Recommend a good WiFi Router

Hardware
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@IanBJ I had zero experience before I did mine - but my approach starting is simple (steps 1 and 2). Yes, it does get harder and a lot of Patience and trial and error. (Yes that is the hard way to learn.) Alit of reading, but that isn’t necessary to get started!

@donburch888 I have an eap225 mounted on a wall below a bed that is against that same wall. You can also just stick it on a shelf or on the floor under a bed or other furniture, even in a drawer, placed on top of the wired router, wherever, just like @tmjpugh described. The eap225 outdoor is even smaller and I have one inside the house mounted on a wall near the top of the basement stairs, but that could just be sitting on a desk or dresser anyway. So, maybe just get some outdoor eap225’s (which have adjustable antennas). They don’t have to be outside, they are just built for extreme temperatures and can handle rain - it doesn’t show it in the pictures but you can move the antennas around:

TP-Link EAP225-Outdoor | Omada AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Outdoor Access Point | Business WiFi Solution w/ Mesh Support, Seamless Roaming & MU-MIMO | PoE Powered | SDN Integrated | Cloud Access & App https://a.co/d/gpJswbC

Not sure why they are hard to find, I just gave a couple of links to them on Amazon…

I said #2 solves the problem because I thought the main issue was running out of IP addresses. If the problem is the need to “boost WiFi”, then just buy 2 or 3 wireless access points like I suggested and put them where the signal used to be weak. They should each be connected to Ethernet. In the corner of a few rooms that are next to each other, down near the floor behind furniture I just drilled holes through the wall, straighten out a cheap wire hanger, tape one end of the wire hanger well to the end of an Ethernet cable and just pull it through. Do not have wireless access points connect to the router or each other wirelessly, each hop will cut your speed in half. If you don’t want one separate cable going to each wap, then there is a slightly higher number omada eap ( I can’t remember the number) with multiple Ethernet ports, the wire from the router can go to one of those and another Ethernet cable can be then connected between that wap and another one instead (essentially connecting both of them to the router directly through the same cable).

Hope that helps!

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IMO, you should just look for either a Netgear R7800 or a Linksys EA8500 used on ebay. They can be had anywhere from $25-75 and are fantastic routers for the money. Then flash DD-WRT firmware onto them. I have three EA8500s and one R7800 and they are rock solid, fast (1Gb WAN/LAN), support OpenVPN and Wireguard (better) VPNs, VLANs, which is imperative for home automation, and virtual APs (up to 16 I believe). It also supports WPA3 wireless security on many routers (including the two I mentioned). I use Wireguard to connect to my HA from outside with mobile devices and it’s safe and secure with zero fees. Up to you obviously, but most stock firmwares on commercial routers are crap and don’t receive any updates once EoL. Put DD-WRT on it, and you will have an outstanding product that is very frequently updated. ie. the now very old Linksys WRT54G router is now 15 years old, but still gets DD-WRT security updates.

Oh, and I have over 60 WiFi devices connected to my EA8500. No issues.

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And for what’s it’s worth…Don’t buy into WIFI 6. Very few devices support it and probably zero home automation devices support it. It’s a complete waste of money at this point.

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Very few devices support it? Almost all new laptops, pads and phones support it now. You’re right that most home automation devices don’t support it since they use 2,4GHz, but I really don’t think you should drop WiFi6 because of that.

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AFAIK home-grade wi-fi routers typically support only about15 wi-fi devices, whereas business grade models tend to support 30 or more Wi-Fi devices. If you are only getting 6 devices connected then I agree with IanBJ that this may be more due to more other/physical factors;

Please do start by seeing what (if any) can be done to improve your current setup. If nothing else, it will give you a better idea of the factors which may affect your specific situation.

Wi-Fi is not magic !

Wi-Fi channels are actually radio frequencies - so are affected by a lot of the same issues we experienced with radio and TV signals. For suggestions on where to place a Wi-fi Acess Point, see this article or this article. Do note that our IoT devices use the 2.4GHz channels, so there is absolutely NO advantage to your home automation to buy a shiny new Wi-fi 6 or even a wi-fi 5 router.

Like tuning an AM radio, wi-fi frequencies tend to interfere with neighbouring frequencies - this is why the recommendation is to use only channels 1, 6 and 11. Unfortunately with wi-fi so popular and high-density housing and offices, neighbours are also using the same channels - and because they are close, many will be pretty much the same signal strength as yours.

Each wi-fi device is actually a tiny radio transmitter and receiver, although relatively low power. And like your favourite radio or TV station, the wi-fi radio signals don’t stop at the border of your property - anyone within range can tune-in and listen and send data. In fact, that is what is happening. It is the firmware built into every Wi-fi device which adds a header identifying your network to all data it transmits - and ignores all data packets it receives with a header for any other network. Hence the advice that wi-fi is inherently not secure, and the use of encryption (you are probably using WPA2) to make it harder for a neighbour to read the data inside your broadcasts.

Enough of the basics tutorial. Maybe I should write it up in a blog post.

When it comes to checking wi-fi signals, for years I have personally been using “Wifi Analyzer” app on my Android phone, by Abdelrahman M. Sid. It is not the only wi-fi analyser app, but the free version does what I need. It shows graphically all the wi-fi signals currently within range, which channel they use, and their relative strength.

Screenshot_20220919-174037_WiFi Analyzer
Screenshot_20220919-174037_WiFi Analyzer720×1560 127 KB

I can see what channels are currently less used; and move around the property to see where my WAP’s wi-fi signal is weaker. Note that you should do this several times during the day/evening/week, because the usage does change over time. For example if my neighbour is streaming 4K video to his TV, that channel is busy now - but at other time that network (and maybe channel) looks unused.

Please do start by seeing what (if any) can be done to improve your current setup. If nothing else, it will give you a better idea of the factors which may affect your specific situation … and making any money you might spend much more effective.

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Too add to this:

The level of devices that a router can support and manage on its network is also determined by the quality of the hardware and the software that is installed.

The main advantage of upgrading the hardware is to make sure that it’s current on security support and is patched up.

When it comes to the channels, yes its best to try be on a lower channel width if you need more stability vs a higher width where you get a higher data transfer rate and to see what ones are not busy with other networks around you where you need it (multiple AP’s can be on different channels and have the same SSID on the same network based on coverage, but in most cases the central controlling node will push clone settings out to the nodes.)

The more important thing to look for when upgrading the setup is the ethernet support, you want a router to give you at least 2x 2.5GbE or 2x 10GbE ports when it comes to consumer models (one for WAN the other LAN) so that you have the room to upgrade the rest of your network and have the bandwidth you need for growth.

If your device is on an EOL list and its not been updated in the last 3-6months nor does it support options like openwrt, ddwrt, tomato, asus-merlin for non critical use cases then its time to replace it.

I made a reply here for those interested in what type of hardware I would be looking into for upgrades based on availability at the time: Modem, Router, Wifi, Switch - go separate or a single all-in-one? Brand recommendations? - #2 by TH3xR34P3R

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30

In my opinion 1Gbit WAN is enough now and probably will be for many years to come. Here where I live the fastest home connection available on the marked is 1250Mbit and is priced way too high. You would also need to spend more money on hardware to support it. Save that money now and rather use it to buy a router and infrastructure that supports higher throughput down the line, it could take many years until this is a common offering and then both the availability and pricing of hardware that supports higher speeds will most likely be better. I can’t think of many use cases today where 1Gbit wouldn’t be enough bandwidth.

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Yup it comes down to use case and what options for wan are in your area, the main reason for the 2.5/10GbE is more for internal network growth for your needs.

I am on a RT-AX88U non pro at this time for the core network and only have 100/40 for the wan side, so I am waiting till prices drop more to upgrade that connection side speed wise as I get the chance to upgrade my internals starting with my NAS, switch and main desktop for my needs.

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I run a mix of 1 and 10gbit Unifi switches myself, but as for now I do not have any real use for a router with 10gbit interfaces (I use the UDM non-pro at the moment). The 10gbit traffic is internal and not touching the router.

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What are you doing that uses 10Gb at home?

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My main server and two of my NAS mainly. Backup is nice over 10gbit.

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Something that I have not seen mentioned here, just stay away from the Broadcom chipset based routers. They are purely closed source and newer ones cannot install most 3rd party software. In fact, ddwrt and openwrt stopped supporting modern Broadcom based routers because of this. Tomato still supports them only because they use the stock linux kernels which can be quite limiting. Atheros chipsets on the other hand, have open source drivers which means excellent support on 3rd party firmwares.

Also worth mentioning. If you are running any Zigbee devices, you want to put your WiFI and Zigbee on opposite ends of the 2.4ghz spectrum. Wifi can totally destory zigbee performance.

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36

There is one thing that is important but no one mention it.
You all talk about how great it is to have wifi ap and which one is better and all that,
But as I know if you wanna have wifi ap in you local network you need ethernet cable that you can connect between router and ap. If you don’t have infrastructure for it, well than forget it. Only option is to use wifi mesh.

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1ft ethernet will do

Some AP use DC adapter if POE not available and POE adapters also exist.

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1ft ethernet will do

It depends. In my case I doubt it will. I know that you can use poe or dc adapter but you have to connect it to the router. And in my case that is the problem. I will have to do some serious renovation to pull cables around the house. And this will be far more expensive than network equipment for it.
It can work on smaller places, with thin walls, sure.

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Ethernet cable is the best way to go for sure for APs and also how I am set up for one of them here. But I also run two WDS stations (Linksys EA8500s) for areas where running a cable is difficult to impossible. This technology is the most speedy/efficient way to go especially when compared to plain old wireless bridging which halves your wireless bandwidth right off the bat.

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Is this setup with better than mesh wifi ?

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They are both very similar technologies and work about the same. Mesh has the advantage of auto re-routing in case a node goes down. I have two separate WDS stations, one connected to garage Linksys R7800<>EA8500 and the other connected to house EA8500<>EA8500. so there are no nodes to go down in my case. However WDS can be configured as a repeater too if needed so they are very closely related technologies.

Also, and I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think mesh networks can support more than one VLAN whereas WDS can.

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In my case, I have telephone lines in every bedroom and living room and this is all done with lan cat5 cables. But all cables are wired on the attic to use telephone lines. I will have to change those cables for at least cat6 probably cat7, buy a switch and connect that switch to a router in bedroom.
But I need one router that is connected to poe switch for poe intercom. And this router can’t be connected to the lan cables around the house because there is no physical connection to it.
I have only one vlan in mesh wifi but I don’t have a lot of wifi devices connected to it, maybe around 25 - 30.

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Three out of your five “cities” are actually countries…

Identity theft mostly happens on platforms. So if you registered one day (before a beech) and shared your real identy (data) with yahoo, twitter, eBay or LinkedIn then you are lost.

Making use of a VPN while still using your real identy on such platforms which are later breached helps excactly nothing.

What? Every random $15 router/WiFi-AP for home I used the last two decades were capable of much more clients. My now almost 10 year old tp-link router (bough used around 4 years) is running the latest openwrt and has around 80 WiFi clients connected without any problems.

Channel 13 can sometimes be a good spot , while sadly still having some crosstalk with channel 11 devices.

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