Help me decide best router for home/office use (very urgent and important)

[Futureized]

Question: Help me decide new wireless router for office and home use. urgent

I am a network engineer working in Mumbai (I am from South India)
I want to buy a new router for my office/home use (I live/stay at my office)
Office is total 4000 square feet with 6 rooms (including boss's glass cabin)
We will access internet from ipad, mobile etc. (very good wifi with long distance coverage preferred)
We have wired internet setup on Cable internet 4 MBPs port from pacenet
All these 3 PCs will be internally connected (networking) via this router.
we have 3 PCs now, maximum will have 5 PCs in future to connect to router (at present only 3 so you can suggest a 3 PC router too)
This router will STAY on continously for 6 days a week. (important)
I have a wired lan setup, so that this 3 PCs can talk to each other if they are connected to a router/switch from main office roon. (Need blazing fast file/transfer between this 3 PCs, important)
There are other IT offices around our office (NEED best security via this router)
None of our PCs has inbuilt WIFI (Can I get a feature in router someway which can help me connect all 3 PCs to each other wireless (without using wired cable)

We need best security + best features + best future ready router (pricing not an issue)

Please suggest best:
I found following options from flipkar site:
Asus RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router - Asus: Flipkart.com
Asus RT-AC66U 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router - Asus: Flipkart.com
Netgear R6300 WiFi Router - Netgear: Flipkart.com
Cisco Linksys EA4500 Dual-Band N900 Router with Gigabit and USB - Cisco Linksys: Flipkart.com

If there are any other options you can suggest me please help asap UNABLE to decide

 

[blr_p]

Question: Help me decide new wireless router for office and home use. urgent

First conduct a site survey to see how 'busy' is your neighbourhood. Get a program called inssider and put that on your ipad or android device then go walk around your site and note the amount of existing wifi networks you can detect.

How many networks show up and what is their strength in dbm in the 3 channels (1, 6, 11) that you will use in 2.4Ghz band.

I am a network engineer working in Mumbai (I am from South India)

Any possibility of adding ethernet cables to link up between routers if necessary ?

I want to buy a new router for my office/home use (I live/stay at my office)
Office is total 4000 square feet with 6 rooms (including boss's glass cabin)
We will access internet from ipad, mobile etc. (very good wifi with long distance coverage preferred)
We have wired internet setup on Cable internet 4 MBPs port from pacenet
All these 3 PCs will be internally connected (networking) via this router.
we have 3 PCs now, maximum will have 5 PCs in future to connect to router (at present only 3 so you can suggest a 3 PC router too)
This router will STAY on continously for 6 days a week. (important)

Put a floor plan of your layout indicating dimensions and where the stations will be locatied, where the cable connection comes in and what if any obstacles are in the way, walls etc how thick.

I have a wired lan setup, so that this 3 PCs can talk to each other if they are connected to a router/switch from main office roon. (Need blazing fast file/transfer between this 3 PCs, important)

Define blazing fast ?

If you want blazing fast then wired is the best and is also more secure than wifi.

Put the data heavy apps on wired as much as you can.

There are other IT offices around our office (NEED best security via this router)
None of our PCs has inbuilt WIFI (Can I get a feature in router someway which can help me connect all 3 PCs to each other wireless (without using wired cable)

Best security = long passwords + WPA2

We need best security + best features + best future ready router (pricing not an issue)

Please suggest best:
I found following options from flipkar site:
Asus RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router - Asus: Flipkart.com
Asus RT-AC66U 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router - Asus: Flipkart.com
Netgear R6300 WiFi Router - Netgear: Flipkart.com
Cisco Linksys EA4500 Dual-Band N900 Router with Gigabit and USB - Cisco Linksys: Flipkart.com

If there are any other options you can suggest me please help asap UNABLE to decide

None of the above.

You will get better range with 2.4Ghz than 5 Ghz. Though will depend on your site survey showing how busy your neighbourhood is to begin with.

 

[Futureized]

Dear blr, Thanks for reply.
I was away for a while, travelling
I am little confused, hence requesting support. I read somewhere 2.4 GHz is bit high frequency just like we have in our microwave (did not understood technical stuff AND all my routers are atleast 2.4 GHz or above), We have a little kids visiting office for photo shoot for long hours sometimes more then 12 hours

I have following options available:
Asus RT-AC66U 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router
Asus RT-AC66U 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router - Asus: Flipkart.com
INR 17625

Netgear R6300 WiFi Router
http://www.flipkart.com/netgear-r6300-wifi-router/p/itmdf2tbz8fxhp6f?pid=RTRDF2T9HF7RNUXP
INR 17515

Asus RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router
Asus RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router - Asus: Flipkart.com
INR 14688

Netgear N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4500)
Netgear N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4500) - Netgear: Flipkart.com
INR 13555

Cisco Linksys EA4500 Dual-Band N900 Router with Gigabit and USB
Cisco Linksys EA4500 Dual-Band N900 Router with Gigabit and USB - Cisco Linksys: Flipkart.com
INR 13111

 

[Futureized]

None of the routers support
Freedom to upgrade firmware to Merlin / DD-WRT / Tomato

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

None of the routers support
Freedom to upgrade firmware to Merlin / DD-WRT / Tomato

Tomato by Shibby supports the N66u : Tomato by Shibby » Router List

- - - Updated - - -

I read somewhere 2.4 GHz is bit high frequency just like we have in our microwave (did not understood technical stuff AND all my routers are atleast 2.4 GHz or above), We have a little kids visiting office for photo shoot for long hours sometimes more then 12 hours

Then they probably shouldn't stay within reach of a cellphone signal since GSM signal towers tend to throw out much more power

 

[Futureized]

Hi sir,
can you please help me as a novice user.

 

[blr_p]

I am little confused, hence requesting support.<SNIP>

Way to become less confused is to go through my previous post and answer the questions in there as best you can.

Don't get your wallet out just yet.

 

[Futureized]

Existing wifi networks in my area:
Testing this for past few days
At present 0, most of times 0 to 2

We have already linked all PCs using ethernet cables, why we need to Link up Routers ?

Its a 3000 SQ.FT. square office, (removing 1000 sqft room, we are not planning to add any pc here)
Router will be kept on one of corner of square
1s pc will be kept in same room as router is (6 feet distance)
2nd pc will be diagonally opp. to router on other corner (longest will pass 2 walls)
3rd pc will be on left/right of router on (will pass 2 walls)
thickness maybe 4 inch to 6 inch max

We have already connected all ethernet cables to router.
Blazing fast means, live streaming of HD youtube video, like we do on PC
xbox ps3 gaming (future ready pc, boss loves gaming)

I will follow your guidance again for security config, will ask questions in case any later

 

[Futureized]

Cannot find inssider in itunes store, can you provide me any other software to test ?
There are still 0 networks available in my ipad (excluding my network)

all i find are paid network scanner/analyser tools

 

[blr_p]

Cannot find inssider in itunes store, can you provide me any other software to test ?
There are still 0 networks available in my ipad (excluding my network)

all i find are paid network scanner/analyser tools

Do you have any pc laptops or android (phones or tablets) ? Free on those platforms

InSSIDer

We will access internet from ipad, mobile etc. (very good wifi with long distance coverage preferred)

Did i understand correctly that you need wifi ONLY for tablets & smartphones ?

No additional laptops ?

What is the max number of these mobile devices that will be operational at the same time ?

Blazing fast means, live streaming of HD youtube video, like we do on PC
xbox ps3 gaming (future ready pc, boss loves gaming)

I take it the xbox & ps3 are also connected via ethernet ?

Wifi is a shared medium so if you have many mobiles doing video streaming at the same time then the bandwidth will reduce. Then its down to the capabilities of the mobile device itself.

Can the device also support 5Ghz or only 2.4 Ghz. ipads and high end cellphone models will handle 5ghz, so this allows you to partition the clients on two bands. 5 Ghz is twice as fast as 2.4 Ghz but the thing with 5Ghz is you need to be closer to the router than 2.4 Ghz.

Additionally, mobiles are weaker than laptops in terms of wifi sensitivity compounding the distance issue.

So where the router is positioned and where the clients will reside becomes important. 5 Ghz will get through one wall but two walls + more distance is iffy.

Office is total 4000 square feet with 6 rooms (including boss's glass cabin)

Its a 3000 SQ.FT. square office, (removing 1000 sqft room, we are not planning to add any pc here)
Router will be kept on one of corner of square
1s pc will be kept in same room as router is (6 feet distance)
2nd pc will be diagonally opp. to router on other corner (longest will pass 2 walls)
3rd pc will be on left/right of router on (will pass 2 walls)
thickness maybe 4 inch to 6 inch max

Put up a floor layout of your office indicating where the router will be located and where the clients will be located. Indicate with arrows the distance from router to each of the rooms where the clients will be located. Indicate number of clients in each room as well.

A picture will give a more clear idea.

We have already linked all PCs using ethernet cables, why we need to Link up Routers ?

Because i'm not sure whether one powerful router will be enough or whether you will require 2 smaller ones.

Bandwidth is not the issue here, good signal reception on the mobiles is the bigger requirement.

 

[Futureized]

Do you have any pc laptops or android (phones or tablets) ? Free on those platforms

I only have following where I conduct anytype of test:
3 PCs running Windows XP OS
1 Ipad2
1 Blackberry mobile

Did i understand correctly that you need wifi ONLY for tablets & smartphones ?
No additional laptops ?

Wifi is mainly needed for IPAD2, sometime it will also be used by laptops (not more then 4 hours a day)

What is the max number of these mobile devices that will be operational at the same time ?

At most 1 (around 2 hours a day) and in rare cases 3

I take it the xbox & ps3 are also connected via ethernet ?

XBOX, PS3 etc. are nothing connected via ethernet, they will all be using WIFI connectivity only
Wifi will also be used by current and future versions of XBOX, ps3.
Wifi will also be used for Samsung Smart TV or better alternative in future.
Router will be kept in same room, as the xbox/ps3 etc will be placed at a distance of 10 feet maximum.

Its a 3000 SQ.FT. flat, Router will be kept on one of corner of square
1s pc will be kept in same room as router is (6 feet distance)
2nd pc will be diagonally opp. to router on other corner (longest will pass 2 walls)
3rd pc will be on left/right of router on (will pass 2 walls) thickness maybe 4 inch to 6 inch max
Check layout

I am considering to buy a router, which will take care of all requirements (both from ISP, hardware etc.) for next few years, hence want best.

I have heard people saying 5 GHZ etc. are equivalent to heat in microwave or something, more GHz = more dangerous ?

 

[blr_p]

Check layout View attachment 19029

1. Where is the boss's office

2. Indicate in which areas of the layout you require wifi coverage, everywhere in those 3000 sq ft ? or only some areas, if so indicate where and where not.

3. From what you have said i gather the number of wifi clients is ipad2 + 3 laptops max ?
Where will they be located ? anywhere in the office and moving around or confined to certain areas only.

4. Where it says router, what kind of router is it or is it just a switch. I take it this router connects the 3 pc's via ethernet and shares out the pacenet connection. Which ethernet cable did you use to connect these pc's, cat5, 5e or 6.

I'm not familiar with pacenet, is it just an ethernet cable coming in and connecting to your switch. Does pacenet require some software client to be running on every pc to be able to access the internet.

None of the routers support
Freedom to upgrade firmware to Merlin / DD-WRT / Tomato

Is 3rd party firmware a requirement ?

If so what features are you looking for ?

 

[Futureized]

1 boss office is center square
2 i will require wifi in lower 2 square boxes room
3 wifi devices will be mostly located in lower 2 square box, but will also wander on upper rectangle area
4 Router will be externally connected to internet using ehternat cable , interally connected to 3 PC always via ethernet. and all wifi i said above
5 I am not aware of 3rd party firmware, please do let me know advantage/disadvandtage of this

Kindly help me decide best router today, as i have to order it on monday anyhow.
some of things i look forward are
1. usb port in router, so i that, we can connect router to internet using usb internet dongle
2. button to turn wifi on/off (preferred as it is very easy to only use wifi when it is required)
3. some vpn features, which can help connect to office pc from outside world (not a mjor requirement)
4. very good security
5. future ready to connect future xbox and ps4 devices

thats all i can think, if you are online, we can discuss more and fix things

I can get maximum available routers in market and good pricing on flipkart
http://www.flipkart.com/computers/network-components/routers/pr?p[]=sort%3Dprice_desc&sid=6bo%2C70k%2C2a2&layout=grid#jumpTo=171|20

 

[blr_p]

Your choices as i see it are all ASUS ie N13UB1 (~Rs.3k) or N16(~Rs.6k) or N56U (Rs.8k) or N66U(~Rs.14k)

The N13 does not do VPN. The N66 is overkill for your requirement with just a 20-30% improvement in range in the 2.4 Ghz band. The N56U does not work with alternative firmware or has very limited options just like the N66U. But N66U does everything you want out of the box ie vpn+3g

Which leaves the N16 which i think will just handle what you need. Its 2.4 Ghz only and should give just about enough range.

You need to situate the router as centrally as possible, your office is a square of sides ~55 feet that means position the router at least 20 feet in from a boundary wall. If you can wall mount the router at least five feet or higher. If you stick the router either in the boss's office (SE corner) or nearby then you will cover the lower rectangle and have some for the upper rectangle. Since the router is close to the boss's office he will have an excellent signal with his ipad. If you cannot centrally situate the router then you will require a wired repeater.

Getting dongles to work is a question of checking the dongle you have with the compatibility list for the router concerned. It isn't just plug and play, if its on the list then it will work otherwise not. It might be difficult to change dongles if the router is too high up.

These routers do not have a button to turn on wifi which i agree is very handy but they do allow you to switch on or off on a schedule, since its in an office you can set a time when it switches automatically.

The N16 can also be flashed with dd-wrt or tomatousb so there is an alternative option. There is no vpn with the stock firmware but you might be able to explore this with 3rd party firmware.

Why do you want to put the xbox & ps3 on wifi, put them on ethernet instead. Anyway they will be stationary and are located close to your existing router. Ethernet is very future proof.

Security is strong password + WPA2 + switch off wifi at the end of the day + change wifi password on a regular basis.

Given you have very few wifi clients i think the N16 would be VFM with the option of adding the N13ub1 as a repeater if required.

Kindly help me decide best router today, as i have to order it on monday anyhow.

Give it a few days more so people here can make suggestions either in favour or against the above.

 

[Futureized]

Dear Sir, My last question, before I make a purchase tomorrow:

My requirements:
1.
3000 sq. ft home/office and require solid wifi even on farthest end of office (maximum of 3 thin walls between router and last room where i will use laptop)

2.
At most - 1 laptop + 1 ipad + 2 mobile will use wifi always

3.
router will connect to internet using local lan on RJ45 ethernet

4. 3 PCs will always connect to router using ethernet cable and use internet. (this 3 pc dont need wifi)

5. we require good file transfer speed between this 3 pc

6. a usb port on router, which will help to connect to internet using 3g dongle (a backup internet)

7.
we will use future xbox and ps gaming, connect to internet using wifi

8.
internet tv which will require wifi

9.
Capability to turn on/off wifi using a button on router (not a major requirement, if available will be great)

10.
Turn on/off wifi and router using the software interface of router.

11.
There are many IT geeks in my building (I want best security via this router)

12.
Play with router firmware, install/upgrade 3rd party firmware (not a major requirement, if available will be great)

I have to decided to buy 1 of following products only, please suggest me which one should i select from this 4 routers only.
Netgear R6300
Asus RT-AC66U
Asus RT-N66U
Netgear WNDR4500

I will purchase from flipkart, if you have any better suggestions to buy this in Mumbai, it will be great:
http://www.flipkart.com/computers/network-components/routers/pr?p[]=sort%3Dprice_desc&sid=6bo%2C70k%2C2a2&layout=grid#jumpTo=114|60

Thank you very much for all your help

 

[blr_p]

1. Can you position the router in a central location or not. This is crucial if you want reception all over the office.

2. You have very few wifi clients so little load.

5. you already have the best transfer speed as they are wired.

6. Only ASUS provides this

7. Why do you insist on using wifi for the game consoles ?
How many consoles will you run at the same time and will they be located in an area other than where you indicated previously that is at the top of your floor plan.

8. Again why must TV be on wifi. isn't it located in the same area where the consoles are. Or are you talking about a second one. Where will it be located.

9. Not possible with ASUS, possible with netgear but netgear does not do 3g usb dongles

10. possible with any model

11. Already answered this question. I find it curious you only have 2 wifi networks detected by the ipad given the geeks around you. It is very important to know how many networks are operating aronud you as it will affect your reception regardless of which model you buy. But you are unable to use a laptop or android mobile to run inssider. This is a critical lack on your part.

12. See previous reply

look, you have already wired 3 sides of your office. Very fortunate.

So i do not see the problem with taking connections off the trunk wherever required.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

4. 3 PCs will always connect to router using ethernet cable and use internet. (this 3 pc dont need wifi)

5. we require good file transfer speed between this 3 pc

Do you mean the 3 PCs will be using the LAN ports on this new Wifi router you're going to buy? Should be fine with any router that has Gigabit LAN, but smallnetbuilder's charts show the AC66U having faster WAN-LAN throughput than the N66U. Although ideally you should just get a separate wired router/switch to handle the wired PC traffic.

Edit: bottle says 802.11ac devices seem flaky. Get the N66U then.

 

[blr_p]

He has only one 5ghz client for now. Maybe there will be laptops in the future that can make use of it. Buys some insurance if his neighbours all decide to get wifi and stick to 2.4.

But 5 ghz travels a third less than 2.4. What good is AC in that case. Close by will very fast with the right client. And close by is not more than 10-15 feet.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

^ Yeah, no reason to get the AC66 router just for the .11ac standard. Even consoles like the PS4 don't look like they will be using .11ac, so no point thinking that far ahead. Just that even in .11n standard tests it looked its been tweaked for faster speeds. But as per bottle, .11ac devices are still rough around the edges, so safer to just stick with the N66U.

But 5 ghz travels a third less than 2.4. What good is AC in that case. Close by will very fast with the right client. And close by is not more than 10-15 feet.

5GHz N travels less than 2.4GHz N, but 5GHz AC might not. Not sure of the detailed list of changes with the standard, but beamforming is one of them and that alone can significantly boost travel range.

 

[blr_p]

Tim at SNB says AC may be finalised by Nov this year so everything with that label for now is draft ie does not fully comply with the standard. Spec devices will come out next year if they finalise the spec this year.

Beamforming is MIMO. You already have it in existing n-stream devices. MIMO improves reception by making better use of reflected signals. It does not actually increase range but rather decreases signal loss. The unintuitive bit with MIMO is you must have 'some' obstacles in the way so as to increase reflections to get better speed than a clear line of sight (!) MIMO is useless in an open field or less useful in a very large room.

So i don't expect a range improvement with AC unless the radios are more powerful. I've often wondered why this isn't the case presently with existing N 5 Ghz routers. Why can't they compensate somehow so that range on both bands is similar.