Posted: 8/26/2025 10:03:37 AM EDT
| My 10 year old router is dying, and I need a new one. What's the current hotness that's not too expensive? I don't game, just have 3-5 devices connected at a time and maybe three of them streaming (download, not upload). |
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If you wifi - that does make a difference. My old answer use to be ASUS routers. Not the top of the line stuff - but as a company they have some support issues. > ASUS RT-AX5400 - AX5400 WiFi 6 Dual-Band Gigabit Wireless Gaming Router with AiMesh Support (wifi 6 not 7 and don't play well with others outside the exact same generation from Asus) I use what everyone else hates - mikrotik L009Uigs-2HaxD (managed router with a bit of wifi - wifi is only needed for short range) |
The last thing a tyrant wants is their ideas to be judged on the battle field of truth and justice.
| If you don't have a big house and just want a basic cheap router the Archer AX21 is hard to beat for ~$55 on Amazon right now. I wouldn't go cheaper than that. If you want mesh for more coverage I would look at Deco XE75 for a relatively affordable 6ghz mesh system. |
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I use unifi at home. Its probably overkill for what OP needs. I did have my stuff crap out recently and needed to order parts upgrade. While I was waiting, I bought a $100 router from bestbuy to hold us over. TP-Link AX3000 Pro. It was getting gbit speeds over wifi to my phone and to my laptop. Thats saturating the bandwidth of my ISP connection, so no clue if it'll go faster. |
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UX7 would be an awesome router. it comes with built in filtering and security most routers do not ..... entirely configurable by the app they sell one 50 less, call the express, but it seems underpowered to me |
I'm looking for one too. My son does online gaming so we want one that is very fast, and I personally want it to be powerful enough to keep my WiFi going when I pull into my apartment complex.
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The “Three Stupid” Rule: “Do not go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things”
Religion is a handy device for keeping the philosophically deficient in line.
Religion is a handy device for keeping the philosophically deficient in line.
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Originally Posted By cruze5: UX7 would be an awesome router. it comes with built in filtering and security most routers do not ..... entirely configurable by the app they sell one 50 less, call the express, but it seems underpowered to me This is what I ordered that I mentioned in my previous post. If OP doesn't actually need all the bells and whistles from unifi, the $100 tp-link is less than half the price and does all the normal router stuff. |
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Originally Posted By giantpune: This is what I ordered that I mentioned in my previous post. If OP doesn't actually need all the bells and whistles from unifi, the $100 tp-link is less than half the price and does all the normal router stuff. Originally Posted By giantpune: Originally Posted By cruze5: UX7 would be an awesome router. it comes with built in filtering and security most routers do not ..... entirely configurable by the app they sell one 50 less, call the express, but it seems underpowered to me This is what I ordered that I mentioned in my previous post. If OP doesn't actually need all the bells and whistles from unifi, the $100 tp-link is less than half the price and does all the normal router stuff. |
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Originally Posted By cruze5: just a quick google https://nmfta.org/why-is-the-u-s-considering-banning-tp-link/ Unifi is also chinese, and has their own little laundry list of CVEs. https://cybersecuritynews.com/ubiquiti-unifi-devices-vulnerability/ https://app.opencve.io/cve/?vendor=ubiquiti |
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made public too. to tell you to update them https://community.ui.com/releases i think you are the first person i know to defend TP link 
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Originally Posted By cruze5: i think you are the first person i know to defend TP link I think you're seeing something that isn't there? Maybe haven't had your coffee? Or just not good at reading? I'm not defending tp-link, so much as stating that your reason for disliking them and favoring ubiquiti is kind of stupid. The exact same things you said were negative about tp-link apply to ubiquiti. After you've gotten over that, go back and look at how OP described his situation. He doesn't exactly come off like somebody who wants to play network admin. He is more likely to misconfigure the unifi stuff and create a vulnerability than he is to get hit with a secret chinese tp-link backdoor. |
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Originally Posted By cruze5: just a quick google https://nmfta.org/why-is-the-u-s-considering-banning-tp-link/ Originally Posted By cruze5: Originally Posted By giantpune: Originally Posted By cruze5: UX7 would be an awesome router. it comes with built in filtering and security most routers do not ..... entirely configurable by the app they sell one 50 less, call the express, but it seems underpowered to me This is what I ordered that I mentioned in my previous post. If OP doesn't actually need all the bells and whistles from unifi, the $100 tp-link is less than half the price and does all the normal router stuff. There are multiple TP Link entities. The US based TP Link that makes the home wifi routers sold here are headquartered in CA, and they even do their manufacturing at their own facility in Vietnam rather than a PRC owned factory in China like some other brands. https://www.tp-link.com/us/press/news/21656/ |
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Originally Posted By cruze5: made public too. to tell you to update them https://community.ui.com/releases i think you are the first person i know to defend TP link I run TP-Link TL-SX3016F 10Gb SFP+ switches for my home Proxmox cluster and we used them at work for a few years too and they've been nothing but awesome even under heavy workloads. The equivalent Cisco C1300 switches are $2100 each rather than $550 for the TP-Link and don't offer anything of value to me. We were recently told by corporate to farm out our network to a third party and they wanted Cisco so we bought C1300's and replaced the TP-Link switches for no reason other than that. Thousands of dollars spent for no reason whatsoever but at least I guess I have a spare switch source should one of my home switches die  That being said I don't think that I'd run any of their internet facing devices. |
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Originally Posted By giantpune: Unifi is also chinese, and has their own little laundry list of CVEs. https://cybersecuritynews.com/ubiquiti-unifi-devices-vulnerability/ https://app.opencve.io/cve/?vendor=ubiquiti Originally Posted By giantpune: Originally Posted By cruze5: just a quick google https://nmfta.org/why-is-the-u-s-considering-banning-tp-link/ Unifi is also chinese, and has their own little laundry list of CVEs. https://cybersecuritynews.com/ubiquiti-unifi-devices-vulnerability/ https://app.opencve.io/cve/?vendor=ubiquiti  It's an American company and none of their products that I have are made in China (router, 2 AP's, switch, etc). There is also a difference in what people perceive as a company having 'security vulnerabilities' and what actually happens. Some companies are better about disclosing them them others, and there are companies that don't disclose them so no one knows if they get fixed or not. I'd personally rather buy products from a company that discloses them and fixes them (plus doesn't make dumb mistakes that cause some of them in the first place like Rukus hard coding generic root passwords then ignoring security researches for months). |
I'm not the one REEING, motherfucker! -FCSD2162
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Just a few points for the thread: Unifi devices used to be made in China, now it's Vietnam and Taiwan. CVE's mean nothing. All network/security vendors have CVEs exposed, the benchmark is how they address them. Even in light of that, here's your CVE medicine  :Attached File |
God's children are not for sale.
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Originally Posted By MMcCall: Just a few points for the thread: Unifi devices used to be made in China, now it's Vietnam and Taiwan. CVE's mean nothing. All network/security vendors have CVEs exposed, the benchmark is how they address them. Even in light of that, here's your CVE medicine :https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/26415/block_png-3615162.JPG I block all incoming traffic except for the US and outgoing traffic to China, Russia, and India. I also have CrowdSec running which blocks a shitload more IP’s. CrowdSec is awesome! |
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Originally Posted By Rebel31: It's an American company and none of their products that I have are made in China (router, 2 AP's, switch, etc). . So you're saying it was the genius Americans who decided that having a USB port soldered to the main board, and having a flash drive plugged into that was a great design? If we want to measure unifi dicks, I bet mine is bigger than yours. I've got NVRs and cloud gateways that shit the bed because the internal flash drive died. Only way to get it fixed was to mail it in and be without internet/security cameras for a month while you waited for warranty, or to void the warranty, open the box up, and try to replace the drive yourself. The act of restoring it is not something your average consumer could do. Then, low and behold, the replacement fucking USB stick dies a year later.
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We have the TPLink Archer AX50. They've been good about keeping the firmware updated as needed, just did an update recently. The one that replaces it is the AX55. It will work just fine for what you need, and if you plug a USB flash drive or hard drive into it, you can setup a shared network storage for cheap. TPLink Archer (nice) AX55 - $70 on amazon |
Award: 24/365 Most likely to be an appendix.
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
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Oh, and something you might need to know, keying up a 20W dual band radio 3 feet from the router doesn't make it go wonky, either.
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Award: 24/365 Most likely to be an appendix.
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
"Dealing with Congress is like trying to have an adult conversation about the credit card with your alcoholic bi-polar Ukranian import wife."
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Originally Posted By Dopple: Oh, and something you might need to know, keying up a 20W dual band radio 3 feet from the router doesn't make it go wonky, either. @Dopple Now that's some useful info! Thankfully, my shack is on the opposite end of the house, and I mostly play on HF now. |
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Originally Posted By giantpune: So you're saying it was the genius Americans who decided that having a USB port soldered to the main board, and having a flash drive plugged into that was a great design? If we want to measure unifi dicks, I bet mine is bigger than yours. I've got NVRs and cloud gateways that shit the bed because the internal flash drive died. Only way to get it fixed was to mail it in and be without internet/security cameras for a month while you waited for warranty, or to void the warranty, open the box up, and try to replace the drive yourself. The act of restoring it is not something your average consumer could do. Then, low and behold, the replacement fucking USB stick dies a year later.Originally Posted By giantpune: Originally Posted By Rebel31: It's an American company and none of their products that I have are made in China (router, 2 AP's, switch, etc). . So you're saying it was the genius Americans who decided that having a USB port soldered to the main board, and having a flash drive plugged into that was a great design? If we want to measure unifi dicks, I bet mine is bigger than yours. I've got NVRs and cloud gateways that shit the bed because the internal flash drive died. Only way to get it fixed was to mail it in and be without internet/security cameras for a month while you waited for warranty, or to void the warranty, open the box up, and try to replace the drive yourself. The act of restoring it is not something your average consumer could do. Then, low and behold, the replacement fucking USB stick dies a year later. That's like saying TikTok is an American company because the Chinese owners split off a registered business in the US I have looked into buying a Netgate device for Pfsense and that happens with them, too. They are similar in that there's a small amount of flash storage on the board, and they wear out because of the logging but they can also take an M.2 drive which takes the load off the small flash storage. But neither Netgate or Ubiquiti ship a drive with the base models. The Netgate units like to go ~2 years then the flash shits the bed and they won't even post for the bios. So I think any of these type of small routers that are also capable of heavy logging or otherwise a lot of writes should have user replaceable storage. Even a 128 gig stick would solve most of the issues with these shitty little soldered on chips shitting the bed so fast. |
I'm not the one REEING, motherfucker! -FCSD2162
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Originally Posted By GreatDane: @Dopple Now that's some useful info! Thankfully, my shack is on the opposite end of the house, and I mostly play on HF now. Originally Posted By GreatDane: Originally Posted By Dopple: Oh, and something you might need to know, keying up a 20W dual band radio 3 feet from the router doesn't make it go wonky, either. @Dopple Now that's some useful info! Thankfully, my shack is on the opposite end of the house, and I mostly play on HF now. I finally found the problem one day when the internet was out and I decided to shut my network switch off. Sure enough the birdies went away once the switch was off. I have since replaced all network cable with shielded Cat6 along with shielded RJ45 connectors. I also moved my switch a little so my network cables are not so close to the coax going to my HF radios. One thing to remember with any brand of consumer grade WFI routers is to change the default admin password right away and to keep them updated on a regular basis. A good firewall is recommended too. |
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best to check the support page from your ISP. When my ISP dropped my modem from the support page I lost 1/2 of my bandwidth. Plugged in new approved hardware and poof - max speed. You can also run a speed test and see if your modem / router can work at max speed for your connection. A 2 year old ARRIS (Docsis 3.1) should be good. My version does not have wifi built in. My version: SB8200 / SURFboard® DOCSIS® 3.1 Cable Modem |
The last thing a tyrant wants is their ideas to be judged on the battle field of truth and justice.
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Originally Posted By fks4l: Not to derail this thread, but now that ARFCOM has convinced me that I need a new router, do I need a new modem? Running a 2 year old ARRIS (Docsis 3.1) currently. No, you don't need a new cable modem. |
It was never easy for me. I was born a poor black child.
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I have had good luck with Gl Inet stuff. Went from a high dollar Netgear to them on the same hz and got much faster speeds. The firmware is updated often and is based on OpenWRT. If you want you can also flash on plain-jane OpenWRT. But their interface is very easy. GL Inet Home Routers Their cell 4g LTE travel routers are ubiquitous. |