few asus refurbs. I just dont have the time to deal with a DOA or a 100 day failure and essentially losing the money.

 

newegg has a asus RT-AC68W for $140 with free shipping ($200 router). I was looking for the best bang for my buck and this seems to be it. Router should be here in week. I saw some great deals on netgears and other manufacturers, but almost everywhere I looked, people who had ASUS routers seemed VERY happy with them. these things tend to last 5+ years, so its worth spending a few bucks on extra quality and better firmware IMO.

 

You'll want to google your laptop model, make sure the bios doesn't have a whitelist. Some brands will lock their laptops to only work with certain models or brands of wifi cards. Worked fine for my toshiba and dell laptops The process is very easy. Download the drivers for the new wifi card. There is one screw you remove and you pop off the 2 antenna wires, replace card and put it back together, and install the drivers. Took like 5min in my dell, since the wifi card was accessible thru the back panel. For the toshiba I had to pull the whole case apart to get at the wifi card. It's a great way to upgrade an old laptop, and get off the 2.4 band.

 

That's a good router, good price. Should get a good number of years out of it.

[skyhawk]

Pfsense is really not that bad.

Unless you're going to to some serious networking it no different than a consumer router

as part of our upcoming move, wifey made me throw out all of my extra pc parts, mobos, etc. from what i read, pfsense isnt really worth buying new hardware over. and, Ill be gone in a month. I need a simple and stupid method that doesnt require tinkering. Plus, I have a 1 year old. I just dont have the time for hobbies. Needed a set it and forget it solution.

[ijuarez]

Pfsense is really not that bad.

Unless you're going to to some serious networking it no different than a consumer router

as part of our upcoming move, wifey made me throw out all of my extra pc parts, mobos, etc. from what i read, pfsense isnt really worth buying new hardware over. and, Ill be gone in a month. I need a simple and stupid method that doesnt require tinkering. Plus, I have a 1 year old. I just dont have the time for hobbies. Needed a set it and forget it solution.

 

ahh

 

some of the suggestion posted here are pretty good.

[skyhawk]

any suggestions for a VPN client for android? (edit. see below)

 

Got the Asus router setup last night. ended up taking about 90 minutes in order for it to properly bypass the Uverse router and get the wan configured correctly (the first tutorial that i followed didnt work, second worked after some tinkering). but wow, never seen an easier to use gui. its simple and stupid and everything can be done in like 2 clicks.

 

Want to setup VPN access on my android so I can use NZB 360 and other apps as if i was at home.

 

 

i setup the OpenDNS on the router and the client on my phone. the router shows im connected, but none of my apps will hit unraid, neither will a browser. It looks like Im getting an Ip of 10.0.8.6 on my home network through open vpn, but my unraid server is sitting on 192.168.1.1, so I think (from my limited networking knowledge) that this is preventing me from accessing it.

[trurl]

Is your unRAID on the ASUS router?

 

I prefer 10.x.x.x addresses instead of 192.168.x.x for LAN. Easier to type and remember.

 

I have my ASUS set to DHCP 10.0.0.x addresses to my LAN with all known MACs assigned static addresses. Guests get to login to the Guest network on the ASUS and get IP address from the pool.

 

ASUS WAN port is attached to Uverse modem/router. The Uverse normally hands out 192.168.1.x addresses, but I have my ASUS setup on the Uverse as DMZplus, so it actually gets an external IP address from Uverse. All devices in my home are connected to ASUS ports or switches connected to ASUS ports with one exception. I have a "home control" device sitting on one of the Uverse ports so I can easily access it from my smartphone.

 

I am using OpenVPN on the ASUS and I can access anything on my network just as if I was there, except for bandwidth of course. Can't get gigabit up/down over internet yet.

[skyhawk]

trurl, cant thank you enough. you are always popping in my threads and providing assistance.

 

your confirmation that it 'should work' based on your setup helped me to figure out the issue. Im still on the 192.168 pool, but might migrate it all to 10. later.

 

I realized that SAB hadnt downloaded anything since the night i installed the router. Started poking around and realized that I never updated my unraid default gateway or DNS 1 server. Both were set to the old uverse modem and not the ASUS,

 

so, quick settings change there and everything was back up and running. The next morning I thought about it and realized that this error would probably disable my vpn from talking to unraid as well. even with the wrong settings, unraid was still serving media on the network until around saturday.

 

Its funny how the littlest things can make me the happiest. Ive had unraid for like 5 years now. This is the first time Ive had remote access (other than teamviewer). It makes me incredibly happy to be able to add a tv show or check on my parity check status from my cell phone at work. its the little things in life. i tried to explain to my wife how cool this is, but she didnt get it.    she thinks im nuts with all of this stuff anyway

 

so, other than the mistake on my part, this was really simple and easy. definitely super happy i went with the asus instead of the archer. asus firmware kicks ass and is very simple to use.

[trurl]

... i tried to explain to my wife how cool this is, but she didnt get it.    she thinks im nuts with all of this stuff anyway...

I tried to explain to mine how cool it is that our docker developers have made it possible to run Linux desktop applications in a web browser and she just looked at me.

[ijuarez]

... i tried to explain to my wife how cool this is, but she didnt get it.    she thinks im nuts with all of this stuff anyway...

I tried to explain to mine how cool it is that our docker developers have made it possible to run Linux desktop applications in a web browser and she just looked at me.

 

Or better yet, why are always type type typing, its not hard its you click and your done.. You just want to avoid me with all that typing.

[trurl]

... i tried to explain to my wife how cool this is, but she didnt get it.    she thinks im nuts with all of this stuff anyway...

I tried to explain to mine how cool it is that our docker developers have made it possible to run Linux desktop applications in a web browser and she just looked at me.

 

Or better yet, why are always type type typing, its not hard its you click and your done.. You just want to avoid me with all that typing.

For some reason she thinks I am always on this forum!