A couple of weeks ago my old router died and I was at a loss to buy a new router. I was in a bit of a panic mode as I needed to get things back up and running asap. I ended up buying a Netgear Nighthawk Router RAX30 and I hate it. Mainly because I am finding out that it does not do what I need it to do with Home Assistant.
Would you guys be able to recommend a good router ($150 -$250) that does the following.
Single URL for Duckdns and Bitwarden (NaT Loopback/Reflection)
Presence Detection (When phone connects to home Wifi Ha knows your home)
Medium - Small Range (I only have a 1500-2000 Sqft Home)
Adguard (for some reason my Netgear does not accept the DNS from Adguard )
Nice to Have:
3-4 Gigabit Ethernet Ports on it
I was looking at:
Netgear
Linksys
Open Wrt (I wanted to find one premade not buy a Raspberry Pi and make a Router out of it. I saw one on the internet a long time ago but cannot find it again)
Arriss
Asus
I did look at Ubiquity but they all seem to be insanley expensive.
Thank you so much for your help (Maybe we can come out with a list of the best routers for HA and post it somewhere on this site?)
I can to speak to exactly how do all you requirements. That said, since you seem interesting in looking at the more techie/DIY solutions with OpenWRT, I have been very happy with using MikroTik products. They pretty much expose everything for your use. However, like all router OS’s it will take some work to get your brain around their ways and terms. I have their rb4011igs and hAP ac^2 products. Good prices, good community information.
As a Mtik guru, I can’t recommend them enough! I support hundreds of them through our customers and no other router can match the tools/features I get to remotely support these customers.
They can be a bit daunting at first, but the plethora of tools that come with them is unmatched since the core of an Mtik is based on Linux. For example you get wireshark to do local network captures, a wide range of VPN services you can use, you can create scripts email you if something were to happen on your network (like a port going off-line), the list goes on and on.
Currently the RB4011 is the one to get in terms of power and wi-fi connectivity. But if that one is too expensive, then the next option would be the hAP ac², wi-fi isn’t quite as strong in this one, but overall we use these quite a bit with our customers.
They do support Mtik’s free DDNS so work great for being able to remotely access you HA instance regardless of the IP you ISP hands out.
I use SNMP on my Mtiks to track when someones smartphone connects to wi-fi and thus HA knows that person is home.
Heck then even support APC UPS monitor via your APC UPS USB port so you can hook your USB port on your UPS to them and they will monitor power states of your UPS.
I have Asus (RT-AX88U and RT-AC86U) and they work quite nice. Both have gigabit ports. If you put Merlin FW on them you have the possibility to install adguard on them (asus diversion) and some other stuff. Asus also have DDNS service (say, yourname.asuscomm.com), so you’ll be able to access HA from outside without HA’s (or others) paid domain. And, it also shows in HA as integration and creates tracker sensor for all devices, connected to router.
Mikrotik is a great router, i totally agree. BUT… learning curve is veeery long and painfull. I’ve had it and sold it… It’ s just not worthed to spend weeks on learning, try-and-error… only to forget it all after a few months when you need to tweak some stuff again… and i definitely don’t want to call a proffesional each time i want to change something.
I bought a tplink Archer A7 from Azon. And I have the one mesh range extender (re550) in the dining room. It’s a 2 node mesh system that covers everything. I guess 30 or 40 something gadgets, maybe more. Anyway it’s the most stable yet for me. I have the power down to medium. The vacuum robot loses her “mind” occaisionally, but a reboot and she’s good as new. No IT cert required.
Thanks so much guys will look into them. I was thinking of a microtik but I am worried about the learning curve. I like the idea of ddns but don’t knwp much about it. Also has anyone found a router build with openwrt? I know there were some places selling them pre-built with antennas and everything but cannot find anywhere.
I run 2 physical openwrt instances in active passive mode. The third one is on a hypervisor which I fire up when the network is very busy and the physical machines can’t cope
I may just move home assistant to the hypervisor too and run it 24 7
I have not considered that, but I would think you would not get a very good wireless signal, or do you mean just routing traffic. Mayby a plan for the future would be to go with a Sinology type nas, or a nuc and run home assistant and a router virtualized on that? It seems like the routers on the market are all a tradeoff of some sort and no one is the …“best” router.
The problem is I would have no idea how to do this so i would need to find a guide online somewhere to follow, as I am pretty new to all this kind of stuff.
I settled on an orbi router as it has expansion by getting a repeayrt if the signal does nto reach. It also has loopback and device monitoring. I guess the best router is a personal thing and based on each person’s use Case.
What version of the Orbi router did you buy?
With the Orbi brand name, there are a huge number of different versions.
Please share which one you chose for yourself?
What are your impressions of the router and hass installed on it?
I purchased the Orbi RBR20, it was the lower grade of the orbi routers but has been rock solid for me since i got it. So far on my network I run Home Assistant, an Unraid Server with Plex, Music Streamer, and Wifi Camera.
Netgear says its range is 2000 sqft. whichi s perfect for my home which is 1800 sqft. and i even get a signal out in the yard.
When i leave it notices aprox…5-6 minutes after i leave and engages my camera and motion sensors. When i come home it automatically detects and sets automatons to turn off everythng.
All in all I am very happy with it. for my purposes it was exactly what i needed.
What factors are you looking for ? coverage? Loop Back? GB? Wifi 5-6-7?
I think the Loop Back has been taken care of now or there is ways around it now. If you have a big house you may want to look at a satellite. The other stuff is personal preference to your needs I guess.
I don’t think that there are routers which have advantages specific for HA since HA has no requirements regarding networking which are not met with currently available models on the market.
It’s more a matter of finding a model that is suited for your house/requirements and budget.
Thank you for your interest.
I have a medium-sized city apartment, about 98 sq.m.
And I’m currently looking for a router that I can use HA with without additional computers or Raspberry. The coverage issue doesn’t really bother me. I have a wireless Mesh installed in my apartment, so I have no problems with signal quality and strength.
I’m looking for the best price/performance solution specifically for use with Home Assistant
For what particular reason are you looking for a router with a wireless mesh already installed? Does the router needs to have a modem included? And don’t you got any router (internet access) at this moment?
Guess that are these little x86-64 boxes (<$100 4/64G) at this time… or some cheaper low power arm boxes…
…to have “router” functionalities you actually only need a second Ethernet port…
Thanks for the info. Then in that case the best two I can recommend would be the orbi, or even a tp link AX 20-21. It is a little older but worked for me for years.
Also if you are looking to run HA as it’s own, may I reccend the HA Yellow. I know you can get them as one unit (Raspberry pi already installed).
I went from running my own Raspberry pi to a HA Yellow, and it has been a set it and forget it. Now both my wife and I only think about HA if it needs a reboot or upgrade. It has been a faithful little appliance to run ha.
Apparently I didn’t spend enough time reading the forum
Thanks for the tip with HA Yellow. I will need more time to figure out the details of the kit.
One of the reasons I didn’t consider the Raspberry Pi was the need to take the time to learn the system. I don’t have that task in mind. I plan to buy a “base” as a router or miniPC/Intel NUC and just use HA. I have an old laptop, but unfortunately it is x32. I have not yet been able to find a working version or instructions on how to do a Docker build for x32 processors. And the compiled version is not available on the internet.
If the performance of this mini PC will be enough to run HA, then this option is a good one.
I haven’t figured out yet, how much computer performance from the mini PC would be enough to install HA?
I sometimes get the impression that cheap mini PCs are significantly worse than older laptops.
