Recommend me a router for NBN?

[rustigsmed]

Hi team,

Looking for recommendations for a router, the NBN is soon to go through my parents' place (post code 3930) so I will buy them a router. their place is pretty big so good range is a plus.

Pro's and cons of systems would be great was hoping to keep it ~$200 if that is doable? Was probably going to go to JB hifi for purchasing (close to home).

Cheers

Rusty

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

I use a Asus RT-N56U. It seems pretty good for about $100. It is only dual-band tho.

It reaches upstairs and down, through single brick walls, and into the backyard. I do notice speed variations at the extremes.

http://www.cnet.com/products/asus-rt-n56u-dual-band-gigabit-wireless-n-router/

Cheers

[drylander]

NBN was fitted a week ago and I got a suitable router from my provider (Internode or iinett) for the cost of freight. Can't give you a brand name as its with their company logo but works good for me. Most providers can supply one for their customers.
Pete

[GrampianStars]

I use two of these
set up with the same SSID name
Super fast
TP-Link Archer C9 AC1900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router :thumbsup:

http://www.centrecom.com.au/tp-link-archer-c9-ac1900-wireless-dual-band-gigabit-router

[LewisM]

I have heard that the Ryobi or Black and Decker aren't the best routers for NBN... messes up the wires :) :P

[acropolite]

Lewis is on the money re the run of the mill SOHO routers:P. We so some install and troubleshooting for a nationwide service provider and we see lots of problems with SOHO name brand routers. We have used TP link for ADSL but found them unreliable on NBN, similarly we have replaced quite a few other brands usually the issue is that they need constant rebooting.

If you want a seriously good router without spending a lot, the Ubiquiti Edge router-X 4 port router is a good option. If you want WiFi add the excellent Ubiquiti UniFi Access point. The ER-X is around $120 without PSU (too costly to get australian standards approval so they don't ship with plugpack) the UniFi AP around $150. The PSU that comes with the UniFi AP van be used to power the ER-X router via POE and the ER-X will pass through the 24v POE to one of the ports for the UniFi AP.
One gotcha is that they aren't that straightforward to set up, but they are rubust and perform well. We have at least 5 installed for our customers, I have one at home and we have another at work. Some were installed to replace popular home brand routers which were dropping the connection and had to be constantly rebooted.

FWIW the Ubiquiti company was formed by some ex Cisco Engineers, their range of equipment includes routers, switches, access points and bridge radio AP's all of which are exceptional performers at budget prices. The Edge router series has been tested against Cisco's gigabit routers results here. https://dl.ubnt.com/Tolly212127UbiquitiEdgeRouterLitePr icePerformance.pdf

[RB]

Lewis was being Lewis, Phil.

:lol:

[LewisM]

I resemble that remark Andrew.

Feliz Navidad... oh hang on, that's Spanish.

[The_bluester]

Interesting you mention the edge router Phil, I have been thinking of getting a new router. We have had a "Vanilla" Dlink router for years and I would rate it as fair at best. I was considering replacing it. The only thing I would need to do is print off our network configuration so I can replicate all our static IP address assignments with a new router. We have a pretty extensive network, part of the use of which is central media distribution and a previous router would often assign devices new IP addresses instead of maintaining them when the lease expired, suffice to say it played havoc with our early media playing! the only thing the edge router is missing is an SFP port which would be handy when I finally get a conduit out to my shed as the distance makes a fibre link the best option. the POE would declutter things by letting me power a number of things that are currently on individual POE injectors direct from the router.

We do have a three pack of Ubiquiti access points in the roof and our wifi has been pretty seamless since they went in. Before that with a variety of domestic wireless routers I would have to have described our wifi as rubbish.

For the OP, if the home is large and it is practicable, that would be my suggestion for wifi coverage, a central AP is always going to be iffy.

[GeoffW1]

:help: Take him out and shoot him somebody.

[acropolite]

Paul, there are several other models aside from the ER-X in the Edge Router range, I have the ER-POE at home, 5 ports, all Gigabit, Power feed is via either 24 or 48V plugpack on the ER-POE, the bonus is that POE can be fed to any port/s and is software selectable for either 48 or 24V (needs 48V plugpack for that). I have one UniFi AP running at 24 V POE and an IP handset running from 48V.
I install and program PABX's for a living VOIP is very much a part of that process now days, we've found the Edge router to be rock solid in that application and there is nothing we or our customers have needed that couldn't be provisioned.

The Edge routers we've used have performed flawlessly, we have a VPN set up between work and 2 of our home sites, I have never had to reboot any of the routers (we do run them on UPS'). They are not a DSL router so if you have ADSL you will need a modem (bridging mode) as well.

My first ER was the Lite version, 3 x Gigabit ports, the earlier version had some GUI functionality but was largely CLI driven using the Vyetta command set (similar to Cisco).
I battled with it for a couple of days before I had everything running to my satsifaction but it wasn't that difficult.
Subsequent versions have refined the GUI to the extent for most setups you can use the GUI and don't need to delve in to the CLI.

They really are a top notch router, continuously refined, support and documentation could be better although there is an excellent support forum and lots of wiki how to out there.

If you do decide on one I can give you some help if you have problems getting it configured.

[The_bluester]

I will have a look at it in the new year given the price is as you would expect for more enterprise oriented gear.

I have one of these

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/28813

supporting one end of the house where there is only a single Cat5e cable at the moment but there are two computers and an IP phone. I should get more cables run and shift the switch to our central rack where it can properly supplement our existing 16 port switch, and also have all our in house POE stuff run to a central location. The three Ubiquiti APs and the IP phone are all POE, the phone currently supplied by the TP Link switch and the APs by their own supplied injectors. The only thing I do not like about that idea is that the passive gear will need dedicated ports to make sure they get fed the right voltage. The ideal would be a brand new 24 port POE switch with a couple of SFP slots but to get ones where the SFP slots are not shared ports with one of the other ports (So you loose an ethernet port when you install an SFP) is really expensive.

When I get my conduit in to my shed then I would buy another one of those TP Link switches as 8 ports will be heaps for the shed and I can stick in my SFP modules to hook up a fibre link. That particular switch has the SFPs independent of the other ports so they are really a 10 port switch not 8 port.

The router is a secondary issue (On NBN fixed wireless) but I have never been entirely happy with the ones I have had. Flaky and unreliable and the first thought when the net connection drops is to reboot the router.

[acropolite]

Price is not as you would expect for enterprise grade performance. The ER-X is around $120, the ER-Lite around $150, The ER-POE is around $280 not sure about the PSU for the ER-POE, when I got mine a 24 plugpack was included, I had to buy the 48V plugpack.

There is a slight difference in throughput between the ER-X and the Lite & POE models. The ER-X achieves around 90% of the (routed) throughput of the Lite/POE. That equates to 850Mb/S (bidirectional) for the X and 950Mb/S for the lite/POE. If your was is assymetrical as ours are the ER-X will still manage 950Mb/s download.

Given that our WAN speeds are under 100mb/s the difference between models is purely academic.

[The_bluester]

Yeah, that is certainly the case. All any internal gear needs to do is provide plenty of bandwidth for video streaming (Native BD quality) to a couple of devices at once and WAN wise as we are on fixed wireless (Which unfortunately I have to say that it is becoming congestion hell in peak times) all a gateway/router has to manage is to pass a max of 50mb/sec data rate inbound and about 20 out (At the best of times, more like 40/15) and anything beyond that is in improvement on paper only.

The only advantage to a GigE router would be the ability to hang more stuff off it at full (Internal) speed if we run short on switch ports (Which I currently am, so the wireless APs are on router ports not the GigE switch)