New Router Recommendations

Hi guys,

I currently have the Sky SR101 with a Netgear WNDR3800(N600) running in wireless AP mode. Unfortunately running in this configuration disables QoS and parental controls and makes it just a gigabit switch with wireless.

I am looking to disable specific MAC addresses on a schedule to prevent my young daughter surfing until midnight. Ideally this would block any access to the internal network as well rather than just the internet to prevent her watching AppleTV with content stored on the local server. Alternatively multiple guest wireless AP that can be switched on and off independently on a schedule as I can put her on her own guest network, but wireless isolation would need to be optional so she can still access printers and the local server.

It should also have dual-mode for wireless and gigabit ethernet ports.

If it can replace the Sky SR101 then great but this is not a "must have", just means one box instead of two!

Not asking much eh?

Cheers

Skilty

Hi,

Check out Asus's range of routers. I have the RT-N66U and I think it ticks all of your boxes. It definitely has a guest Wi-Fi network and parental controls. There's a review of it in the reviews section of thinkbroadband as well.

Regards,

+1 for this bit of kit. I run the Merlin firmwares and the tweaking that is possible is out of this world Every single device can have its own scheduloe of access to the wi-fi - don't forget the mobiles.

DrT

I'm running the same kit but with stock firmware, and would increment your +1

Bearing in mind that I'm not a great dabbler for it's own sake and the only internet user here (so don't need fancy scheduling or QoS etc), would I gain anything from switching to the Merlin firmware?

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

+1 for this bit of kit. I run the Merlin firmwares and the tweaking that is possible is out of this world Every single device can have its own scheduloe of access to the wi-fi - don't forget the mobiles.
DrT

Does the Asus use Broadcom or Infineon?

Broadcom, according to Andrew's review:

In reference to www.thinkbroadband.com/hardware/reviews/76-asus-rt-n66u.html:

The router utilises some GPL source code, in common with projects like Oleg/Tomato/DD-WRT/OpenWRT and with a Broadcom 4706 CPU running @ 600 MHz plus 256MB of RAM and 32MB of Flash Memory...

eta afterthought- don't forget that it's a router only, not a modem/router, so there's no matching to the DSLAM chipset involved.

Edited by billford (Thu 07-Feb-13 08:42:25)

Merlin's traffic monitoring is very thorough and has some lovely graphs. You can also turn the LED's off which might be useful if its in a bedroom however I don't find them as bright as a couple of reviews made them out to be. There's a couple of other nice extras such as mac address lookup and DHCP reservation naming which I used.

As Merlin is based on the Asus firmware you don't lose anything so if there's one feature that might be useful to you its worth upgrade. Info is here by the way if you haven't read it already.

Thanks, it might be worth it for the traffic monitoring alone- it's a bit flaky on stock firmware. It doesn't seem to see LAN Airplay traffic, for example.

I'll probably wait until he's got one based on Asus's .270 release- the .260 had a very annoying bug which briefly disconnected IPv6 every hour on the hour, and I can't find any info about whether this was fixed in .264, which is what his is based on.

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

+1 for this bit of kit. I run the Merlin firmwares and the tweaking that is possible is out of this world Every single device can have its own scheduloe of access to the wi-fi - don't forget the mobiles.

DrT

Nah I remembered those Have the MAC addresses for every piece of kit written down, over 30 devices

An obvious question, with the Sky Hub (SR101) do you simply switch off DHCP etc and then leave the Asus in router mode or do you let the Sky hub perform DHCP etc?

Oh, one last question, FTTC reaches out street in two months, would I then need the BT OR modem, the Sky Hub and the Asus? Should probably mention that I am connecting using MER which I know causes issues if you try and replace the Sky Hub.

Cheers

Skilty

Edited by Skilty (Thu 07-Feb-13 14:09:28)

Merlin is very responsive. It wouldn't hurt to send a short email...he may have fixed it himself.

DrT

Since I made that post I've found the changelogs and he's up to beta 3 based on .270 (which is what I'm using atm- it doesn't have that bug), so I don't suppose it'll be long before the release version comes out.

Ordered and should be arriving today, now for the fun and games to configure it

To get it to act like a router instead of an AP you need to piggy back off the DMZ of the sr-101 (or put the sr-101 into modem mode if this is possible?, it is with virgins superhub). But you could have done this with your existing router and if you had loaded Tomato USB firmware onto your current router you would have had all the functionality that the ASUS will offer +more.

In reply to a post by nicktb:

To get it to act like a router instead of an AP you need to piggy back off the DMZ of the sr-101 (or put the sr-101 into modem mode if this is possible?, it is with virgins superhub). But you could have done this with your existing router and if you had loaded Tomato USB firmware onto your current router you would have had all the functionality that the ASUS will offer +more.

I have spent so much time messing around with the Netgear I have just about given up. I get the kids everyday saying the wifi is down or very slow, the Time Machine stuff just doesn't work very well (primary reason for buying it). So it can go up on the Bay, the Asus seems to have got some great reviews and Merlin is fixing the bugs that are found and adding some useful functionality based off the ASUS code...

In reply to a post by Skilty:

Ordered and should be arriving today, now for the fun and games to configure it
[/quote
Not at all. It is very intuitive. The only annoying thing is that in some places one must use the MAC to configure devices and in others the IP is used. With all the devices in this house, matching MAC/IP to device was the most 'interesting'.

DrT

In reply to a post by DrTeeth:

In reply to a post by Skilty:

Ordered and should be arriving today, now for the fun and games to configure it
[/quote
Not at all. It is very intuitive. The only annoying thing is that in some places one must use the MAC to configure devices and in others the IP is used. With all the devices in this house, matching MAC/IP to device was the most 'interesting'.

DrT
[/quote]

Well it arrived after arguing with DPD for nearly an hour. Was up and running in around 2 hours after I setup the DMZ on the SR101 and the new internal network on 192.168.2.x , guest networks done, certain URLs blocked kid time limited on wired and wifi devices.

All in all I have to say it is a very nice piece of kit. One of the things I like is that the thing doesn't require a reboot after every change!

The Wi-fi performance is stonking too. My son is at the front of the house, 1st floor. I am at the other end on the ground floor.

He gets a better signal with the Asus barefoot than he did with the last router with a repeater.

DrT

Three weeks before I installed the Asus I bought a homeplug and a wireless homeplug so my wife could get a signal down in the conservatory. With the Asus it seems redundant as she gets a full signal and that includes going the steel work where we had two walls taken out!

Exceptionally good router it has to be said