Router recommendations for the opposite of a tinkerer?

dporowski

So yeah, I've had a Cisco/Linksys E4200 for years now, and it appears to be going, for want of a better word, "fucky". Can't even update the firmware to most recent, and every so often I lose WAN connectivity, which is annoying as hell. Figure it's been 5-6+ years of good service, so... Shopping.

I'm currently looking at Google wifi, rather not pay for an Airport, I guess Cisco sold Linksys to Belkin and fuck Belkin, fuck Netgear on principle, and have absolutely no interest in tinkering with it, custom firmwares, etc etc. The most I ever care about is setting DNS to 8.8.8.8 and that it'll let me run the average work type VPN. I would also like it to not instantly turn into a fileserver for an enterprising young lad in Slovakia, if you know what I mean and I think you do. Maybe a guest network.

800-something sqft apartment, walls are... Sheetrockish, and there's roughly 3 million surrounding other networks I can pick up, so I kind of like the smart/automatic channel handling on the Google puck. Needs to handle a couple legacy G-ish devices, but N/AC is a want, though I think that's reasonably ubiquitous these days.

I'm also kind of cheap, and figure one of those $300 7-antenna "everything including cooks you eggs in the morning" devices is overkill. Eventual expandability via mesh or whatever should I move/need it would also be nice.

Suggestions?

a5ehren

TP-Link Archer C7.

The interface is a bit spartan, but if you know enough to set a new DNS and upgrade firmware, then you'll be fine.

Shadowfire

The C7 is fantastic.

If you want something you can expand in the future with its own mesh network, Eero and Luma are both pretty great. As nice as the Google wifi looks, they have a bad habit of coming up with cool products and dropping support for them a year later.

dporowski

Shadowfire wrote: »

The C7 is fantastic.

If you want something you can expand in the future with its own mesh network, Eero and Luma are both pretty great. As nice as the Google wifi looks, they have a bad habit of coming up with cool products and dropping support for them a year later.

I've heard really nice things about Eero at least, for sure. I looked at Orbi as well, but don't need more than one station at the moment, so base + a mesh node is such overkill and that's all they sell.

How's their security? I did like the auto-update feature the Google stuff had, because (as I've discovered) unless something tells me to update or updates for me, I forget it's there. No issues like Netgear's had for Eero etc?

Jubal77

My google router has been chugging along for awhile now with no issues. Simple to setup via an app. App lets do things you might need to like port forwarding, restart, and other simple functions from your phone. Updates when you arent using it.

That TPLink router is good too.

BahamutZERO

google makes routers?

huh yeah I guess they make hardware now

Zxerol

BahamutZERO wrote: »

google makes routers?

huh yeah I guess they make hardware now

Yeah, the Google OnHub (there's actually a TP-Link and Asus version) and the newer Google Wifi, which is a mesh solution. I had an OnHub and it's very solid.

However, with any Google product, I'm really weary of their commitment to keep supporting it. And I'm sure someone realizes their notoriety with this because, no lie, when they announced the Google Wifi, they sent me an email saying basically don't worry, we're still supporting OnHub guys, pinky promise.

To give you an idea, the OnHub has a USB port and Zigbee home automation hardware inside. To this day, more than a year and and change after release, they do absolutely nothing.

Synthesis

Aside from the above recommendations, if you can find a good deal on it, ASUS AC1900 are perfectly serviceable. My apartment is a little larger than yours and its probably overkill, and recovers very well service outages, etc., uses all onboard software.

My only complaint is that it doesn't have a separate portal for guests, but that's extremely esoteric.

Jubal77

The OnHub is running Google Wifi software now. OnHub got merged in.

wunderbar

hell for an 800sq foot apartment you could just buy a single google wifi puck and that should be good enough, assuming you don't need wired ports along with it.

dporowski

wunderbar wrote: »

hell for an 800sq foot apartment you could just buy a single google wifi puck and that should be good enough, assuming you don't need wired ports along with it.

Yeah, I'd only want/need one puck, pretty sure, and if I get a larger place, would expand from there. (My current router is behaving better, so I'm being lazy, like one does.) I've just minimal experience with mesh units outside of corporate environments that I didn't need to deal with, so it's a question of "old familiar" or new stuff.

twmjr

As far as Google's product goes, the mesh doesn't require (or even allow) any interaction with it. So it really wouldn't be any different from any other setup. You just place the pucks, configure its hostname/location, and it dynamically determines everything else. You'll see one SSID on all of your devices, and that will be that...if what you explicitly do not want is having to tinker, Google Wifi 100% does the job. I have three pucks across two floors, and they provide excellent coverage.

The concerns of Google up and deciding they're not interested in supporting the product anymore are entirely valid, though.

SniperGuy

Is that tp-link Archer C7 still the one to get?

a5ehren

For most people, yeah.

Feral

BahamutZERO wrote: »

google makes routers?

huh yeah I guess they make hardware now

The OnHub is manufactured by TP-Link.

webguy20

Shadowfire wrote: »

The C7 is fantastic.

If you want something you can expand in the future with its own mesh network, Eero and Luma are both pretty great. As nice as the Google wifi looks, they have a bad habit of coming up with cool products and dropping support for them a year later.

I love my C7, it works great. I'm about as undemanding a user as they come though.

kaliyama

eero rolled out new models and they are super cool

Shadowfire

I've been meaning to look into them, but I haven't seen them at the store yet. I like having a wall plug unit though. I wish other companies would mimic Netgear's powerline design and add an AC passthrough.

Bucketman

So I see the one everyone recommends that tp-link one but I need one right away and have to relay on what best buy or target has. Sadly I grabbed a netgear modem and router tonight (separate units) because I'm sick of Comcast. The modem seems fine, but the router gets a fourth of the speed wirelessly as my previous Comcast unit. (About 22mbps vs 80). Trying to stay under $100 and needing something I cab grab off the shelf, what do you guys recommend?

Bucketman

Oh looks like ny local Target has the tp-link archer c59 in stock. I know it's not the 7 everyone is recommending but that should still be ok right?

Shadowfire

There's no reason the router should be dropping speed like that if you're right next to it. Try changing the channel maybe? User the WiFi analyzer app on your phone to see what channel might be less congested and change to that.

Bucketman

I messed with it for about 3 hours last night and in a fit of exasperation I started googleing other reasons and found tons and tons of people complaining of the same issue with this router and no fix has been found over the last 2 years.

I can have my phone right next to the router, or my Xbox (which sits below it) and get just over 20MBP/s. When I reset it I get 75 for about 5 minutes and then everything drops to the 20-25 range again. I've tried different channels, placement, checking signal strength, and shutting features off/on to no avail.

a5ehren

The C59 should be fine if you have to buy locally. It appears to be pretty much the same platform as the C7 but with 2x2 radios in 5GHz instead of 3x3.

Bucketman

Ha wow, it was a long process getting everything set but now I'm getting about 90 MB/s on all my devices and man I like TP-Links web interface a whole lot