Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Hi, I need a router for an apartment cca. 70m2, 3 people will live there, me, one friend and one other guy/girl. I don't have any ac client for now, just n (a hp pavilion dv7 laptop, Microsoft Surface 2 and a Nokia Lumia 920), but my friend has some ac clients too (Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Surface 3 Pro) and one gaming rig with no wifi for now (he will probably buy some ac card for that too). We don't know what the third guy/girl will have. So, is it a good idea to buy an ac router ? What would be the benefits of it and what the cons ? Would I benefit anything at all from an ac router ? We were looking the most at two n routers: TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 and ASUS RT-N65U and two ac routers, that would be TP-LINK AC1750 and ASUS RT-AC66U. What do you suggest that we buy ? If you have a question just ask, if you have a better suggestion just tell :D Thanks for your help :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted September 22, 2014 Veteran Share Posted September 22, 2014 Future proof is the main benefit of going AC I would say. Unless there are widely known issues that somehow the AC would degrade the N connection significantly, which there are none that I am aware of, I say go AC.I also had an Asus RT-N66U before I upgraded to a Netgear R7000 and it was a damn good router. So I definitely would lean towards Asus just based on personal experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaP Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Even Skynet needs a router who would have known ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Future proof is the main benefit of going AC I would say. Unless there are widely known issues that somehow the AC would degrade the N connection significantly, which there are none that I am aware of, I say go AC. I also had an Asus RT-N66U before I upgraded to a Netgear R7000 and it was a damn good router. So I definitely would lean towards Asus just based on personal experience. We will be only 2 years in that apartment, so there is no need to be feature proof (probably some of us would take it home anyway). Is the netgear R7000 the king of all ? I have very bad opinion of netgear, because a few years ago I bought one and it didn't work at all. I took it back to the shop and the guy there couldn't do the setup also. I have an ASUS rt-n16 at home and was thinking if I should buy a new one for home and take this with me instead, because I have very bad signal in the upper floor (not above the router, but on the other side of the house). Would the signal strength be better with an ac router, though I don't have an ac client upstairs for now ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blade1269 Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 I say apple airport extreme! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neo1911 Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 I am using ASUS RT-AC68U. I am very happy with it. With latest firmware, it has been stable for more than 2 months. That's what matters. RT-AC87U is not recommended because of unfinished and buggy firmware. With R7000 and R8000 routers, Netgear has upped their router game and may just beat the above ASUS routers. But I am weary of past Netgear experiences and their slow firmware update cycle. The choice is yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T3X4S Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Is the netgear R7000 the king of all ? I have very bad opinion of netgear, because a few years ago I bought one and it didn't work at all. I took it back to the shop and the guy there couldn't do the setup also. I have an ASUS rt-n16 at home and was thinking if I should buy a new one for home and take this with me instead, because I have very bad signal in the upper floor (not above the router, but on the other side of the house). Would the signal strength be better with an ac router, though I don't have an ac client upstairs for now ? No, the R7000 is not the king of all. There really isnt a definate king of consumer routers. The Linksys AC1900 is a beast, and will only get better as it is open source. The top ASUS AC router is a beast, but I dont know anything about the Nighthawk 6x (R8000) - its huge, I know that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 No, the R7000 is not the king of all. There really isnt a definate king of consumer routers. The Linksys AC1900 is a beast, and will only get better as it is open source. The top ASUS AC router is a beast, but I dont know anything about the Nighthawk 6x (R8000) - its huge, I know that... This two are wayyyyy too much money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramesees Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Am I right in saying that the R7000 and R8000 are just routers - I would need to purchase an ADSL modem to plug into them ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Am I right in saying that the R7000 and R8000 are just routers - I would need to purchase an ADSL modem to plug into them ? You are right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ramesees Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 You are right. Thanks :D Incidentally - which modem were you thinking of using with it ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 Thanks :D Incidentally - which modem were you thinking of using with it ? I have FTTH and this modem: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+John Teacake MVC Posted September 22, 2014 MVC Share Posted September 22, 2014 What kind of speeds do you get FTTH. Thats nice...BTW! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 What kind of speeds do you get FTTH. Thats nice...BTW! :) The connection speed is 100/10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyLarry Veteran Posted September 22, 2014 Veteran Share Posted September 22, 2014 Is the netgear R7000 the king of all ? I have very bad opinion of netgear, because a few years ago I bought one and it didn't work at all. I took it back to the shop and the guy there couldn't do the setup also. As pointed out already there is no real king, but with that said I personally like it better than the Asus RT-N66U. I also did not have a great opinion of Netgear, but the R7000 router was getting great reviews. I was also having an issue with the N66U with Apple devices, specifically iPads, dropping their connection to the router. No other devices. Was never fixed in a firmware either. The R7000 is a beast for myself. Range is spectacular, covers my whole house actually, and my Macbook pro, I get the same speeds on Wireless that I do when directly plugged in via Ethernet. Same exact speeds. The Asus was also never capable of that. Was always around 10 MB slower on both sides. I just took this speedtest recently from my Macbook on Wireless (on the 14th). I can also say the Netgear's UI is very easy to work with, no issues at all with it, opening ports is easy, all that good stuff. So while it is hard to say if it is a king, it is damn good, I can say that. And I did have some specific issues with the N66U I could never resolve. Just to show how good the Netgear is with range, I just did another SpeedTest. I am upstairs in my house in the far corner. The router is downstairs in the middle. In fact that speedtest above is from the same room as the router is in. Again, this is upstairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 As pointed out already there is no real king, but with that said I personally like it better than the Asus RT-N66U. I also did not have a great opinion of Netgear, but the R7000 router was getting great reviews. I was also having an issue with the N66U with Apple devices, specifically iPads, dropping their connection to the router. No other devices. Was never fixed in a firmware either. The R7000 is a beast for myself. Range is spectacular, covers my whole house actually, and my Macbook pro, I get the same speeds on Wireless that I do when directly plugged in via Ethernet. Same exact speeds. The Asus was also never capable of that. Was always around 10 MB slower on both sides. I just took this speedtest recently from my Macbook on Wireless (on the 14th). SpeedTest-9.14.14.png I can also say the Netgear's UI is very easy to work with, no issues at all with it, opening ports is easy, all that good stuff. So while it is hard to say if it is a king, it is damn good, I can say that. And I did have some specific issues with the N66U I could never resolve. Just to show how good the Netgear is with range, I just did another SpeedTest. I am upstairs in my house in the far corner. The router is downstairs in the middle. In fact that speedtest above is from the same room as the router is in. Again, this is upstairs. This are some nice results!I don't have any apple devices and probably will never have, so I don't have any problems with that. The netgear r7000 is ac1900 so you must compare it to asus rt-ac68u and not ac66u, to which you did. I looked at one review now and their performace is pretty much the same. One is best at one, second is best at other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted September 24, 2014 Veteran Share Posted September 24, 2014 They are technically the same with the only difference being one has 600mbps on the 2.4Ghz frequency vs 450Mbps. FYI you will never get that speed or anything faster than the 450Mbps anywhere outside of a lab so the point is mute. They both have the same 1300Mbps speeds for AC. Since you can't connect to both signals at the same time then it doesn't matter what their 2.4ghz speeds are since you will be using 5ghz for any real speed and 2.4 for basic devices that don't need real speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Statikk Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 I'd go with a Ubiquiti EdgeRouter PoE and add a unifi access point. http://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgerouter-poe/ -Jenks 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 25, 2014 Author Share Posted September 25, 2014 I ended buying an Asus rt-n66u in the end, I hope it's good :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouettus Posted September 25, 2014 Share Posted September 25, 2014 I ended buying an Asus rt-n66u in the end, I hope it's good :D Range took a plunge with that one when I bought it. My older N router had EXCELLENT coverage but had ipv6 problems with my isp so ended up with the asus one. Now I can't play some of the high bitrates movies I used to be able to. Very nice, lots of features and rock stable tho... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynetz Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 Maybe the firmware is better now :) Hope so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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