Wireless Routers

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hi Folks,
I just upgraded my ISP cable modem. They recommended that I retire my old and tired Linksys E4200 Wireless router and get something more 'modern' - lol. Does anyone have any recommendations. I definitely want something that's good for gaming and I'll also need it for work. I don't need a crap ton of features (though I know you end up paying for that for the better wi-fi modems). I'm currently looking at (in no particular order):

1). Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500
2). Asus RT-AC86U
3). TP-Link Archer C5400 v2
4). TP-Link Archer C5400X

Anyone have any thoughts on these or have a first hand account of using one of these? Is there one of these three that help me avoid the dreaded "port forwarding" issue that I suffered through (which Damned was so nice to help me with)? Thanks!!

[Dark_Soul]

I'd recommend either of the first two, only because I'm not familiar with TP-Link as a brand. My personal preference has always been Cisco/Linksys routers. The Asus and Netgear routers you have listed will be more than enough for anything you'll likely do with them unless your job is extremely bandwidth-intensive.

[Willot]

Whichever one it is just make sure it's easy to port forward on LOL

[Valyar]

It really does not matter, the bottleneck and potential problem will be the modem/router that is provided by the ISP. If you don't have access to the device to do the first-level port forwarding, even datacenter-level router won't do the trick. I am in the IT world and every ISP I used so far has been instructed to leave and of the cable at the demarcation point in the corridor (the building has cable tunneling system) and I take it from there. Not all are OK with that though and demand to put their cheap chinese boxes with shitty software and configs.

In your case, there are two things to consider before buying:
1. How many wireless devices you will connect??
2. What is the distance between the router and the devices (are there walls and etc.)? Using AC is only good for short distance and suffers when you have steel enforced concrete walls for example. Going away from the router will decrease the bandwidth between you and the router. The ISP line speed is still the limiting factor.
3. How many other devices will interact over the network, with what protocol and what speed is the minimum for optimal operations? For example my home network is 1Gb because I have NAS and I keep all video and audio on this device and every other device streams out of it. with 1GB LAN and high-speed wireless router there are no congestion and latency.

I would go with router 1 or 2, I had bad experience with TP link and your mileage may vary with this brand.

[Ckorik]

Google wifi (3 pucks - mesh networking) has been the best thing I ever did for my wireless. So far 0 issues with port forwarding or weird NAT implementations (restricted cone nat is my nightmare)

[Dax Doomslayer]

Thanks for the suggestions folks. I'll have to also look into Google wifi...

[Nylanfs]

Look at Eero also. https://eero.com/

[Bidmaron]

The other thing is you might be able to buy your own router instead is using their equipment. That might solve your problem (or not) because they can’t control your router (still could be IP sharing that could be problem

[iotech]

I've owned the ASUS RT series for many years (as well as Linksys and Dlink). I really like the ASUS RT-AC88U (my current beastie). Just looked, it has a tad over 53 days uptime at the moment, without a whisper of trouble. Covers my 1800 sq ft house(2 levels) just fine. Highly recommended.

[brutalmilo]

Honestly, if you have an old PC lying around not being used or even build one for less than $200-300 I would suggest you go and build a PfSense router. This will allow you to do the port forwarding/NAT/VLAN/Wireless all in one package. Plenty of videos on how to build these on Youtube but recommend you watch Lawrence Systems https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kSZ1oM-4ZM or Mark Furneaux https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agieD5uiwYY&list=PLE726R7YUJTePGvo0Zga2juUBxxFTH4Bk if you decide to go this route. I have this setup and it sits directly connected to my ISP modem in router mode and I have 3 Meraki AP's and 3 Cisco 1850 AP's sitting behind this router. You can run full Gigabit speeds with ease as long as you have the appropriate NIC adapters installed.

[Dax Doomslayer]

Hey Folks,
Thanks for the replies. My provider requires me to use their modem to connect to their network (or so the say). That said, it is DOCSIS 3.1 and pretty much every test I run on it from this page: https://stickystatic.com/tech/bad-modem-test seems to indicate that the modem is decent as it passes with flying colors which I guess is good news. I did decide to get the the Asus router. Now I'm crossing my fingers that the port forwarding isn't an issue - lol. It was definitely a PITA the last time...I appreciate everyone's input!

[lostsanityreturned]

I love the asus RT routers, really solid and dependable units.

[Dax Doomslayer]

I actually ended up going for the overkill router since I just got my tax money - lol. I got the Asus GT-AC5300. Totally more than I need right now but hey, I buy a router once every 8 years or so - lol...I'm praying there's no port forwarding issues though...

[Bidmaron]

Just bought one of those myself but I haven’t set it up yet. My travel needs a vps so that’s why I got it.