New Home Router

[craigy72]

Hello All,

As the title states, I'm looking for a new home router. I have Virgin atm on the 250mb package and get those speeds. I run a couple of sites from my home server, have quote a few devices, probably around 15 connected to both 2G/5G networks. I do the occasional spot of gaming but nothing too serious (kids stopping me!) I have a 3 bed house and currently the Virgin box (Hub3) doesn't quite reach the end of the house or the garden.

After looking around I've come up with the following;

TP Link Archer C2300 (seems like it gets the best speeds)
Netgear R8000 Night Hawk
Asus RT AC86U (seems people do have issues with this - 2g breaking, but gets good reviews & has plenty of config - VPN, gaming prioritization)

Want to spend around £130

Thanks!

 

[BigT]

So is the problem just the WiFi reach? If so look to fix that and continue to let the Virgin hub do the routing and everything else. Turn the WiFi off on it and choose one of the following:

1. Run an Ethernet cable from the hub to a more central optimised location and put something like a Ubiquiti access point on the end of it.
2. Get a mesh system in place
3. Leave the Virgin WiFi on and use something like an extender installed midway between the hub and your dead spots to repeat the WiFi signal out where it is lacking.

Personally I haven't had much success with 3. but no doubt it's cheaper than a new router as is probably option 1. Depending on the solution you choose for Option 2. it could be cheaper than your budget (something like the Tenda MW3/6 or BT whole home) through to an awful lot more expensive.

 

[craigy72]

Thanks for the reply. Not just the WiFi reach, we do get connectivity drop outs all the time, especially the SONOS's, plus the superhub 3 UI is awful and takes ages to do anything with. I was hoping to upgrade the router in the hope that it will reach around the house without having to have any kind of access point / extender. I was thinking of a mesh network, I notice the ASUS offers this with additional mesh enables devices so in the future if I'm still not happy with it I can extend.

 

[BigT]

Well if you're experiencing other problems then putting the hub into modem only mode and getting a 3rd party one is going to be a better bet. I'm not clued up on AIOs though so can't offer any advice on that front.

 

[WJA96]

How about the Honor Router 3? £50 and it out-performs all the router/access points you listed. Certainly, it's not a fashionable brand, but it's made by Huawei and while you might not like their politics, their kit is excellent.

 

[Avalon]

You can put another modem or buy a more powerful one.

Welcome to the forums, unfortunately you’re about 18 months late to this particular thread