Router dilemna

Hey all

I find myself today forced to change routers, something I despise passionately.

Since the good old days of the linksys WRT54G I haven't personally used (or read about) a single router which did the job it is supposed to do. I can't understand why manufacturers can't get a firmware right when they release a new router or why, a premium router that costs you upwards of $200 forces you to reboot it practically on a daily basis to get decent speeds.

I am currently using a Linksys EA3500. I sticked to the non-cloud firmware because I only found out after buying this POS router that the cloud firmware caused ADDITIONAL problems to the standard ones you find on routers. I've had this router for 3 years but now it's time to FINALLY retire it after it decided to make the 2.4GHZ band unusable and the 5GHZ randomly disconnect every few minutes.

I honestly can't understand what's so difficult about making GOOD wireless devices. The wireless adapter in my laptop for instance (killer 1202) shows CATASTROPHIC performance unless I use a generic driver. Go figure. Using the official driver for it makes it unusable.

Anyway I would like someone to please suggest what is the LEAST WORST router out there right now. I've looked into the Asus AC87, Linksys WRT1900ac, ea6900, Netgear R7000/8000 and all I can see on various websites are horror stories of the poor souls who bought these devices and returned them. Many of them, experienced joy for a month time before the router decided to take an early retirement and stop working.
To be honest I was mostly interested with the WRT1900ac but all I can read about is how it's not yet supported by DD-WRT (they haven't received proper files from Belkin and haven't started any development at all). And of course, the official firmware causes it to reboot ON ITS OWN multiple times per day. :thumbsup: Good job Belkins!
The only router which is still kind of in a grey area for me, is the Asus AC87. I can only find it on eBay anyway so I think it's not yet widely available so can't find reviews for it.

I hope my sarcasm can be excused here but I am positive I am not the only one who's been frustrated with these issues. Can someone here please give me some suggestions as to which router to buy? My priority is on a router that is stable and has a good firmware.

 

Oh no - no reason to worry that Asus made a router with stable firmware. Of course they didn't so you can skip AC87U.
Personally I'd get a Netgear R7000 (there's an alternative firmware for it too if the official one turns out not to be good enough). I wrote a shot presentation for it in a sticky.

 

Hey man

Thanks for the quick reply. Should have mentioned this in my post! I did read your sticky yesterday and it was very informative! While many persons complained about the R8000's performance, many mentioned the R7000 as much more stable. Do you reckon the R7000 with custom firmware would be the best option for me?

And I'll be buying a USB adapter as well. Do you recommend the Edimax or Linksys? Would prefer the one most compatible with it

Edit:

This is the kind of reviews that put me off with the R7000 initially...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122581&ignorebbr=1&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=361116&SID=FWctnp17

I'd be ordering that router online so won't have the luxury of returning it or dealing with tech support. (I live in Dubai)

 

I would start with official Netgear firmware and only switch to a 3rd party one if the stock firmware fails to deliver.
As for the USB radio - Netgear uses Broadcom radio chips so if you really want to choose a radio that is ideal for your router check which of those USB cards is based on Broadcom (if both are go for linksys).

There should be no difference since both have to adhere to standards but it wasn't that long ago when Atheros released 802.11ac radio that did not work well with Broadcom-based devices (meaning among others any and all devices made by Apple) so you might have a point here.

 

I don't know, all the negative reviews on the R7000 are putting me off... I can't end up with a paperweight after 6 months...
The more I search, the more I think I'll end up getting the WRT1900ac... That's the router people are the less unhappy with... I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope I am not one of the unlucky ones with the random reboots. AND hope DD-WRT releases a custom firmware in the near future for it...

 

Don't count on near future in case of DD-WRT though.

 

Negative R7000 reviews????.What did they say and who are the they saying it.

I used an R7000 from January to July while residing in Korea and had no issues with it.

The USB 3.0 port worked well with a 64GB SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive attached that transfered files across my home network at up to 24 MB/s.

A printer attached to the USB 2.0 port worked without issue

File transfers from a desktop to notebook and from notebook to desktop topped out at about 45 MB/s.

While in line of sight with the R7000 I'd get a link speed of 866.7 Mbps and 520~702 Mbps 21' away going through 2 cement walls.

With my Internet service I could get close to 100 Mbps up and down when running speedtest.net

I had several issues previously with an R6300.

Earlier Netgear 3700v2,3800 and 4500 all worked well.

Now I'm back in the US and getting mediocre 2.4 band Internet on AT&T U-verse installed 2 days ago using their NVG589 modem/router.