Wireless Router Suggestions

[cobbzzor]

All,
Looking for suggestions for a new wireless router. Currently have an older tp-link archer C2 AC750 that has been great, but lacks new features and especially any real form of QoS and bandwidth management. My house is full of devices on both the 2.4 and 5ghz ranges, with multiple streams running most of the time. The range could be a little better as well, a little spotty in my house (2,400sqft). My internet speed through my ISP is 60Mbps, which is the best I can get in my area(unless I want to spend over $100 a month).

So I'm looking for something that can cover everything I mentioned above. I'm willing to spend the $$, but if I get something that'll cover my needs for cheaper that works too.

 

[bill001g]

Not sure what router you really have c750 is not a actual part number but your best option to get advanced qos is to load third party firmware like dd-wrt. It is extremely dependent on the exact model number...even the hardware revision makes a difference sometimes.

The last tplink I saw had fairly advanced qos options. Maybe there is newer factory firmware for your router.

QoS is not some magic thing. Someone is not going to get the bandwidth they want and if you are exceeding a 60mbps internet connection you have someone in your house basically abusing the connection. Pretty much only file downloads can use that much and there are ways to limit the maximum rates. It tends to be easier to limit those rates than hope QoS in the router can solve this.

Even with the most advanced forms of QoS you can not actually limit the download speeds. The ISP is in full control, they decide what to send and what to discard your router can do nothing to recreate data that was discarded.

What the QoS setting do is attempt to trick the end device into requesting less traffic. Youtube for example will detect data loss and drop the resolution. It generally does not work well for limiting file download and especially torrent files.

You can to a point try to limit the download speeds with QoS but it still comes down to a agreement on whose traffic is more important. Pretty much whoever pays the internet bill will end up being the winner. The QoS is just a formatility to enforce some agreement. Someone is not going to get the bandwidth they want.

If you need a different router to load firmware on I would look at the asus models. Most can run the merlin firmware which is very stable and easy to install. It is a little simpler than dd-wrt but still has most the features. Even the factory firmware has a lot of QoS options.

The coverage is not possible to say. It is extremely dependent on your house, some routers for unknown reasons work better in some houses. That is why you see such a huge variations in reviews. The much more likely cause of coverage problems is the end device and not the router anyway. Most routers put out close to the legal power levels. End devices especially portable devices do not to save battery or keep the size small. So the signal from the router may get to the device but the signal from the device will not be strong enough to get back.