Request: I’m looking for something with high reliability rather than high speed. It needs to support 30+ devices.
Additional information: My house is about 30m (100ft) long, and the internet comes in by ethernet at one end of it. I’m happy to use a Wi-Fi extender if needed.
Context:
I’ve been having issues with both my current and previous routers. Devices are randomly unable to communicate over the network for several seconds at a time. Both ethernet and Wi-Fi are affected.
I live in Australia, so even the slowest router should be more than fast enough.
I have a large number of automated devices that need to stay connected at all times - even 5 second network dropouts are difficult to deal with. Internet dropouts are handled gracefully.
Any suggestions are gratefully received.
This kind of tech stuff isn’t really BIFL. However, you can extend the life of it by separating the components. So an OPNsense box for the firewall/gateway (this can last many years with very little maintenance), a separate WiFi access point (AP), and a switch.
Many consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers are all three of these components combined into one (usually) low-quality package. When one part of it dies or becomes obsolete, the whole unit would need to be replaced.
By separating the components, you can get better quality hardware (even if consumer-grade), and replace/upgrade them independently when needed.
Probably better to run a cable to have a router on both sides of the house. Wifi extenders are notoriously unreliable.
I second this. You need physical ethernet cable for the length of your house. Hard-wire anything that needs uninterrupted access. Then install multiple WiFi access points as needed for WiFi coverage. All WiFi access points can use the same WiFi SSID name. Note the difference between a “router” that connects to your internet provider and may also provide WiFi, vs a WiFi “access point” which only provides WiFi. You need one router and multiple access points connected to each other via physical ethernet cable. Keep in mind that even the best WiFi, being a wireless radio connection, will occasionally have dropouts due to radio interference. Prefer 5GHz channels over 2.4GHz channels for less interference. Another commenter recommended the Ubiquiti UniFI line, and I agree. Just avoid the cloud-based login that they try to push, and use a local-only login.
Edit: the “buy it for life” option is hard-wired (CAT-6 or better) ethernet everywhere. Wireless is convenient, but ultimately less reliable.
If you have old coax cable already in your walls, MOCA 2.5 devices can be used to turn them into 1 Gig Ethernet.
In tech, nothing is for life.
But, I would recommend something you can install OpenWRT or OpenSense. If sorting out hardware isn’t for you, I have a Ubiquity UDM Pro and love it. I miss some of the fine tuning of OpenWRT, but the extra security features on the UDM seem worth it to me.
If you want something cheaper ive been running an Ubiquiti Edgerouter X pretty much non stop problem free for about 5-6 years now.
The EdgeRouter X is a great piece of kit, but also getting harder to acquire, and it’s unclear what Ubiquiti’s roadmap is for support. I installed one in my in-laws about 4 years ago, and my brother’s house about 5 years ago. Both trucking along strong. My in-laws use a TPLink omada 245 AP in standalone mode. My brother has 2, a 225 and a 245, plus a controller so that AP roaming and band steering work.
I also have a pair of omada APs, one at each end of the house, but for a router I use a HP ProDesk 600G1 DM, modified to handle an extra Ethernet jack via the m.2 e-key slot. It runs Opnsense, but I did also run Sophos XG on it for about a year.
Both are good but I’m a tinkerer so I switched to Opnsense
Your biggest worry with something that’s connected to the internet are security updates and in general nobody will support a product indefinitely so can’t really buy anything for life. Your best bet would be a router that supports open firmware like OpenWrt.
The problem with for life products in this segment is that technical advancements come quickly and make old stuff obsolete not due to breakage but because your requirements might have changed beyond what you have now.
That said I am somewhat content with my Fritzbox 4790. It’s still getting regular updates. Same thing with my Ubiquity wifi access points.
But I sometimes would like to have the peace of mind of OpenWRT compatibility.
I’ve been using Linksys E4200’s with (Fresh)Tomato firmware for about 10 years now. Recently one failed and I think, due to all the claims about new wifi “versions”, the more modern devices should provide better performance, so I’ve been reading some stuff every now and then and looking for a new setup.
People with knowledge ™ who I semi-trust all seem to point at different devices for the wired and wireless part. Some even say you should split the router from the switch (so you can do a managed switch with vlans and stuff) but I will never use any of that and even my E4200’s can handle vlans just fine. I do get that using dedicated access points has its advantages but it does get quite a bit more expensive.
On the other end, a lot of brand names are now using Chinese chips in their routers and devices like the GL.iNet MT6000 seem to be one of the current favorites on the openwrt forums (and seems to be a very powerful device). I think I’m still going to go for a separated setup but I’ve got no clue which devices yet.
Fwiw, Louis Rossmann recommends some things.
Huge shout out to Louis Rossmans’s guide. wiki.futo.org
Taking the plunge into pfsense or opnsense is very much worth it if you are as done with home/consumer router BS as I am. I got committed after even my ubiquiti router began acting up even after being reset. I followed that guide and am now running pfsense and by far the happiest I have ever been with a “home router.”
I am by no means an expert at tech stuff, i have basic working knolwedge which is plenty if following a guide like this one. It’s intimidating at first but definitely doable!
I didn’t have a spare PC floating around and didn’t have time to build one out so I bought a used Intel n5105 based mini-pc with dual gig ethernet ports. Its less modular than I’d like, but it’s apparently easy to port a saved config over to a new machine. I was a little worried about performance before I got it, but its plenty fast. More than enough for my network with 30+ devices and it hosts OpenVPN for my phone when not home.
I recommend hardwiring as much as possible, or at least hardwiring to wireless APs and not using crappy WiFi repeaters. I picked up some used ubiquiti APs a while back that are still working well and are very reliable.
I like the idea of modularity. If I’m going open source, I may as well make everything modular and upgradable. Even if the whole system won’t last for life, I won’t be throwing out an entire device to upgrade just one part.
Thanks for the link. I haven’t seen anything quite so detailed and helpful before.
I’m a big fan of mikrotik: Simple no bullshit devices, and OpenWrt is support on most of them, see https://toh.openwrt.org/
I got a mikrotik router with openwrt from my local ISP and I’m quite happy with it.
Hi, depends of your knowledge level I can suggest you 2 alternatives.
If you are tech savvy I recommend you to setup your own router and then install something like opnsense, then you can use wifi extenders to make sure you reach all the corners. For the hw there are a lot of router boxes in Amazon for 200€ with powerful cpus and 16 gb ram that should be future proof for the following 15 years. Opnsense (for the Sw) also has a very long record of supporting x86 architecture for ages.
In case you are more limited kn tech skills try to get a top of art router from a reputable manufacturer and make sure you can install openwrt on it. Openwrt is more limited speaking about features but it is a more router oriented Sw which can be easily understood. It also has a good record of supporting legacy hw.
As somebody else suggested, the obsolescence of the electronics is more related with the Sw and regulars updates than the hw itself. A good made hw can last >25 years without any probelm. Assuming that the performance is still good for your needs.
I hadn’t even considered open source software for routers. I’ll definitely have a look at that.
are you sure it’s a LAN issue rather than a problem with your ISP?
Not 100% sure, but I have been monitoring home assistant over the local network and watched as random devices also on the local network lost connection to it for several seconds at a time.
For life is tricky considering “end of life” products will typically still work reasonably well for decades after being obsolete, but might be susceptible to future exploits that end up unpatched, and you really don’t want to become part of a botnet.
With that said, I’ve had an Asus RT-AX88U for over 6 years now, it’s receiving regular updates, and there’s a third party firmware (Merlin) that adds some features and keeps being upgraded as well.
My house is 20m square, but I have a shed outside with some gardening automation going on, so overall it stretches 34m from router to last device. I have two Asus Zenwifi AX mini mesh-nodes, one upstairs and one in the rear end of the house (about 18m from the router and 14m from the last device), and I don’t have any connectivity issues.
Overall there are 22 devices permanently connected, plus another 4-6 randomly (two laptops, 2 phones, plus visitors).
Never had an unscheduled reboot, though I do install new firmware every 2 months which takes the network down for about 5 min.
Probably not your router, but Flint 2 is the way to go. Or preorder a Flint 3.
Setup a mesh network with multiple OpenWRT devices
Definitely recommend Ubiquiti Unifi products. Very reliable and easy to use.
