Suggestions for best wireless router for price in 2015

[DaivRules]

Well, 2015 is coming to an end and my circa 2009 Belkin wireless N router just isn't performing at peak anymore. This year, I went from a 2 mbps internet connection to 5 mbps to 15 mbps and two weeks ago, I upgraded my circa 2005 DOCSIS 2 modem to a DOCSIS 3 and now have 30 mbps. Until all the speed upgrades, my internet connection was my bottleneck and now it's definitely my router. I have two phones, a desktop, a wireless printer, my thermostat and most importantly, my Vita (and my two TiVo's, which barely count) using the wifi.

 

Here's what I'd like to know based purely on the members here subjective and anecdotal experience: What's the best wireless router in 2015 considering the price? I'd probably spring for up to ~$100 for great coverage, low-ish latency and good speeds. I don't have any need for excessive (more than 4) ethernet ports, built-in torrent clients, shared USB ports or anything else beyond good coverage and good speed. My existing wireless router will be used as an access point for non-demanding equipment.

 

I hope it doesn't need to be said, but I'll do so anyway: Please don't suggest routers given by ISPs. I don't lease ISP equipment.

[Mcbeanstr]

TP Link routers are very reliable. This one in particular is what we use

[Dav9834]

I hope it doesn't need to be said, but I'll do so anyway: Please don't suggest routers given by ISPs. I don't lease ISP equipment.

Just from saying that you gained my respect lol

 

 

 

The router your looking for can depend a little on your what your ISP is. What's your ISP?

Edited December 18, 2015 by Dav9834

[DaivRules]

Just from saying that you gained my respect lol

 

 

 

The router your looking for can depend a little on your what your ISP is. What's your ISP?

My ISP is WideOpenWest, they're pretty great about not restricting things.

[MMDE]

So what kinda connection have you got? Do you need a modem too? Or maybe you want it to be a router modem??

 

gratz on Rainbow Moon plat!

Edited December 19, 2015 by MMDE

[Dav9834]

My ISP is WideOpenWest, they're pretty great about not restricting things.

Can't say I've heard of them so I can't comment on whether a specific router has problems with them. I would say a netgear ac1750, should give you a bit of headroom. And it's around your price range. I used to be an asus guy(still have them setup as seperate APs though), but they haven't been very cooperative with Charter. Not to say an asus rtn66u would have problems with your ip like all mine did, but better safe than sorry I guess. Also no antennas = no buy. Omnidirectional internal antennas just don't have the quality in my experience.

Hope I helped!

[DaivRules]

So what kinda connection have you got? Do you need a modem too? Or maybe you want it to be a router modem??

 

gratz on Rainbow Moon plat!

Thanks! I already updated my modem for the coaxial cable connection. I prefer a separate modem/router. Just looking for suggestions for a wireless router.

  

Can't say I've heard of them so I can't comment on whether a specific router has problems with them. I would say a netgear ac1750, should give you a bit of headroom. And it's around your price range. I used to be an asus guy(still have them setup as seperate APs though), but they haven't been very cooperative with Charter. Not to say an asus rtn66u would have problems with your ip like all mine did, but better safe than sorry I guess. Also no antennas = no buy. Omnidirectional internal antennas just don't have the quality in my experience.

Hope I helped!

I'll check out the ac1750. Just noticed Newegg has the Asus RT-N66W for $80.00 and it supports dd-wrt firmware. Charter was a pain in the ass at my parents house from 2000-2013. Drove me nuts with all their problems, but they were the only hi-speed option until AT&T finally got out there a couple years ago.

[thegirlruka]

Well, 2015 is coming to an end and my circa 2009 Belkin wireless N router just isn't performing at peak anymore. This year, I went from a 2 mbps internet connection to 5 mbps to 15 mbps and two weeks ago, I upgraded my circa 2005 DOCSIS 2 modem to a DOCSIS 3 and now have 30 mbps. Until all the speed upgrades, my internet connection was my bottleneck and now it's definitely my router. I have two phones, a desktop, a wireless printer, my thermostat and most importantly, my Vita (and my two TiVo's, which barely count) using the wifi.

 

Here's what I'd like to know based purely on the members here subjective and anecdotal experience: What's the best wireless router in 2015 considering the price? I'd probably spring for up to ~$100 for great coverage, low-ish latency and good speeds. I don't have any need for excessive (more than 4) ethernet ports, built-in torrent clients, shared USB ports or anything else beyond good coverage and good speed. My existing wireless router will be used as an access point for non-demanding equipment.

 

I hope it doesn't need to be said, but I'll do so anyway: Please don't suggest routers given by ISPs. I don't lease ISP equipment.

If you've got under 50mbps download/upload from your isp then you should probably be fine with something that has dual band n. You could go with ac, but ac has less range through walls (in my experience) and with speeds from your isp under 50mbps you probably won't notice much of a difference in speed between the n and ac connections. I have a few devices that can't get ac so they use the wireless n network and there's about a 10% drop in speed compared to those on the ac network (though my speeds are ~75up/down). Since you're going for an economic option, it'd be better to have one without the ac antenna since they're cheaper.

 

If you were thinking about upgrading above 50 up/down speeds soon, I'd say get an ac router. If you went the ac route, the Netgear R6250 is a solid router. I've had 16+ devices connected to it at once without any problems. I used it for a while before changing to an ISP that makes me rent a modem/router combo from them and now I use it as a wireless ac bridge for my ps3 and ps4 so it can still be useful after upgrading again.

[Dav9834]

I always encourage future proofing(even though the one I listed isn't perfectly future proof). So I would say stick with ac as one day that's what will be most common, and stable.

That's my opinion on the matter.

Besides if the house/apartment is too large for 5ghz ac, a seperate ap or cloning the mac to a second router is the better route imo.

Even though my tri band netgear has ac compatibility as does my laptop, I still only use 11n and shut off the other protocols. Until the day comes when the majority/all my devices are ac in my house lol

But ya it's just like b and g of old(really not old lol, ok b is pretty old), they will try to compromise with n, leading to a lower rate, that's why I turn b/g off. (not that you're/my isps give you anything close to that bit rate of 11n to your wan connection lol).

Ya charter is stable, when it likes the router , took a year and a bit more money than I wanted to spend to figure it out. (the tech guys don't know enough to fix those type of problems, even if they send out an engineer it's not a guarantee you'll figure out the culprit :sigh:)