New Router

Currently i have Netgear Knighthawk R6700v3 router.
Netgear is not solving all the problems with it, like not seeing all your attached devices and it doesn’t integrate with HA anymore either via the UPnP/IGD integration like it used to.

So i’m in the market for a new router. My house is around 1300sqft, all on one floor and build in wood.

I would like something that is easy to work with and also integrates well with HA so i can at least get some info from the router like current upload/download,…

I’m looking at the Nest Wifi, i would only need 1 of them since they cover 2200sqft. I would need to buy an extra switch to connect my wired devices. I already have a lot of Google devices in my house so integrating it there would be easy

I’m not tied to this idea that’s why i’m looking around here for suggestions. But i would like to stick around the $150 price range for the router. Anybody have any good look with TP-Link or Asus routers?

I would like to stay away from Netgear for now.

Any good

I’ve been browsing a bit more and ran into the ASUS RT-AC86U
Any opinions on that one?

I used to have the asus AC86U, but gave it to my parents and upgraded to the AX86U. Both are really great routers that are support by custom firmware’s made by Merlin (you can google it). You can also add mutltiple asus routers for a Mesh system.

Thanks for your reply!

Was it easy to use this router with the ASUSWRT integration in Home Assistant?
Do you need the custom firmware for that or not.

From my understanding as long as the router has the ASUSWRT interface/firmware it should be able to use the integration. I believe the RT-AC86U has this

Yup, the ASUSWRT integration was super easy to set up. Although like I mentioned, all my routers are running asus Merlin firmware.

https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/

I don’t have any experience with them specifically but generally I would take the number they market with ant divide it with 2 or 3 to the the actual number.

I had a look at the page of the Merlin Firmware. Most of the option they are talking about go way over my head :slight_smile:

I’ll be happy with just a functioning router after all the woes with the Netgear one.

I ordered the RT-AC86U on Amazon. Should be here in 8 days.

Then comes the scary part of moving everything over to the new router.
If i change SSID and pwd how hard will it be to get everything up and running again in HA?
Would let’s say the Hue integration work again once I update the password in the Hue app on my phone?

Should be easy. You can test it out now by changing the SSID on your current router. The new one will act the same. You can even make the SSID and password of your new router the same as what you use now.

Isn’t it better to name the SSID and password the same as you currently have?
That way the transfer will be very smooth.

The only thing that could happen is that some integration that is IP based gets a different IP. But that I don’t think there is any of those in Home Assistant anymore.

When I replaced my router last year I just changed the SSID and all devices jumped over and no issues.

I’ve heard Nest is good but be warned

Support may end at any moment and device function becomes questionable at that point

I have a couple of RT-AC68U units - from a couple of years ago. Happy with those.

The ASUSWRT integration shipped with HA would work with either stock firmware or Merlin firmware. So from the HA standpoint they are interchangeable.

And with ASUS routers, you have the option to do mesh - you can mix and match old and new ASUS routers to create a mesh for better coverage.

Furthermore, my oldest AC68U was from 2014. And they still get frequent FW updates… The latest being 3 days ago on 1/1/2022.
So the statement above alone just checked both my major boxes right there: a) HW reliability and b) FW updates that addresses security concerns

Not affiliated; only a happy customer.

That’s all great to hear!
MAkes me feel better about the choice i made.

Google has announced end of life of their Google Wifi Mesh (predecessor to Nest Router) for end of 2022. I’ve only had mine a couple of years, and now I will need to reinvest all over again. DO NOT trust Google on this front!