[SOLVED] Which one of these routers should I get?

andjayik

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Been looking at these:

Asus RT-AX88U , TP-Link AC5400
TP‑Link AX6000
Asus ROG (GT-AC2900)


Basically kids play on ps4 wireless and have a few tv's , phones and ipads hooked up and want great coverage and fast speeds. Currently i have the older TP-Link Archer C3150.
 
Solution
A router does not really have a "ping time". It is very close to zero. There is some I guess as the router does the NAT on the IP address and then whatever overhead there is to convert from ethernet to whatever form of media you have coming into your house. You will not see much if any difference between routers. Even a $20 router can pass very close to 1gbit of traffic wan/lan.

Now this all assumes ethernet. Wifi delays are mostly due to the house and your neighbors use of Wifi. This is completely unpredictable. Sometime people use a different router and it works better or worse. No way to say technically why this happens because there are too many variables.

In your case it is going to be the game consoles that...

andjayik

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No i wont need it as a access point as it covers the house pretty good, no parental control and leave it on auto for dhcp and static. Just want better speeds and more ports in the back for the future. So basically a Wi-Fi 6 router
 
You won't get any better speed from these routers. The router is only 1/2 the connection. Your games consoles, phones etc do not even have the ability to use the features your current router has. It uses things like 4x4 mimo to get those numbers but your end devices likely only have 2 antenna so only support 2x2 mimo. They also do not support some of the non standard data encoding (QAM1024) your router supports so they won't use that either. Pretty much your current router already has a bunch of features whose sole purpose is to get a bigger number to put on the box. It means nothing unless you can replace the radios in your equipment which you generally can only do on a pc.

This is also true of the wifi6 stuff. Make no difference at all if you do not have wifi6 radios in your end devices. The router will just drop back to the same data encoding protocols your current router uses. In addition wifi 6 is not really a lot faster unless you are fairly close to the router. Because it uses more bandwidth and it uses more complex data encoding it is more susceptible to interference from neighbors wifi signals.

If you want more ports just buy a inexpensive 5 or 8 port switch.

Be careful about thinking buy a new router will "future proof" you. Wifi6 is already obsolete. Wifi6e will likely have devices on the market first part of next year. Unless you have wifi6 devices that can use a new router today you likely will be better off waiting for wifi6e or until you get devices that can actually use wifi6.

In the end your current router is good enough. You will get almost no benefit replacing it unless there is some software feature you need like vpn or parental controls etc.
 

andjayik

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It won't change or give me better wireless signals to the devices?
Thanks so much for the info!!

I like the function they have for gaming on line like dedicating more bandwidth to certain devices.
Even the Asus ROG (GT-AC2900) is cheaper out of the list
 
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I am too lazy to look it up but does your current router not have qos settings. Most tplink devices have pretty advanced options. You should be able to set minimum up and download rates for any machine.

If you have a fast internet connection you don't need to use QoS because there is no bottleneck. Also if you have a fast internet connection just turning the QoS options on in most routers will cap your speed to about 250-300mbps because of the cpu load.

Now there is no QoS for wifi. This is also partially why you should never play online games on wifi. There is nothing you can do to fix the lag caused by signals from your neighbors or in some cases from other devices in your house.
 

andjayik

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Do the better routers have less ping for online gaming. i have the archer c3120 v1 and wanted to upgraded thinking better signals and speed through out the house. I have 150 Mbps download speed from the provider. I have two boys who have ps4 and soon ps5 ea and they are connected wireless . I just thought by jumping to a new and improved router would be better due to speeds and signals.
 
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A router does not really have a "ping time". It is very close to zero. There is some I guess as the router does the NAT on the IP address and then whatever overhead there is to convert from ethernet to whatever form of media you have coming into your house. You will not see much if any difference between routers. Even a $20 router can pass very close to 1gbit of traffic wan/lan.

Now this all assumes ethernet. Wifi delays are mostly due to the house and your neighbors use of Wifi. This is completely unpredictable. Sometime people use a different router and it works better or worse. No way to say technically why this happens because there are too many variables.

In your case it is going to be the game consoles that are the cause of the problems. They should be able to get close to the 150mbps you have but that is only for download. Running the game uses almost no bandwidth BUT the key problem is they are extremely susceptible to ping spikes which are caused by interference in the wifi signals. There really is no fix for this other than to not use wifi for games. The design of wifi and online games have very different priorities so they do not work well together....unless you happen to live in the magic house with no interference.

Your best option if you are going to spend money it to try to get rid of the wifi to the game consoles. Best would be ethernet cables but is not a option for most. Next is MoCA adapters if you have tv coax in both rooms. These can get gigabit speeds. You can also consider powerline units. The newer av2-1000 and av2-2000 units work well in most houses and you should be able to get your full 150 mbps internet through them.
 
Solution
No wifi involved. Powerline adapters you connect 1 unit to the router with ethernet. The signal gets sent via the power wires to a second unit that you plug a ethernet into the game console. It appears as if you have a ethernet to the router. If you have multiple remote rooms you could put a powerline in each and they all appear as 1 network. You can even get powerline units with wifi on the remote end. This is used for houses where the router wifi does not reach and it is basically the same as running a ethernet cable to a remote AP.