Router needs to handle all at once: multiple wi-fi connections gaming computers with one Business comuter

[tsmith154]

I have found my old Net Gear with dd-wrt firmware router might be holding me back now days. I have to admit. It is about 7 years old I guess. lol. I believe I need a new router.

I have read so much but every time I look at the one star reviews it is almost always the same. With an average of 10% or more that rated them at 1%. Drops devices and needs to reboot router, After awhile of ownership the speed just slows down to a crawl, Problems seeing other devices on the network, Problems accessing the hard drive connected to the router with all devices, and most important to me - fails to adjust channel / band width to give the best performance when multiple devices are using the internet at the same time.

I need my system in house to work fast and not hold me back. With multiple Wi-Fi and a couple of LAN computers using the internet heavily at the same time. I want my internet service provider of choice to hold me back. Not my system in house. I don't care about storage hooked to the router, one system connecting to another, or child proofing.

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

 

[tsmith154]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from tsmith154 : "Router needs to handle all at once: multiple wi-fi connections gaming computers with one Business computer"

I have found my old Net Gear with dd-wrt firmware router might be holding me back now days. I have to admit. It is about 7 years old I guess. lol. I believe I need a new router.

I have read so much but every time I look at the one star reviews it is almost always the same. With an average of 10% or more that rated them at 1%. Drops devices and needs to reboot router, After awhile of ownership the speed just slows down to a crawl, Problems seeing other devices on the network, Problems accessing the hard drive connected to the router with all devices, and most important to me - fails to adjust channel / band width to give the best performance when multiple devices are using the internet at the same time.

I need my system in house to work fast and not hold me back. With multiple Wi-Fi and a couple of LAN computers using the internet heavily at the same time. I want my internet service provider of choice to hold me back. Not my system in house. I don't care about storage hooked to the router, one system connecting to another, or child proofing.

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

 

[bill001g]

This is the problem with reading consumer reviews. The difference between routers that claim similar speeds is very small. What you are seeing in most cases is people rating their house and neighborhood more than the router itself. Most consumers are dumb as rocks when it comes to understanding how routers really work and what actually causes some of the more common problems. The only warnings to be concern about is if you see a lot of people complaining of dead radios or dead router after a short period of time. All manufactures have bad models from time to time.

In general almost all routers will have no issue maxing out most internet connections. They all pretty much have the same coverage since this is a function of radio power output and most devices put out close to the legal maximum.

Even sites that run reviews of routers warn that the tests are dependent on their testing environment and your results may not match.

First do not assume big numbers mean better. Your end devices are 1/2 the communication. Almost no end device has 4 antenna so the routers that use 4 overlapping antenna feeds tend to not be a good value. The same for so of the new features like mu-mimo.

A router that claims 1200 tends to match the most end devices. This uses 2 antenna feeds. 1750 are not much more and sometime on sale for less but you need 3 antenna to take advantage.

You will have good results with all the major brands. If you want inexpensive tp-link tends to be quality for low price. The most advanced routers tend to be asus. Both tplink and asus have very advanced factory software and both have many models that support dd-wrt if you want that.

 

[tsmith154]

This is the problem with reading consumer reviews. The difference between routers that claim similar speeds is very small. What you are seeing in most cases is people rating their house and neighborhood more than the router itself. Most consumers are dumb as rocks when it comes to understanding how routers really work and what actually causes some of the more common problems. The only warnings to be concern about is if you see a lot of people complaining of dead radios or dead router after a short period of time. All manufactures have bad models from time to time.

In general almost all routers will have no issue maxing out most internet connections. They all pretty much have the same coverage since this is a function of radio power output and most devices put out close to the legal maximum.

Even sites that run reviews of routers warn that the tests are dependent on their testing environment and your results may not match.

First do not assume big numbers mean better. Your end devices are 1/2 the communication. Almost no end device has 4 antenna so the routers that use 4 overlapping antenna feeds tend to not be a good value. The same for so of the new features like mu-mimo.

A router that claims 1200 tends to match the most end devices. This uses 2 antenna feeds. 1750 are not much more and sometime on sale for less but you need 3 antenna to take advantage.

You will have good results with all the major brands. If you want inexpensive tp-link tends to be quality for low price. The most advanced routers tend to be asus. Both tplink and asus have very advanced factory software and both have many models that support dd-wrt if you want that.

Thank you for your reply. So fast...

Yep, I know what you mean about the radios. I use to raise the voltage to get better reception and use the MAC filter to only allow MAC address I type inn, remote in and ctrl computer.

What do you think of what I am using: Net Gear WNDR3700

 

[bill001g]

It is a older router but n600 is the recommended speed if you do not have 802.11ac devices. The price on that is kinda high compared to more modern 802.11ac routers unless you are going to buy it on ebay or something.

 

[nigelivey]

"Most consumers are dumb as rocks" Love it!

 

[tsmith154]

I don't know why but this person posted. I recieved this in my email but when I looked for it here I could not find it. So I am copying and pasting it up. Thank you for writing Palewing.

Palewing

Well, I have experience with several ASUS routers, at separate locations, sometimes running 24/7 for years* without needing a restart or disconnecting. *Exception being rare power outages and when I needed to flash the firmware. The newest router being an RT-AC87U.

It should be noted that I use active cooling from Zalman laptop coolers for the routers I have used. http://www.zalman.com/contents/products/view.html?no=376. The longest running one has been running for about 6-7 years now, still not showing signs of failing.

 

[tsmith154]

This is the problem with reading consumer reviews. The difference between routers that claim similar speeds is very small. What you are seeing in most cases is people rating their house and neighborhood more than the router itself. Most consumers are dumb as rocks when it comes to understanding how routers really work and what actually causes some of the more common problems. The only warnings to be concern about is if you see a lot of people complaining of dead radios or dead router after a short period of time. All manufactures have bad models from time to time.

In general almost all routers will have no issue maxing out most internet connections. They all pretty much have the same coverage since this is a function of radio power output and most devices put out close to the legal maximum.

Even sites that run reviews of routers warn that the tests are dependent on their testing environment and your results may not match.

First do not assume big numbers mean better. Your end devices are 1/2 the communication. Almost no end device has 4 antenna so the routers that use 4 overlapping antenna feeds tend to not be a good value. The same for so of the new features like mu-mimo.

A router that claims 1200 tends to match the most end devices. This uses 2 antenna feeds. 1750 are not much more and sometime on sale for less but you need 3 antenna to take advantage.

You will have good results with all the major brands. If you want inexpensive tp-link tends to be quality for low price. The most advanced routers tend to be asus. Both tplink and asus have very advanced factory software and both have many models that support dd-wrt if you want that.

Thanks again for this information. I have been reading and I'm paying attention to the wi-Fi dropping. I am noticing that in the one star section. If one person has this problem it seems to happen to almost everyone. I came across a router that has screaming specs but 35% of the people gave it 1 star. One big thing in there is that the Wi-Fi keeping dropping..Surprisingly one of the LAN connections goes dead. This review was from Cnet.

My search goes on. What router to buy.

 

[Mister_MO]

Asus routers are quite good as long as you don't pick faulty one, if they work fine for week, they would probably work fine for years. You shouldn't pick up newest one as they tend to have software bugs, but once they are out for while, they get updates that fix most of them.

 

[tsmith154]

Asus routers are quite good as long as you don't pick faulty one, if they work fine for week, they would probably work fine for years. You shouldn't pick up newest one as they tend to have software bugs, but once they are out for while, they get updates that fix most of them.

Thank your for your advice. Really appreciate it.