Hardware Good 802.11ac router?

[endoverend]

Hey, I'm looking for a router that supports 802.11ac and ranges from 100-150$.
I recently got upgraded to 100mbps and 802.11n isn't cutting it. Anyone have a good setup? I might extend the price to 200 if it's absolutely necessary. Thanks.

 

[Originality]

The best 2 AC routers I know of are the Asus AC68U and Netgear R7000 Nighthawk, at least for now. AC rev2 is coming soon which will change the whole game.

That said, I doubt AC will provide any better performance than N. MIMO is available on both to increase signal strength (usually between 3x3 or 4x4 configuration), but 100Mbps doesn't even saturate the standard 300Mbps bandwidth of WiFi N, not to mention that you can get 450Mbps and 600Mbps variations.

Another option if WiFi is failing due to signal strength is PowerLine/HomePlug adaptors. That and/or range extenders.

 

[Ulieq]

I'm still on 3mbps. USA FTW.

 

[Costello]

I bought the asus rt-ac68u a while ago, supposedly the best wifi router ever (according to reviews).
It's good stuff, but the signal is a bit weak at my place for some reason. Probably interference from other networks and things in my home.
For example when I'm in my bedroom the 5GHz signal is low, the 2.4 GHz one is average.
I don't notice huge differences between the .ac and .n (my laptop has a .ac compatible wifi network adapter) in fact I'm usually on the 2.4 Ghz one.
I kinda regret my purchase because I feel I could've got the same result with a $15 wifi router.

 

[Originality]

Keep in mind that whilst 5Ghz is is not affected by radio interference, it has less penetration than 2.4Ghz so is less effective at distance. Also, the faster speeds of AC depend on 5Ghz.

In my own house, I get good reception everywhere except the living room, which happens to have the boiler tank between the room and the router position. My router is the AC68U too, which has custom firmware to let me tweak the strength of the antenna to compensate for the dead zone.

 

[Jayro]

The best 2 AC routers I know of are the Asus AC68U and Netgear R7000 Nighthawk, at least for now. AC rev2 is coming soon which will change the whole game.

That said, I doubt AC will provide any better performance than N. MIMO is available on both to increase signal strength (usually between 3x3 or 4x4 configuration), but 100Mbps doesn't even saturate the standard 300Mbps bandwidth of WiFi N, not to mention that you can get 450Mbps and 600Mbps variations.

Another option if WiFi is failing due to signal strength is PowerLine/HomePlug adaptors. That and/or range extenders.

Do either of these routers support open firmware, like Tomato or DD-WRT? If so, I'm all ears.

 

[Originality]

Yes and yes. The Netgear has WRT, whilst the Asus open firmware is based on the original firmware (but I forget the name, even though I'm running it).

 

[Jayro]

Yes and yes. The Netgear has WRT, whilst the Asus open firmware is based on the original firmware (but I forget the name, even though I'm running it).

OpenWRT?

The reason I ask about the Netgear, is because I'm currently using my DD-WRT compatible WRT54G router to "catch and repeat" my neighbor's Wi-Fi signal with permission, and feed it to my desktop via Ethernet. It works amazingly well too, no lag in games, and she lives 2 doors down from me. I need to use this feature in whatever future router I buy, and I know DD-WRT inside and out, so it's easy for me to configure and setup for my non-standard needs.

 

[Originality]

DD-WRT. Here's a link: http://www.myopenrouter.com/download/list?sort=date

Edit: for Asus, the OFW tweaked version is called Merlin. The open version is called tomato.