If you don't mind doing a quick speed test on any mobile device later when you have time, Id greatly appreciate it! Just to give myself an idea.

Theres up sides and downsides to every router out there, just trying to find one with better reliability also. Ive had units over heat before due to poor circulation on the circuit board and radio architecture.

 

Pho take a look at the one I linked on the first page. Yes its on the upper end of price, but its one of the best ones out.


Also remember folks, most routers are EOL (end of life) inside of 3 years, so plan on replacing it every 3-5 years.

 

So what makes a router end of life?

 

IMO Electronics like that experience some heat, at least in my home office lol. I stopped stacking units and have open space for all of them now. If you've ever taken apart a router, they are rather pretty simple as in its a flat circuit board with attachments and wires to external antennas. Chips and circuitry like that wear out over time just like the caps will wear out on a computer monitor or on a mother board. I've seen cheaper caps inflate and of course deem motherboards defective. I think the longest running router Ive had was the Cisco Linksys WRT54G, my other ones always had some type of issue or signal drop over the years of usage. And typically when electronics get hot, they malfunction or experience issues.

Heat is just one factor for deficiency; theres plenty of other factors such as quality control and quality of components. Chips and capacitors all have a performance shelf life. You're never going to keep one router (at least not a consumer retail one) for the rest of your life. I've seen people mod routers by adhering GPU heatsinks and at times, even fans.

 

Also support, most companies stop doing firmware upgrades past the 3 year mark. Zero point to having a hardware router if you are not getting the latest updates and security packs.

 

I'm using an old Juniper 5GT-WLAN but will probably pick up an used SRX one of these days. Or not. I (like most people) have zero need for 1G ports on my internal network, or WiFi that is faster than my cable connection. I got this used off eBay several years ago and have never had to reset it. You can do several SSIDs, internal networks/VLANs, IPsec VPN tunnels (if you need that sort of thing). Currently using 2 SSIDs for guest and home WiFi. I used a Netgear thing for a while and it was not bad, but it needed to be reset occasionally. Using the same Motorola modem that a few people have posted in here. No complaints.