20 Best Wifi Routers For Spectrum (2023 Updated)

I bought the ASUS AX3000 to replace the single-band, WiFi 4 router that is built into my AT&T modem. There are simply too many 2. 4GHz networks bleeding over into our house from the neighbors, and the AT&T router is too weak to get the full circuit bandwidth anywhere beyond about 10 feet from it.

The AX3000 is incredibly easy to set up. Before starting, I Googled how to shut off the built-in wifi radio and put the AT&T modem/router into pass-through mode. The ASUS router app is really nice, but I preferred using the on-board interface to set things up by wiring in our desktop PC.

I set up both 2. 4GHz and 5GHz networks using different SSID’s so that I could tell them apart. (I am not a fan of the “Smart Connect” feature that uses a single SSID and can move devices between 2. 4GHz and 5GHz to try to optimize range and speed.

) Two devices in the house only support 2. 4GHz, but the rest are all on the 5GHz network, including iPhones running WiFi 6 and a variety of devices including Apple TVs and Roku sticks using WiFi 5. Using a speedtest app on my iPhone 12, I then methodically checked every room in the house before connecting all the other devices.

We have a 3000 sq foot, two-story home with another 1000 sq ft in the unfinished basement. The AX3000 sits in the loft near the center of the second floor (great central location). The results? I got the full bandwidth of our internet circuit in every room of the house and in the basement, despite the signal strength sometimes being as low as 35%! This router has great features, a good user interface and a nice companion app.

But it’s the combination of WiFi 6 and other advanced tech that makes its performance shine. I have even noticed my Chromebook getting better battery life now that it can operate on 802. 11ac (WiFi 5) along with a stronger signal.

The AX3000 is not the cheapest home router, but if you need range, throughput, and the ability to support a fleet of modern devices, it is a great investment.

So, decided to cut the cable BUT use some of the money to subscribe to a VPN. The VPN company stated the ISP router would not be adaptable unless I did a bunch of tech stuff like flash it. I can build PCs, I can do very basic things and when shown or told I can pretty much make anything work.

Chose Asus because I like their product, just built a PC with an Asus mobo (Z490 ROG Strix E) and an Asus monitor (PA278) This router is supposed to work well with the VPN company I chose. First upon the simple (and it is simple) set-up, I received no signal from the modem to the router.

Called Asus and they helped me get a signal. I was willing to put that down as perhaps I made a mistake. Tried to install the VPN and when VPN was activated a loss of internet on the PC but not the 2 Rokus.

Contacted the VPN company who worked on it from their end and couldn’t find an issue. Contacted Asus again and again, they helped but when the VPN was on the PC was offline EVEN hardwired into the router.

Had a professional come in to set up the network. He did but VPN drops download from 200+MBPS – >50. He told me to contact the VPN company again. they had me run some configs and nothing. I would call again, but and I know it is something that companies do to keep prices down, but when I can’t understand a single word the phone help is saying (because I can’t be online if working on the internet with possible outages, due to the working on it.

) So, I won’t call them, asking them to repeat and talk slower makes me feel embarrassed. I rarely complain about the telephone outsources because it is what it is, but Asus’ by far the worst. So, while it FINALLY, gets me signals to everything I need the fact that a hardwired PC’s download speed drops 75% is frustrating and I would return it but with the market the way it is with stock on shelves down (bought the last one) and the need for one that handles wifi6 AND VPN there may not be anything else available.

It breaks my heart to have to write this review because as I stated I truly like Asus products.

You should have bought a router for YOUR TI purposes only!! this is a router that’s meant for maybe an apartment or a 2 possibly 3 bedroom home not for an office building! it’s no wonder it didn’t give results like you wanted and it failed.

this is a entry level Wi-Fi router you should have kept with the Netgear nighthawk or something similar. IT ALSO SOUNDS LIKE YOUR PLACEMENT OF THE ROUTER WAS ALSO A BIG REASON TOO. These are 101 facts and you claim to say your I.

T if I was in your position there would have been no way in hell would have bought this router I would have went with something higher in for my “clients”. this router performs exceptionally well with a range of probably 150 to 200 ft with obstructing walls I haven’t had any issues and I’ve had this router for almost a year now the AI protection software works perfectly and blocks what needs to be blocked.

The ASUS router app it’s perfect, easy setup, only took me about 15 minutes it also supports AI Wi-Fi mesh systems so any other Asus Wi-Fi mesh routers you can connect to this and it’s Wi-Fi 6!!! unfortunately as far as the price is concerned I bought it when it was $70 now it’s 159 on Amazon highly recommend this router and remember, if you have a long house an older home that’s brick or anything with thick sheetrock look somewhere else.

Possibly look in to an AI mesh system.

Fast service from CCL Computers got it before the estimated delivery date. Will use them again. Great router the wireless speed is excellent I had 1. 2 gig, need to remember most of the ethernet ports on PC’s are 1gig so the higher ethernet speeds on the router won’t count.

I also bought some Cat 8 ethernet cables for the faster speed. The WiFi 6 is also improved as there is less interference from other WiFi 5 routers around you. Make sure you want only a router as this model is not a modem/ router.

Could be cheaper as at £229 it is quite expensive. Overall a good buy to improve your network.

Bought to replace an aging R7000 Netgear Router ( developed a habit of “DNS server is not responding” error. ) TL;DR Pros: -price -ports -no reboots required after setting changes Cons -no default admin / admin account like old routers -cant turn off QOS ( hasnt effected my network though) -lesser known brand So this purchase was the culmination on about 40 hours of research.

I was a die hard Netgear owner for about 15 years. i decided to try something new for a few reasons. 1. new routers are stupidly expensive. most Wifi 6 routers with any reasonable hardware are going to run $270+ 2.

firmware issues are reported for both of the popular Netgear and Asus routers. lots of negative reviews. 3. “gamer” price increase just because it is branded as “gamer” 4. sometimes trying new things is good.

I settled on this TP-Link for a few reasons 1. Wifi6 (AX####) if im going to get somthing new, i might as well get the newest technology (even know none of my devices can use it yet) 2. it had a usb 3.

0 ( most routers do at this point but it was on my list anyways due to network storage) 3. less that $200 4. gig+ Ethernet ports 5. its a name i know of ( top 5 networking companies Netgear, Cisco, Asus, TP-Link, D-Link) Anyways on to the review.

Design: pretty slick. thinner / smaller than i expected. antennas swivel with a little effort, but stay put when your finished moving them. attaches to the wall with two screws ( not included ) the holes on the back of the device are roughly 8 1/2 inches apart.

has an option to turn the LED’s off at certain times Setup: initial log in was done with a cable and my laptop, the rest of the setup was completed once i replaced it on the wall where my old router was ( hard wires / cable modem location ) pretty standard set up.

my router was defaulted to 192. 168. 0. 1. once i got to the page i was prompted to set up a password. i later changed my network to use 192. 168. 1. 1 ( like my last router) there was some quick set up first run type questions it asked.

i later went in a specified permanent ports for my wired desktops which was a breeze. i also updated the firmware which was painless. one major pro with this was you can make changes to the router configuration, and you never need to reboot the router ( firmware being the only rebooting action of all the settings i changed.

) Speed: wired connections were reading 500mbps to the xfinity. speedtest. net which is what im paying for speed wise. my google pixel 2 wireless speed test to the google site was reading 320 mbps. i cant complain here, so im pretty happy with that.

networked storage: i plugged in our families 256GB photo archive thumbdrive to the router, was getting consistent 30mbps transfer from desktop to thumbdrive. pretty happy with that, as its about as fast as i get when its plugged into my desktop.

All and all im pretty happy with it, will keep this review updated as time goes on.

If you are in a situation where you cannot run wiring and are in a medium/larger home that is filled with lots of walls, this is the absolute best non-commercial system you can buy. Pros: -SUPER fast speeds.

On a Fiber 1000/1000 connection and was able to get up to 850Mbps at the base router, about 600Mbps on the mesh points, all tested using an iPhone 13 Pro Max. I’ve used/tested many brands and this one is cannot be beat outside of buying a much more expensive commercial grade system.

-5Ghz dedicated backhaul ensures amazing connection between mesh points and router. Most other systems do NOT have a dedicated backhaul, meaning the mesh points connect using the same channel and frequency as Wi-Fi-devices, meaning this can create slow downs in many situations.

-This system penetrates walls better than other systems, but do not expect night and day difference either. -Simple controls and interface -Aesthetically pleasing router and mesh points that can usually blend in most places visually -2.

5G WAN port will help support faster speeds when available -House is hurricane proof with lots of concrete and and metal studded walls. This system seems to better penetrate walls vs other systems. -Simple setup.

Bridge mode or router mode offer the same performance. Cons: -Price is hard to justify for most. I did it because my house was extremely tough to connect throughout, but it was a fraction of what it would cost to wire the house with Ethernet.

-The moment you try to start doing advanced stuff, such as VLAN, IPv6, or parental controls, it becomes extremely buggy. So keep it simple with this system -Hate the cash grab they do from the subscriptions they want you to pay for extra parental controls or internet security.

It’s pretty insulting for a system of this price. -VPN Access requires some extra work -While the general interface is good, the app needs further work.

We live in a three-story 1780-square-foot townhouse, so this product might be overkill for most people in our situation, but I was telecommuting even before the pandemic and I will be continuing to do so afterwards, and that means a rock-solid Internet connection is critical.

Meanwhile, we stream all our TV via wifi and my wife is retired, so she watches a fair amount of TV during the day when I’m working. I had generally been satisfied with our old Linksys Velop router and satellite, but the satellite would randomly seem to slow to a crawl, causing the TV signal to buffer, and we had two noticeable wifi dead spots in the house.

That became an even bigger problem when I got my wife a new laptop for Christmas and it simply refused to connect from downstairs where she uses it most often. I decided to get a Netgear Orbi system based on very positive reviews my brother-in-law gave his.

My reason for choosing this one is that the router has four jacks for wired devices, which matched what I had before and meant I didn’t have to reconfigure anything (I very much prefer a wired connection for work purposes).

Some of the other less-expensive Orbi products have only three jacks. We’ve been exceptionally satisfied. No more dead spots, no more TV buffering. I would recommend this in a heartbeat. I docked one star because, let’s face it, the product is extremely expensive.

I decided that for our needs, the price was relatively unimportant—we depend so heavily on a reliable connection that in the scheme of things, the cost was not a problem. But I can see why it would be off-putting to some people.

My suggestion is that you look at your current setup to see how many wired devices you have—if you don’t need as many wired connections and you want to spend a little less, consider trying one of the other Orbi products.

A year ago I ordered a Linksys Velop AX4200 mesh wifi system to replace my 10 year old wifi setup. Without a long diatribe – the LINKSYS system initially worked fine, but over the period of 12 months progressively degraded and malfunctioned to the point of being almost useless, making me long for my old fashioned WiFi router.

I had heard from several different sources that Orbi was a great system, and I really wanted to stay with WiFi 6 and a mesh network so I rolled the dice. Orbi has been operational now for a month and I feel that I can give some initial impressions.

Setup was pretty smooth – some strange hiccups with the app required multiple resets of the nodes and a complete reset of the base node once. It took me about an hour to sort through the setup which gave me some trepidation.

However, once setup was complete – done. It has worked flawlessly ever since. Extremely high bandwidth, great coverage, excellent performance through walls and across two stories in an old house with very dense construction materials.

I have not needed to reset Orbi (Linksys needed to be reset 1-2 times a week or it would completely shut down) since I installed it. We run multiple devices across the house simultaneously to include video streaming, multiple web applications, work computers, home security and monitoring devices, etc.

Can’t say enough good things about Orbi. Well worth the switch and deserved of it’s great reputation.

I have been a Netgear Orbi fan for years, however I have now had multiple terrible experiences with them forcing firmware “upgrades” which have created instability, dropouts and enormous frustration.

This occurred again recently on my top of the line RBR850 WiFi 6 system that cost over $1800. I tried everything to reset and downgrade firmware (which then does a forced upgrade again overnight) – after hours wasted and huge disturbance in my work from home I gave up.

Researched all the reviews and to my surprise Asus ZenWifi AX came out on top. Being a total Apple environment I was skeptical of a PC vendor who is unknown in the world of networking – but boy was I wrong! Straight out of the box this system was a dream to set up and their iOS App is much better than Netgear’s, as is their web interface.

Works perfectly with iPhone, iPad, M1 Mac’s etc. It was a bit problematic working out how to get VLAN setup right for my iiNet NBN HFC connection (the provided iiNet profile doesn’t work). But following instructions on iiNet website got it up and running perfectly: https://help.

iinet. net. au/how-set-asus-rt-ac68u-nbn-hfc A two device system is delivering better speed in most of the house (challenging 3 level terrace) than the 4 x Orbi RBS850’s previously. Only downside is peak speed right next to the access point is not quite as high as Orbi (I’m on Gigabit super fast HFC and get about 700Mbits on Asus, vs.

closer to 750 on Orbi). However the Orbi would drop off quickly and be terrible through walls etc. Whereas Asus is still getting 200Mbits in places where Orbi was a dead zone. Most importantly it is *stable* – no dropouts, reboots lost satellite connections, multiple reset and re-pair attempts and endless Orbi frustration.

Sorry Netgear, your crown has been taken by the new upstart. Well done Asus (now *please* just don’t stuff it up with future buggy updates).

It may look creepy like a spider, or just plain stupid, but it gets the job done! I purchased this a couple years ago because the built in wifi that is in my internet provider’s modem is just garbage.

This router is a tank. I get 2. 4 signal all over my house, and even most of it is covered with the 5ghz band as well. And we have solid concrete cinder block walls behind all our drywall. No issue with signal.

My internet speed is 1gigabit down and 50 megabit up. On 2. 4 with solid signal I can usually get 120megbit down and the full 5 up without issues. On 5ghz I can get over 350 megabit down if I am within solid signal range.

When hard wired to it, I have no issue with max speeds on all fronts. I have an android phone, and downloaded the app to control this router from it, and it is packed with great features. From the app, I can tunr on or off any of the 3 wifi attenas, I can block internet access to any device that is connected to it, and I can even limit how much time a certain device gets internet access, Another useful feature is, you can connect any device, and the assign it to a specific user, So if you have a house full of people who all have devices connected, you can make user profiles and assign the devices to the specific user that uses that device.

So when little Johnny comes home to play video games while he chats on his phone, but didn’t take out the trash, you can block all his devices from internet access all at once by turning off access to his profile.

Just a few useful features for those with big families with several devices. These are just a few solid features of this router, It has gotten several firmware updates that have improved it’s security and performance as well.

Just make sure you do a full power down for at least 30 seconds and then do a full reboot. Some of the firmware updates have crippled my upload speed until I take this step, Overall, fantastic router! Been using it for over 3 years now!.

This router was supposed to be top of the line when I bought it in 2020. The signal has been decent, but it has been plagued with problems that progressively get worse over time. One feature I liked was being able to use the parental time block feature to shut the router off at specific times of the day on the kids devices.

It worked like a champ for a few months and then randomly deleted all the ip addresses for the kids devices (which were many!) After re-adding all the devices for the 3rd time, they deleted again. After that stranger things began happening.

When I would log into the router from my computer or phone, etc. everything turned into japanese. I don’t know japanese, so I had to follow some screenshots to turn it back to english. Fast forward another month, the router turned off completely.

I restarted it and all our smart devices (50+) are working with the unit. however now when I try to log into the router, not only am I being japanese again, it doesn’t recognize my login anymore. I tried the factory login and still nothing.

I called Asus, and after waiting on hold for 20+minutes, they tell me it is out of warranty, so they told me to go to their website and use the chat feature. I used the chat feature, and they proceed to tell me I need to do a factory reset.

Which means I have to set up a whole new network SSID and reprogram 50+ devices to work with the router again! There is no guarantee this won’t happen again. so I am on the fence about restarting the modem since things are still working.

I just can’t access the settings in the modem. If I must reset, I will purchase a new modem and throw this one away as no one should have to use this piece of garbage! I only bought this modem for the gaming reliability for one of the kids.

I should have stuck with my old reliable Apple router literally the most reliable router I have ever owned. I have also owned netgear. other than the constant connection issues with it I never had a settings issue.

Don’t even get me started on the ASUS laptop I bought a few years ago! Asus sucks.

I pre ordered it from PB Tech on 17 September 2021 but had to wait for delivery until October as they did not had it in the stock at that time I guess because of Lockdowns. It was the most expensive and advance router available in NZ last year.

I had this router now for almost a year and have no regrets for paying almost $1000 including delivery. The reason why I bought it because it is so advance in what it has to offer and will offer you the best you can get from the festers Wi-Fi 6 Internet today and even faster in future.

You do not need another router in future to upgrade your Internet speed. It can already handle the speed the Internet providers even cannot offer in NZ at the moment. It is the most powerful router which can connect dozens of devises and covers the large area through the thick wall of a large house.

One devise solves all you Internet needs. No need for Mashing in house. This is what you paying for here. The hardware and software is the best too. This router is very heavy for a reason. It is packed with all the best Hi Tech staff inside and it delivers when you really need it.

Had all high speed ports in and out of router and super easy software installation. Download from “Google app” store for free on Android phone and you can control the entire Internet in house from you Mobile phone.

No need to go PC to do it. Software is very advance as you would expect for this money and can offer you so many settings which you probably do not need but IT specialists will defiantly appreciate these extras.

RGB light on the top at the middle of the router is nice extra too especially at night in the dark. Can choose any colour you like. To cut this long story short – IT IS THE FULL PACKAGE and ULTIMATE INTERNET DEVICE.