Time for a new router/modem?

[Speed38]

I have Verizon FiOS and at noon on a Sunday, using Ookla's speed test, I get 302 Mbps d/l speed and 319 Mbps u/l speed with a a Ping of 10 ms.

I restart my eight-year-old Synology RT2600ac modem/router weekly and have experienced only the rare buffering when streaming movies over our Apple TV three floors down from the router. Restarting the router fixes that. The router that Verizon gave me as part of a package deal about two years ago had very, very weak Wi-Fi projection/coverage and the d/l speed at the TV were very poor. The Synology fixed that and the Verizon router sits in the closet unused.

I am vacillating between "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and after eight years of use, this router is probably approaching digital senescence.

Trying to be prepared to quickly replace it should it die, I have begun looking at replacements and have found that the newest Synology routers get a surprisingly large number of one-star ratings on Amazon, ratings which appear to be written by people who know what they are talking about. I have also encountered warnings that the USG has issues with the security of the Chinese TP Link routers.

And so the purpose of this post: anyone purchased a router in the last year or so with which they are happy?

Cost-wise, might it be better to fire up that Verizon router and connect it to a mesh system? I see the well-recommended eero 6+ mesh system is $300 for a three pack. And, for the record, we live in a three-story townhouse with the router/modem on the third floor and the TV in the basement, three floors away.

 

[Bigwaff]

I restart my eight-year-old Synology RT2600ac modem/router weekly

What version of Snology Router software is your RT2600ac running? I have this same router. It is a work horse and has never failed me. Recommend SRM 1.2.5-8227 Update 11. Be patient. You will probably have to perform multiple point version updates to get to Update 11.

 

[Speed38]

I just checked: running SRM 1.3.1 -9346 Update 13

 

[Bigwaff]

I just checked: running SRM 1.3.1 -9346 Update 13

That's good. You say three floors with RT2600ac on top third floor. Either consider moving the RT2600ac to the second floor, in the middle, or add a MR2200ac mesh unit on the second/first floors. Used MR2200ac can be had on eBay for $50-$80. Also, Okla speed tests don't necessarily measure the throughput of your router, but rather the throughput of your ISP connection. If your Verizon FIOS connectivity has lots of congestion on Verizon network, brand new router isn't going to help much.

 

[Speed38]

Perhaps my original post lacked clarity. Things are running fine right now with that RT2600ac and we only used to get buffering of streaming movies once every few months or so and the fix was to turn off the modem, wait a full minute and turn it back on again. Since I have been restarting the Synology weekly, no problem with buffering.

My concern was that the Synology is getting quite old and that I was looking for recommendations for a replacement now so that when the time comes I would not be scrambling around at the last minute and making a purchase I might regret. You know the old saw: act in haste; repent at leisure.

 

[Bigwaff]

My concern was that the Synology is getting quite old and that I was looking for recommendations for a replacement now so that when the time comes I would not be scrambling around at the last minute and making a purchase I might regret.

Sure, it's old, in that WiFi standards have moved on past 802.11ac (WiFi 5), but should be more than sufficient for a household if ISP connection is 500Mb/s down or if your network clients have activity never approaching peak bandwidth for sustained periods of time. Are the majority of your household wireless network clients capable of connecting to a WiFi 6/7 router at 802.11ax/802.11be? Why pay premium dollar for technology you don't need?

 

[drrich2]

I have also encountered warnings that the USG has issues with the security of the Chinese TP Link routers.

Is TP-Link Spying on You? The REAL Story Behind the US Ban Investigation

I think this will cover that. It was posted about a month ago, so pretty current. From what I recall, in summary from an advanced security perspective the consumer router market in general could use some beefing up security-wise, TP Link wasn't worse than the pack. Speaking of security, your Synology is 8-years old, older than some may consider good from a security standpoint, but I say that from browsing online and I'm not knowledgeable about the details and extent of concern. If my router were that old, I'd do some Googling to check into it.

And, for the record, we live in a three-story townhouse with the router/modem on the third floor and the TV in the basement, three floors away.

The 6-GHz spectrum doesn't penetrate walls well, so WiFi 6E or 7 (note: not all WiFi 7 routes include 6-GHz spectrum) adding it won't solve weak distant signal.

I'm guessing you neither have nor plan to add ethernet or fiber optic cables to distribute bandwidth around, and instead will rely exclusively on WiFi.

With a 3-story townhouse, I'd probably aim for a mesh system, though maybe 2 units would do you. You could buy a really powerful single router that may handle the whole place, but my understanding of a townhouse is it's a somewhat narrow multi-story building that shares one or more walls with neighbor properties, so a 3rd floor router putting out a really strong strong signal will broadcast into more neighboring homes. Likely not a big deal, but adds to WiFi congestion. Mesh might give fine vertical coverage without blasting out so far horizontally.

I bought this mid.-2023: TP-Link AXE5400 Tri-Band WiFi 6E Router (Archer AXE75), 2025 PCMag Editors' Choice, Gigabit Internet for Gaming & Streaming, New 6GHz Band, 160MHz, OneMesh, Quad-Core CPU, VPN & WPA3 Security I like it fine, but it looks like a giant tarantula, my wife therefore doesn't like it on the living room cabinet, but it needs to be off the floor and open to air so...there it be. If I were buying today, I'd pick a mesh unit (even if just one), as they're more aesthetically pleasing.

Oh, if you're in a townhouse, and thus likely in a densely populated suburban or urban area, I'm guessing WiFi congestion is a 'thing' there. After all, you've got neighbors with networks, and some may be 'Internet of Things' types with many spectrum-using devices. If that's the case, and especially if you like to keep a router a long time, I'd go for WiFi 7 now.

 

[Speed38]

@drrich2 - Hey! Thanks for the link to that video. Good wrap-up of the "case" against TP-Link gear.