Nighthawk AX4 4-Stream AX3000 Dual-Band WiFi 6 Router (RAX40)

Personally I would stay with the RAX43 unless your internet speed plan is above 1 gbps. I would look to wire in (eg ethernet cable cat 6 or 8) as many devices as feasible because ethernet is full duplex vs half duplex for wifi [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-t37X4E10o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-t37X4E10o)

Brand only matters for the ui you like. Ausu tends to have more controls, netgear is the more "user friendly", tplink is the half way point. Netgear tends to ship with netgear armor or what ever they call it. Good but annoying that once its on you pretty much have to do a reset to factory to get rid of it . Netgear and sus will let you fully control through the web ui and limited controls on a app so you'd have both. I never used the tplink app if they have one so I dont know about how it works. That said, your requirements seem to be wifi 6 and longevity. So really any netgear AFTER r8000 would do what you want. Netgear: R7xxx <-- no Rax50<-- yes So as only as a 2018 ax8; Ax8/ax12 Rax40, rax50, rax200, ect Asus: Rt-ACxx<-- no Rt-AXxx<--yes Rt-ax88u Gt-ax11000 Rt-ax92u Rt-ax58u

Same, my RAX40 worked alright for a bit under a year but eventually developed a problem where one port would just have 20% packet loss all the time till I switched the cable to a different port, which would be fine for about a week and then the problem would start again. Then, it started dying for 30 minutes to an hour every day. Switched to an ASUS RT-AX55 and been smooth sailing for two years or so now. Flint 3 is probably the next step.

Just did this - 7 people, 3 floors. Went through a few mesh systems (tplink be4800, be5000, XE75). Hated the way mesh worked, walked to another room device would hang on the further node and online games were choppier (higher ping and latency) than a single nighthawk (even had wired backhaul from main to second of the 3 nodes). Then went through multiple Netgear Nighthawks (rs200, rs300, rs500, axe3000). Ordered a refurbed RS700S for $349, its a beast but better coverage, better speeds, lower pings, less latency than any of the Mesh systems. Dead spots where we got 5-10mb/sec now getting 550mb. Using the nighthawk app I could see with the RS500 60% signal level in some of the dead spot areas, now getting 90+%. I've got a 1GB connection from Spectrum and they overprovision so wirelessly with iphone 17 getting over 1gb a floor above or under the router and up to a room away still. Wired to PCs getting 1.1-1.2 gb too. I tested speeds in every room of my house with each system to record speeds. I found a single, more powerful router to be a much better and consistent solution for 3 floors and 7 people.

Netgear nighthawk. Spend what you can afford for the coverage you need.

Considering that you’re using a very old 802.11n-only device, an upgrade to a decent WiFi6 device will modernize you greatly. These can be very inexpensive. I picked up a used Netgear Nighthawk WiFi6 router for $30 and it covers my apartment perfectly, despite the 200 neighbors. Then, when the future arrives and it’s time to expand, I’d buy something new. WiFi7 prices are only going to fall faster and WiFi7 clients will become all that more common, so it will pay to wait. Network gear is one of those things that you can’t future-proof. The tech changes fast enough, and the prices change fast enough, and the client support lags enough to the point where it’s is more efficient to buy for today, and not for 24 months from now.

Netgear nighthawk for 6. Using tplink easy mesh for 7 and been happy so far

Definitely 👍. I use a Netgear Nighthawk with WiFi 6.