Any recommendations for a good WiFi router ?
Charlie Judge
Posts: 12,872
Does anybody have any recomendations for a good fast WiFi internet router. I used to get download speeds of 50 - 60 Mbs with my old Netgear 30 router; but latlely I have only been getting 20 -30 Mbs. If I plug my ethernet cable directly into my modem I get speeds slightly over 100 Mbs. So, it appears that my old router is slowing things down and I am looking to replace it. Any recommendations? Thanks
Post edited by Charlie Judge on
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I have a TP-Link Archer C4000. I was reliably getting 400 and occassionally 500 megabits on Wi-Fi. The only reason I stopped using it is because Google Fiber's new routers don't let you turn off their own Wi-Fi and I didn't want their Wi-Fi and the TP-Link Wi-Fi competing with each other.
I got sick of wifi personally. I picked up a huge cat7 wire, for cheaper than it would have cost to get a super duper high powered router lol. 900mb download and 700mb upload speed according to ookla or whatever that speed test site is lol. Used to top out at like 120 both ways on my old wireless n router.
I think this article has a good series of thoughts about routers. And has a common sense approach to how they tested and ranked them.
https://www.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/reviews/best-wi-fi-router#:~:text=The Asus RT-AX86U delivers,also takes up less room.
Over the years, I spent a lot on cheaper routers and ended up with a lot of issues (dead zones, dropped packets, etc.). I finally spent a bit more on the Asus RT-AX92U (https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Networking-IoT-Servers/WiFi-Routers/ASUS-Gaming-Routers/RT-AX92U/) and it's been fantastic. Not sure what you're budget is, but I'd highly recommend it if you're interested.
I have one of those Nighthawk RAX50 and it's marvelous. I don't know what you looking for.
Nighthawk RAX50 | WiFi 6 Router | NETGEAR Support
I'm kinda the same way. I have a decent router for my main internet and use WIFI for devices like my phone or the Quest 2, but I stick to CAT5 for my PC to have consistency in speeds.
I got pretty irritated with my wifi, so I switched back to a wired connection. a 12m cord is still better, than an unstable wifi connection.
i keep my PC wired ... fast !!
The only thing that makes sense in the scenario you describe is if your wifi router was forced to another slower wifi channel, usually by a neighbor's wifi router.
I'm using powerlines since I don't have a long CAT6 cable and don't want to drill holes.
To anwers your question I can recomend a netgear nighthawk. But I wonder if it could be interference with your signal?
I moved from a detached house to a townhome that is literally surrounded by up to 100 or more wireless networks in my neighborhood.
Like others suggested, I ran cat-6 cable from router ports to mini dumb switches to "hard wire" PCs to my router.
Got speed back to over 700 (wifi was barely over 100).
If your router can do it, switch to another band (5G for example is usually less trafficked than default 2.4G band).
I use a string and a tin can but the bit-rate is absymal.
Not to mention the interface issues.
I use a Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000... (who the hell names these stupid things?)
Its a tri-band router... One band is 2.4 GHz and the other two are 5 GHz... which is good for us because we usually have several devices on at once.
I paid about $130 about two years ago
I think the router would probably be excellent to really good for most homes, in ours it's just "pretty" good due to the fact the house is over a hundred years old and when they built it they used real steel "hardware cloth" to anchor the hurricane proof stucco exterior coating (it's not actual stucco, it's really much harder cement), essentially making the main house a gigantic Faraday Cage, which is pretty much a black hole for cell signals and WiFi.
Because of where the service comes in the router has to be in a “newer” (60 years old) section of the house outside of the Faraday Cage portion… that and it has to cover a much newer addition that is the size of a small ranch house too…
It covers all that much better than any other routers we’ve owned.
Not as good as I'd like, but mostly… my wife’s office is at the far end of the house from where the router is located (plus the signal has to go though the stucco wall, two lathe and plaster walls and one heavy wood paneled wall) and the signal would sometimes get weak if it was loaded up… so that room and two others which are far away got wired with Cat5e cable… (I actually had a couple of signal boosters, but for this situation, they all sucked)…
I can actually get a good signal on my iPad right up to the woods in back of the house, about 230 feet away (I generally try not to use it in the woods because the raccoons will steal your Netflix password and Netflix gets pissy about that).
It seems to handle several devices streaming at once fairly well (two iPads, two TVs, plus some idiot writing weird crap on 3D forums).
I'm not crazy about the antennas... it has six that stick out at an angle making it look like a dead bug on its back... they look cool, but they are easy to break if you drop a werewolf mask on the router, which probably isn't a consideration in most households... even here it took a little effort considering the router is mounted near the ceiling, but regardless, the pivots (they are sorta multi-directional so they can sorta be "aimed") at the the bottom of the antenna are kinda weak... I imagine that someone could snap them trying to aim them... also, after I snapped one, when I went to fix it, I discovered the techie looking rectangular shape is just theater... there is actually just a regular antenna wire inside and the shape serves no real purpose... actually after finding that out, I noticed that all the other routers I checked out later at Best Buy had the same thing going on... being able to move them probably does something, but aiming the flat side of rectangle shape probably doesn't add anything... which probably would if that was a more complicated antenna.
Any real complaints that I've had seem to be more related to my ISP, though my wife will sometimes make me reset the router if she thinks it's misbehaving... she seems to think that solves the problem (it used to with other routers, but in these cases it's usually the ISP).
A friend also bought one and he has a huge modern house with a fairly open floor plan and he likes it... but then again he isn't extremely tech savvy.
I think this model is still available, please don't go by my experience check online reviews because I'm fairly crazy and my requirements for a router might be overkill for some people... or not... you could live in a concrete bunker for all I know.
Good luck!
I worry my neighbours can access my WIFI because I often see the names of their devices in Network I have WAP2 Passerkey so don't see how they can but wonder why I see their Roku and other devices sometimes
I cannot access them in any way.
I dislike my neighbours because they do not respect boundries and would not want them to have access to anything.
that LED TV for example
it disappeared after that snip
they pop in and out
my iPad should be on there and my Android phone but because both in standby are not so I find it disturbing I see their devices
I'm currently using a Linksys EA8300 and it works well enough, though sometimes my husband complains that his signal (across the room) drops. I don't know if it's the fault of the router or more the fault of his wireless card because no other devices have issues. It also does a fine job sending a wifi signal up three stories to my parents' apartment through 100yo plaster walls without assistance. My personal computer is hard-wired, so can't comment there.
I do have a NETGEAR Nighthawk 6-Stream AX5400 that I bought when my husband started complaining abou this signal loss...before I realized that the issue was likely the fault of his wireless card. The new router is still sitting in the box...I need to get around to installing it one of these days, lol.
I will make mention that I like NETGEAR's user interface more than the Linksys. I've had multiple NETGEAR routers in the past and the UI has always been more user-friendly.
Seriousley, somewhere in your settings must be the option to hide your network.
Others won't be able to see you, but you will have to search your network by name to have it listed.
You know you can put Passwords on your router to prevent neighbors from accessing it. The one I list has WiFi 6. My guest network is disabled. If you have a 5g phone you'll get blazing speed. They are 5g USB wireless for older computers. I bought an Ethernet adapter for my old dell to turn 10/100 to a 10/100/1000 Ethernet
If you want to go to access control turn it on and make sure all your stuff is on and connected. Only allow your devices to connect. It will not be the same as mine.
All these stupid smart devices seem to search out and try to connect to any signal it can find. Anything can "connect" to the router, but unless it is allowed or has the passkey, it shouldn't be able to even see what else is on the network, let alone access anything. I live near a bar and peoples' stupid smartphones are always trying to connect, even if I have the SSID set to not broadcast. I randomly change my 3 SSID's to messages, or jokes.
They are just pinging the WiFi Windows and will pick it up for a few seconds. That doesn't mean they are connected. Just a random quirk in Windows the rogue cell phones and other devices attempted some "sort of meaningful’ access attempt to connect to your Wi-Fi therefore you will see it in the Windows network manager. It is most likely that your Wi-Fi is protected using a WPA or WPA2 protocol.
it is password protected yes, this is not the router URL, that only has my devices, this is Windows explorer network
Yes, I know it's a quirk with windows. Used to drive me crazy until I came across an article about how windows would see it and then disappear. It's part of Windows Connect Now. the device that shows up disappears because it does a partial handshake and then gets rejected.
Maybe this will help.
Or you can do it this way.
Any of the 2 will stop them from annoying you but they are really harmless
A friend of mine had a neighbor warn her that her WiFi had no password ans she should add a password to keep random people from using it. So she added a password. Then the same neighbor ended up losing his WiFi signal.
For what it's worth, I had a better experience with my TP-Link router than the bigger brands. My Netgear Nighthawk's 5G signal would randomly disappear as if the antenna just turned off. I had to reboot it to get it going again and it started doing this daily. The Netgear router I had before that wasn't much better, and both would slow down and have to be rebooted to get their speed back. I never had any of those problems with the TP-Link router.
We got a guy down the street whose network is named Don't Knock. Has no password on it. Caught my son using it to bypass my restrictions.
Yeah, I used to be a Linksys fanboi then when they got too expensive I switched to Netgear until I had too many bad experiences with cheapishly made products. Now I'm firmly in the TP-Link camp. Every new WiFi device I have. Internal, external, & routers have presented no problems configuring, using or staying connected.
Thanks everybody for all your suggestions.
I'm looking seriously at these TP-Link routers:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TH4D3QV/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
https://smile.amazon.com/TP-Link-WiFi-AX3000-Smart-Router/dp/B09G5W9R6R/ref=psdc_300189_t1_B084HLB7LJ
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B084HLB7LJ/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
What do you all think? Will they connect to my older devices ? Will I see an improvement in actual realized download speeds?
I have to admit that some of the routers put out by Netgear are cheaply built. You get what you pay for if you just buy a router to fit your budget. You might end up with a cheaply made product.
try this:
AmazonSmile: Belkin N600 Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router (Latest Generation) : Everything Else