recommendation for 802.11ac wireless router

Kbird said:

That would depend largely on your Budget and how fast you want AC to go ?

But I am fairly Happy with the TP Link C7 for it's price.....it is also IPV6 capable if your ISP uses it? Mine is ver. 2
----- it seems happier if it is restarted every now and then it seems ....

I would like to spend $300 or less so I can "future proof" a bit, but if the 802.11 ac market is changing rapidly, then maybe I want to spend less. One of my friends said that I should just pick up a cheapie replacement 802.11n bridge.

To answer someone else's reply, the bridge is to support a desktop, actually two desktops and a laptop when plugged in (for faster access to a printer and for backup). But the laptop is also used directly with WiFi and I'm planning to upgrade the laptop later this year.

My wife and I have an iPhone and an iPad each, four iDevices in all, all of which are WiFi connected. There is also the 1 year old smart TV.

bro67 said:

Always check the ratings on smallnetbuilder.com. Personally I would go with a wired router, a Access Point with POE (Powered Over Ethernet) capabilities. Mixing Gateways with wireless built in and trying to turn them into just an Access Point will still cause issues if that one device is already having problems.

Thanks for this suggestion. My house has two electrical subpanels due to an expansion, and I thought that this situation would make POE not practical. I'll head over to smallnetbuilder.com to ask the experts there.

x509 said:

Thanks for this suggestion. My house has two electrical subpanels due to an expansion, and I thought that this situation would make POE not practical. I'll head over to smallnetbuilder.com to ask the experts there.

Two separate panels have nothing to do with setting up a Access Point that uses Power Over Ethernet. You would need to pull Cat-6 to where the Access Point will be mounted on the wall or ceiling (most now look like Smoke detectors). At the Gateway side, you would need either a switch that handles POE or a separate injector that would plug into your UPS for battery backup with the Router, a jumper from the injector to the Wired Router.

I use a Cisco RV-320 for handling all of my wired connections. A Engenius ECB-350 for Wireless-N 2.4ghz connections. A separate non-POE for Wireless-b/g legacy devices. It allows me a lot more flexibility tha what I would have with the all in one Gateway that ATT offers to their U-Verse Customers.

The issue that you deal with for WAN to LAN is the connection rate, how fast the CPU is, if it does Jumbo frames automatically or can allow the user to set them, which is very rare for SoHo and consumer grade devices. The last is how much RAM the unit has to handle all of that data.

If you are burning movies from dvd's to a home media server, it is nice to have a faster wireless speed. In reality, it is up to both ends deciding how large or how small the packet size will be. If the computer or even the router starts to see a bunch of CRC errors from channel congestion or from the equipment itself, either one can lower the packet size and rate, until it starts to get a more stable connection

Smallnetbuilder.com is the best resource out there for finding out specifics for gear and let you compare between units to see what is the best for you.

Mystere said:

Are you talking PoE or EoP? Ethernet over the power wires in your home, so you don't need Wireless? Or providing power to a device like a VOIP Phone over the Ethernet connection?

I had assumed that the other poster was referring to EoP, eliminating the need for wireless.

x509 said:

I had assumed that the other poster was referring to EoP, eliminating the need for wireless.

Incorrect. I am talking about Power Over Ethernet as I have stated twice already. If I was talking about Networking using Power Line, I would have stated that. Two different technologies that have nothing to do with how each of them work.