Router opinion

http://www.yugster.com/todays-deals/yours-until-gone

I am curious if anyone has any opinion relative to a router which is available on yugster today? I would like to replace my fios router with something with a little more oomph.

we have mostly Apple products in our household, with one Dell machine that I use for work.

I can't open the link!
We very much like our ASUS RT-AC68U router FWIW.

I have a Netgear Nighthawk which is in our basement and works like a charm all that way up to our attic. That said it cost 10x what you're looking at so I'm not much help there!

If you want something good, don't look in the bargain basement.

Tom_Reingold said:

If you want something good, don't look in the bargain basement.


I think that's what I needed to hear. It just seemed like adding a $20 wifi router to my crummy Fios router would solve a minor problem cheaply.

kmk said:

I can't open the link!
We very much like our ASUS RT-AC68U router FWIW.


If you happen to be a T-Mobile customer, you can get this router for a $25 deposit. Just give them a call and they will send it over.

mrincredible said:

I think that's what I needed to hear. It just seemed like adding a $20 wifi router to my crummy Fios router would solve a minor problem cheaply.


The problem is, it might, but it's impossible to say. But I haven't been impressed by any $20 router.

Try a Netgear or Asus or Apple.

Tom_Reingold said:

mrincredible said:

I think that's what I needed to hear. It just seemed like adding a $20 wifi router to my crummy Fios router would solvce a minor problem cheaply.


The problem is, it might, but it's impossible to say. But I haven't been impressed by any $20 router.

Try a Netgear or Asus or Apple.


I understand what you're saying, the funny thing is my expectations are so low due to the lousy wifi strength I get for my fios router. Combine that with my cheap nature and I start looking at options like this as potentially beneficial.

I think I will save up my allowance and birthday money and get one of the models that you recommend. I probably should just jump on an airport because I think they are fairly simple to set up.

pmartinezv said:

kmk said:

I can't open the link!
We very much like our ASUS RT-AC68U router FWIW.


If you happen to be a T-Mobile customer, you can get this router for a $25 deposit. Just give them a call and they will send it over.


Thanks for this, just ordered.


There is a lot to be said for the ease of setup that the Apple router offers. I disabled wireless on my fios router and used my Apple Airport Extreme as a wireless access point. It offered a big improvement.

I don't know which model Netgear or Asus to recommend. I hear good things about the brands but haven't worked with them extensively. I do know that Apple routers tend to be very good. The latest one offers 802.11ac, and you should definitely get a router that has that.

pmartinezv said:

kmk said:

I can't open the link!
We very much like our ASUS RT-AC68U router FWIW.


If you happen to be a T-Mobile customer, you can get this router for a $25 deposit. Just give them a call and they will send it over.

We use this router as well. It is excellent.


It's worth noting that Apple routers don't always have good advanced networking features for things that a lot of people might not need (DHCP leases, reservations, etc.) and the uPnP features and port forwarding don't always work (this is specifically a problem if you expect to do Remote Play from a PS4 behind one).

Having lived through some of this, I have a hard time recommending their routers despite the fact that they are popular. They're far too expensive for it to be acceptable that they're incapable devices - despite the fact that many people won't encounter their problems.

FilmCarp said:

pmartinezv said:

kmk said:

I can't open the link!
We very much like our ASUS RT-AC68U router FWIW.


If you happen to be a T-Mobile customer, you can get this router for a $25 deposit. Just give them a call and they will send it over.

We use this router as well. It is excellent.


Yes it is! We actually get amazing download/upload speeds on wifi for a change!

@qrysdonnell, I do port forwarding and DHCP reservations on my Apple router. Apple routers are expensive, but incapable doesn't describe them in my experience.

Tom_Reingold said:

@qrysdonnell, I do port forwarding and DHCP reservations on my Apple router. Apple routers are expensive, but incapable doesn't describe them in my experience.


There are some quirks you can run into with DHCP and DNS, admittedly they're edge cases - but things I've had trouble with on Apple routers I was able to do with other brands.

One thing that wasn't too out there was that even with manually forwarding the ports required for Remote Play on the PS4 , it didn't work with Apple routers. This was a known problem and people could only solve it by switching routers - essentially any other router worked. I switched to a Netgear, which in addition to having manual port forwarding that always worked as expected, it had a proper uPnP implementation so that I didn't have to do any manual port forwarding. Apple's NAT-PMP doesn't always work with devices that otherwise work under uPnP. Once I switched routers, everything just magically worked!

In my book, having a more compatible automatic NAT transversal protocol is a big plus. Ideally, owning a modern router shouldn't cause you to even have to learn what NAT tranversal is, right? Most people would rather stuff just worked.



What are you talking about? what makes a router good or bad, English please.

As a former AirPort Extreme user, now Asus, I have to agree. VPN for work never worked well with Apple. I think it's partly due to being behind the Verizon router. Range is waaaayyyy better with the Asus.

Sir_Dave said:

As a former AirPort Extreme user, now Asus, I have to agree. VPN for work never worked well with Apple. I think it's partly due to being behind the Verizon router. Range is waaaayyyy better with the Asus.


Thanks Dave. This guy at my church also recommended Asus. He seems to know what he's talking about, so maybe I'll go that way. I frequently log in to my work VPN, so that's good information.

Copihue said:

What are you talking about? what makes a router good or bad, English please.


"Good" depends on what you need. I can't say what's good for you without knowing what you need. Not one router is good for everyone, because it's not that simple, similar to how it is with investments or dog food whatever you're familiar with.

There's a much better router being offered on Yugster today:

http://www.yugster.com/deals/65638-linksys-ac1600-wireless-dual-band-router-with-gigabit-usb-ports-smart-wi-fi-app-enabled

The downsides are that it's a refurb and it's a pre-draft AC router, meaning the AC spec wasn't finalized before the router came out. That's usually not a big deal, though.

It's not a new model - looks like it's from mid-2013. But it may be a decent buy for what you need.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2420689,00.asp


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