Wireless Joint

Hello all! I am more of a lurker. I try to learn but all this seems too complicated. So, please forgive my ignorance. If you had to buy a router for ATT unlimited, what router would you buy for optimal performance? I am in somewhat of a rural area but the current router I have does between 21-40 Mbps. It runs Rooter golden orb. If you are able to suggest a solid router what open wrt software would you recommend? Needs to have the micro sd slot and of course antennas. Budget: 350.00 Thank you.

Hello,
Can you tell us what router and modem you are using? To know what we would be comparing it too.

Sorry for late response. ZBT WG1608 16M. Pretty solid router, I just thought that maybe there is one that will consistently be 40 Mbps.

Well need to know what modem is inside of it. That is more of a determining performance of the system.

Ok, so just hypothetically, let's say you didn't like the modem in there. What modem would be optimal to switch out to and that would fit in this model? Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Do you know how to see what modem is in there? Should show in rooter what is in there.

It says Dell 4116

If you have rooter can look in
- Modem
- Network Status

randylo wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 2:32 pm Hello all! I am more of a lurker. I try to learn but all this seems too complicated. So, please forgive my ignorance. If you had to buy a router for ATT unlimited, what router would you buy for optimal performance? I am in somewhat of a rural area but the current router I have does between 21-40 Mbps. It runs Rooter golden orb. If you are able to suggest a solid router what open wrt software would you recommend? Needs to have the micro sd slot and of course antennas. Budget: 350.00 Thank you.

Well since AT&T unlimited is a phone plan any router/modem you buy could be problematic. However if you can overcome that your speed is going to be more a function of your location, bands your modem can access, carrier aggregation if the modem allows, and strength of reception than most anything else. Strength of reception can be improved with external antennas. You also must deal with what the tower you connect to will give you. You might have a great setup but be limited simply due to tower traffic.

Modems are rated by Cat number. A old Cat 4 modem (no CA) can deliver up to 150mb d/l max given ideal performance.
Here is a link to a list of Cat modem and performance. https://www.cablefree.net/wirelesstechn ... finitions/

Matt, thanks for the reply. Actually, it is not a phone plan. It is an unlimited tablet plan. Signal in my rural area is pretty decent but I reached out to the fine folks at wireless haven and they have suggested two different outdoor antennas which I intend to purchase. I would like to ask the following: I have heard that some wifi routers don't broadcast the wifi signal as well and some people have spoke about purchasing a better router and connecting it via ethernet to the existing wifi router and this has improved speeds. Is this very difficult? is there a write-up on how to go about it? As I previously stated, I have a ZBT WG1608 (16m) router with a Dell 4116 modem (I looked at the screenshot at one of the replies and this is what my router says). I have heard of some people talking about a "cheap com2 router." I have no idea what this means but any help/suggestions is much appreciated.

The modem in your router is really pretty good. I have the same router and modem. I am just guessing, but I think outside antennas would be a bigger help than anything else.
One thing that helped my WG1608 router is I flashed it with the newest Rooter firmware. That made a world of difference in mine. They update firmware every week.