Hi, I'm looking for a reliable home router, with good wireless coverage, stable firmware. I don't need VPN or anything else, just good coverage and stable firmware. Which one would you recommend?
I saw that Marble has a particularly old / problematic firmware, so my ideas are Flint or Flint 2. Is Flint 2 considered stable as of today?
Depends. Glinet broke a lot with each firmware update in my experience over the last year. If you mean stable as if they crash or wont responde anymore, you dont need to worry about that. OpenWRT became very stable for that since years. I have some devices not rebooting for years, none ever crashed.
I would not use a router with in build wifi, and just use a Brume 2 for example and then buy a seperate wifi access point of your choice and brand, so you can exchange the access point in the future if you need a new Wifi standard like Wifi 7 or something.
For example:
Brume 2 ($60) + Ubiquiti Wifi 6 or Wifi 7 AP ($150 - $200)
Or get a Flint 2 if you just want one with Wifi, but it lacks Wifi 6e unfortunatly (have no idea what Glinet thought of bringing out a device in 2023/2024 with no Wifi 6e) so no 6GHz. Flint 2 is on sale right now for $110.
I use a Brume 2 + HUAWEI AX3 router for Wifi, in access point / lan bridge mode which supports Wifi6 2400mbit, it was on sale for just $25 on Amazon.
Thanks a lot! In my main location, I have a very similar setup, Ubiquity Edgerouter X + Ubiquity AP.
This one is for a family member, so I'd prefer to keep it one device only. I just don't want a TP-Link or an Asus. I'll buy the Flint 2 then, it's sale price is really good.
use code THANKS10
I've got a marble running absolutely fine for my parents 150/150 ftth connection.
As much as I like GL.iNET routers and being fortunate enough to acquire most of their models over the years, I would never recommend using any of their routers for any mission-critical situation. They have the habit of crashing/hanging/freezing...etc. every now and then even with basic/default setup and more so if your setup is a bit more involved. The older routers with version 3.x of their firmware are much more stable but obviously likely to be much less secure and feature-rich. I love tinkering with GL.iNET but my Asus / Unifi / Teltonika / Omada devices have all just been set up and forget.
Some of the recommended Asus router I've looked at didn't receive firmware updates since August 2023. I think this tells quite a lot about Asus, they bring out a bazillion routers with the same specs but then forget about giving support for them.
Yes, I've also been using an old AC56U with a MerlinWRT fork and it's been super stable, but that's been a different time, todays Asus just brings out million devices with different names and no software updates.
AsusMerlin is as solid as anything and I have seen routers running on it for a couple of years without a single crash and only needing reboot for updates. That is the definition of a reliable router. What is the point in firmware releases every couple of weeks if the newer version breaks more stuff than it ever fixes? I, however, think that I am still the record holder here with such an old piece of kit and with one of the first firmware versions:
I would recommend the Flint2. The best router I had so far.
Asus router with Merlin fimrware had problems with 2.4 GHz (weak signal).
Now I have no problem with 2.4 ans the 5GHz connection to my main PC is superb.
I get 1GBit/s through 3 brick walls and 6 meter distance.
