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Home wireless AC router suggestion? Or wait?

A

arandomguy

Senior member
From what I understand the most common suggestion will be the Asus RT-AC68u. My question is although it might be regarded as the "best" but how much (or how worth it) is actually paying for it? I'm looking more so for value.

For example if the D-Link 880L is $110 and the lowest I've seen the Asus for is $180. What makes the Asus, and is it, worth the $70 or 60% extra? Or the Nighthawk AC1900 for $150 as another comparison point.

Usage would be a condo sized environment. Maximum client devices would be at 6-7 devices rarely, mostly 3-5 at most (1-2 wired, 2-3 wireless). External line is only 1up/6down mbps currently (although might be upgraded higher but would still be well below 50mbps down).

Also is there any reason to maybe wait? Such as waiting for the standard to mature (although from what I understand AC is finalized?). When I bought into wireless N it was still draft and my router is also limited to 2.4ghz single band (slower, more congested now), whereas I could have waited for 5.0ghz solutions.
 
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I mentioned I will be upgrading the line however that isn't the reason for the upgrade.

The issue is speed over the network between clients, specifically over wireless such as for file transfers and streaming. Also I'm hoping for better range and reliability over wireless as well.

The other issue is the existing router is starting to suffer from reliability issues (possibly due to aging?). Aside from periodic crashes (requiring a reset) other issues such as wifi and external (internet) access completely cutting off if I do a file transfer between two wired clients.
 
According to the info that you post above your Network would not benefit from serious upgrade (hence Kevin right comment).

So what the point spending the money now when we all know that every 6-12 months the hardware picture changes.

Unlike CPU and Video cards where the number of top manufatuer stands at three (Intel, nVidea, and AMD/ATI) which all providing info concerning new hardware and projected date releases. The Consumers Networking arena is dominated by "BS" marketing ploys. So there is No reason for untimely investing in hardware.



😎
 
Most of what is being said here is true. But I also understand that sometimes you just get the itch to upgrade. If you want to do it without blowing a ton of money:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BUS...7489645&sr=8-1

You won't be disappointed for $80 and it is certainly better than the D-Link you mentioned. Been using one for more than a year and have been nothing but pleased. Smallnetbuilder.com ranks it as the #1 AC1750 router.

It's not the R7000 but for half the price, you'll get 95% of the performance.
 
That Asus Router you mentioned in the OP has been a pain in the *** to setup for me. I've had to manually set wireless channels for the 2.4 ghz band, 5 ghz band, as well as do other settings to make it work with my devices. It just rarely is friendly with anything.

It's fast, but it took work to make it work the way it's supposed to.

Like JackMDS said though, dont' make a purchase unless you actually need it now.
 
That's interesting since I tried doing searches regarding home routers and almost everyone was suggesting the Asus or the Nighthawk as the "best." I was mainly coincerned whether or not it's worth the very high price wasn't even thinking if they had major drawbacks.

JackMDS said:
According to the info that you post above your Network would not benefit from serious upgrade (hence Kevin right comment).

So what the point spending the money now when we all know that every 6-12 months the hardware picture changes.

Unlike CPU and Video cards where the number of top manufatuer stands at three (Intel, nVidea, and AMD/ATI) which all providing info concerning new hardware and projected date releases. The Consumers Networking arena is dominated by "BS" marketing ploys. So there is No reason for untimely investing in hardware.



😎
Click to expand...

But aren't there benefits in doing file transfers? Right now I do regularly do file transfers from a wireless PC to a wired PC. Even with direct line of sight (using extension antennae) the max speed I get is ~8MBps (megabytes) in optimum conditions 20 ft away as I'm currently limited to wireless-N 2.4ghz. This also goes down if other clients are active as well.

In the long run I'm so looking to attach a dedicated file server, NAS or at least an external USB storage.

I also would like to try more in home game streaming as well (eg. steam in home streaming, or streaming to an android tablet using limelight, or PS4 streaming or etc.) from which I understand there is a noticeable difference at least going up to 5ghz wireless-n speeds? Media streaming would also fall into this.

Remote PC connection, over the network, quality is also not as good as I'd like it and could be better.

Also the current router is starting to flake out gradually it seems with reliability issues. I thought it'd be a good idea doing research now and waiting for a good deal to pop up versus waiting for it to actually become insufferable and buying a new one at whatever the current price is (likely very overpriced versus on sale) with poor research.

I thought now might be a good time to buy with the holiday sales season and Wireless-AC becoming finalized.

In case anyone is wondering the current router is a D-Link DIR-655.

smitbret said:
Most of what is being said here is true. But I also understand that sometimes you just get the itch to upgrade. If you want to do it without blowing a ton of money:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BUS...7489645&sr=8-1

You won't be disappointed for $80 and it is certainly better than the D-Link you mentioned. Been using one for more than a year and have been nothing but pleased. Smallnetbuilder.com ranks it as the #1 AC1750 router.

It's not the R7000 but for half the price, you'll get 95% of the performance.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll look into that one. Looking for a better value as opposed to the "best," for instance a GTX 970 over a GTX 980 in video card terms as an example. Or trying to understand what the "best" would actually give me to make it worth it, hence the OP question.
 
I will say this -- I upgraded to an AC68U and am very, very happy. Range has increased substantially over my DIR-655 for all clients and AC clients are very, very fast. I have my entire entertainment center wirelessly bridged to the AC68U and it performs very well.
 
arandomguy said:
But aren't there benefits in doing file transfers? Right now I do regularly do file transfers from a wireless PC to a wired PC. Even with direct line of sight (using extension antennae) the max speed I get is ~8MBps (megabytes) in optimum conditions 20 ft away as I'm currently limited to wireless-N 2.4ghz. This also goes down if other clients are active as well.
Click to expand...

Yeah that is true provided that you have a matching Wireless card that support the higher bandwidth (or you are willing to spend more and buying it), and the physical environment is friendly for 5GHz.


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Well the second desktop would need to have its wireless updated.

However the rest of the devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) have basically already progressed to 5ghz N, and future devices will likely support AC since that is starting to trickle into consumer electronics now.
 
Based on your info so far, here's what I'd go with: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-091-_-Product

Unless you have a NEED for AC, no need in spending the money right now on it. Wait another year, two or three years and when the need comes up, then buy it. Technology changes too often for that. Another option if you're going to be there awhile is to just get a standalone wireless AP and mount it in a central location. In my experience, equipment does better when you use a separate piece of hardware for wireless and such.

Most of the time I see people having their wireless router in one side of the house and complaining all the the time that wireless is slow and spending gobs of money on the latest greatest wireless router, only to keep putting it at the edge of the house and guess what, never an improvement. You're giving your neighbors great signal to your equipment but not your own equipment. Centrally locate it by moving it or getting a dedicated WAP and guess what, night and day difference. Location and environment is everything with wireless performance
 
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