OT: Overloaded with the Router Choices For My Home...Help

[pjmsj21]

My wife and I are fortunate to own a second home on Bainbridge Island that we both use when visiting our kids but also rent it out on VRBO.

The house is a two story house 1700 sq ft, wood frame with the bedrooms upstairs and the living area on the first floor. We have 150mbps Xfinity plan. We need to be able to provide HD streaming and a reasonable amount of surfing but their usually 3-4 people in the house using internet.

I just purchased a new Netgear modem as part of the update. I am looking for moderate priced suggestions......as always thanks Paceliners!

[jtakeda]

I have a netgear nighthawk router and it works in a 2 story home with 3 devices streaming.

We have the cheapest Comcast plan too so we only get 50mbps and it still works

Now, whixh modem did you get? How many up and down?

[ultraman6970]

If i understood right, you got a 150 whatever plan from xfinity, and now you are trying to figure it out for a good router?? well now a days the differences between routers for house use arent that critical like 20 years ago where the good stuff and the cr@p was literally 10000000 miles away in price. IMO just be sure whatever brand you pick is capable to do mesh.. why? because you can make the 2 routers you might get to work as one increasing the distance the connection could reach... that means to put one in the lower floor and one in the top floor... besides that particular feature pretty much any brand will do it fine. I like ASUS stuff for example... u can stick with netgear aswell, since you have net gear already.

[seric]

For ease of use, I like the Google Mesh Routers. If you want to be able to tweak to your heart's content, Ubiquiti is another good option. Nothing currently available will have a problem with 150mbps, with the exception of firewalls intended to do real-time deep packet inspection.

[veloduffer]

We have an Orbi mesh system, which eliminated the dead spots in our 3 story home. I used many a router but the mesh systems (Orbi and Google) are worth the cost.

When we purchased the Orbi 2 years ago, it was the highest performer. A plus was the satellites connect on a separate band so it doesn’t eat into your bandwidth. We only needed the two satellites- one on the 3rd floor where the cable modem is and the 2nd floor. Our deadspots were on the first floor and can now get 200 mps.


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[Tony T]

Google WiFi. 3 pack will cover your 1700sqft.
You can set up a guest account.
What I like about Google WiFi is that I can administer it remotely.

[buddybikes]

Wow, open up your home for a Paceline party, bet we wouldn't even need to surf!

[smontanaro]

Originally Posted by seric

For ease of use, I like the Google Mesh Routers.

I concur. We rent out a couple units in our three-flat (RCN 300+ Mbps service) and have a Google mesh setup with three nodes. It was easy to set up regular and guest networks. Our tenants/guests get access to the guest network. Ellen and I hang out on the regular network. Less interference, less chance of snooping.

[GScot]

Ubiquiti is a sound suggestion. At least if you want to bother with remote administration and sound security. It may be overkill but a security gateway, controller, and single Long Range Access Point would allow you to monitor everything including closing the AP when the place is unoccupied.

[redir]

Mesh is the way to go. We have a modest size house but in the back is a my guitar workshop and my wife's pottery studio, two buildings seperated across a half acre or so. We use the Velop system with one router in each building and it works like a charm. It will cover the whole yard too so when I'm out mowing the lawn I can listen to music.

[veloduffer]

BTW, the Orbi is a Netgear product. From most of the reviews that I’ve read, it outperforms its mesh competition, including Google. It was easy to setup and I needed only the main and one satellite to cover my 2,700 sq ft house (3 floors).


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[johnniecakes]

I was thinking you should always get your router with 1/2" shank and a solid table.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by GScot

Ubiquiti is a sound suggestion. At least if you want to bother with remote administration and sound security. It may be overkill but a security gateway, controller, and single Long Range Access Point would allow you to monitor everything including closing the AP when the place is unoccupied.

^
This

Easy to set up and a fantastic user interface for administration and maintenance.

[pjmsj21]

OP here: My question is a mesh system overkill for my situation because it is a relatively small house 1600ish sq ft...albeit on two floors?

[MattTuck]

You might take a read of routersecurity.org

If you have people in and out of the house, the potential for bad things could go up. Not that I think cyber criminals are in the business of renting rooms on VRBO and then compromising their routers...

but still, a commercial grade router with commercial grade security/features might be worthwhile.

Edit: For what it's worth, when we moved into our house, I got a linksys WRT3200 ACM that can install the opensource ddWRT firmware. I had every intention of installing it, but have not yet.