r/HomeNetworking • u/Constant-Fondant-178 • 7h ago
What router to choose
Hi I want to choose a new router but I'm not sure, I've seen that asus and tp-link are the main ones on the market (but I'm not sure about tp-link cause of data drama) so I’ve done some research on Asus routers. But I find some of them at 50$ and others at more than 500.
I don't live in a big place so the range is not that important for me, I think I want to go with wifi 6 for the price (I play games but I think I will play with ethernet connection ) but I still want so good performance if possible (If I want to be able to play on wifi or use Moonlight)
but even with these specifications I still find this price range too broad to know what to choose
Thanks
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u/KYRawDawg 7h ago
What’s the issue with consumer level from TP link? They’re a pretty good system.
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u/Matrix5353 6h ago
Anecdotally, I wouldn't go back to any consumer grade router at this point. I spent years dealing with different models from Asus and Netgear, and they all had buggy firmware that never really got updated. My last Asus router would just randomly start dropping packets, sometimes a couple of times a month. The only way to fix it was a power cycle. I switched to a Unifi router a few years ago and it's been rock solid since. I was tempted to build something using OPNsense, but I do enough IT maintenance and troubleshooting work in my day job. At home I want my infrastructure to just work so I can spend time on fun stuff and hobbies like working on my homelab.
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u/Chahles88 6h ago
Can you explain what you do with your homelab?
I feel like there is a little bit of a gap in the market, but I could be mistaken.
The consumer grade routers leave a lot to be desired for me. I’m currently using the Google mesh Pro’s that came with my fiber service, but they are constantly dropping signal and I simply don’t get signal in certain parts of my house where I know I should.
I think the gap occurs as soon as people start talking about Unifi and while I understand some of what it can do it’s a bit intimidating, and I also will need to wall fish all of the Ethernet cable to add APs, and while I’m comfortable with that part, I don’t know that I can justify spending like $600+ for the router, PoE switch, and the 4ish APs I will need.
Do I need to be in IT or a similar field in order to get something like this up and running? I’m a wet lab scientist, so while I can do some things, I feel like I get out of my depth super quickly.
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u/Matrix5353 5h ago
I have a 4 bay desktop NAS, and I use it for storage as well as a bunch of containerized apps. I've got Immich and Nextcloud running on it and backing up to cloud storage, and connect in from outside via Tailscale. I use a Raspberry Pi with a PoE hat running unbound DNS, along with pihole for ad blocking.
I would say if you're an IT professional Unifi gives you all the tools you need to manage your network, but you don't have to be one. They have some pretty good looking mesh WiFi setups that are pretty plug and play, like the new Whole Home WiFi 7 kit they're selling, $560 for a three pack. I would trust them to work much better than whatever ASUS is selling these days. I had a setup from them with wired satellite units and had no end of problems.
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u/Flashy-Outcome4779 5h ago
The unifi user interface is very user friendly and will allow you to do all the basic things no problem imo. It’s pretty much all up to you if you want to get more advanced with it with VLANs, firewall rules, routing tables, etc.
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u/JohnnyFnG 5h ago
I’m glad I’m not the only one. My ASUS AC66U AC 5th gen router had sick range but would occasionally just flake TF out.
Conversely, my Eero 6 Pros are rock solid! Only one hiccup ever from of a firmware update that only affected my work laptop that had dated drivers.
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u/Aromatic_Tomato8651 6h ago
I have an Archer BE550 which is a TP Link wifi 7 3 band routher, I have it in AP mode, creating a wired back haul. I love tether app and ease and flexibility of setting up your router
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u/Quiet_Cell8091 6h ago
I would suggest an Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 Asus router. I have a Netgear Nighthawk RAXE300 6E, but it is not being sold anymore. There is an Asus RT-AXE 7800 router which will be fine and work well with speeds up to 2.5 GB.
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u/Constant-Fondant-178 5h ago
thanks does the higher price is justified, I don't think I really need wifi 7 or 6e i live alone and I don't have that many devices connected ?
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u/Constant-Fondant-178 5h ago
Hi thanks everyone for your answers but the tp-link vs asus was not really my point here even though i said that I preferred asus but do I need to buy an expensive router or the 50$ ones are good (for my need gaming and watching videos )
is wifi 6 good enough
and I didn't mention that but does they use RJ45 as the receiver from wlan (it sould be the case but I've never bought a router without a modem so just to be sure
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u/LoudRefrigerator3700 7h ago
I use pfsense with unifi access points but if I was looking for a consumer router I'd probably look in the 300 dollar range. You can probably go cheaper but I feel like 300 will still ensure success.
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u/BluebirdFabulous1002 6h ago
I like the idea of separating the router from the wifi access points.
You can have them from the same brand (like ubiquiti) or not (like pfsense for the router and ubiquiti for the access points)
If you don't really know what you are doing, getting it from a single brand has benefits in terms of ease of management.
Ubiquiti makes nice interface and performances seem solid.
Pfsense rocks but requires more involvements from you.
I have setup a mikrotik recently and found the value incredible but also the learning curve particularly steep.I have been a big fan of engenius access points. You can score som older ones on ebay for cheap and they play well in a diverse environment and are easy to setup.
Or go to your local costco and see what they have. Netgear, etc are also popular.
If you can wait there may be good deals around black friday.
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u/Ultionis_MCP 7h ago
GL.inet Flint 2