Recommendation of router

[Adyc]

Can someone recommend a good quality router? Although  I am going to get Uptone Audio Etheregen, still want some recommendations of router which is reliable and will not harm the audio.

[photonman]

I am not sure there will be any difference in regard to audio aspects of the various routers.  Their main function is to connect your local network to the public network.  As far as reliability, the consumer Netgears are pretty good and the Nighthawk models have plenty of throughput.  I like the ones with built in cable modems as to minimize the boxes and wires and psu's collecting dust and dog hair.  

 

As part of my audiophile affliction, I do plug it into an Isotek Evo 3 Sirius power strip just because I can.

[rickca]

I think having a good quality switch between your router and your audio endpoint is more important than the quality of your router, but I don't have actual experience with swapping in different routers.

 

 

[AnotherSpin]

Concure with switch recommendation - Netgear GS105 has good reputation here. If you want to make next step, you would get LPSU for switch. It would give an increase in SQ. And, if you want to go further, LPSU for router may work as well.

[Tintinabulum]

Switch can make a big difference. Router or switch?

 

[jcn3]

@Adyc - ubiquiti makes great products, including wired routers:  https://www.ui.com/edgemax/edgerouter-x/

 

the beauty of these is that you can now add the switches and access points you need without the limitations of a typical combo router (router/switch/access point all in one chassis).

[bobfa]

I have Ubiquity gear in my home and at several customers.  There can be a little learning curve on the setup.  The gear is absolutely rock solid!  HIGHLY recommended.

 

IF you get the system buy the cloudkey to go with the Security Gateway.  IT is better than running stuff on a PC or MAC all the time.  The Gen2 cloudkeys are faster and if you think you are going to want security cameras then get the one with the hard drive inside.

[jcbenten]

I have two Netgear routers (R7000 & R7800) and they started great but firmware updates have caused internet access drops for 2-30 minutes at a time and some drops require reboots.  And sometimes the reboots did not work.  I am now using Voxel firmware on my R7800 with much better reliability.  Other opensource firmware is available for some of the models.

 

I have been looking at new routers and mostly looking between Ubuiqiti, MikroTik, and the Build-Your-Own/Open Source route (PFSense). Of the mainstream brands the Synology router has garnered more recommendations than most but lower coverage/throughput (but not much).   

 

Between Ubiquiti and MikroTik I came across a forum discussion on the differences/Which is better.  The main point is that MikroTik is a better router but if you need many access points or connections, Ubiquiti has that nailed.  I have not investigated past that point.  This is #1 on my list: 

http://amzn.com/B07HBR5219   

[Blackmorec]

Initially my ISP Virgin installed a Superhub3 combination cable modem and router. It came with a funky little 12V SMPS brick.  The Superhub3 is anything but super, with bugs in it’s chip set’s OS that triggers a rash of diagnostic routines whenever workload increases beyond a certain point 😩 

I’m forced by Virgin to retain the Superhub as a modem, but I installed a TPLink AC5400 Archer router with the Superhub switched to Modem only mode. The TPLink has a lot of features to optimise speed and efficiency and the control software really does allow the user to set up a customised set of networks. Offering 3 bands, I dedicate one 5GHz band to audio, with no other clients, the 2.4GHz band to roaming internet devices like iPads and phones and the 2nd 5GHz band to fixed internet clients like UHD Video streaming, CCTV security cameras etc. 

To ensure an optimum signal to my hi-fi I installed a TPLink RE650 extender, a 2 band device that can be configured to only receive the incoming 5GHz stream from the router and send it down an ethernet cable. 5GHz polling and the entire 2.4GHz band can be switched off, as can all the LEDs.  The ethernet cable is connected to an AQVox SE switch. The Modem, Router, Extender and Switch are all powered by DC3 Linear Power Supplies. 

Virgin provides 500mbps internet and I reliably receive over 400mbps to my hi-fi. While music streaming doesn’t require anything like this speed, the iPad based GUI for my server benefits hugely, reacting almost instantaneously, like you’d expect from a local hardwired controller. When you’re dealing with the artwork of thousands of albums things can get slow pretty darned quickly, so I really appreciate the performance when browsing albums and streaming from Qobuz for example. 

[Bob Stern]

12 hours ago, jcbenten said:

Between Ubiquiti and MikroTik I came across a forum discussion on the differences/Which is better.

 

If you have various "Internet of Things" devices, a great security feature of Ubiquiti is that it can divide your LAN into virtual subnets (VLAN's), and you can define which subnets can talk to each other.  Since IoT devices are susceptible to hacking, this can prevent a hacked device from accessing your computers or your networked storage devices.

[Ricardo007]

I just installed an ubiquiti edgerouter 6P with my ISP one box bridged to the router in modem only mode. Nice upgrade in sound. 2 separate routed ports one to a cisco switch 2960 with only one port used for an unify AC pro AP and another 2960 soon to be replaced by etherregen for the streamer. I changed the  power cord on router by a 30 years old NBS signature i had laying around and was utterly surprised by the positive impact on sound (even greater than the change of power cord on the cisco, lessloss dfpc standard, or on the streamer, acoustic revive reference). Etherregen and streamer have a farad super3 psu. The ISP box has a uptone audio JS2.

I now wonder if replacing the 24v 2.5A SMPS of the router by yield similar benefits?

I was looking at sean jacobs DC2 or may be DC3 but that one may be too much for a router... @Blackmorec?

In addition i have entreq boxes with eartha rj45 or usb  cables plugged on the switch router and streamer.

There is another possible upgrade on the router, changing the clock as offered by a UK company named fidelity audio for 200 pounds

[Ricardo007]

I want to add that with ubiquiti edgerouter you can offload processes fŕom the CPU when configuring in their edgemax OS very easily. My CPU usage is between 2 to 4% and ram isage 10%...

More difficult to configure will be i guess to use their sfp cage as a lan and not a wan port to connect to etherregen with monomode fiber and   Startech SFP1000ZXST SFP Single Mode 1550nm 80km modules as recommended by taiko audio in whatbestforum...

[Bob Stern]

3 minutes ago, Ricardo007 said:

I want to add that with ubiquiti edgerouter you can offload processes fŕom the CPU when configuring in their edgemax OS very easily. My CPU usage is between 2 to 4% and ram usage 10%.

 

Offload from what 1st CPU to what 2nd CPU?

[Ricardo007]

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006567467-EdgeRouter-Hardware-Offloading

[Bob Stern]

Got it.  Thanks!

[plissken]

I use a refurbished Dell Optiplex 790 with 4GB RAM and a Quad Port Intel Server NIC.

 

The computer is $100, the NIC is $28.

 

Using PFSense I have the built in NIC going to the cable modem. Then I use 1 port of the quad NIC in Vlan 10 for house hold wifi, another for Vlan 20 feeds the audio wifi, another for Vlan 30 feeds my Dell Power Connect L3 Managed 24 Port GBe switch.

 

I also use AES-Ni offload for VPN and can get almost wire speed with only seeing the CPU hit 7%.

 

Several good plug ins for PFSense and I strongly recommend Suricata.

 

 

[plissken]

2 hours ago, Ricardo007 said:

More difficult to configure will be i guess to use their sfp cage as a lan

 

Should just configure like any other port.

[plissken]

On 8/11/2019 at 1:00 AM, Adyc said:

Can someone recommend a good quality router? Although  I am going to get Uptone Audio Etheregen, still want some recommendations of router which is reliable and will not harm the audio.

 

Take a look at the Intel Server NIC I linked. Super beefy Magnetics package on it. Doubt you will be able to improve upon it SQ wise. Especially if you use a single dedicated port home runned to your streamer and place it in it's own vlan.

[cjf]

If I were in the market for a new router I would go with a Netgear based Tomato router. I've got an older one that still runs like a champ so I have no current need for a new one. But these things are VERY powerful in terms of what you can do with them. If you've go the motivation to toy around with it there is very little you can't do.

https://www.flashrouters.com/routers/router-types/tomato/netgear-r7000-tomato-router

 

I've spent quite a bit of time learning Linux IP Tables but its been worth every minute. You want to "TAG" certain PC's on your network to only be allowed to do certain things...you got it. You want very granular control of what any device on your network can do...you got it. You run a VPN and want to configure a "Kill Switch" if the VPN connection drops in the background...you got it. You want to run your own Open VPN server..yup you got it too. You want to run Dual/Redundant WAN services into your house and when one drops the other picks up seamlessly..boom you got it.

 

I think you get the point. Highly recommended piece of kit!

 

[DavidL]

I've been using an Apple Airport Extreme as router for years with no problems. It just works and indicates when its firmware needs updating (very Rarely). I use a standard Virgin Superhub as cable modem, operating in modem-only mode.

(I realise that the Airport Extreme is no longer from Apple but it can be found used elsewhere.)

[Blackmorec]

On 11/5/2019 at 2:53 AM, Ricardo007 said:

I just installed an ubiquiti edgerouter 6P with my ISP one box bridged to the router in modem only mode. Nice upgrade in sound. 2 separate routed ports one to a cisco switch 2960 with only one port used for an unify AC pro AP and another 2960 soon to be replaced by etherregen for the streamer. I changed the  power cord on router by a 30 years old NBS signature i had laying around and was utterly surprised by the positive impact on sound (even greater than the change of power cord on the cisco, lessloss dfpc standard, or on the streamer, acoustic revive reference). Etherregen and streamer have a farad super3 psu. The ISP box has a uptone audio JS2.

I now wonder if replacing the 24v 2.5A SMPS of the router by yield similar benefits?

I was looking at sean jacobs DC2 or may be DC3 but that one may be too much for a router... @Blackmorec?

In addition i have entreq boxes with eartha rj45 or usb  cables plugged on the switch router and streamer.

There is another possible upgrade on the router, changing the clock as offered by a UK company named fidelity audio for 200 pounds

Hey Ricardo, 

My fist experience with Sean Jacob’s power supplies was adding a DC2 to my AQVox SE. Once run in (it takes a while!) it made such a positive impact I immediately ditched it. And ordered a DC3 with Mundorf caps! That made an equally large positive impact on SQ. With that positive experience under my belt I added DC3s to my Router, Modem and modified RE650 wi-fi extender. On the AQVox the price difference between the DC2 and DC3 was more than worth every penny in terms of sound quality.....Essentially what the DC2 and 3s added when used in my network was musicality, neutrality, immense PRaT and listener involvement...the music just pulls you in. If I was to summarise the whole, it made the music sound ‘live’ in terms of interest, involvement, excitement and realism. You know how a live concert rarely allows you to daydream as the music is so present and compelling? That’s how DC3s sounded in my system.