Suggestion for an AC Router

[Skelly]

Hey guys, my current wireless N router is giving me more headaches than I can stomach, so I figure it's a good time to make the switch to wireless AC.

I don't mind spending money for good quality, but I'm pretty oblivious as to what makes one AC router better than the next.

Here's my use case. The router will probably be in the basement of a rather large house, but with some hassle I could put it on the main floor. Our neighborhood is rather crowded and I can usually see the networks from a couple neighbors at a time. We have at least 10 devices connected at any given time, peaking probably around 20 when I have people over.

Thanks for your help!

[llDemonll]

Why do you want AC? No devices use it yet anyhow, and likely no mainstream ones will for at least the next year

Buy a good dual-band N router now and wait until AC has all the kinks ironed out

[Skelly]

Just bought a Macbook Air that has AC. Anything I'll be buying anytime in the future will be AC.

I know the AC spec isn't exactly finalized, but the important stuff is there already. I don't see why I would waste money on an old spec.

[llDemonll]

ASUS RT-AC66U or NETGEAR R6300 are two of the better bets; end decision would be up to you. I have a Netgear now and it works fine, haven't had any disconnect issues with it or anything like that so I may be partial to getting another one of those

[krognam]

ASUS RT-AC66U or NETGEAR R6300 are two of the better bets; end decision would be up to you. I have a Netgear now and it works fine, haven't had any disconnect issues with it or anything like that so I may be partial to getting another one of those

I just upgraded from a Netgear N900 to an Asus RT-AC66U and both work outstanding with no issues. Currently the N900 is my router upstairs and the Asus is my AP covering most of the house. Definitely can't go wrong with either one, except for the fact that the dirty jerk-offs put USB 2.0 ports in them and for that they deserve to burn in the Firelands.

[llDemonll]

Yep, the N900 is what I have. I haven't looked at routers in a number of months; they were a LOT more expensive when I looked. The AC ones have come down in price a lot, I didn't realize that when I suggested sticking with N for now

[Iamanerd]

Just ordered the Asus RT-AC66U, needed an upgrade from my 2 year old router as signal quality for wifi has gone down. But I'll need the new router for my parents/brother who uses the wifi while I have a switch in my room for the 8 devices all wired in plus when ever I do some service work on the side. I'll report in later as to how I like the router.

[Deleted]

just something to keep in mind is that some routers (like the Apple Airport) don't enable the AC network by default. you need to manually enable it in the settings.

[Pseudopath]

Frankly the router you use isn't the major concern, what your internet-network usage is. If you want to share media locally then the best revision most of the devices support is a concern (as I'm sure you know) but if it's about d/l or u/l then your router probably doesn't need to be that 'advanced', DSL ins't that fast.. and for the record you wont get better coverage without directional antennas etc. if you can, just use wired.. There's a lot of misconception regarding wireless etc. so always do your checking etc.

[Skelly]

Frankly the router you use isn't the major concern, what your internet-network usage is. If you want to share media locally then the best revision most of the devices support is a concern (as I'm sure you know) but if it's about d/l or u/l then your router probably doesn't need to be that 'advanced', DSL ins't that fast.. and for the record you wont get better coverage without directional antennas etc. if you can, just use wired.. There's a lot of misconception regarding wireless etc. so always do your checking etc.

Yeah, I'm aware that an 802.11a (from 1999) router could saturate my entire broadband connection, which is really really sad, looking to upgrade soon if possible.

I have a home server that's hardwired to my router, which provides media wirelessly throughout the house, which would allow me to use the benefits of AC.