Router recommendations

[dannyboy75]

I've had my trusty Asus RT-N66U since 2015, so decided it's time for a new router. Although it still works well for the most part, it only supports 802.11n which I'm starting to find a little lacking, especially when WFH and doing Teams calls.

I used to enjoy tinkering with OpenWRT, DD-WRT etc, but can't be bothered these days. The latter especially was so buggy, and the whole flashing process could be a ball ache. So happy to go for something running stock firmware, providing it supports these features:

WOL/WOW (my Asus allows me to wake my PC from shutdown via an iOS app, even over 4G)
OpenVPN server
Wi-Fi - ac or ax.

I'd prefer not to spend more than £150, although I've no idea whether that's realistic in this age of motherboards that cost a grand or more, and £1500+ GPU's. I'm a bit out of touch with router prices, to be honest.

Appreciate any recommendations. Btw, I'm with Virgin Media so it's a cable router I'm looking for, no modem needed.

thanks
Danny

[dannyboy75]

FWIW, I decided to stick with Asus, as I know any new model of Asus router will at least have those two fairly basic features I need (WOL/WOW and OpenVPN server). I nearly opted for the RT-AX55 (~ £95) but, in the end, went for the next model up which is the RT-AX56U (£115).

I checked reviews of both models, which were pretty positive but suggested the lesser hardware specs on the AX55 just made its web gui feel a little sluggish compared to the AX56U.

https://techcyn.com/reviews/asus-rt-...uter-for-2020/

[Saracen999]

Sorry, didn't see this earlier.

I bought an Asus RT-AX86U and that, at least, works perfectly with Virgin. I can't imagine the ones you mention don't. I did do a comparison on features and user reports at the time, and mostly they did well, but sorry, I don't remember the details. Partly,IIRC, it came down to throughput and from what I remember, I probably exceeded what I'll ever need, but decided I'd rather spend a bit more and not need it, than under-specify and end up upgrading. From memory, the 56U was highly regarded but yeah, the 55U was a bit aneamic. My memory could be playing tricks, though.

[dannyboy75]

No worries buddy, tbh once I'd decided to stick with Asus it was a pretty simple process finding a replacement model

[Saracen999]

I'd be interested in what you think, once you've played with it a bit I do plan on upgrading my wifi to Asus Mesh, but am upgrading the wired infrastructure first .... once I make up my mind over 2.5G and 10G. The 56U should certainly cope withmy needs for a wifi AP in mesh mode.

[dannyboy75]

I'd be interested in what you think, once you've played with it a bit I do plan on upgrading my wifi to Asus Mesh, but am upgrading the wired infrastructure first .... once I make up my mind over 2.5G and 10G. The 56U should certainly cope withmy needs for a wifi AP in mesh mode.

I'll let you know in due course - if the forums are still here!

[Saracen999]

Thanks, and unless I misunderstood things, they will be. I sure hope so.

[dannyboy75]

As promised - a few thoughts on my RT-AX56U after a week of use.

The most noticeable improvement over my old RT-N66U is Wi-Fi performance. With 802.11n I was lucky to get ~50 Mbps, even stood right next to the router. I don't have any ax devices yet, but my phone and work laptop both support ac. With these I can pretty much max out my 110Mbps connection over Wi-Fi (usually hits around 100Mbps), even through a couple of internal walls.

Setup was straightforward, although this is due in part to the web GUI being virtually identical to my old router, other than a few new features. One is Alexa integration, so you can apparently tell your router (via Alexa) to do certain things like upgrade its firmware or enable Guest Wi-Fi, etc. It also has IFTTT (If this then that) which lets you configure all sorts of conditional policies and triggers via installable applets. These are the examples it gives:

“If closes to dinner time or bedtime, then turn off WiFi”
“If my daughter comes home, then send me and email, text, or phone call”
“If my wife comes home, then play my favorite song”
“If I am playing a game, then boost the game speed”

Not sure I'd really bother with either of these in practice, but they're interesting nonetheless!

One minor grumble regarding DDNS - it wouldn't let me use my existing Asus DDNS hostname (said hostname already configured), so I had to set up a new one - which then meant having to update this on all my devices that use this hostname to connect in.

Re. VPN server support - I was quite surprised to see PPTP server is still supported. The other option on my old router was OpenVPN, which I'm still using on the new one as it works well for me. However, the new one also offers IPsec as a third option.

If using OpenVPN, one handy tip I discovered a year or so ago is to enter this command into the custom configuration field at the bottom of the advanced settings, which forces the tunnel to use TLS 1.2 (or higher) when connecting:

tls-version-min 1.2

This new router also supports using encrypted DNS (over TLS), to a variety of public servers - I'm using CloudFlare's 1.1.1.1

Bit of a hotch-potch brain dump of thoughts there, but hopefully they're helpful

[Saracen999]

It's an interesting read. I do use some Alexa devices but haven't (and doubt I will) enable support on the router. About all I do is turn lghts on/off by voice and play radio (when it works).

If you want to wifi-6 enable other devices, take a peak at the D-link DWA-X1850 USB device. Looks good for laptops, etc, without messing about with internal NVMe cards, if it even has one).

[Jonj1611]

Interesting review thanks, might get one myself, £80 at the moment! - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B081TQ91TC

[dannyboy75]

Interesting review thanks, might get one myself, £80 at the moment! - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B081TQ91TC

£80?! Bl00dy Amazon.....I'm tempted to return it and buy another one!

[dannyboy75]

It's an interesting read. I do use some Alexa devices but haven't (and doubt I will) enable support on the router. About all I do is turn lghts on/off by voice and play radio (when it works).

If you want to wifi-6 enable other devices, take a peak at the D-link DWA-X1850 USB device. Looks good for laptops, etc, without messing about with internal NVMe cards, if it even has one).

Thanks, will check it out.

Interesting review thanks, might get one myself, £80 at the moment! - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B081TQ91TC

Thanks for flagging this Jonj. A price drop of £10-£15 I could've lived with, but £35 discount on a £115 item is a 30% discount, which is irritating when I only ordered mine a few days ago.

I contacted Amazon CS and, although they wouldn't credit me for the difference, are happy for me to return mine so I can re-order at the lower price. They've even refunded me the £115 immediately, rather than waiting until they receive the router back, so I can't really complain. But it still seems a bit daft that they have to now process a return (including the shipping cost), plus will have to sell the returned router at a lower price as it's now 'open box'. I would've thought it'd be easier and cheaper for them to just credit me the difference. I would've happily accepted £25, tbh!

[Jonj1611]

Yeah it's extremely annoying when that happens but at least your not out of pocket