Currently I have an Asus RT-AC66U connected to a Netgear GS116E, although it's being used as an unmanaged switch (It used to be a GS116V2 but it died and that's the replacement Netgear gave me over the warranty). I am only using a single LAN port on the router to connect to the switch, and all of my wired devices are plugged into said switch.
It's been working out fine for years, especially when I had slower cable, but that RT-AC66U is getting a bit old these days and my internet speeds have been steadily increasing since, and I recently got gigabit fiber now. I got this router about 12 years ago and it's showing it's age, it can barely handle my current fiber connection and tends to drop in speed often.
So I have been looking to replace it, but on top of trying to decide on a replacement router I would need to replace my switch too if I wanted my newer systems to communicate at 2.5GBps speeds with each other, even if my internet only goes up to 1Gbit for now, and for all I know I might upgrade that in the future too since the fiber ISP my area supports at least up to 5Gbit.
But it seems to not be as easy as just swapping out my router and that switch for a 2.5Gbps (or faster) model, at least not unless I want to pay a ridiculous amount.
There don't really seem to be 16 port switches available with 2.5+ ports for anything under $600-800, especially from brands like Netgear. But I also came to the realization that I only have a handful of 2.5Gbps devices and the vast majority of my equipment is still 1Gbit at best, and some older stuff even slower, so I don't really need 16 ports, at least not anytime soon. 8 port 2.5 switches seem to be a lot more reasonable in price, like the Netgear MS308.
But then that brings me to a new problem. Most routers seem to have a single 2.5Gbps port, which seems intended to either be the WAN port, or a single LAN port. Majority don't seem to have more than one 2.5Gbps port, a few have two, almost none seem to have all four.
I tried looking up what good routers there are which have at least the WAN port and one of the LAN ports both be 2.5Gbps or higher, and came across several results that were mostly Asus and TP-Link. Personally I am not a fan of TP-Link so unless there is some glaring problem with Asus routers I would prefer to stick with those.
The two big ones I ran into were the Asus RT-AX88U PRO and the GT-AX6000. That first one seems to be the closest upgraded version of what I already have, and the second is a "gaming" router... whatever that means. Yeah I game, but I do a lot of other things too, and it makes me worried if whatever "gaming" nonsense is in that router would actually cause problems. Also the TP-Link Archer BE550 seemed to come up a lot. Certainly an interesting looking device, and it appears to have a full four 2.5G ports somehow while not costing significantly more than the others? But I am not so sure about the quality of the router itself (or if it would even fit in the place my current RT-AC66U takes), plus it's UI looks miles behind Asus's UI that I am far more used to, even seems behind the UI my previous Linksys WRT54GS had (not really looking to use 3rd party firmware).
So which one out of those three would you recommend? Or would it be neither and I would be better off with a different WIFI6 router? (Preferably not much more expensive than those three already are).
Would my plan to connect an 8 port 2.5Gbps switch to a 2.5 Port and my old 16 port Gigabit switch to the other gigabit ports on the router work out as if I just had a single 24 port switch as far as everything that's plugged into them is concerned? Would I be able to keep that current 16 port switch I have to one of the router's 1Gbit ports and just connect a second 8 port 2.5Gbps switch to the router's 2.5Gbps LAN port?
Also, is there any way to export my MAC address list/names from my current router? I know that I likely can't upload that list back into the new router, but I would at least like a listing of what mac address is what device rather than starting over hunting down what mac address is what and writing it down into the router again.
It's been working out fine for years, especially when I had slower cable, but that RT-AC66U is getting a bit old these days and my internet speeds have been steadily increasing since, and I recently got gigabit fiber now. I got this router about 12 years ago and it's showing it's age, it can barely handle my current fiber connection and tends to drop in speed often.
So I have been looking to replace it, but on top of trying to decide on a replacement router I would need to replace my switch too if I wanted my newer systems to communicate at 2.5GBps speeds with each other, even if my internet only goes up to 1Gbit for now, and for all I know I might upgrade that in the future too since the fiber ISP my area supports at least up to 5Gbit.
But it seems to not be as easy as just swapping out my router and that switch for a 2.5Gbps (or faster) model, at least not unless I want to pay a ridiculous amount.
There don't really seem to be 16 port switches available with 2.5+ ports for anything under $600-800, especially from brands like Netgear. But I also came to the realization that I only have a handful of 2.5Gbps devices and the vast majority of my equipment is still 1Gbit at best, and some older stuff even slower, so I don't really need 16 ports, at least not anytime soon. 8 port 2.5 switches seem to be a lot more reasonable in price, like the Netgear MS308.
But then that brings me to a new problem. Most routers seem to have a single 2.5Gbps port, which seems intended to either be the WAN port, or a single LAN port. Majority don't seem to have more than one 2.5Gbps port, a few have two, almost none seem to have all four.
I tried looking up what good routers there are which have at least the WAN port and one of the LAN ports both be 2.5Gbps or higher, and came across several results that were mostly Asus and TP-Link. Personally I am not a fan of TP-Link so unless there is some glaring problem with Asus routers I would prefer to stick with those.
The two big ones I ran into were the Asus RT-AX88U PRO and the GT-AX6000. That first one seems to be the closest upgraded version of what I already have, and the second is a "gaming" router... whatever that means. Yeah I game, but I do a lot of other things too, and it makes me worried if whatever "gaming" nonsense is in that router would actually cause problems. Also the TP-Link Archer BE550 seemed to come up a lot. Certainly an interesting looking device, and it appears to have a full four 2.5G ports somehow while not costing significantly more than the others? But I am not so sure about the quality of the router itself (or if it would even fit in the place my current RT-AC66U takes), plus it's UI looks miles behind Asus's UI that I am far more used to, even seems behind the UI my previous Linksys WRT54GS had (not really looking to use 3rd party firmware).
So which one out of those three would you recommend? Or would it be neither and I would be better off with a different WIFI6 router? (Preferably not much more expensive than those three already are).
Would my plan to connect an 8 port 2.5Gbps switch to a 2.5 Port and my old 16 port Gigabit switch to the other gigabit ports on the router work out as if I just had a single 24 port switch as far as everything that's plugged into them is concerned? Would I be able to keep that current 16 port switch I have to one of the router's 1Gbit ports and just connect a second 8 port 2.5Gbps switch to the router's 2.5Gbps LAN port?
Also, is there any way to export my MAC address list/names from my current router? I know that I likely can't upload that list back into the new router, but I would at least like a listing of what mac address is what device rather than starting over hunting down what mac address is what and writing it down into the router again.