Wireless Routers

[Pak-Man]

So I bought my wireless router back in 2005, and it's served me well, but the increasing number of gadgets in my house that use Wi-Fi has shown me that I really don't get the reception I need in my living room. Time to upgrade!

So how do I know what router will give me the best range at a decent price? Is ANYTHING made today going to do better than my 8 year old router?

[MrTorso]

I got this one when I built a new PC:

http://www.netgear.com/R6300#


I love it. It is powerful!  I have multiple floors and walls and I get strong signals.  When I walk the dog I can make it 3 houses down the street before I lose the connection.

[Darth Geek]

I have a Cisco Lynksys E1200 that works very well for me. Although I ususally only have the one laptop and cell phone at a time, so it may be less than your workload.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Upgraded my wifi router, went a little overboard getting an Asus RT-AC66U, but really liking the coverage and extra features so far.

It has 2 USB ports that can be used for storage or 3G/4G wireless internet (backup if your main internet goes down) if you have a USB modem or tethered phone.

The USB storage is very cool, the router has a DLNA server for media, and my TV and phone can access it.  And it's fast, very nice after the disappointment of hooking up a large drive to my Roku and having it slow to a crawl.

Another USB storage feature is a download manager, so you can set up large downloads and have the router do them without needing to leave a computer on.

Also supports ipv6, so I now have that working at home.

[Variety of Cells]

Picked up a new router. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D69747O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's nice and speedy, and it's dual band so our computers and my iphone 5 can take advantage of the 5GHz while letting my fiancee's old iphone still connect.  Was pretty easy to setup too, and I like the feet that lift it quite a ways off the ground when I have it horizontal which increases airflow.  And I LOVE the QoS features.  I have video set to top priority so now I don't have to worry about pausing a download whenever my fiance wants to watch the Roku.  The router makes sure there's plenty of bandwidth for streaming video and gives the rest to the download. 

I bought it originally because I thought my old router was going bad.  Internet access would stop completely after downloading at max speed for a few hours, and wouldn't come back until I power cycled the modem.  So I was a little pissed when the issue came up again.  I figured it was the router, but I still went through Time Warner's chat tech support just to make sure they couldn't do anything.  I was soooo happy when the problem still happened when I took the router out of the equation like they asked, because the problem was finally narrowed down and the solution is simple.  Well, relatively simple.  Trying to get Time Warner to come give me a new modem is going to be a pain.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Do you have wireless AC adapters for your computers?  It is faster than wireless N.  Unfortunately they are still a bit overpriced because it is new technology.

I've got an ASUS USB-AC56 for my PC and a slightly cheaper EnGenius EUB1200AC adapter for my laptop.

It's crazy fast transferring files.

[Variety of Cells]

My computers are wired except for the old macbook pro and her new macbook air.  I'm pretty sure her air supports wireless AC.  I'll find out when she gets home tomorrow. 

The router I purchased does have usb ports in the back, but unfortunately doesn't support tethering.  Didn't know that was possible, sound like a nice feature. 

[ihavemyreasons]

My router bit the dust- connection was cutting in and out and a firmware update and then giving Tomato a try made it even worse.

Ordered a new router, but a couple of years ago when I was traveling a lot for work I bought this for using in hotels and at public hot spots due to security concerns:
https://www.amazon.com/GL-iNet-GL-AR300M-Pre-installed-Performance-Compatible/dp/B01K6MHRJI/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1545188522&sr=8-4&keywords=glinet+router

Shortly after it arrived (and I paid about half the current Amazon price) I switched jobs and never used it.

But I hooked it up as a temporary solution until my new proper router arrives and have been very impressed with it.
Easy as hell to set it up to connect to my VPN service provider and to change VPN locations and it was easy to change the DNS to Cloudflare.

[Darth Geek]

My parents have had their internet vary and even vut out a few times recently. I don't think their router is very old. BUt is there a way to find out if the issue is with the router or if it's with the signal coming in?

[ihavemyreasons]

My parents have had their internet vary and even vut out a few times recently. I don't think their router is very old. BUt is there a way to find out if the issue is with the router or if it's with the signal coming in?

First thing I always do is try new cables- I replaced the RG-6 coax cable running from the cable wall outlet to the modem and the ethernet cable from the modem to the router (wife makes fun of me because I buy cables in bulk and always have extras on hand-buying in bulk from Amazon or Monoprice is far cheaper than having to run out to Wal Mart or Best Buy and buy their overpriced crap).
Next thing I try is a different router.
In my case, cables didn't make a difference, but the cheap little router in my link above (despite being much worse spec wise than the router it has temporary replaced) hasn't had any connection problems and actually seems faster than the failing router was before it started having connection problems.

[Darth Geek]

My parents have had their internet vary and even vut out a few times recently. I don't think their router is very old. BUt is there a way to find out if the issue is with the router or if it's with the signal coming in?

First thing I always do is try new cables- I replaced the RG-6 coax cable running from the cable wall outlet to the modem and the ethernet cable from the modem to the router (wife makes fun of me because I buy cables in bulk and always have extras on hand-buying in bulk from Amazon or Monoprice is far cheaper than having to run out to Wal Mart or Best Buy and buy their overpriced crap).
Next thing I try is a different router.
In my case, cables didn't make a difference, but the cheap little router in my link above (despite being much worse spec wise than the router it has temporary replaced) hasn't had any connection problems and actually seems faster than the failing router was before it started having connection problems.

Thanks. I'll try that.

[ihavemyreasons]

Well, thinking about it, the first thing (before the other things I mentioned) would be to reboot the router.
Also on the list of things to try is to see if a firmware update is available. There was a malware attack earlier this year that affected a lot of routers and a lot of manufacturers have fixed the security hole it was attacking with more recent firmware.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Are the modem and router separate or is it an all in one box?  Try power cycling the modem as well as the router.  Intermittent dropouts are usually the modem, router problems tend to be constant.

If it's an all in one router/modem that has a battery backup powering off/on can be a pain (usually the case if you have phone service over cable), you have to remove the battery was well as the wall power.

Assuming they don't have FIOS and it's a cable modem there is a status page with signal and noise levels on the channels, those levels will tell you if the modem has a good connection to the local node.

List of various modems and how to get to the status page on the link below, farther down on the page there is an explanation of what the signal levels should be.  Basically for downstream -7 to +7 is good, upstream you want below 50, higher than 51 or 52 means the modem is transmitting as loud as it can so if that isn't good enough for the node to hear it cleanly there will be disconnects.

https://www.dslreports.com/faq/7363

Edit: full FAQ page with the explanations (says comcast but is fairly generic for all cable):
https://www.dslreports.com/faq/comcast/2.1_Modems

[ihavemyreasons]

New AC1900a router up and running for over a week. Not seeing any quicker speeds than the router it replaced, but much more stable connection with no drop outs.
Kept my cheap temporary router up and running connecting permanently through my VPN. Did have to reboot that one one once in the last week, but nice having a VPN router to connect to vs connecting via a VPN client.
Next purchase will probably be a cable modem to replace the cable modem I'm renting from my ISP. Guessing I'll probably have to jump through a number of hoops with the ISP to get it to work, but I'll likely see somewhat of an internet speed increase over the ancient POS modem that I'm renting (and if not, at least it will cut my bill by $7 a month).

[MartyS (Gromit)]

New AC1900a router up and running for over a week. Not seeing any quicker speeds than the router it replaced, but much more stable connection with no drop outs.

To get really good speed from wireless AC you need pretty strong signal and a good wireless adapter on the PC.  Before I got the cat5e cable run to my PC I tried a couple of USB wireless AC adapters and they would drop out and be slow, ended up with a pci card with 2 antennas (on a little box with cables that went to the card) and that finally got me full speed between the PC and the router.

Next purchase will probably be a cable modem to replace the cable modem I'm renting from my ISP. Guessing I'll probably have to jump through a number of hoops with the ISP to get it to work, but I'll likely see somewhat of an internet speed increase over the ancient POS modem that I'm renting (and if not, at least it will cut my bill by $7 a month).

I've owned my own modem since I made the switch from DSL to Cable probably 20 years ago, it was $8 a month back then, now it's $10.  Over that amount of time that's over $2000 not payed in rental, and I've replaced the modem every 5 or 6 years for about $80 each time to keep up with new speeds.  I'm waiting for DOCSIS 3.1 modems to come down a bit more before I do my next replacement probably in the next year.  At least Comcast makes it pretty easy, usually you just go to a website and put in the MAC address of the new modem, one time I had to call it in.

Side note:  Keep the receipt when you return the rental, and keep the receipt of the one you buy, forever.  I've read plenty of stories of cable companies "forgetting" that you returned the modem and start charging again, and even worse start charging people for modems they bought themselves insisting it is a rental, sometimes this happens years down the road.