Wireless router with QoS for home use?

March 20, 2012 6:53 PM

Recommendations on routers with QoS, please?

Pretty straightforward, but I'm not a hardware guy and don't exactly trust the CNet reviews that Google is coughing up.

I have a D-Link DIR-655, and it's had a good run, but it's starting to give up the ghost. I'll happily replace it with the same thing, but before I do, I want to be sure there isn't anything better out there. Needs are pretty straightforward: fast, reliable, decent range, and must have QoS. Is the DIR-655 as good as it gets, or is there something better? Is coughing up the dough for a commercial-grade router worth it?

posted by middleclasstool to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

From my network engineer husband:

"If you really want to get into QoS, go here and do this. We have a Netgear N600. It runs pretty good. It's been a little clunky; we've had to reset it a couple times. But it does QoS, although we haven't used it for that. But the big thing is that it has a USB port on the back of it, so you can plug a huge hard drive into it. It automatically sets up a web page for your hard drive so you can get ahold of your files wherever you are, if you're into that sort of thing."
posted by Madamina at 7:00 PM on March 20, 2012

Yeah, dd-wrt on pretty much any over-$30 router will give you much better QoS than anything else resembling an affordable solution. Check the dd-wrt wiki (or, to get started, the router database, but this is less often updated) to find out what hardware is compatible, and go from there. Only the initial flashing process is fiddly; once dd-wrt is installed and working, it's unbeatable.
posted by RogerB at 7:43 PM on March 20, 2012

Response by poster: Madamina, is your husband saying it doesn't have to be a NAS drive? My current router has USB but will not work for just any drive, it must be NAS.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:21 PM on March 20, 2012

"Our hard drive is this guy. It doesn't necessarily have to be NAS. When you say NAS, those can get really expensive; I had the same issue with not wanting to pay several hundred dollars. That's why I got the setup that I got. (I've tried to plug in a thumb drive, but that didn't work.)"
posted by Madamina at 8:39 PM on March 20, 2012

Best answer: The best home router (it also has QOS) is the Asus Rt-n56u. You cannot do better than that. And you don't have to run dd-wrt bloatware on it.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 10:57 PM on March 20, 2012

If you're willing to read the tutorial and set the QoS parameters for your particular needs, anything you can install Tomato-USB on will provide almost-perfect QoS control. The single-knob QoS solutions don't work for most people, so you'll have to learn a little bit about what you're trying to shape regardless of what you pick.
posted by introp at 11:02 PM on March 20, 2012

If you want a bit more control with a router, go with a pfsense box, which is commercial class routing for consumer price netgate.com sells said boxes (no affiliation, happy customer). You can get an add-on wireless card if you want to to be your wireless access point as well, I simply used my old wireless access points, and turned off all the routing functions. As long as the wifi access point is connected to your network (port on the lan side) it will simply act as a lan / wifi bridge.
posted by defcom1 at 8:08 AM on March 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I went with Threeway Handshake's recommendation and got the Asus. The QoS on it is simplified to an extent I find difficult to believe in at this point (I only set it up two hours ago and haven't really put it through its paces), so we'll see, but so far it is a very nice and highly-reviewed router.
posted by middleclasstool at 9:05 PM on April 18, 2012