Router Suggestions !!

[DonB]

OK, Long story short, figured I get some feedback from the community rather then reading all the ones in Google search that seem more or less for promotion reasons.

I currently have a Netgear Nighthawk R6700, Was great for a few years, but now I've tried everything I could think to figure out the current issue, without flashing a 3rd party DDWRT.

Hard wired to a Ethernet port to a PC I have no issues, speeds are 200 MBPS , but Wifi seems to be a different issue, Wifi gets pretty close to that, but by the next day it drops to 12 to 25 MBPS and I have to reboot the router daily. I've tired all I could think of, and too many to explain, but I'm open to suggestions before I change.

1) Router is update always to latest FW
2) I have also tried downgrading the FW and pretty much the same issue.
3) I know I can set a timer to reboot the router daily, but I shouldn't have to do that.
4) I've changed several settings, suggested and no change.
5) I am only using 2.4 Band, I may tried activating both 2.4 and 5 to see, but not yet, as you all know 2.4 is much fast then 5.
6) I have about 10 devices connected in the house to WiFi, and have tried different channels also.
7) The router is on one floor of a single story house, and always in range within 50ft, but even right next to the router the speeds are off until I reboot.
8) I even have recently installed a Netgear Mesh centrally located in the house, to see if that would help and no I still have to reboot daily.

So I'm looking for other thoughts or recommendations on a replacement, before I go out and buy another one. A router shouldn't have these issue after 2 years.

I may take a stab in the dark when I get back from vacation, and go to a different brand rather then the one most recommend, so I may give TP Link a shot to see. I will so see what you all have to say or suggest first.

Ask away and or suggest away.

 

[MoodyBlues]

My current router is 4+ years old, so rather than directly recommending it, I'd like to just say that I've never gone wrong with Linksys. The one time I strayed (ASUS), I ended up sending it back and getting a...Linksys!

 

[GameTheory]

There was a time when I was experiencing the same as you, so I called my isp and they said that for some reason the caches were not flushing for my connection(Whatever that means). So they flushed the caches and it's worked since. This was about 5 months ago.

Before you buy a router, do give DDWRT, OPENWRT, or TOMATO a try. These firmwares are known to have more features than stock and there's a chance it can remedy your router. The Nighthawk is an excellent router.

 

[svim]

If you have to reboot your router daily (conventional router and mesh), that sounds like this isn't a matter of just buying another router but there's either a faulty device creating a problem in your home LAN, or a fundamental setup/configuration problem with both routers you've been using.
Determining just which isn't going to be easy through an online help forum. You might want to hire a local contractor to come in a diagnose what's going on.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Was great for a few years, but now I've tried everything I could think to figure out the current issue
...
Wifi gets pretty close to that, but by the next day it drops to 12 to 25 MBPS and I have to reboot the router daily.

What changed? Anything? ISP? Plan you're paying for? Location of router? Did you move?

Could there be a loose connection somewhere?

 

[DonB]

There was a time when I was experiencing the same as you, so I called my isp and they said that for some reason the caches were not flushing for my connection(Whatever that means). So they flushed the caches and it's worked since. This was about 5 months ago.

Before you buy a router, do give DDWRT, OPENWRT, or TOMATO a try. These firmwares are known to have more features than stock and there's a chance it can remedy your router. The Nighthawk is an excellent router.

I will start by calling Comcast to Flush the cache and see. I just did a DNS Flush from the CMD prompt to see what that'll do

I may do DDWRT, was just waiting to see what other thought, what was holding me back is many with my model said they had an issue reverting back, but if I'm going to change the router anyways, I guess I have nothing to loose, LOL

 

[DonB]

What changed? Anything? ISP? Plan you're paying for? Location of router? Did you move?

Could there be a loose connection somewhere?

Nothing has changed, and yes I've tried all. It definitely seems to be a cache issue, as a few weeks ago I was away for 5 days and when I came back, I noticed my WiFi speeds were still up. So something is definitely building the cache up.

I'm also leaving tomorrow for vacation, so I'll know when I get back and see if the WiFi is fine, then I know from no use for 10 days, that is most likely the issue.

But I will call Comcast today anyways to flush the cache, to see if they do that. Comcast tech people are not always the sharpest tools in the shed, LOL I try to get a second tier, but not always any better.

 

[GameTheory]

Another thing I forgot to mention in my previous post that has worked out well for me was changing my DNS to CloudFlare. I noticed an instant bump in page load time over my isp's dns and even google's own.
https://1.1.1.1/dns/#explanation

In case you're interested, this is the primary and secondary dns for CloudFlare respectively.
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1

 

[DonB]

Another thing I forgot to mention in my previous post that has worked out well for me was changing my DNS to CloudFlare. I noticed an instant bump in page load time over my isp's dns and even google's own.
https://1.1.1.1/dns/#explanation

In case you're interested, this is the primary and secondary dns for CloudFlare respectively.
1.1.1.1
1.0.0.1

I already use Cloudfare, but that doesn't change the fact of the Speed issue, only loading the pages