Ask HN: Looking for a stable wireless router | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Looking for a stable wireless router

5 pointsamir734jj11 comments

I am working from home (1500 sq. ft.) and I have about 10-20 devices connected to my router. I am looking for stable router, that doesn't need a restart every once a while. Something reliable. I have had bad experience with TP-LINK routers where they have good 5Ghz speed but lose connection on 2.4Ghz. Speed is the second priority for me. Thank you.

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If you live in a suburb, there’s a good chance that throwing a new router at the problem is not going to fix the 2.4ghz issue.

There are only 3 usable channels on 2.4ghz. If you have a bunch of houses around you, it’s quite possible they are using up 2.4ghz. You can find this out by using a WiFi stumbler or spectrum analyzer to see how busy those 3 channels are.

Your money would probably be better invested on upgrading problematic devices to 5 ghz.

I didn't know there were only 3 usable 2.4 GHz channels. I did a quick research and you are right:

https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6...

Thank you. I learned something new today.

Interesting!

Link with more info: https://networkengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/6938/...

I have some sort of ASUS. I'm not even sure the model since I never have to deal with it. I don't think I've restarted since applying the config settings about 2 years ago. Although we might get a power outage once a year or so which is essentially a restart.

It's dual band and has great coverage even with the location and radio turned down (in the basement of a 2 story). If you're having issues in 1200sqft, maybe it's a noise/traffic issue?

If you still have the TP-Link hardware they are well supported by OpenWRT (depending on model).

I’ve had very good experiences with TP-Link hardware reflashed with OpenWRT.

DLINK 2890AL (AC1750). I don't even know what it looks like anymore. I just plugged it and configured it so many years ago and it's been working ever since. It's also not ugly and can be exposed.

Before that, "the modem/router" was something I constantly had on my mind. No internet? Is it DSL or the modem? No network? Is the modem off? Should I reboot it? All these issues are gone.

They're a bit hard to find now, but I've had good luck with the T-Mobile rebrand of the RT-AC68U; although I ended up debranding them and flashing them to Merlin.

OTOH, I live on a large parcel in the woods and can barely see any neighbor's wifi. I can use all 3 2.4 Ghz channels and the four outdoor rated 5 Ghz channels, with basically no interference, so it's wifi on easy mode.

The key thing is to run wireless routers in access point mode, and use something else (I prefer FreeBSD, but have used carrier modems when I was lazy) to do the routing, then you have separation of concerns. If you want to go crazy, I've actually got two FreeBSD routers with failover (CARP) and a custom PPPoE daemon to handoff the session with failover to LTE when the PPPoE session drops.

Eeros. Nothing else is even in the same tier of software quality.

See the Reddit.

https://xunison.com/

I setup mine to automatically restart every night and it fixed a lot of issues.

If you can get your hands on a set of Eeros I can warmly recommend them.

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