ASUS - ZenWiFi BD4

Spectrum used to provide a modem for no extra charge as a part of the service. But routers are pretty much universal and will work with the cable modem. No need to get a combo modem/router unit. I’ve had good luck with ASUS routers. The ASUS WiFi 7 BE3600 is fairly recent and at a good price.

Recently got an Asus BE3600 and it's working great. Had a TP-Link before that and I would say that the Asus app is way better, more intuitive, user friendly.

I picked up an ASUS BE3600 from Best Buy back in February after getting tired of restarting my old router several times a week. I was going out of town to celebrate my Birds winning the Super Bowl so I didn't need my cameras offline while I was away. I haven't needed to restart it even once since I purchase it and I have coverage all over my 1500 sqft home. I do unplug it for a few minutes once a month by choice since that's a good practice.

20 devices is nothing; I have 80+ devices running effortlessly on my Asus wifi 7 mesh

I bought an Asus zenwifi system but eventually hardwired the satellites to a switch plugged into the main unit. Works great.

asus zen wifi. with a house you should have it wired for ethernet anyway. the zen wifi can handle both and 2.5gb in the wifi 7 model.

If you want an easy setup, nice user interface and ability to tweak options/configurations down the road, ASUS ZenWiFi is a good option. Another bonus with ASUS is you can use a mobile phone app \*or\* a web interface on a laptop/computer to manage the system. Many other mesh systems from TP-Link, Netgear, Eero only let you manage them with a mobile phone app. That is fine if you have basic needs but if you want to get more control over settings, often not an option. For example TP-Link may not let you select WiFi channels for its wireless networks. With ASUS you have control over a multitude of settings. Or just leave it on the defaults and if you ever wish to dive into the config, it will be ready and waiting for you. I asked Google Gemini for some thoughts too (another poster used Ai so I gave it a try too). I see ASUS ZenWiFi is in the list along with others. Since your needs don't seem very complex any of these should work pretty well. Unfamiliar with Eero, but you stated they are "difficult" to move into AP mode, no idea why but if you know that to be true then I suppose you could remove Eero from your consideration list. Have fun! Click below image to make it larger... https://preview.redd.it/q9mu50skxxrf1.png?width=925&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fb6721ce7d5fb1ded5fee09f45ed12ce365b752

Hello! I have an asus zen WiFi mesh net with two of the three nodes set up. I have Ethernet over coax and have the downstairs node connected via Ethernet. I should (based on the range of these routers) have excellent coverage in the house. I have noticed however my devices sometimes get confused which node it should connect to, resulting in sub par speeds. The nodes are very far apart. When I did add the third node I felt I was getting crazy interference. Any suggestions?

Yeah, extenders don't work in big houses. For 3500 sq ft, get a mesh system like TP-Link Deco or ASUS ZenWiFi.Covers everything, no dead zones, no 5G or 2.4GHz.

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.