[SOLVED] Upgrading Router?

[liamthomas]

Hello,
I'm trying to find out if I should upgrade my router or not. Will it make any difference in speed or security or whatever.
I currently have a TP-LINK AC1750 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router Model: C8 or this is the exact one I have https://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Giga...l+band+gigabit+router+model+c8,aps,162&sr=8-4

And I'm thinking about getting the
TP-Link AC1750 Smart WiFi Router (Archer A7)


We live in a 600 sq ft apartment. We have two desktop computers in the same room three feet apart. We have cox cable internet with their Panoramic Wifi modem.
We only browse the internet and watch youtube videos. We don't have any wireless objects that would be using it. We don't even own cell phones. So would it be worth it to get a newer version, or is the one we have just fine for what we are using it for?

I'd appreciate any advice anyone can give.
Thanks, LT

 

[falcon291]

If you do not have any problem with your connection, no. It just does not worth the risk.

 

[Ralston18]

And why not just use Ethernet cables vs wireless? If that close together I would use wired.

Good quality Cat 5e cables will help with speed, performance, and security.

 

[liamthomas]

@falcon291 Can you explain what the risk is of upgrading a router? I don't understand.

@Ralston18 I'm pretty computer illiterate. We have used the same setup for 20 years, set up by my ex brother in law who was in tech. Basically, the cox coax cable goes
into the cox panoramic modem
and then both our computers hook up through ethernet cables to the router.
Is that the way it's suppose to be? How would we both be on the internet if we didn't have a router? Do we even need a router?

 

[bill001g]

Those 2 routers are pretty much identical. The only real difference I can find is one uses chips made by broadcom and the other made by qualcomm.

I can't see what it would accomplish other than to take money out your wallet.

If you are using ethernet cables and not wifi even upgrading to some $300 router will not make much difference. The router you currently have can pass 1gbit of traffic wan/lan.

Now you must have a router of some kind. The ISP only gives you 1 public IP address and you need a device to share that IP between multiple devices. In your cases I suspect you already have 2 routers.

The device you call a wifi modem is likely a modem and router. I have never seen just a modem that has wifi. This means you could just plug both your pc into the ISP device and it would work. It likely will not work any different but you have 1 less box in the path if you have to troubleshoot a problem.

 

[Ralston18]

Generic Network Line Diagram where ----> represents an Ethernet cable.

ISP === Coax ===> Panoramic Modem ---->[WAN port] Archer Router [LAN ports] ---> wired devices and ~~~~~~ > wireless devices.

You do not need to use wireless if you do not need to or want to use wireless.

Same is true for wired. You can use either just one or the other as required. Or, as many home networks do, use both.

Here is a link to the Archer C8's User Guide:

https://static.tp-link.com/Archer C8_V4_User Guide.pdf

Page 7 shows a setup very much along my line diagram.

What the Page 7 diagram does not emphasize is the LAN port connections from the router to wired network devices: in your case the two desktop computers. Typically home routers have 4 LAN ports so you will have two spares. Potentially for a network printer and a network storage device.

Wired connectivity is sort of hinted at in Paragraph 7, Page 8.....

Where it get messy is the use of TP-Links website to configure the router. Actually you can configure the router directly using the routers default IP address to administratively login into the router with the default manufacturer login name and password. You then set your own login name and password.

Again manufacturer's tend to want to be the "one ring" and not necessarily provide the documentation that a new user would need to do all that.

However, the Quick Setup Wizard can be helpful to initially get started. Key is that all goes well from the start.....

On one of the desktops run "ipconfig/all" (without quotes) via the Command Prompt.

Post the results. The information therein will help determine some of the network information that will be needed to configure the wired network adapters to communicate with the router.

Read the router User Guide and determine if you can access the admin screens. You do not need to immediately change anything. Just explore and be careful not to change anything. "Cancel" is your friend.

As mentioned by bill001g I do not think there is any need to spend more money on another router.

Good chance that the current router will work out just fine.

Just a bit of a learning curve I think.

 

[falcon291]

@falcon291 Can you explain what the risk is of upgrading a router? I don't understand.

Any sort of firmware or BIOS etc. upgrade have risks, and if the upgrade is not completed successfully, you can brick your device.

For example, you can choose the wrong firmware or end the upgrade before completion etc. If your device is working fine and you are not technically savvy, it just does not worth it. I once bricked my router, and it took days to fix it. But thankfully, I was able to. If you were in my place, you would then need to buy a new router.

 

[liamthomas]

Thank you very much, I really appreciate how quickly you all popped up to help me.

@falcon291 Thank you for explaining that, it makes perfect sense and you're right, I'd rather not deal with any of that.
@bill001g Thank you that is exactly what I wanted to know.

@Ralston18 That's a lot of information and I appreciate you going through the trouble of looking all that up. I've read some of the manual from the link you gave and I understand a little bit better. So thank you for that!.

We are getting new computers (well refurbished) soon, they were suppose to be here Friday but they've just changed the date to next Tuesday (probably because of the winter storms).
I don't want to fiddle around too much with my connection now, in case I screw something up but, when the new computers get here I am definitely going to try and hook both up to the Panoramic Wifi modem from cox and see if I can get rid of the router completely.

I did look up the different modem/routers that are Cox Cable compatible and it looks like most of them only have 2 ethernet ports on the back and allow you to only have one active wired ethernet at a time. Which would explain why we needed to have a separate router device for my computer to have access to the internet. I checked Cox.com and I found out that the Modem/router that I have,Panoramic Wifi Modem, has two ethernet ports that can both be used simultaneously, so that's great to know and I'm gong to try that when I get the new pcs.

Thank you Gents/Ladies so much for your help, really,it's appreciated!