New Router - Upgrading from Archer C7

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
#1

So my age old friend, Archer C7, have revealed its flaws when i upgraded to 500/500 from my ISP, and will be retired to my moms house when/if not needed anymore.

Mandatory information:
Internet connection 500/500mbps
Wi-Fi: Maybe, more info below.
Gigabit Ethernet: Yes, more below
USB ports: Preferably 2x USB, at least 1x 3.0
Devices: 6 wireless devices usually. Phones and laptops for browsing and "office" work.
Other services: Router level VPN is prefered.
Price range: Middle to Enthusiast

Current network setup:

  • Fibermodem/router: Inteno EG400. As this is a requirement form the ISP i use it for my wifi guest networks + bridge mode.
  • LAN port 4 goes to my 2nd router (Archer C7) which runs my home network.
  • Raspberry-Pi 3 with PiHole as DNS server + requred firewall settings to redirect ALL DNS traffic through PiHole.
  • TP-Link SG108E switch for TV/PS4/AppleTV/Reciever+++
  • All performance dependent devices are wired.

Future upgrades:

  • Currently installing Cat6 wires to most rooms (11 sockets so far), and plan to use a TL-SG1016DE as main switch.
  • Will get a dedicated PoE Access Point that should cover the entire "house". (2 story apartment, wooden construction, 10m max range) Thinking about Ubiquiti UniFi since they have incredible WAF.
  • Will add dedicated NAS at some point.

Recommendations?

  • I was looking at the D-link DIR-3060 AC3000 but i see it lacks Open-WRT support (yet?). I can get one for about $80 this week.
  • The Netgear R7800 seems to be a popular choice, but getting old?
  • Raspberry Pi 4 looks promising if you only need routing, not wifi. A temporary solution until i get a dedicated AP is to use the Archer C7 as wireless AP in that case.

Any ideas for a device that would suit my needs, either from the above list or something else?

#2

I use 3x the R7800 as router and access point.. 400+MB memory free by default... CPU max 10% load with 250mbs nat ... cheap second hand... pay max 60 euro for one. sufficient coverage..

#3

And we have more than 30 devices in the house... all working well...

#4

Thank! Will be on the lookout, but since im not in the US, the used marked is crap.
I can find them new but that is around $160 for one -__-

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#5

R7800 is USD 240 in my region. Edgerouters aren't even available in my region. There is no used market whatsoever.

#6

How about overclocking good old C7 to 1GHz and enabling HW offload? It will NAT 500Mbit as long as you do not do any traffic shaping. And you will be able to coax pleanty of VPN speed if you use Wireguard.

#7

The market is slim here as well. But i managed to find one used for $80 and im happy with that. Its much faster and it even manages 0,5Gbps on wireless :smiley:

#8

I will play around with it a bit and see if i can get some speed improvements and set it up as a secondary access point to cover the outside sitting areas. Thanks for the tip, never thought about overclocking it :smiley:

#9

If I use c7 as an access point then will it give internet speeds of 800Mbps via ethernet?

#10

If you are just connecting C7 AP to your main router via wire and your client to to C7 via wire too, it will act as a plain switch and give you full 1Gbit speed (as long as whole Ethernet chain supports it). There will be very little CPU involvement in that. There is no routing and no WiFi involvement in that case. C7 becomes a managed 5-port switch with WiFi tacked on.

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#11

If you don't mind trying out Development Snapshot builds and prices are reasonable in your area,
The D-Link DIR-878 and the DIR-882 series may be worth consideration as budget routers.

LuCi will need to be manually installed.