ASUS - RT-BE96U

500mbs is more than enough for couple of people. Even for doing 4k streaming is fine. Don't really see any benefits of 1gig unless you are downloading/uploading tons of data. 2gb is just overkill and definitely not required. Look at review website dongknows to narrow down the choice of routers based on your requirement. Everyone is different so hard recommend, still some are good. Few router recommendations 1. Unifi UDR7. Great all-in-one router with lots of features. 2. Asus with wifi 7 and support for merlin firmware. Check above website for reviews. 3. If you want more control and would like to go DIY route, Any N100 mini pc with dual nic running opnsense/pfsense on it. Maybe directly or virtualized. Add an AP like unifi or omada or something else.

I've had zero problems with M1 for many years. Only went down once, and that was for scheduled maintenance in the middle of the night. Also, it's not just your internet plan that could be the cause of any issues. If your router isn't good enough, or is in a terrible position, or is overheating, or the bomb shelter is between your laptop and the router, you are gonna have issues no matter what plan you have. I have a standard 1Gbps plan but an Asus gaming router with ethernet cables going to the 3 heaviest users in the home – PS5, living TV and bedroom TV. I also set up a second router using Asus AImesh to provide wifi signal to one of the further corners of the house.

I bought a ASUS RT-BE96U and it seems to be great so far. The 10g wan port allows me to get full use out of my 3 gigabit upload/download speed. And the link aggregation works well. It’s definitely a good replacement for my sub par ASUS RT-AXE7800 (wifi 6e).

I’ve had it for a week now, it seems to work really good. But yes it is big, it’s quite a bit bigger then the axe7800 it is replacing https://preview.redd.it/8r6s8k9znlmf1.jpeg?width=4842&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a44c1a612235befe8bb50f3699b73950c3b2dda4

No offense, but Ubiquity is not the right choice for everyone. I looked into doing that at My house and I would need a minimum of 3 access points, and not the $99 ones. I would have needed the U7 Pro Max at $280 each. One Asus router in access point mode covers my whole house for $450. Not worth going the Ubiquiti route for me. Probably not for OP either.

With the Asus,I only need the one for the whole house.

My 2 cents go to the Asus rt-be96u.

I'm no expert at all in networks. I use Asus tri band routera running Merlin firmware. I have one router at the far end of the house on the 1at floor and the second router at the opposite end on the second floor. The signal extends to the yard and fully covers the house with Wi-Fi 6. House is close to 3k square feet. I have the routers hardwired since that provided the best connection. If you go the Merlin website you'll see what routers are supported.

I've been using AiMesh since the beginning, and it was rocky at first, but now I'm currently quite happy with it. One solid main router and two APs outside. What unifi did you get to replace your setup and do you think it was worth the cost?

I think what people are referring to here is the fact that these all-in-one router / gateways / WiFi APs / NAS servers are prone to bottlenecking due to all that the work they’ve got to do (if you so choose to use all the features included with such devices). From a pure network speed point of view, a device such as the AX89X, BE96U, BE98U etc can easily deliver close to full 10Gbps speed over short periods. Tools like iPerf3 prove this. But if you try to use the hw as a NAS server while also maxing out WiFi antenna power and other features of the router, those periods of sustained performance will greatly shorten. There’s only so much the underlying CPU and networking chips on those AIO devices can handle. With that said, what’s the real-world expectation one can reasonably have going the AIO route? (AX89X owner here, so the following is based on my own experience.) Pure networking, as rated by tools such as iPerf3, is indeed very close to 10Gbps. I’ve got 4 additional 10Gbps switches on my network. The AX89X feeds a Ubiquity EdgeSwitch 16 that is the backbone switch to my network. I don’t use the router for any service sharing besides internet and WiFi. A 10Gbps computer and a 10Gbps 12x-bay SSD NAS connected to this switch can see real-world transfers typically between 6-8Gbps. A 10Gbps computer connected to another 10Gbps switch at the far end of my network that piggy backs off the Ubiquity only sees around 4-6Gbps transfers (not that I’m really complaining — I also don’t chalk this up purely to the switches, as the computer I’m referencing here is rather old). Another 8x HDD-based 10Gbps NAS sees less than 6Gbps storage transfer speeds, but that’s more due to the aging hw in the NAS itself than it is anything with the network. In terms of internet routing: unfortunately, I only have access to 1Gbps in my area, so I can’t speak much there. All wired devices on my network receive 900Mbps+ at least. I also recently purchased the BE96U to replace the AX89X, but it came to me DoA and I’m waiting on a replacement from Asus. If I were looking to buy new hw and was thinking of a network design as OP alluded to, I’d definitely go with something like the BE series of routers simply due to the better CPU on offer. TL:DR: YMMV. There’s a lot of factors that go into play when it comes to maxing out performance of any network. Bottlenecks will exist. It just depends on what you’re comfortable with. Single purpose-built devices are likely to perform better than multi-function devices. But the question then is the cost, maintenance, and power required to go that route really going to be worth it in the real world for just a home network (even a very demanding one)? For most people, I think the answer is obvious

Asus and some others have quite a few routers available with multiple 10G ports (usually bifunctional in that these 10G ports can be purposed for either LAN or WAN duties), but I’m not currently aware of anything that combines strong WiFi with >3 onboard 10G connections. These consumer routers are more designed as an all-in-one to feed to an external 10G switch, which will then do the heavy lifting for your network’s wired backhaul. I have a BE96U which has two RJ45 10G connections. One of these feeds a Ubiquity 10G switch, which then feeds a pair of BE88U mesh access points via 10G wired backhaul. The other 10G port on the BE96U feeds a QNAP 10G switch which then feeds into a pair dumb Netgear 10G switches. Any wired client on my network is capable of achieving nearly 100% of the 1Gbps WAN connection I pay for. My 10G clients, of which I have quite a few connected to the various switches, consistently rate at 8-9Gbps with iPerf3. Of course, these speeds aren’t measured whilst multiple devices are attempting to consume all that bandwidth, but as a home network where I’m by far the primary user, the overall performance is more than satisfactory and I never experience any bottlenecks

Asus and some others have quite a few routers available with multiple 10G ports (usually bifunctional in that these 10G ports can be purposed for either LAN or WAN duties), but I’m not currently aware of anything that combines strong WiFi with >3 onboard 10G connections. These consumer routers are more designed as an all-in-one to feed to an external 10G switch, which will then do the heavy lifting for your network’s wired backhaul. I have a BE96U which has two RJ45 10G connections. One of these feeds a Ubiquity 10G switch, which then feeds a pair of BE88U mesh access points via 10G wired backhaul. The other 10G port on the BE96U feeds a QNAP 10G switch which then feeds into a pair dumb Netgear 10G switches. Any wired client on my network is capable of achieving nearly 100% of the 1Gbps WAN connection I pay for. My 10G clients, of which I have quite a few connected to the various switches, consistently rate at 8-9Gbps with iPerf3. Of course, these speeds aren’t measured whilst multiple devices are attempting to consume all that bandwidth, but as a home network where I’m by far the primary user, the overall performance is more than satisfactory and I never experience any bottlenecks

I upgraded to the BE96U (I caught it on special at Amazon for $449, plus a $50 off coupon).  It had great throughput and a terrific range.  However, even after a firmware upgrade it kept losing connection. Sometimes up to six times per day. Ultimately, I returned it.  I think the Wi-Fi 7 firmware is just too problematic at this point.

Asus AiMesh - Yea TP-Link Deco - Yes TP-Link Easy Mesh - Not sure

Was doing research on deco mesh systems and one thing i noticed is that there’s a lot of complaints about hardware revisions and firmware. I was interested in the ability to select preferred connection between decos and device preferred connection. That way i could set the mesh topology as i wanted while steering non mobile devices to specific decos where signals are strong from multiple decos to the correct one. Simple right? Nope. The updated firmware for this feature only applied to specific versions of hw. So a v1 xe75 got it but not a v2 at the time. Then an xe200 didnt have it at all and it some older popular models never got it at all. It just seemed like a mess and the model i ordered didnt have it but amazon lost the pkg so i got an asus instead that feature is just naturally in their firmware… Their wifi7 models all support it but it’s like they just stop supporting previous popular hardware and move on so quickly