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Wireless Router

T

themwhite3

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 22, 2013
14
0
Valparaiso, In
I'm currently looking for a new router for my house.
The reason i'm replacing the current router is because it kicks off mobile devices every few minutes. On a normal day I want something that can handle 2 computers, 4-5 mobile devices, a ps3, plus a few dvd players. What are your recommendations. I think the airport express looks to fit my needs but i wanted a second opinion.
 
Wireless Router

Yes, its fantastic if the single wired port is ok.
 
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This $19.99 (Amazon) TP-Link router is great value, I have three of them in my house and they are honestly fantastic, are always fast with a good range and it never drops connection, and is an enormous improvement on the unbearably slow bog-standard ISP routers which I loathe. It's not too basic and has many functions which even the really expensive routers lack. It has fantastic reviews and although the brand name is not particularly well-known, I can assure you that my trio of them have been nothing short of consistently excellent. It can handle everything you mentioned and more, as mine do as they often have 15 devices connected to them at once, some 24/7 (i.e. Nest thermostats).

It can also be easily customised with DD-WRT firmware if you'd like, which can be found here: http://dd-wrt.com/site/support/other-downloads?path=others%2Feko%2FBrainSlayer-V24-preSP2%2F.
 
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Menel said:
Yes, its fantastic if the single wired port is ok.
Click to expand...

I agree fully with your statement.

richwoodrocket said:
I have a ubiquiti access point and love it. Does pretty much everything the express does (and more) at 2/3 the price.
Click to expand...

That is a bit overkill. At least on all Ubiquiti networks I work on, you must have a separate DHCP server (router). That would be two pieces of equipment and quite a bit of configuration for the average user. But I must say, they are FANTASTIC for schools!

AaronM5670 said:
This $19.99 (Amazon) TP-Link router is great value, I have three of them in my house and they are honestly fantastic, are always fast with a good range and it never drops connection, and is an enormous improvement on the unbearably slow bog-standard ISP routers which I loathe. It's not too basic and has many functions which even the really expensive routers lack. It has fantastic reviews and although the brand name is not particularly well-known, I can assure you that my trio of them have been nothing short of consistently excellent. It can handle everything you mentioned and more, as mine do as they often have 15 devices connected to them at once, some 24/7 (i.e. Nest thermostats).

It can also be easily customised with DD-WRT firmware if you'd like, which can be found here: http://dd-wrt.com/site/support/other-downloads?path=others%2Feko%2FBrainSlayer-V24-preSP2%2F.
Click to expand...

Do you use them as APs?


Personally, depending on the budget, I always recommend the Extreme. Three gigabit ports for LAN, central hard drive sharing, and AC spec wireless with beam forming. Great piece of equipment.

The Express is very capable. I use them as APs in my school in Bridge Mode off of a central Extreme and they generally see 25 clients. However on days with special events, we can get 65 on them before they start to really degrade in speed. Never once have I ever seen them give less than 5 Mbps speed test even on the most congested Expresses.... Pretty good if you ask me since even some Cisco Small Business APs can't handle that.

In summary, if you only need wireless-N and are okay with no hard drive sharing get the Express. If you have some extra money you can afford to spend and want to be current for a little while, get the Extreme. Both are simple, reliable, and capable.
 
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Go for an Extreme! If the Time Machine backup is desired, a Time Capsule may be considered.
 
Altemose said:
Do you use them as APs?
Click to expand...

I have Virgin Media cable services so I have their 'super hub' router set in modem only mode as the range and speed of it is generally appauling, so I have one hooked up to the modem as a main router with my iMac hooked up to it via ethernet and the other two as range-extending APs. :D
 
Altemose said:
Or just throw a USB drive of any size you want plugged into the back of the Extreme and you have a Time Capsule.
Click to expand...

I have never tried, but have read that this isn't as fast as a time capsule. This is what I get with the new Time Capsule internal drive over gigabit ethernet.

ethernet-blackmagic.png
 
AaronM5670 said:
I have Virgin Media cable services so I have their 'super hub' router set in modem only mode as the range and speed of it is generally appauling, so I have one hooked up to the modem as a main router with my iMac hooked up to it via ethernet and the other two as range-extending APs. :D
Click to expand...

Quite the setup for the average home user...I am guessing you have some background in networking to want to do that.

Boyd01 said:
I have never tried, but have read that this isn't as fast as a time capsule. This is what I get with the new Time Capsule internal drive over gigabit ethernet.

Image
Click to expand...

I routinely get 35 MB/s to my USB 2.0 hard drive off the back of my 6th Gen. Extreme. Not the same speed but plenty fast enough. Plus I can upgrade it whenever I want.
 
Altemose said:
Quite the setup for the average home user...I am guessing you have some background in networking to want to do that.
Click to expand...

Not really, I'm a graphic designer by trade! :D

The reason for this setup is because I live in a house with very thick walls and poor reception in most rooms, hence the multi-AP setup (trust me, it's not overkill ;) ).

Luckily I have a very good knowledge of how to set everything up and get it optimised from my recent high school days when (voluntarily, but for the purpose of useful experience) myself and a few other students pretty much had to set up the entire school's OS X-based network with Mac OS X Server and about 50 routers as the school's IT system was in dire straits and the entire department IT dept was laid off (mainly for reasons of incompetence) in a matter of weeks and replaced by teachers who taught multiple subjects such as IT and maths together as a cost-cutting measure.
 
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AaronM5670 said:
Not really, I'm a graphic designer by trade! :D

The reason for this setup is because I live in a house with very thick walls and poor reception in most rooms, hence the multi-AP setup (trust me, it's not overkill ;) ).

Luckily I have a very good knowledge of how to set everything up and get it optimised from my recent high school days when (voluntarily, but for the purpose of useful experience) myself and a few other students pretty much had to set up the entire school's OS X-based network with Mac OS X Server and about 50 routers as the school's IT system was in dire straits and the entire department IT dept was laid off (mainly for reasons of incompetence) in a matter of weeks and replaced by teachers who taught multiple subjects such as IT and maths together as a cost-cuttung measure.
Click to expand...

For my Eagle scout project I just did the wireless in my school last year. Went with AirPort and it is great!
 
Nighthawk

I purchased the Netgear Nighthawk a few months back and I was debating between that and the airport extreme, and the nighthawk has not disappointed me at all. I have 9 devices hooked up to my network at home and i get 110MBPS download speeds through my wireless connection and it is consistent.
 
Are any of your devices capable of exploiting WiFi "AC" or are they only up to "N" ??

If the latter, there are lots of good choices out there that don't cost as much as the Airport Extreme. If you do have AC capable computers, again there are some AC capable routers out there that offer excellent results (some named here already) that do more than the Airport Extreme. The Airport Extreme is a fairly solid performer just certainly not the fastest or cheapest and rather limited in functionality (including some security features).

You may want to investigate and enjoy a browse through the Smallnetbuilder site which has various reviews as well as shows some of their testing results. If you have trouble spots in your home, consider researching as well PowerLine options.

Last - Other than my iDevices, everything else is cable connected for the best results of speed and consistency.
 
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