We are looking to replace our router. I've got a new MacBook Air, and would like to take advantage of faster wifi speed with the new technology. Also, we do like to set some parental controls, etc., on our router, and our current one's user interface is pretty rudimentary. Can you recommend one for me to look at? We'd love an easy-to-use control interface, and reliability. Thanks!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Recommended 802.11ac router?
- Thread starter MacGeekAZ
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The ASUS line is great for tinkerers. I have also used the Netgear Nighthawk and it was decent but kept dropping. It seems to only in certain setups.
If you want a great blend of speed, reliability, and simplicity, then AirPort is the way to go. Plus if you have an iOS device it can be managed from there as well. Plus, with a USB hard drive attached or by getting an AirPort Time Capsule you get native Time Machine support.
For filtering, OpenDNS is great! It is easily configurable and in addition to filtering it also does logging and other statistics. Cannot recommend it any higher!
+1 on the Airport Time Capsule. Perfect, clean, all-in-one solution for backing up your MacBook Air.
I'd look to the Mac itself for parental controls instead of using router-based controls. If you want to block a specific website, for instance, or put a time limit on machine access, OSX's parental controls have some reasonable features.
If you want to block any/all porn sites, movie/song sharing sites, etc., look at something like an OpenDNS subscription. There are some pretty good web filters they offer and they're updated constantly so you don't even have to manage it (set and forget).
I too would not be opposed to this. How is the range on the AirPort Extreme? I have a 3000 sqft 2 story home. With many walls and doors. My current router/modem all in one does a fairly good job of reaching the corners. Can any airport users testify to its reach?
Not to Bogarde your thread OP but same questions so hopefully helpful to you too as well. Can you add a AirPort Extreme to a all in one modem/router? In other words can I turn off the existing router portion in its settings? Or is that even necessary.
Not to Bogarde your thread OP but same questions so hopefully helpful to you too as well. Can you add a AirPort Extreme to a all in one modem/router? In other words can I turn off the existing router portion in its settings? Or is that even necessary.
Any chance that Apple can fix APE speed issues via software? Or are there hardware limitations?
There is already a thread on this. I have the AirPort Extreme (AC) and the Asus RT-AC66U and the RT-AC68U.
Both of the Asus is more stable and faster than the AirPort. The RT-AC68U is the best. I also hear the Netgear R7000 is good, but I've never tried that one.
Both of the Asus is more stable and faster than the AirPort. The RT-AC68U is the best. I also hear the Netgear R7000 is good, but I've never tried that one.
My house is 3 floors and 5500 sqft. My one Time Capsule 802.11ac on the middle floor covers the whole thing quite well. Granted the architecture is fairly open and without any internal brick walls, but the one unit blankets the house with solid 5GHz coverage.
I have a new 2 TB Time Capsule upgraded from an earlier version and I am quite impressed with the speeds achieved though out a 3000 sq ft house, two stories. I am using an older airport extreme as an extender. My iPad air is consistently getting 30-55mbps with FIOS, a significant improvement over the first generation Time Capsule.
YMMV
JTMav
YMMV
JTMav
We have the new AC 6th gen. AirPort Extreme and it covers our 2750 sq. ft. home and out into the yard. It is positioned on the second floor so it isn't the best location either!
My AE has range so good its annoying. I live in a ~2000 sq ft condo and when I'm at my car in the parking lot which is a good 300 meters away THROUGH another condo my devices are still connected to the AE. Problem is the reception is so low its unusable, so I'll need to turn off wifi on my devices when I'm in my car using them.
First world problems at their finest.
There isn't anywhere in my condo or even the condo building (2000 sq ft x 12 suites = 24,000 sq ft lol) that I don't get reception. If nothing else I've had the best range of any router I've ever had.
Before switching to another ISP I had an all in one router from Fios. I just hooked to that and went into the Fios router and turned off wireless (to avoid confusion and redundancy) worked fine.
that all sounds awesome. But done the car thing too lol. I have a motorola surfboard SBG6580. That a modem/router all in one. Can I use the apple extreme with this? Can I disable the router part of the motorola? Or run in random? Disabling would be preferable.
Cool looks easy. All I do is...
Click on Basic tab
Primary Mode
NAPT mode
Disabled
Changes may require a reboot to take effect.
When you disable the NAPT it will go to Bridge mode !
Thanks bro!
Hopefully your ISP has not locked down the modem to prevent this. I have read about some ISPs that do and a call to the ISP is needed to get bridge mode setup.
What is that my cable provider? So I should put in a call to them prior to make sure?
ISP (Internet service provider) in your case would be your cable company.
No, just try and do it yourself first. You will only need to call them if they have blocked that setup page in the modem.
ps so if I have 30 down internent speed and I get this new wifi tech what should one expect as wifi speeds? Will it go faster than 30? or will it just allow that same 30 to be utilized more effecientalyy ( faster)?
You will just get the same 30 over wifi with the new router. Nothing a router does will speed up the max speed put out my the cable modem.
It will be faster within your network. For example if you transfer a file from a 802.11AC wifi Macbook Air to say a drive attached to the router or to another Macbook Air (or other device with AC wifi) that will be much faster.
But the internent speed will see no dif? Ok I think I got it. What about things such as netflix load times? Buffering times? Like YouTube and etc? Amazon movie downloads? I don't do much file transfers between devices.