Help with getting off my Verizon router and recommendation in purchasing a new one.

[hassanchop]

Hello Everyone,

I think this forum is the right one to help me. I've had cable and rented a Verizon Fios router from them for a couple of years.

I'm ready to cut the cord with cable. I just bought a new smart TV and plan on just streaming instead on watching cable.

Can anyone recommend a good router to use instead of the Verizon one?
I plan on upping my internet speed with them to the 400mbps.

We have a family of four and at some points have 2 laptops and the TV going along with all of phones connected to the WIFI, and a couple of echos.
The router is placed on the main level in the living room.
The house itself is about 2500 sq feet so not sure if that is a factor. I've never had any issues on the top floor with wifi.

I looked online and there a lot of different sites telling me different routers.
TP-Link Archer C2300
Asus RT-AC86U
TP-Link Archer A20 AC4000

 

[mickevh]

A US based web site called SmallNetBuilder review a lot of SOHO it and does a better job that most of objectively testing them. He also tabulates his test results by various performance metrics. You could do worse than look there. Just bear in mind it is US based if you are outside the USA, so there may be some regional difference with the exact spec. of the gear, though often it's just things like the power supply, language support, Wi-Fi transmit power and channel usage (which differs in some parts of the world,) and a few other basic niceties.

400mbps is a fair amount of WAN-to-LAN routing capacity and whilst a lot of modern SOHO routers can easily sustain than, old ones are not that fast. I doubt the three you cite would struggle, but I'd check SMB's tests just to be sure.

I wouldn't agonise much about whether router X is faster than router Y in any given performance metric if they are all "in the same ballpark" - it's really only worth noting if there's any significant differences. If they are all much of a muchness, then choice is probably more about "bonus" features and things like the number of Wi-Fi streams then can support in each waveband, protocol support, aesthetics and so on.

I'd also be inclined to pay attention as to whether router X can successfully establish a link with your ISP - you might care to check what your ISP requires. (In olden times some even used to prohibit third party routers, they that's gotten less common.)