What is the best router out these days?

[Makaveli]

I called Asus again the morning. I was told I was going to receive a call from level 2 tech support. I called 4+ hours after the window I was to be called and was put on hold forever. I was then told that the people looking at my problem were waiting for direction from above and that I would get a call back within a week.

I don't know if I am getting smoke blown up my you know what or what.

I left a poor review on the router at Amazon. Not nasty worded, just factual with no drama. Asus responded with the same suggestions that I had received on the first phone call and that if they didn't work, to contact them to start the RMA process.

At this point I don't know whether to wait or RMA or what.

The problems are intermittent. After resetting, flashing and manually restoring my settings (they didn't want me pulling in an exported configuration file) I have not yet experienced the wireless dropout but I am experiencing the no connection issue to the modem. I have been turning off and on the UPS I now have them plugged into to simulate a power failure.

In all my years I have never had a modem and router not link up to each other after the initial pairing was completed. Once the modem has picked up on the MAC of the WAN port on the router, subsequent power outages never resulted in the issue I'm having.

The common denominators are the same model SB6121 modem at each residence, Comcast and an Asus router (different models as I've indicated.)

I'm actually toying with dropping the $10 a month for a combo rental from Comcast again. I don't want to because they don't allow for loopback and it's handy if I need to troubleshoot my Synology and Foscam, etc.

Sigh ...

If you're still there, what firmware are you running on the AC66U? If you're stable and not experiencing problems I will roll back if necessary as a troubleshooting step. I have run DD-WRT on routers before and I am not opposed to running other firmware but I'm looking for easy peasy. I found that definitive instructions for DD-WRT were difficult to find and that the installation was a bit too painstaking for my liking.

Have you tried merlin's firmware on that router?

 

[Smoove910]

If Merlins firmware doesn't work any better, I'd RMA it. If they send you a new, in the box unit, you could sell, or take your chances again. Good luck!

 

[boomerang]

I'll give Merlin a try today. I've downloaded the latest version, I'll get it on there later this morning.

 

[boomerang]

Flashed to latest version of Merlin. It looked bad at first but within a minute or two after all the lights had stabilized, it established a link to the modem with no intervention on my part. I'm not going to declare it a victory yet, I will create some more 'power failures' first. Just to be clear, it did not connect initially, it took a minute or two to do so.

I see some more settings are available. Why is UPnP enabled by default? FWIW, it's the same with the Asus firmware. I left it enabled with this flash, I sure hope it wasn't the cause of my problems before ...

 

[RossMAN]

Just curious, are you a T-Mobile postpaid customer?

 

[boomerang]

Just curious, are you a T-Mobile postpaid customer?

Huh? To answer your question, no.

 

[smitbret]

Huh? To answer your question, no.

He asks because T-Mobile customers can get a T-Mobile Cell Spot for a $25 deposit. It is an Asus RT-AC68U with T-mobile's tweaked firmware. It is a great router as is, but if you spend 30 minutes with YouTube tutorial you can hack the firmware and flash it to stock or AsusWRT firmware. That's what I am using, in fact T-mobile waived the deposit for me.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I called Asus again the morning. I was told I was going to receive a call from level 2 tech support. I called 4+ hours after the window I was to be called and was put on hold forever. I was then told that the people looking at my problem were waiting for direction from above and that I would get a call back within a week.

I don't know if I am getting smoke blown up my you know what or what.

I left a poor review on the router at Amazon. Not nasty worded, just factual with no drama. Asus responded with the same suggestions that I had received on the first phone call and that if they didn't work, to contact them to start the RMA process.

At this point I don't know whether to wait or RMA or what.

The problems are intermittent. After resetting, flashing and manually restoring my settings (they didn't want me pulling in an exported configuration file) I have not yet experienced the wireless dropout but I am experiencing the no connection issue to the modem. I have been turning off and on the UPS I now have them plugged into to simulate a power failure.

In all my years I have never had a modem and router not link up to each other after the initial pairing was completed. Once the modem has picked up on the MAC of the WAN port on the router, subsequent power outages never resulted in the issue I'm having.

The common denominators are the same model SB6121 modem at each residence, Comcast and an Asus router (different models as I've indicated.)

I'm actually toying with dropping the $10 a month for a combo rental from Comcast again. I don't want to because they don't allow for loopback and it's handy if I need to troubleshoot my Synology and Foscam, etc.

Sigh ...

If you're still there, what firmware are you running on the AC66U? If you're stable and not experiencing problems I will roll back if necessary as a troubleshooting step. I have run DD-WRT on routers before and I am not opposed to running other firmware but I'm looking for easy peasy. I found that definitive instructions for DD-WRT were difficult to find and that the installation was a bit too painstaking for my liking.

ASUS Firmware, latest version. Never really tinkered with the custom ones - the regular has always done everything I wanted.

If merlin is working better, then it's working, but if it starts acting wonky I'd say RMA or something.

 

[aigomorla]

the absolute best...
Virtualized Setup / dedicated setup running PfSense / Smoothwall / IPCop...
Nothing will be beat a router which u build yourself outside expensive Enterprise Firewall Routers, as they are basically the same thing.

Have some knowledge with linux...
Id say Ubiquiti Edgerouter probably surpasses any consumer grade router in stability, and reliability.
However these are not easy to setup again... unless u know what your doing.

(top 2 options require you to use a Wireless AP as they dont offer Wifi.... personally i would never use Wifi built on the router itself, as dedicated Access Points are far superior then any consumer based Wifi. I personally use Ubiquiti Unifi AP's for Wifi.)

These top 2 options can also cost you $$$ depending on how you setup, and what type of hardware you decide to go on the top option... Have extra hardware laying around?... dont care about power draw?... then the first option can also cost you nothing in that regards...

Best Consumer Routers...
Meh... to me personally they are all junk.... every last one of them.. i dont care how much they cost, the raw fact i have never had any consumer router last me longer then 2 yrs without being required to replace has made me go with the Top option i listed.

The only benifit of a consumer based router is that they are fairly easy to setup, and offer a very easy webgui. However with the lovey invention of youtube, even setting up a enterprise class firewall can be done fairly easy if you decide to do a little research.

when most people need a router, their top priority is for the hardware to connect wireless devices and thus they associate it as such even though the primary concern with the actual routing is done in the software/firmware

so even if you build a router from old computer parts and use pfsense, you still need to spend money on wireless access points unless you have old wireless routers you can repurpose for such a task, which might not be acceptable if the original desire is to upgrade wireless performance/features in the first place.

you see tho if it was apples to apples in wifi, then i would agree with you.

However if you get a good access point, there are NO consumer Wifi routers which can beat the range / stablity in which a good dedicated access point will give... again, like a Cisco / Ubiquiti branded AP.
Its the old saying... you pay for what you get.... and in regards to wifi, you most definitely get what you paid for....

Someone should of asked the OP what his budget was.... I had some friends who got fed up with consumer based routers, told me they dont care how much it will cost, they want full bars EVERYWHERE in the house including the bathroom when they are taking a bath... hence... you will need to strategically place AP's throughout the house, and not depend on a single stand alone consumer based unit.