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Ask HN: What Router Do You Use?
I'm looking into buying a new router, to finally replace/supplement the one my ISP provided. The ASUS RT-AC68U has been recommend by just about everyone, except those who recommended Apple's AirPort instead.
Essentially, would like faster/more reliable Wifi with better reach, backup support (aka Time Machine), and VPN tools (to both VPN all traffic, and/or VPN back into home network).
What's HN using nowadays?
- jeffwilcox 11y agoASUS RT-AC66U (primary), AirPort Extreme (Secondary). And I weep for something better... ASUS firmware updates are starting to destabilize a multi-year solid and consistent experience.
- maguay 11y agoOh that's worrisome; have their firmware updates gone down in quality recently?
- officialchicken 11y agoAny hardware running OpenWRT [1] - you could try flashing your ASUS before buying a new one. [1] https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac68u https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac68u
- narrowrail 11y agoI would probably look at dd-wrt.org first, as this has a broadcom chip and OpenWRT doesn't like binary blobs, but dd-wrt doesn't care.
- officialchicken 11y agoGood point, I have JTAG in case I get stuck.
- byg80 11y agoSome old crusty Linksys from the early 2000's. I really should upgrade but I'm too lazy and locked into a great grandfathered deal from my ISP. They keep trying to offer me new routers and cable boxes just to break the deal but I'm smarter than that. I pay $25 a month for a 20 mbit connection.
- nonuby 11y agoThe free one provided by my ISP some months ago, I suspect/hope that such recent models have better firmware to handle buffer-bloat etc.. but I haven't had enough reason to investigate. I would definitely upgrade anything older than 3 years though given the buffer-bloat lessons during that period.
- akerro 11y agoI currently have basic router from ISP, but I'm waiting for Omnia Turris.
- NetStrikeForce 11y ago> and/or VPN back into home network For that I would recommend our own service, https://wormhole.network https://wormhole.network, that uses open source software (SoftEther https://www.softether.org https://www.softether.org). You don't have to open ports on your router or play with firewalls configurations for it to work :)
- alexgaribay 11y agoI use two AirPort Extremes (one is actually a Time Capsule). I've never had an issues with it and my wi-fi performance is very good, Since I have a multiple Macs in my household, the automatic backups when connected to the network is very nice.
- brudgers 11y agoI am not a router expert. Two of my routers run OpenWRT [they're Buffalos [1] that shipped with it], my old Linksys WRT54G [2] hangs off the Xbox360 and runs dd-wrt in its measly 8 megabytes of RAM. It and one of the Buffalos are client-bridged [3] to the second Buffalo that sits on the gateway to my ISP. Anyway, the dd-wrt wiki is a great resource for setting up a dd-wrt or OpenWRT router or routers. Particularly the tutorials: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Tutorials http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Tutorials Good luck. [1]: http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linksys_WRT54G_series [3]: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Client_Bridged
- kogir 11y agoFor routing, VPN, and firewall, I run pfSense on a Jetway NF36-2600 I bought 4 years ago. I intend to keep using it for another 6 more years. It's still massively overpowered for my limited bandwidth and can run normal FreeBSD packages. x64 beats ARM/MIPS/Other in convenience every time. Keeping wireless separate allows me to use better commercial gear from Ruckus, Cisco, or Aruba for the WiFi. I'm currently using some 5th generation, 802.11n Airport Extremes that are now the bottleneck when transferring files around the house. Will probably go with Cisco 802.11ac gear later this year.
- akulbe 11y agoI'm using an Ubiquiti ER-X. It's not the easiest to configure, but it works well with my dual-WAN setup.
- Gustomaximus 11y agoTP‑Link Archer D9 Seemed a solid plug and play after deciding against spending time setting up OpenWRT.
- cauterized 11y agoSpeaking of which, are there any home routers out there without ridiculously tiny upload bandwidth? When I finally got FIOS I had to pay Verizon $300 for their crappy router that I can't even configure because even though my own router served perfectly well in every other regard, it couldn't handle more than 768kbps up.