Getting 1G internet soon!....What Wifi Router should I buy?

[nbstl68]

So after years of living with max 4Mbps down \ 0.5Mbps up internet, my neighborhood is in the process of getting upgraded to 1G fiber, (Supp 1G down max \ but "only 100Mbps up forsome reason?).

My current Wifi router is an old Asus rt-N65U (and also using the Centurylink router wifi and a TP-link ap in the garage wired to the CLink).
With no hope of faster speeds until now I've had no reason to look for something else but now with the promise of 1G I think I should. I've been reading a lot about all the new Wi-fi 6 routers coming out...but they are not cheap. Is it worth the investment though to get the max potential out of my promised 1G or is it overkill? What about all this "mesh" stuff out there now? (I have a 2 story walk-out atrium of approx 5k sqft.)
I don't use VPN for my BI yet but want to finally set this up going forward after the 1G upgrade if that is a consideration.
Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[pete_c]

Do an a la carte thing purchasing your equipement and not leasing anything from your ISP. Been doing this since the beginning here.

1 - get a Gb modem - here went with an Arris SB6190 (here used to use Motorola modems and this is my first Arris (which is the same as Motorola) modem.
2 - get an autonomous firewall - there are plenty out there in internetlandia - personally here using a 6 port PFSense box. 2 WAN ports and 4 LAN ports. The failover here is an LTE modem. It is software and has an easy to configure GUI levels above any SOHO combo router/WAP et al.
3 - use a POE WAP (or a couple maybe). Here switched from Ubiquiti to Ruckus recently. When you add a second one it autoconfigures it self for a mesh network.
4 - Get a managed Gb switch and or managed POE Gb switch.

Your return on investment will be good for many years to come.

 

[Arjun]

Migrate to Ubiquiti's UniFi system

 

[ARAMP1]

If you have some time on your hands and want to get serious, pfSense is where it's at.

When I got gigabit service, I ended up building a pfSense box using a Supermicro C2758 motherboard. I connected it to a 10GbE switch for the backbone of my home network. I've sectioned off several different VLANs, one in particular for my security network. I have rules in place where the only internet access the cameras have are to NTP. I have other VLANs for guest network, IOT, etc.

 

[bp2008]

Congratulations. That is quite the jump.

Reduced upload speeds are sometimes a result of the technology in use, and sometimes it is an artificial limit to reduce the risk of network congestion. Certain kinds of internet usage, like seeding of torrents, or the activity of a botnet (e.g. people's infected cameras and other devices), can create a virtually limitless amount of upload traffic 24/7. By artificially limiting everyone's upload speed, they minimize the impact that any individual user can have on the local network. Higher download speeds are relatively safe, and a lot more important to most users, so that is what you get.

As for the router, I wouldn't worry about the router's wifi capability. If I was getting gigabit internet, I would use a separate wifi solution as I already do (Ubiquiti UniFi), and for the router there are three options I would consider, in order of complexity.

1) A high-end Asus router ($150+). I would just pick one based on its CPU speed and third-party firmware support.
2) An Ubiquiti router (EdgeRouter or UniFi Security Gateway, I don't really know which I'd pick).
3) Pfsense either on something from their official hardware products or a home-built server. Potentially the most expensive option by a large margin.