Best router out there currently

Good advice above.


A note though in case you are not aware, consumer routers do typically have wifi built in, but some of the "prosumer" gear mentioned above do wifi with separate devices. The best place for your router to live is rarely the best place for a wifi AP. It's probably one of the worst places actually. My personal preference is ceiling-mounted wifi APs because they are mostly invisible and they can be placed in the best location for wifi to be (like in the middle of a room). Since you plan to run cable anyway I would recommend going this route.

Do wired to as many devices as you can. I didn't need mesh in a 5000 sq ft house, you just need to make sure your router is in the right place (we used to call that a site survey.) I moved from an R7800 (I think) to a TP-Link AX6000, and am happy with it. I think my previous router to the R7800 was an R6900P, but I don't recall.

Do the Ethernet drops, particularly to your main entertainment center, the playroom, office, etc. People overestimate how much it costs to have a cable monkey fish Cat5/6 through an interior wall, vs. how much it saves them in frustration later with connectivity.

Given your username, Dong Knows Tech may be an appropriate place to look for a product. Even in the same brand, there are so many product lines that do or do not operate with each other it's maddening. I think Netgear had three different iOS apps for router management the last time I set up a system for a neighbor.

Back to the Site Survey (Aironet Certified Wireless Engineer in the house), you may be able to figure our your current positioning problem with devices/router using "Fing," or something similar (Fing used to be free, but doesn't appear to be anymore.) Apps like that can tell you your signal loss in particular locations, and even moving something (router or endpoint) a few feet may make a significant difference.

Chain link fences and plaster/lathe seemed to be hell for at least 802.11b transmissions. Your fireplace is probably metal, not masonry, unless your house is old, and if you have your router next to the fireplace/chimney (where most entertainment centers seem to go,) you have a bunch of metal creating an impediment to WiFi transmission to locations in your home.

Mesh can be expensive. But, you can also use certain routers from the same brand to create a mesh, without spending consumer prices on a cute kit. With TP Link, for instance, you can go with the Omada line, which is business focused. Or you can "mesh" some Archer routers with each other. Or you can pay a premium to do it Costco style and go with the Deco line.

Are the switches in your office and living room really hurting anything? I had a 24 port in my wiring closet, but still had a switch in the living room area for the Sonos bridge, Xbox, Roku, etc. The reason I bring this up is that I think you can only stick 6? RJ45 jacks in a single gang wall plate. You could run multi gig between the homerun and the living room and stick a cheap switch in the entertainment center.

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Occasionally, I'll travel from one side of the house to the other and my phone will want to stay connected to the distant router. Getting it to connect to the strongest one is as simple as turning off the phone's wifi connection and turning it back on.

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You should probably turn down the power on your APs. Your phone won't drop the connection and look for a better one until the signal is too weak, and all it knows is it still sees a strong enough signal. It doesn't know how weak the signal is the other way.

Not trying to knock your choice, but I strongly recommend against Eero. If it works for you then certainly stick with it, but having dealt with a few Eero installs it does not handle adverse conditions well at all in my experience.

Eero also locks very basic features behind a $99/year paywall.

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Especially now that everyone has multiple Wifi networks in their houses, things like channel deconfliction are nearly a fools errand for the above average homeowner

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Fwiw, I have each of my 4 routers set to a different Ap channel. I also have them set so they don't overlap with what my neighbors are using as well.

This thread has good timing. I want to use my $200 Dell credit from my AMEX and it's the only big sale the first half of the year this weekend. I have a setup with 2 separate tenants downstairs (1br each) and me upstairs in a 3br. House isn't huge at 2,200sqft.

I looked at the Eero Pro 6e but it only allows 1 guest network. I'd like to have my SSID and 2 more for guests.

I'm currently running the famous Asus 1900 and have been for about 5 years and honestly it works fine, but I'm pretty sure I don't get the speeds I could with a newer router/mesh system. I have 500mbs from Spectrum.

Any good recs for what I should look into?

If I was in the market right now, I'd probably get a Synology RT6600ax router. Then add a cheaper access point like a Synology WRX560 (if I needed more coverage.)

The base performance of the RT6600ax is probably enough for most homes.

RT6600ax

Access point - $60-80

If you get the AP get the router as well for $50-60 if you need to upgrade your existing router.

They have managed 8 port switches for $20-30 that support vlans.

Buy a used Sophos XG router on eBay, download the free home version and install it on the device (lots of write ups online). Some of smaller models have built in WiFi and no loud arse fans. It’s fully functional and gives you all the pro NGFW features (webfilter,Rules,malware/av scanning/ ITP, etc) at no charge.

Or if you are more of an out the box connect with your phone to setup/pay a subscription type. One of the prosumer ones mentioned above would work too.

For example, I bought a XG 210 rev 3 for 130 bucks, loaded the software, registered and now have a multi thousand dollar a year (comparable) business grade NGFW with services subscription without ongoing costs. My sister bought a netgear something or other for like 200 that is nowhere near as capable and pays yearly for the web filtering sub for her kids.

Something like this with the free home firmware will blow any prosumer one out of the water, but won’t be as simple to setup initially. LINK

They have a write up somewhere online that shows what models/revisions can run the home version’s software version. Not sure of that one will, but was just and example of one with WiFi built in.