Home networking enthusiasts...anybody using a bleeding edge AC1900 router?
 

I'd be interested to know if anybody has any experiences they'd like to share.

I have now tried the Netgear R7000, Asus RT-AC68U, and the Linksys EA6900. Tomorrow, I'm going to test the Linksys WRT1900AC, the most expensive router in the group.

So anybody else take the plunge?

I don't have them.

Is the default username/password admin:admin?

Nobody? :hmmm:

Here are some quick rankings based on my experience/environment, in case anybody is considering buying:

Wireless Range - 2.4Ghz

1. Linksys WRT1900AC
2. Netgear R7000
3. Asus RT-AC68U
4. Linksys EA6900

Wireless Range - 5.0Ghz

1. Linksys WRT1900AC
2. Asus RT-AC68U
3. Netgear R7000
4. Linksys EA6900

Wireless Throughput - 2.4Ghz (not tested)

Wireless Throughput - 5.0Ghz

1. Netgear R7000
2. Linksys WRT1900AC
3. Asus RT-AC68U
4. Linksys EA6900

Notes: The EA6900 was significantly worse than the other 3 in this category. The R7000 suffers from a bug when doing AFP file transfers to/from OS X. If you are transferring files larger than 10GB, the AFP transfer consumes 100% of wireless bandwidth, making multi-tasking impossible. The file transfer still completes without error, however.

Ease of Setup

1. Linksys WRT1900AC
2. Linksys EA6900
3. Netgear R7000
4. Asus RT-AC68U

Notes: Both Linksys routers use the same GUI and are equally easy to get up and running.

Features

1. Asus RT-AC68U
2. Netgear R7000
3. Linksys WRT1900AC
4. Linksys EA6900

Notes: The Asus firmware has a ton of features including telnet/SSH support and several other things the other routers don't have but for me, it was just one step short of DD-WRT and just too cluttered IMO. The Linksys firmware is very basic but does include features like USB NAS storage, FTP server, DHCP reservation, port forwarding, and IPv6 support. Despite being short on other features, the Linksys firmware supports a completely separate guest network on it's own subnet and uses splash page authentication with an open SSID. Both the Netgear and Asus use a secure SSID with WPA2-PSK but guest users are placed on the same subnet as the private LAN and rely on ACLs to separate guest traffic from the LAN (see "Stability" below). the AC68U supports both PPTP VPN and OpenVPN. The Netgear supports OpenVPN but the distro they use is quite dated and only allows for the use of deprecated 1024-bit keys. The Linksys firmware does not support VPN termination at all.

USB File Sharing Support

1. Linksys WRT1900AC
2. Netgear R7000
3. Asus RT-AC68U
4. Linksys EA6900

Notes: This one is kind of tough and very subjective. I don't tend to use this feature but here are some things to consider. All of the devices have 1 USB2.0 and 1 USB3.0 port. The WRT1900AC also has an eSATA port but reportedly it doesn't outperform USB3.0 in this configuration. The RT-AC68U is apparently the only device of the 4 that can natively support Apple Time Machine backups. The RT-AC68U also lacks the design/shielding of the other devices. Many people can't get the USB3.0 port to work at anything about USB2.0 speeds because it creates interference that affects wireless stability. The Netgear and Asus both allow you to expose your file shares to the outside world. The Linksys firmware only allows file sharing within the private LAN.

Stability

1. Linksys WRT1900AC
2. Asus RT-AC68U
3. Netgear R7000
4. Linksys EA6900

Notes: The Asus router running RMerlin 3rd-party firmware seemed very stable. However, there are a couple of bugs. The worst one is that there is an error in the ebtables config that allows users on the guest network to access the router admin page even thought they're not supposed to be able to access the private subnet. The Netgear firmware appears to have memory leaks. It is quite stable for 2-3 days and then things start failing. You have to reboot in order to calm things down, at which point it is stable again for 2-3 days. The EA6900 comes in last here because of a hardware issue. The Linksys firmware appears to be very stable. However, the EA6900 has a ton of high-powered electronics packed in a very tiny space and the feet on the bottom of the router provide less than 1/8 inch of clearance from the surface it's sitting on. I had seen reports of the unit reaching temps 25 degrees above safe operating specs and despite having a 4-inch fan on it 24x7 and adding after-market foot pads to give it over an inch of clearance, I still noticed it getting VERY hot. If I hadn't made all of those alterations, I'm sure it would have crashed.

Average Price (Low to High)

1. Linksys EA6900 - $180
2. Netgear R7000 - $190
3. Asus RT-AC68U - $210
4. Linksys WRT1900AC - $250

Bottom Line: I am sticking with the WRT1900AC. The extra $$$ is worth it.

The default usernames for the R7000 and AC68U are both "admin". The default passwords are both "password".

The Linksys GUI no longer utilizes a username and password but rather just a login. By default, it is "admin".

Last time I needed a router, I just bought whatever router they had at Best Buy (Linksys E1200). Does that qualify me to be a home networking enthusiast?

What I did splurge on was an UPS so that I didn't have to reset the whole modem/router rig every time the power blinked. That got old.

I just want my router to be a router / wifi AP. I don't want it to be a print server or a file server or have 6 antennas or any of that shit. I usually just buy a good midrange device that can handle Tomato or DD-WRT.

I'm the same. I really don't use any of the advanced features except to play around. I have a dedicated NAS and all that jazz.

That being said, the performance of these devices as routers and wireless APs cannot be understated. Dual core CPUs with high-end wireless amps.

The range and wireless throughput of all of these routers is at least DOUBLE of my old Netgear WNDR3700, which at one time was the fastest N600 router available. In addition, all of these routers can handle near 1Gig WAN/LAN routing, so Google Fiber people would do well to take a look.

Upgrading from a baseline N router to a dual band N increased our network throughput significantly, and even boosted wireless download speeds two-fold. On a 30 Meg connection we've pulled downloads as high as 4 MB/sec.

On this Linksys, I'm pushing 216Mbps consistently on the 5Ghz band.

Any idea which ones are more prone to interference?
Typical things like home theater equipment, microwaves, cordless phones, etc?

First of all, they all operate on the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequency bands, so all wireless routers are susceptible to the same interference, whether your talking about an old Linksys G router from 2005 or one of these new guys.

You're not likely to get interference from home electronics (with one notable exception below) but microwaves definitely can interfere with 2.4Ghz signals. Bluetooth runs in the 2.4Ghz spectrum and can cause problems.

However, the biggest interference problem on 2.4Ghz is simply the limited amount of spectrum. There's only 3 non-overlapping bands, so if you have 3 neighbors and yourself on 2.4Ghz, your competing with at least one person. The good news is that since their all running the same protocols, it's really not "interference" but rather contention (unless you're at fringe distances where the protocols don't function correctly).

On the 5Ghz side, there's one primary, common offender - 6.0 cordless phones. They use the upper end of the 5.8Ghz spectrum, which will absolutely cause significant problems with 5Ghz router transmissions.

Interference is really not a huge concern in this day and age. Wireless contention (on the 2.4Ghz) is a much bigger issue and after that, stability and quality of the individual device is paramount.

Do any of these offer a site to site VPN secured w/ IPSec? If not, i'm not interested.

The Asus might.

Then again, site-to-site tunneling isn't exactly a "home networking" feature, Saul...

I want to bring a router with me when travelling to extend my home network to my hotel room. :thumb:

You can't do that with OpenVPN? :D

Certainly, the Asus has a ton of VPN features and for me it was really stable and fast. I just wasn't a fan of the FW. Then again, I'm not a big fan of DD-WRT either. Too many options just makes my head spin - I'm a minimalist.

Now that I think about it, DD-WRT might have the VPN features you need. Lots of people are having good luck running Kong's build on the Netgear R7000 and it is a performance beast too.

You learn something everyday from he smaqe. My Internet ****ed up yesterday when the nurse was clocking out on the cordless phone... Now I know why, maybe.
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There are definitely 2.4Ghz cordless phones out there but 5.8Ghz is far more common these days...

I know exactly shit about any of that.

She used the phone and I couldn't buy Netflix or surf, she hung up and Netflix started working and I could load pages. That's the extent of what I know about anything.


I push buttons on the screen and chiefs planet usually works, enough for me
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Definitely sounds like the phone was causing interference.

See you taught me something today... My day is complete
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So im searching for a new router to compliment my incoming gigabit internet, the r7000 seems to be a good choice for me. Any reason why I am wrong?

With stock Netgear firmware, a lot of people are struggling to get it to be stable. Wireless dropouts seem to be a commonly-reported problem. I had an issue where the wireless and wired sides of the switch would just stop communicating with each other after a couple of days. Several others on the Netgear forums have similar issues. Basic layer 2 functionality is not a luxury, it's an expectation for any switch made in the last 25 years. Netgear failed pretty bad here.

The biggest deterrent though would be Netgear's support. They used to be the best. After 5 weeks of me basically doing all of their troubleshooting for them and them throwing darts at the problem, I finally gave up. That being said, if you like DD-WRT, people are saying great things about the R7000. It apparently is very stable with Kong's variant and performs almost as well.

However, if you have an appetite for "feature rich" firmware like DD-WRT, it might be worth your time to evaluate the Asus RT-AC68U. It's stable and fast, probably right on par with the R7000, and even though the stock firmware has a few minor bugs, Asus appears to be actively fixing them. In addition, RMerlin at Small Net Builder is sharing code with Asus and actively developing a 3rd-party firmware based on their code that focuses on stability and performance. He's doing a great job and has a veritable legion of happy followers.

For me, I'm 100% sold on the Linksys. No, it doesn't have the same breadth of features. But I've pushed well over a terabit of disk images to my NAS over the last 24 hours without a single hiccup. That's something I was never able to do with the Netgear (and never tried to do with the Asus because I never got that far). It's simple, easy, and straightforward. It just works.

The reason I was thinking of the r7000 is just because it had a higher WAN to LAN throughput than the ASUS, albeit not by a lot. I still have a month or two until i get switched on, so Ill have to dig a little more about them both.

Go asus

Linksys wps cannot be disabled even if it's disabled unless they fixed that

I wouldn't go with the R7000. I just thought of that - right now DD-WRT is the only stable option and DD-WRT doesn't have hardware acceleration yet. That means the WAN port is capped at about 300Mbps.

If you need near-GigE WAN performance, go with the Asus.

I got WPS disabled and it disabled.

Did you double check it with reaver?

Edit, they might have fixed the firmware now

Cisco (Linksys) – Some Vulnerable – Product List – E4200V1 & WRT320N WPS Disable Hack – Turning off WPS does not really turn it off. E1200 v2, E1500, E3200, E4200 V1 firmware fix released March 2012.
http://www.safegadget.com/72/major-w...ility-wps-bug/


Not sure on the ddwrt

Really???

Was listed as 930mbps WAN through on a comparison, with every other router listed as less. But yes, im paying for gig internet and I want to be sure I can harness THE POWAAAAaaa

Yeah, those routers run an older firmware.

I'm running the WRT1900AC with the Smart Wifi GUI that ships on the EA-series routers like the EA6500 and EA6900.

The R7000 hovers around 930Mbps WAN/LAN using stock firmware. However, the stock firmware is unstable. Many, many people reporting having to reboot it every 2 or 3 days, if it doesn't crash on its own.

I got great performance out of the R7000 when it was stable but it just wasn't stable.

That's why I wouldn't recommend it. The Asus has slightly worse performance but it seems to be a lot more stable. The R7000 works great with DD-WRT but it doesn't have hardware acceleration (yet) so you can't get WAN performance above about 300Mbps.

That being said, when it comes to my wireless needs, I'm enjoying the Linksys.

I've done over 2TB of backups this weekend and it's only hiccup'd once. It's really performing well for me.

i see what you mean. I would like the wireless 1000mbps as well, but The only thing im using wireless for is cell phones and directv right now, so 300mbps should do. Im leaning more heavily twoards the ASUS router right now, but when i go to actually buy in a month or so I will revisit my decision

Let me know once you get close to buying something. I'm active in the Netgear forums as well as on Small Net Builder so I can give you an update as to where things are...

As soon as they give me the call that they are going to be doing the home portion of the install I am going to get very serious about buying one.

Welp, the day is upon us.

Just talked with my installer who is standing in my livingroom and hooking up the ISP 'managed router ' (told them to put it in for install and I would replace with my own)

Catch is, the ISP router only has ONE wired port and I need two. So, I need to find something local in stock I can take home tonight so that my entire network can run gigabit (I have a switch but I think it will limit me to 100mb)

So here my choices are the EA6900 and the WRT1900AC

Any chance the EA6900 is better now? Its a hundred bucks cheaper, even though I have to drive to CoMO to get it, I can get the WRT1900 here in town but god damn its high priced.

I really would likely prefer the asus but no one local stocks it AFAIK.

We have shit to choose form here, wal mart, best buy, k mart, target, and shitty local PC shops that are all stuck in 1996

I think my mind is made up with the EA6900

TBH the only thing that matters to me is the wan to lan throughput since I will be hosting game servers, while streaming up, while streaming down. And for a hundred bucks cheaper and an extra 30 minute drive I'm pretty much in.

so fastest server I can test at is giving me about 815 mbps up and down.

The only server known for a good single connection gigabit test is Googles in KC, and if your not on Google fiber you cant test at it :(

Wireless range is STRONG. I can be across the street at sonic ordering food and still have 4 wireless bars on my phone. No crashes yet under heavy gaming/upload/download streaming. Nothing approaching actual gigabit speeds of course, we are talking constant maybe 100 up 200 down.

A little update on this,

I have had zero reliability issues whatsoever with my ea6900. Great speeds on both wireless bands and of course via the WAN wired connection.

I DID update the firmware directly out of the box before I did anything, so that may make a difference

Now that Google fiber is confirmed for my city I'll hold out and use my crappy old Buffalo until then.

Each TV box is also a wifi router with 1 ethernet port.

That takes care of the basement/Playstation 4, main floor and bedroom.

You'll only get 200 megs up and down on the TV boxes, but it still beats the living hell out of what you're getting off the modem now.

Good to know.

That is the way my modem was set up, as 1 ethernet port, wireless, and then the other ports for TV etc.

That shit wasn't gonna fly since I need at least 2 wired connections for my gaming PC's so had to spring for the router.

Are you keeping it cool? That's really the only ongoing issue that I'm aware of.

I'm glad you're getting adequate wireless range out of it. I just couldn't get it to cover nearly as much with 5Ghz as the R7000 or WRT1900AC.

Not doing anything to keep it cool TBH. It just sits on my desk~

Need a new router. Thinking of buying the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi AC 1900 router.

Anyone's opinion changed on routers? Any new ideas?

BTW, I'm seeing this at considerably lower prices than mentioned in earlier posts. I'm seeing it at $199 just about anywhere.

I have the linksys ea6900 talked about earlier in the thread.

Been on non-stop for months straight, under gigabit connection with varying loads with nary a problem, crash, disconnect etc. It was easy setup, easy to get in and do port forward etc.

Getting true single connection speeds of up to 900mbs. I think I payed 160 for it on price match via best buy. They price match amazon.

I see the AC1900 for $199 pretty much everywhere. It is defintely a better product than the ea6900. You seem to be having good results with the ea6900. I guess the question now becomes is the AC1900 $40 worth more?

I actually wanted the wrt1900ac but it wasnt available locally and my thirst had to be quenched.

I am happy with my choice though~

Anyone else segmenting their network? I've got a network just for random devices that is less restrictive than the network that my PC's are behind.

Why even bother for a home LAN? Where you having congestion or security issues before?