Question Getting FTTH - which router should I get?

MDC2957

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My city will be installing FTTH in the next week or so, so I have the option to get up to 1Gb service. My home is 2700 sq ft, 3 stories, with the router in the basement. I don't do gaming, but I will be subscribing to some streaming video services. What would be a good router to purchase?
 

USAFRet

Titan
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My city will be installing FTTH in the next week or so, so I have the option to get up to 1Gb service. My home is 2700 sq ft, 3 stories, with the router in the basement. I don't do gaming, but I will be subscribing to some streaming video services. What would be a good router to purchase?
This depends a LOT on your particular service, and what other services you get from them.

I have Verizon and also their TV service.
That requires that there be a Verizon approved router in the stream somewhere. This talks to the STB's.
I have a G1100, and it is actually not bad.

A main thing you need to worry about is placement. Somewhere central in the house, for WiFi coverage.
 

MDC2957

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I get decent coverage with my old netgear n600 router. I'm sure whatever I get that's current will be fine, no?
I don't know a lot about fiber, all they said is that there's a "device" and my router will plug into that. But there's no restrictions on what kind of router I can use.
 

USAFRet

Titan
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I get decent coverage with my old netgear n600 router. I'm sure whatever I get that's current will be fine, no?
I don't know a lot about fiber, all they said is that there's a "device" and my router will plug into that. But there's no restrictions on what kind of router I can use.
The fiber (in most cases) just comes to the wall of the house.
After that, it is no different than other services.

The "device" will almost certainly simply convert the signal in the fiber line to something a normal router can use.
 

MDC2957

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The fiber (in most cases) just comes to the wall of the house.
After that, it is no different than other services.

The "device" will almost certainly simply convert the signal in the fiber line to something a normal router can use.

Right, that's how I understand it, they're going to install a box onto the exterior wall.
 
Cable goes into house, into their fibre box, and you put a cable from that to your existing router.
They should set it up, but they may not. You need it to be configured correctly, and to do that THEY should be setting that one up.
If you have perfect wifi with what you have now, then nothing will change at all.
 
A nasty surprise people that get high speed internet connections find is most consumer routers can not actually run really faster internet connections. This is also ignoring the wifi part which has many limitations.

Even on a ethernet connected machine you can find yourself limited to 300mbps or so even on the fastest router.

Many very cheap routers can get gigabit speeds but the way this is done is the nat function bypasses the main cpu chip and is done by other hardware. The nasty surprise is to use many of other feature on the router the traffic must pass the CPU chip and will be bottle necked. What this means is many feature like parental controls, firewalls, traffic monitoring and many others you can not use. All these force traffic back through the cpu. Just be sure to consider this when you select a router. Do not pay for extra features that you can not really use and do not load third party firmware on the router most do not support the hardware cpu bypass.
 
Nothing wrong with it but you need to really ask why you need some of the features.

Most end device do not have 4 antenna so can not use the 4x4 mimo
Mu-mimo is also not supported on many devices and it has limited value even where it is.
The QAM 1024 encoding is non standard and is not supported by most end devices and some never will..apple for example. It also only works when you are very close to the router.

Be very careful about getting swayed by big numbers. Your end device likely can not take advantage.
 
If you have wired infrastructure, then I would recommend a wired only router with WIFI access points where most of the devices are (unless the router would be in that location).
Especially your three story house. You really need a WIFI source on every floor.
Which is why i recommended the Unifi equipment. I use this on a 100 foot yacht, its more than enough. Every place over this huge yacht gets wifi. Lots of Steel
 
I'll use both wifi and wired. Main computer and living room entertainment area are wired.
If your living room is centrally located then you can put your WiFi Router in there since you are going to have that wired. I have a 2900 ft2 tri-level home and don't have any problems with WiFi anywhere in my home with the new version of the Netgear R7000. I have my modem in the basement at the closest spot to where the cable comes into the home and a direct line to the WiFi router which is in the living room.
 

kanewolf

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Which is why i recommended the Unifi equipment. I use this on a 100 foot yacht, its more than enough. Every place over this huge yacht gets wifi. Lots of Steel
I have just "recapped" my home network with UniFi. I have two APs, and a USG for the router. Obviously I agree they are a good choice. But, it isn't cheap. APs are $100 to $150 each, the USG is $150 and a UniFI POE switch is $150. So the potential costs are $600 or more. Many people balk at those prices.
 
I have just "recapped" my home network with UniFi. I have two APs, and a USG for the router. Obviously I agree they are a good choice. But, it isn't cheap. APs are $100 to $150 each, the USG is $150 and a UniFI POE switch is $150. So the potential costs are $600 or more. Many people balk at those prices.
Very true, but reliability is amazing :) Since it went on a yacht, the owner is quite wealthy, so I see where you are coming from.
 

Satan-IR

Splendid
Ambassador
Not easy to setup for everyone but you can also get Mikrotik routers. They also have routers with SFP that can take fiber directly. Not sure it'd be compatible with the FTTH you're getting though.

Getting the network to other floors with wires is the way to go indeed. Whatever you do don't get WiFi range extender APs.
 

MDC2957

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Oh man you guys are too complicated for me! I'm just looking for a new router that will work well with this new Fiber internet deal, that I can place in the basement, and will have better coverage and signal strength on wifi than my Netgear N600 that I bought in 2013.
 

kanewolf

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Oh man you guys are too complicated for me! I'm just looking for a new router that will work well with this new Fiber internet deal, that I can place in the basement, and will have better coverage and signal strength on wifi than my Netgear N600 that I bought in 2013.
IMO, there is no router that can be placed in the basement that will work well on the third floor. First floor, yeah.
 

MDC2957

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That's not true, my crappy N600 router that is 6 years old reaches up to the third floor. It's not super strong but it works. Are you saying that today's routers are worse than 6 years ago?
 

Satan-IR

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I agree with kanewolf, not the best solution to place a router in the basement and being content with only getting some signal on upper floors.

Reaching third floor as in turning for example your phone wifi and seeing the network/AP SSID and connecting to it yes it might work. Working as in being able to recieve a decent and constant bandwidth not very much so. Although, it's your decision and what matters is that you're happy with the result.

Any signal emission e.g. wifi is subject to the inverse square law, due to geometric dilution the signal getts weaker as it moves through three-dimensional space. The signal from the basement (losing strength as it moves further from the source, i.e. router) has to to move through three floors pretty much reflecting and bouncing off whichever way.

Again, it might 'work' and reach the upper most floor but it wouldn't be the best you can get.