Home automation router help - what router to buy?

[B.Spilner]

My home automation, cell data wifi, and even home computer starting to show signs of slowing down.

It seems like as I expand out home automation is starting to lag out the router. I'm not very good with this stuff so need some advice a router that can support and let us grow.

Right no we have telus fiber modem/router that also supports 4 telus wifi boxes. I've got another tp-link archer c3200 bridged off the telus modem to support everything else. It was doing fine 2 years ago but seems to glitching out.

Any advice? Mesh system maybe? New router with 57 antennas?

[Kavy]

This is a great thread because home automation does not come without its price in routers. I have tried so many systems and each have their pros and cons.

Your TP link has a poor device limit as do the telus routers so you are going to have to start looking at upgrading like you planned. A few things to think about is what home automation you are going with an what devices. The Orbi seems to have issues with nest devices and Asus has issues with LiFX and other devices that don't work well with airtime fairness. I settled on the Velop after testing a lot of systems but its not for everyone as a power outage leaves you with having to reboot each node manually which when out of town can be an issue (only issue i have with the Velop TBH).

The Deco 9 and Eero have been getting great reviews lately and new firmware updates to the google mesh have made it considerably better. what's are price range, your device needs and do you have the ability to run a network cable to each node?

[revelations]

Unifi - do it once and forget about it. Commercial-grade stuff for home users.

We are more and more WIFI dependant every year and the absolute SHIT the ISPs provide is a joke.

[colsankey]

Heard lots of good things about Ubiquiti( I've used their radio links like the call gen 2s but nothing else). Just be aware ubiquiti's catching a lot of flak for calling home after their last firmware update.

[B.Spilner]

Went and picked this up last night. Already switched over but gotta give it a few days before we notice a difference. After a couple google searches this one kept coming up.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...wk-x6/10302629

Can you guys provide links? Me + computer lingo =

Also ordered a new wifi dongle for our home office computer. Was only pulling in 2-3mbs. Grabbed one off amazon, should solve that issue.

Samsung s10 wifi speed test is 45down 45 upload.

[B.Spilner]

Also my home automation

Wink hub 2
3 leviton switches
2 wink relays
5 bulbs
Philip's strip lighting
2 google home
2 google home mini
2 google home hubs
Ecobee3 with 3 sensors
Ring doorbell
3 wyze cams
Gocontrol home security with 6 devices

Works good most of the time. Cant complain, I cant seem to get the wyze cams to work with the google home hub. But I suspect that's me and not the hardware.

[revelations]

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Went and picked this up last night. Already switched over but gotta give it a few days before we notice a difference. After a couple google searches this one kept coming up.

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product...wk-x6/10302629
.

Yep - ive seen 2-3 of these 'nighthawks' blow up. Anything thats being heavily promoted online means they want to get rid of it.

You might get some time out of this, but in the end you will have to do this all over again.

Had you gone with a proper setup, it would have meant no more work.

[B.Spilner]

I have 15 days to return this to best buy. If I dont see a differnece from the previous router then it's going back.

What do you reccomend?

[revelations]

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I have 15 days to return this to best buy. If I dont see a differnece from the previous router then it's going back.

What do you reccomend?

You will not notice the degradation of the unit after 15 days.

A proper setup will be in the 500$ range - this includes a Edge router plus a separate Unifi HD AC setup, for proper future proofing.

These are NOT plug and play - and its not as simple as just typing in 192.168.0.1 in a browser.... if you've never touched this before, you will have to spend a good day of learning and configuring it.

Each device you have will probably also need to be reinitialized as some devices will not reconnect to the same SSID/PW combo as the Mac address of the new units are obviously different (although you can spoof as well).

[killramos]

Edge is antiquated. Not sure why you would buy something that was essentially discontinued a few years ago.

UniFi Security gateway is what you want.

But honestly in general what you want is a router with lots of computing horsepower such that it doesn’t get bogged down with routing.

[B.Spilner]

I dont have time to be learning a new hobby lol.

I guess I should change my question to, what's the best home router or mesh system out there for lots of devices.

[killramos]

If you don’t have time to understand it buy the google mesh setup.

[revelations]

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Edge is antiquated. Not sure why you would buy something that was essentially discontinued a few years ago.

UniFi Security gateway is what you want.

But honestly in general what you want is a router with lots of computing horsepower such that it doesn’t get bogged down with routing.

Either would do just fine for what the OP needs. Pick something thats still supported, obviously. There are various iterations.

[black_2.5RS]

We have a linksys velop (mesh router) and we run all of our home IoT stuff of it. In total, we have 35 wifi devices going at any time and it's been able to pull consistent 170 down so we're happy with that. Up could be better at 20. Our ISP is Teksavvy.

[B.Spilner]

Went and switched out the nighthawk for a google mesh system and already getting double the speed all over the house.

Let's see how it does with 5 Google speakers running at once.

[killramos]

The google mesh is pretty commendable, you won’t be disappointed as long as you don’t need the nerd level control.