Router recommendations

[Burner]

Greetings!!
Any thoughts as to what my best bet would be for a new router? I've had some issues recently with port forwarding and decided its time to go the VPN route. I'm thinking somewhere in the $250 range. Anyone had any experience with the built in security that comes with some of the routers like Linksys etc. Would a VPN still be necessary? Thanks!!

 

[wittaj]

Asus routers are a go to around here as they are decent consumer grade routers and come with OpenVPN.

Built in security in a router does not protect you from cameras phoning home and things like port forwarding and what not blast a hole past the router that would bypass any security anyway. If you want to view your cameras remotely, then you will want to VPN back into your home system.

Remember, you are looking for OpenVPN which is free. A paid VPN service is used to mask or hide your IP address for illegal streaming and porn LOL. You need a VPN that VPNs back into your home network and puts you on your home IP address.

 

[Burner]

Asus routers are a go to around here as they are decent consumer grade routers and come with OpenVPN.

Built in security in a router does not protect you from cameras phoning home and things like port forwarding and what not blast a hole past the router that would bypass any security anyway. If you want to view your cameras remotely, then you will want to VPN back into your home system.

Remember, you are looking for OpenVPN which is free. A paid VPN service is used to mask or hide your IP address for illegal streaming and porn LOL. You need a VPN that VPNs back into your home network and puts you on your home IP address.

Again wittaj you've helped me out immensely! I noticed some of those routers don't support openVPN and your right, I do want to view my cams remotely. Good stuff! Thanks

 

[AP514]

I used an ER 4....supports VPN....just have not gotten around to the actual setup. Purchase price was around $140(when i got mine)

 

[hikky_b]

Another vote for Ubiquiti routers/gear - many in domestic use and all have been rock solid.

 

[David L]

If you ever wanted to step away/step up from the store bought Routers, I would look into pfSense Routing...When I switched a little over a year ago it was the best thing I did. I am running pfSense on a Qotom Box. If you have Gig Fiber for Internet, be sure to get a box that can handle the traffic/processing. Mine is a 4 port i5 5th gen Intel Proc. I went with TP-Link managed Switches, these switches Rock!!! They are extremely fast and half the price of Ubiquiti. Not putting down Ubiquiti equip., but for the 5 switches I ended up with (24 port POE, 24 port, 16 port, two 8 ports) and two Access Points I could not even come close to all of this equip, with Ubiquiti.

If you want more security, separate LANs, you may consider VLANs, I have a Managed VLAN, a Private VLAN, a Guest VLAN, a IoT VLAN, a Camera VLAN, an Alarm VLAN. All independent LANs. Private can get to them all but none of the other VLANs can get to my Private VLAN, Guest and IoT only has Internet access, Camera VLAN has no Internet access, my Alarm VLAN only is pushing notifications to IoT VLAN SmartThings hub (will be retiring ST with my Habitat hub). So many have told me I have way too many VLANs , at home this works for me, not that hard to manage, for large networks though all these VLANs would/could be a nightmare.
Also you don't have to go top of the line switches, like I did, TP-Link has their Easy and Smart lines of Layer 2 (L2) switches that support VLANs too.

I encourage you to watch this, it explains a lot about the Store Bought Routers:


Asus Routers do support OpenVPN, prior to my pfSense box, I had a VPN Server running on my Asus AC3200 and came in to my network via OpenVPN, on my phones and tablets, even there is a PC client. It worked good. I even played with the VPN Client on the Asus router connecting to ExpressVPN, back then, it worked but I would not recommend. I have SurfShark VPN now for traveling, only use it if I am on someone else's network, hot spot, hotel, coffee house, etc.

HTH

 

[Frankenscript]

I'm a fan of the Asus routers, myself. I have a AC-2900 / RT-86U, which does fine job running a VPN for me to connect to when I'm out and about. I'm likely to upgrade shortly, to whatever their current version of that platform is. It's a MESH enabled system, and I need stronger WIFI in my basement, so I will likely put the new one into place as my main router and use the AC2900 into my basement as an access point.

 

[Cold-Lemonade]

I am using a Netgear r7000 (US$150) with DD-WRT v3.0-r46177 std. DD-WRT allows you to run a WireGuard VPN server on the router which is faster than an OpenVPN server. WireGuard is super easy to setup too. I connect to my router remotely using WireGuard and then I can access my entire home network, including my HP EliteDesk 800 G3 which runs Blue Iris. Plus, with DD-WRT you have complete control over your router, you can set up vlans, etc. It's got a lot of features that aren't found in consumer-grade routers. I highly recommend it.

 

[David L]

I am using a Netgear r7000 (US$150) with DD-WRT v3.0-r46177 std. DD-WRT allows you to run a WireGuard VPN server on the router which is faster than an OpenVPN server. WireGuard is super easy to setup too. I connect to my router remotely using WireGuard and then I can access my entire home network, including my HP EliteDesk 800 G3 which runs Blue Iris. Plus, with DD-WRT you have complete control over your router, you can set up vlans, etc. It's got a lot of features that aren't found in consumer-grade routers. I highly recommend it.

Agreed, if you are going to stay with a consumer grade router I would make sure it can run DD-WRT...Use to run it on a few Asus Routers...

@Burner , you may want to consider WiFi 6, and go with an AX router, provided your phone supports it, or newer laptop/tablet does. I will be adding either this AP EAP660 or EAP620 soon to my network...the wife and I have Galaxy S20 phones which support WiFi 6

 

[David L]

Agreed, if you are going to stay with a consumer grade router I would make sure it can run DD-WRT...Use to run it on a few Asus Routers...

@Burner , you may want to consider WiFi 6, and go with an AX router, provided your phone supports it, or newer laptop/tablet does. I will be adding either this AP EAP660 or EAP620 soon to my network...the wife and I have Galaxy S20 phones which support WiFi 6

Oh, I wanted to add that the new TP-Link APs support WPA3 security too...

I just ordered the EAP660...Looking forward to trying WiFi 6 on my phone...Also the WPA3, which found out my S20 supports...

 

[Frankenscript]

For anyone interested, I just bought a pair of ASUS RT-AX-92U / AX6100 routers to upgrade my home network. They should arrive tonight. My network currently has an ASUS AC-86U as the main router with two older routers doing access point duty. The ASUS line are MESH capable, solid routers and I got the 86U (also known as AC2900) a few years ago because it had pretty good VPN server capability at the price point. For somewhat complex reasons I wanted to have the router run the VPN server rather than having another computer on the LAN doing it.

Things have been ok for the most part but my basement media room is a bit fringey. I've got hardwired ethernet down here including several gigabit switches, so I could have just plugged in yet another old router or cheap access point to fix it, but I really wanted to retire the two older routers that were acting as access points.

Amazon's got a two-pack of the RT-AC92U / AC6100 ASUS routers for around $300 which is a decent deal. I can make one of them the main router, and the other one plus the older AC86U will be part of a MESH network. It should improve reception in the basement and overall take network administration up a notch. I won't have to log into really old routers if I want to adjust wireless settings.

 

[Burner]

Asus routers are a go to around here as they are decent consumer grade routers and come with OpenVPN.

Built in security in a router does not protect you from cameras phoning home and things like port forwarding and what not blast a hole past the router that would bypass any security anyway. If you want to view your cameras remotely, then you will want to VPN back into your home system.

Remember, you are looking for OpenVPN which is free. A paid VPN service is used to mask or hide your IP address for illegal streaming and porn LOL. You need a VPN that VPNs back into your home network and puts you on your home IP address.

Wittaj
Went ahead and got the RT-AX86U wireless... replacing an old Verizon. IE is much faster!! I am experiencing one problem I can't explain. When I look at the attached connections and hardware on the router I have two entries for my two switches but not the other cameras.. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the different IP's the new router uses. I changed two IP's within BI, using the newly listed IP's on the new router and was able to bring them up within BI. But don't know why the other camera's IP's are not listed. Any thoughts as to what's happening. Thanks!!

 

[wittaj]

@Burner - are your cameras going thru the router or are they isolated off of the internet like a dual NIC system in your BI computer or a VLAN switch?

 

[Burner]

@Burner - are your cameras going thru the router or are they isolated off of the internet like a dual NIC system in your BI computer or a VLAN switch?

There connected to the switch and the switch is connected to the router

 

[wittaj]

There connected to the switch and the switch is connected to the router

You should consider adding another ethernet card keeping the cameras off the internet and not running through the router.

I guess you would have to change all the other cameras to the same IP address range so that the router can then see it.

 

[Burner]

You should consider adding another ethernet card keeping the cameras off the internet and not running through the router.

I guess you would have to change all the other cameras to the same IP address range so that the router can then see it.

I might give the changing IP's a try. I'll have to do it using the MAC address I suppose. Thanks guy! Have a super day!!

 

[Frankenscript]

I set up my two AX92U (AX6100) units yesterday, with one of them as the router and the other in access point mode. My AC86U prior router is now also an access point. All are up to date firmware and even the AC86U is still getting routine updates. I was able to remove two old routers (one TP Link, one Linksys) that were being used as access points previously; these were past the point where they got updates so it bothered me having them on the network. They are in my "not quite junk, but only use in emergency" pile now.

More importantly, a fringe coverage zone in my basement is now well covered with around 200 Mbps speeds instead of much slower, inconsistent coverage.

Since the access points are connected via hardwired ethernet there was no need to use the MESH capability (which acts as intelligent repeaters).

I've got the main router configured with OpenVPN which I hadn't previously used (I had used PPTP VPN); it performs very well for camera access remotely/via cell phone while away.

 

[Frankenscript]

Wittaj
Went ahead and got the RT-AX86U wireless... replacing an old Verizon. IE is much faster!! I am experiencing one problem I can't explain. When I look at the attached connections and hardware on the router I have two entries for my two switches but not the other cameras.. I'm thinking it may have something to do with the different IP's the new router uses. I changed two IP's within BI, using the newly listed IP's on the new router and was able to bring them up within BI. But don't know why the other camera's IP's are not listed. Any thoughts as to what's happening. Thanks!!

You could always change the router to be on whatever subnet the original one was...

I agree with the advice about a second ethernet card. It's what I do. My cameras have no access to the internet!

 

[David L]

I might give the changing IP's a try. I'll have to do it using the MAC address I suppose. Thanks guy! Have a super day!!

Dual NIC setup on your Blue Iris Machine

In making your system more secure this is a great option to eliminate your cameras calling home / connecting to the internet This is a great place to start to setup a bit more secure network and learn more about IP/Subnets etc. before adding dual NICs: Router Security - Subnets and IP addresses...

ipcamtalk.com

HTH