Question

New customer, looking for router recommendations

  • 31 May 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 2620 views
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TL;DR questions at the bottom
Hi, we just signed up for the T-Mobile home internet and got the Gateway a week and a half ago as it’s our only real option at our new place, after some fixes we get pretty livable speeds (60 at worst 160 at best).

My family has no problems with it now because they only stream but unfortunately I’m a gamer haha, and this Gateway has a huge Bufferbloat problem making it pretty bad to play video games online, if you don’t know what I mean Bufferbloat is when Ping/Latency increase heavily while doing other tasks that require bandwidth, taking the Waveform Bufferbloat test I consistently scored C to F, the ping sometimes reaching 1000 which is terrible.

Looking stuff up it seems like an external router can and should help with this, not just ping but maybe make the speed more consistent too, but I don’t really know what works, to take care of bufferbloat specifically Waveform makes some recommendations like the IQRouterV3 which is in my price range but I want to be somewhat safe before buying anything so I came here to ask for more recommendations. I saw the Asus AC2900 and other Asus routers recommended in here as something that works but I believe these were before the Arcadyan Gateway existed which is what I have, so I guess my questions are:

-I need a router with Wi-fi 6, dual band, and good SQM or QoS to heavily reduce ping (price range is under $200,) what might work?

-Is plugging in a router even realistic/would help with the Arcadyan Gateway? The FAQ on their website says it’s possible but doesn't specify anything, I heard the wi-fi on the Arkadyan can’t be turned off which has me worried because I don’t know what that entails for this.

Thanks for reading!

6 replies

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Asus is pretty solid and you can use your own router with the Arcadyan. Easiest way is AP mode, but not sure if QOS works in AP mode. Otherwise use DHCP and the added bonus of DHCP is you can also change DNS service to help with latency. However, DHCP on your router creates another DHCP layer on top of the Arcadyan. Some console gaming users say that creates other problems.

You can Youtube search on how to disable wifi on the Arcadyan.

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Asus is pretty solid and you can use your own router with the Arcadyan. Easiest way is AP mode, but not sure if QOS works in AP mode. Otherwise use DHCP and the added bonus of DHCP is you can also change DNS service to help with latency. However, DHCP on your router creates another DHCP layer on top of the Arcadyan. Some console gaming users say that creates other problems.

You can Youtube search on how to disable wifi on the Arcadyan.

Thank you, Disabling the wifi with the scripting I’m looking at seems beyond my skillset so I might just leave the gateway’s network under a different name/password so nobody’s using it anymore, unless disabling it does make a substantial difference then I could try.

What makes AP mode the easier option? I did hear about the double DHCP layers causing speed problems but AP mode looks like it would create it’s own problems, to clarify I’d be doing all of my gaming through ethernet on both my Windows PC and Nintendo Switch, the rest of the house would just be on the wifi.

C
Userlevel 5
Badge +5

Asus is pretty solid and you can use your own router with the Arcadyan. Easiest way is AP mode, but not sure if QOS works in AP mode. Otherwise use DHCP and the added bonus of DHCP is you can also change DNS service to help with latency. However, DHCP on your router creates another DHCP layer on top of the Arcadyan. Some console gaming users say that creates other problems.

You can Youtube search on how to disable wifi on the Arcadyan.

Thank you, Disabling the wifi with the scripting I’m looking at seems beyond my skillset so I might just leave the gateway’s network under a different name/password so nobody’s using it anymore, unless disabling it does make a substantial difference then I could try.

What makes AP mode the easier option? I did hear about the double DHCP layers causing speed problems but AP mode looks like it would create it’s own problems, to clarify I’d be doing all of my gaming through ethernet on both my Windows PC and Nintendo Switch, the rest of the house would just be on the wifi.

AP “Access Point” mode just relays the wifi connections to your TMO gateway router to resolve DHCP thus keeping to a single DHCP layer. I would make sure AP mode supports full QOS since that is your main reason to go with your own router.

Buy your router from Amazon and see if it helps while trying both AP and DHCP modes. If it makes no difference, you have a legitimate reason to return for a full refund since QOS is suppose to reduce latency.

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AP “Access Point” mode just relays the wifi connections to your TMO gateway router to resolve DHCP thus keeping to a single DHCP layer. I would make sure AP mode supports full QOS since that is your main reason to go with your own router.

Buy your router from Amazon and see if it helps while trying both AP and DHCP modes. If it makes no difference, you have a legitimate reason to return for a full refund since QOS is suppose to reduce latency.

alright, the guides I’ve looked up for hooking up a router dont mention anything about AP mode besides don’t enable it but those were for the trash can model, I’ll do what you said with Amazon and try one out, I heard SQM would be better than QoS for bad bufferbloat but I think I’ll try an Asus before the IQRouter. Is there any specific ones I should look at? I was thinking about this one cause it’s cheaper but I’m not sure

Also I ended up learning how to turn off the wifi it was easier than I had thought, seems to indeed make a difference in speed and heat lol.

C
Userlevel 5
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This guy does good reviews and I’ve been able to replicate his results so take a look for the best one at your price point:

 

Router Reviews

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Ok I managed to order a router on Amazon now, it’s the Asus one I had linked earlier, thanks for the help! I’ll probably start another topic next week once it delivers for how I should configure it.

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