New router or airport time capsule?

Technology and Internet
#1

Hi

So after about four years our asus dark night wireless router gave up
It was a really good router I have to admit. Wifi range almost three houses away from our house, really good range and speeds.

Our house is cable networked so all stationary items like Apple TVs and desktops don’t require wifi but everything else does.

So my question is, should I replace the dead wifi router with another third party one or should I invest in Apple Airport TimeCapsule?

  1. Is the wifi coverage very good from the time capsule?
  2. Will it sufficiently provide wifi signal to the front and back of our property? (Suburban property)
  3. Can I connect an external hard drive full of movies to the time capsule and will it work as media hub via iTunes, Plex etc etc?
  4. Any recommendations for third party wifi router to the tune of max $450 ?
  5. Should I just go to Telstra shop and buy their modem/router called max2? (We have Telstras fastest cable internet, not adsl/nbn)

Much appreciated,
Marcin

#2

I wouldn’t by a Time Capsule or Airport now. They haven’t been updated in years and are a bit old hat now.

2 Likes
#3

The modem still works? Maybe get a nighthawk router then?
On the other hand, as you seem to be on Telstra maybe a new modem router so you can do the Telstra air thing?

1 Like
#4

If you want good coverage and speeds you can’t go past Unifi for wireless (well ok Ruckus is better but a LOT more expensive), if you want a similar look and very close performance to the Unifi you could consider the Grandstream GWN7610 which I got for $178 (NZ) around $100 (NZ) less than an equivalent wireless AC Unifi and the difference in throughput is negligible.

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#5

I dunno why anyone would want to ‘to the Telstra air thing’ - sharing one’s internet with strangers…

Personally, while the Airport Extreme hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, it’s still a very easy to use router…

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#6

Apple have dropped (or are in the process of dropping) all their networking gear so don’t buy at this stage.

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#7

Which model would you recommend out in interest?

#8

This was only ever a rumour. I still install plenty of AirPorts. Never found a better consumer router. The wifi isn’t perfect but they work so much better than any other wifi with Apple devices I find.

1 Like
#9

In the AC range : for range to Unifi AC-LR , for speed the Unifi AC Pro

#10

My Airport Extreme and Time Capsule were always quite good, very easy to setup. Note of course that mine were the older flat jobs.

Is the wifi coverage very good from the time capsule?
Yes, but three houses over is pretty amazing from anything. WiFi tends to drop away very quickly when it has to deal with walls and things.

Will it sufficiently provide wifi signal to the front and back of our property? (Suburban property)
I always needed two, one at the front and one at the rear to cover the whole house. Maybe re-locating it into the middle would have helped, but even as is WiFi outside wasn’t great.

Can I connect an external hard drive full of movies to the time capsule and will it work as media hub via iTunes, Plex etc etc?
Not really. You can share a HDD as a network drive but both iTunes and Plex require a server to be running, something the AirPort/Time Capsule doesn’t do.

Any recommendations for third party wifi router to the tune of max $450?
Should I just go to Telstra shop and buy their modem/router called max2? (We have Telstras fastest cable internet, not adsl/nbn)
Is your cable modem running in bridge mode? Just confirming that you just need a router?
If your current cable modem doesn’t do WiFi it’s bloody old now! It could be worth bailing Telstra up for a free replacement. It might not be the best modem/router/WiFi but when it’s free it’s pretty good value. If it turns out it sucks, back to bridge mode for the shiny new modem and add your own router & WiFi,

I recently replaced both my older Apple units with 2 x UniFi AC-Pro units and they are great. I still wouldn’t say I get coverage three houses away but I definitely cover my whole house and yard.

In my case I’ve got the Optus supplied cable modem running in bridge mode feeding a D-Link DIR-825 router which is running custom Gargoyle software. Gargoyle is bloody awesome as a router, but is overkill for normal humans. For me it does DHCP with fixed addresses for a remarkably large table of devices as well as a range of custom rules/routing/blocking/restrictions.

If you go down the UniFi path there is the Unifi Security Gateway router which integrated very nicely, although it’s missing some features that I want so personally I was looking at the Edgerouter range instead although sadly it then doesn’t do the whole UniFi integration (not that it’s needed)… again that whole normal human thing.

Bottom line here, my setup is modular and needlessly complicated for a home environment… but then I’m a giant tech nerd who loves toys.

3 Likes
#11

I’d advise:

  1. Get that cable modem into bridge mode asap.
  2. Get an older cheap gigabit Airport as the router with wireless off ($50 max?)
  3. Get some cheap badass wifi AP and connect to the Airport.

Telstra’s modems are crap and don’t let you change your DNS, and Bigpond DNS servers are shockingly bad especially with Apple devices.

Apple’s routing is awesome, powerful and never crashes for me. All my bigpond cable clients are set up this way.

I haven’t got a go to for hardcore wifi at the moment - I really want Eero to launch here! So I’d defer to @The_Hawk’s advice on that.

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#12

My next router will be the Asus RT AC5300.

I can’t wait to wake up and sacrifice a baby lamb to the internet gods at the altar at dusk to get my ADSL connected

2 Likes
#13

Asus gear is absolutely awful, the range and throughput in our tests for clients were terrible. I would avoid at all costs myself.

Plus they look like they should be once of the props in a B&D dungeon…

#14

Pretty much why I want one, that and to see how my arachnophobic girlfriend reacts.

2 Likes
#15

Thanks to all for awesome input, really appreciate it.

So here is what I ended up with and how it all came about;

I purchased a used Airport 5th gen from one of the users on this forum, while I was waiting for it to arrive I got my hands on one Time Capsule 2TB and another Airport 5th gen for really good price.

It’s all hooked up as follows:
Telstra Wi-Fi modem (in bridge mode) located in garage in mini rack cabinet with Netgear 16 port switch, LAN cabling to all the rooms and other locations (living and patio)
the TC 2TB at the end of the house in the GuestRoom\Man Cave
Airport #1 in the middle of the house in the Living room
Airport #2 at the front of the house in the Master Bedroom

Everything was so easy to setup!

Awesome coverage at the back backyard, on the side yard and almost one property radius from the front of our house! for fraction of the cost so far I’m happy.

cheers to all,

1 Like
#16

That router is positively FUGLY!