AC Router Advice

[Herr Kutz]

I am looking to gift my parents an AC router for Christmas and would like some suggestions. Reliability is the most important aspect, even more so than speed. They are currently using an old WTRG54 and which still works and covers the house adequately (~1600sqft), but my parents will both be using AC wireless devices soon and with all their gadgets on the network I'd like for them to upgrade (okay, the real reason is that I really don't have any other gift ideas). My dad has also expressed interest in upgrading to an AC router. Advertised internet speed from their provider is 30Mbps with 60Mbps coming soon.

I would just pickup an airport extreme and be done with it based on the great reviews, but I've read that Apple does not have an updated utility for Windows and the parents won't be getting a mac anytime soon, if ever, so I'm concerned setting it up may be an issue. They do have an iOS device available though but I'm not sure that's a complete substitute for the utility.

Also looking at the Netgear R6400-100NAS which seems to tick the boxes but not so sure about reliability.

My parents are very technically inclined so set up difficulty isn't a huge concern.

Any advice?


(I would like to skip TP-Link routers.)

 

[Fallen Kell]

If you want reliability and security, get something that has support for OpenWRT, or DD-WRT firmware. Something like a DIR-890L has full support. That said the DIR-890L is mainly a 5GHz router (dual 5GHz radio bands, one 2.4GHz radio), which tend to have more problems passing through walls and getting good coverage.

 

[smitbret]

I am looking to gift my parents an AC router for Christmas and would like some suggestions. Reliability is the most important aspect, even more so than speed. They are currently using an old WTRG54 and which still works and covers the house adequately (~1600sqft), but my parents will both be using AC wireless devices soon and with all their gadgets on the network I'd like for them to upgrade (okay, the real reason is that I really don't have any other gift ideas). My dad has also expressed interest in upgrading to an AC router. Advertised internet speed from their provider is 30Mbps with 60Mbps coming soon.

I would just pickup an airport extreme and be done with it based on the great reviews, but I've read that Apple does not have an updated utility for Windows and the parents won't be getting a mac anytime soon, if ever, so I'm concerned setting it up may be an issue. They do have an iOS device available though but I'm not sure that's a complete substitute for the utility.

Also looking at the Netgear R6400-100NAS which seems to tick the boxes but not so sure about reliability.

My parents are very technically inclined so set up difficulty isn't a huge concern.

Any advice?


(I would like to skip TP-Link routers.)

If TP-Link is out of the question then just stick with:

http://www.amazon.com/RT-AC68U-Wire...TF8&qid=1450743071&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+rt-68
or
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Night...=1450743103&sr=8-1&keywords=netgear+nighthawk
or
http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-AC175...NQ8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1450743103&sr=8-5&

In reality, you will see virtually no difference in wireless performance between AC1750 & AC1900.

 

[Beer4Me]

Netgear Nighthawk AC-1900 and be done with it.

 

[gizbug]

ASUS AC88U. Best router I've owned. It's fast, and just works.

 

[Genx87]

I bought an ASUS RT-AC66U and have had good luck with it.

 

[Makaveli]

Netgear Nighthawk AC-1900 and be done with it.

This +1

I have the nighthawk running Asus merlin firmware and its the best router i've owned yet.

See if you can find it on sale this holiday break you won't be disappointed.

 

[MtnMan]

You all do realize to benefit from AC, both the AP and the end device need to be AC, right?

 

[Ichinisan]

You all do realize to benefit from AC, both the AP and the end device need to be AC, right?

Well, I'm sure their devices aren't all G...so there *will* be a benefit.

Even if they have no AC client devices (and OP said they *will* be getting some)...
- The 2.4GHz N devices will get better throughput.
- The 5GHz N devices will have better throughput and less interference / greater stability.

If they have an iPhone or iPad from the last 2 years, there's a good chance they already have some AC-capable devices.

I have an AC router (Apple AirPort Extreme 6th gen). The only devices that use wireless are the ones that have no option for a wired connection.

My iPhone 6s Plus supports AC.
My brother's iPhone 6 Plus supports AC.
My friend's iPhone 6s supports AC.

My desktop PC supports AC, but I use wired.
My Apple TV 4 supports AC, but I use wired.

My Amazon Fire TV Stick supports N 5GHz.
My brother's laptop supports N 5GHz.
My mother's iPhone 5c supports N 5GHz.
My iPad mini 2 supported N 5GHz (recently sold this).

My Brother HL2170W printer supports G, but I use wired.
My Sony PS3 supports G, but I use wired.

 

[MtnMan]

Well, I'm sure their devices aren't all G...so there *will* be a benefit.

Even if they have no AC client devices (and OP said they *will* be getting some)...
- The 2.4GHz N devices will get better throughput.
- The 5GHz N devices will have better throughput and less interference / greater stability.

If they have an iPhone or iPad from the last 2 years, there's a good chance they already have some AC-capable devices.

I have an AC router (Apple AirPort Extreme 6th gen). The only devices that use wireless are the ones that have no option for a wired connection.

My iPhone 6s Plus supports AC.
My brother's iPhone 6 Plus supports AC.
My friend's iPhone 6s supports AC.

My desktop PC supports AC, but I use wired.
My Apple TV 4 supports AC, but I use wired.

My Amazon Fire TV Stick supports N 5GHz, but I use wired.
My brother's laptop supports N 5GHz.
My mother's iPhone 5c supports N 5GHz.
My iPad mini 2 supported N 5GHz (recently sold this).

My Brother HL2170W printer supports G, but I use wired.
My Sony PS3 supports G, but I use wired.

Still if no devices are AC, there is no benefit from an AC router/AP. The OP did state it was a Christmas present for his parents.

 

[Ichinisan]

Still if no devices are AC, there is no benefit from an AC router/AP. The OP did state it was a Christmas present for his parents.

Well, if they have N 2.4/5GHz devices, there will be some benefit over the G router they currently have. May as well try to future-proof things with an AC router.

 

[fralexandr]

supposedly all of netgear's current nighthawk routers support beamforming+ on the 2.4GHz side.

This supposedly increases "speed, reliability, and range", however I have seen nothing documenting how well it works in practice.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2061...e-faster-wi-fi-you-didnt-know-you-needed.html

Netgear’s Beamforming+ is a superset of the beamforming technique defined in the 802.11ac standard, so it’s interoperable with any other 802.11ac device that also supports beamforming. But Beamforming+ does not require the client device to support beamforming, so you could see range and throughput improvements by pairing one of Netgear’s routers (specifically, Netgear’s model R6300, R6200, and R6250) with any 5GHz Wi-Fi device (Netgear’s R7000 Nighthawk router also supports beamforming on its 2.4GHz network).

cnet has some pretty nice router reviews
http://www.cnet.com/products/netgear-nighthawk-ac1900-smart-wi-fi-router-r7000/
http://www.cnet.com/products/asus-rt-ac68u-dual-band-wireless-ac1900-gigabit-router/
http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/tp-link-archer-d9-ac1900/
on the cheaper end, the tp-link archer is generally considered a decent buy

I tried out the r6700 and the 5GHz range was really impressive. It essentially has almost the same 5GHz range as 2.4GHz. the 2.4GHz range is a bit better than my linksys ea3500, but the ea3500 has significantly worse 5GHz range.
The r6700/7000 don't support any encryption while wireless repeater bridging, though. and I don't believe beamforming+ is a feature of the open router firmwares. I'm running an ea3500 + us robotics 802.11G router and was hoping to replace at least one of the routers. I'm eventually going to put in an ethernet cable run and hopefully drop back to 1 router.
Given it has a 1GHz dual-core processor and 128mb of flash/256mb ram, I expected it to save settings much faster than either of my older routers (the US robotics being really old and having 8mb and running DD-WRT micro), however it takes longer to save settings... so i guess the router files are significantly larger, the firmware is bloaty, or unlikely: the flash memory is slower?

 

[Genx87]

Still if no devices are AC, there is no benefit from an AC router/AP. The OP did state it was a Christmas present for his parents.

Going forward why wouldn't they get AC devices? If buying a router today I dont see a reason not to get into AC.