Help me upgrade my NOC!

[JamminR]

LONG story. (If you don't like stories, skip to TLDR)
I've no idea if NOC is a standard part of the language where you are at.
With my 20+ years of various experience in IT, to me, NOC normally refers Network Operations Center.
Command central. Where fiber lasers meet copper electrons (ok ok you really expert geeks, we know lasers are just fancy electron particles too)

Next semester, wife's going to be in a video editing course, requiring uploads of large files.
On top of that, I'm always looking for better upload bandwidth (I run a few various hobby servers, https, Plex, occasional Minecraft, etc)
I get a flyer in the mail today 'upgrade to 75mbps for only $15 more a month!'. NOTHING in the literature mentions upload speeds, only what I can download stuffs at using that speed.
My current (at time) plan was 5up/25down. I think to myself, maybe it will go up to 10 if I upgrade. Half video upload time.
30 minutes could become 15?
I call number listed on flyer. Mistake. (I knew this was coming). Script monkey. Wait ~2 minutes while they thank me for my patience as they wait on or try to have system bring up some magical answer to my question "With the 75m <name> plan, what is the UPLOAD?"
After waiting, I get told "50-60mbps".
Yeah. Right. You americans among us understand, very few ISPs in america offer a speed symmetry like that.
I thank the monkey and ask they send me more information to my email so I can consider.
(It never arrived by the way)
I go online to my ISP site and click on offers. Lo and behold, they have a sale. (1 year, of course).
150/25 for only $11 more than I was paying. (I'm like, why the didn't you send me THAT flyer!??)
I sign up.
In minutes, my modem reboots.

I'm good to go!
Mostly.
!!!!TLDR!!!!!!


Here's where I'd like your assistance.
I have a network operating CLOSET with all my equip, modem/router, server, 10 port Gbe switch, 7 port wall plate wired to rest of house.
That non-advertised downstream speed is due to my (ancient but reliable) equipment.
Router is killing downstream.
Modem, though it reached close to 25, took a while and is likely holding back the upstream.
My router is a Netgear WNR3500L (N300). I just overclocked it from 453mhz to a whopping 480mhz and eeked out another 9mbps downstream.
My modem is a Surfboard 6120 (Doc 3/ 4x4).

I'm aiming for a new router first. I'd like to stay under $300 US.
I'd like to have the router last as long for speed and capability as my old one did.
(Meaning, I could see in far off future going to 1gbps if I found the right deal).
Most of the equipment in my house is cat6 1GB Ethernet wired, so I'm looking for best WAN to LAN throughput.

Reviewing google, I stumbled across smallnetbuilder.com
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/ranking/AC/rev10/391
It has a nice router ranker area.
Found a Linksys EA9300 that scores well for wired (941mbps throughput), mid-high for wireless. (It's in a far corner, I've never depended on WiFi in that part of the house)
It's under $300.
Challenge, and one other requirement, it's NOT open firmware friendly for Tomato (my fav flavor), openwrt, dd-wrt, etc.

So, after spending 2 hours looking, before I go looking again, does anyone else recommend any 900+mbps WAN->LAN throughput, <$300 US (amazon, I have gift cards), openfirmware friendly routers they know of?

[JamminR]

So I think I've found a good base router.
The Netgear R7000 - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F0DD0I6
Throughput on it is high.
It doesn't have latest greatest 500 beam forming super duper wifi radios, but, yeah, not looking for a huge wifi upgrade of current equipment.
Just something to allow more bandwidth from WAN to LAN. Decent radio (this has it) is just a bonus over my old N300. I'm sure it will do better simply because it has external antennas.
It seems to play well with several 3rd party firmware too.

[Megiddo]

I've been lame and stuck with the Airport Extreme -- https://www.apple.com/airport-extreme/. No complaints there, though there are definitely cheaper options or options with more bells and whistles for around the same price.

[jay209015]

I use google wifi. It's meshing is really good.

[JamminR]

I looked at some of the mesh kits available, but not for very long.
For now, my wifi situation works. I have a cheap TP-link N router set as AP/bridge mode only in the media room on one side of the house out of sight on top of the entertainment center. It covers the 3/4ths house where we use Wifi. Then I have the one in the NOC on the upstairs other end of the house, which, currently, doesn't cover much, but it's above a garage and extra bedroom we use as pantry/storage so doesn't need to.
There's been a few times I've considered disabling it's wireless.
For the NOC, I looked at a few 'router-only-no-wifi' devices, but decided against due to chipsets used. (I really like tinkering with 3rd party firmware due to some additional feature sets). Most of the no wifi routers used non-supported chipsets.

[roastchicken]

I haven't read the post fully yet, but did the ISP say "up to 150/25" anywhere? Most ISPs do that, promise speeds "up to" what they put on all their advertising. We pay for 75 down from Comcast, but get more like 50 (with Ethernet; 30 on Wi-Fi). Sure, some of the speed loss is probably due to the copper cable instead of fiber running to our house. But more than likely most of it is due to our ISP over crowding their lines. If you have a N300 router it should be able to get 150Mb/s easily, seeing as it's single band.

I, like Megiddo, have an Airport Extreme. Our grandfather recommended it. I'm not sure I like it, as you have to have an Apple product to configure it (I don't have any except for an old iPad buried away somewhere, but luckily my family members do) and it doesn't seem much better otherwise from the Linksys we had previously. But I can't complain about the speed, because I'm sure it can handle speeds much higher than what I'll get from Comcast.

I'm no expert about home networking; I just know enough to get by. But I would suggest making sure that it's actually your router which is causing the speed loss (instead of the ISP under-delivering). I don't know anything about how the frequency affects the speed, and you did mention that you got an extra 9Mb/s by overclocking it (I had no clue you could overclock routers, that's pretty cool). But I'm not sure a router is something you should try to future-proof, and I think a AC1900 router is definitely overkill for a 150/25 connection. And that's not mentioning the dubious claim of AC1900 (1300 Mb/s on 5Ghz).

[JamminR]

Hi roastchicken, thanks for input.
I don't fall for marketing hype. I know those numbers have little to do with reality.
I went ahead and ordered the Netgear 1900 last Thur, got and installed it this weekend.
I'm now getting ~140mbps/24mbps.Router was definitely part of the issue.
The modem is next.
Here's the new results (another household member was streaming Netflix, hence the ~-5mbps)


I also love it's WiFi performance.
Our local area is pretty good about not being over provisioned.
It was horrible when I moved in '08. They installed a new fiber hut a few miles off and it's been gold ever since.
I researched my current SB6120 modem and found it can only do 172mbps theoretically.
So, in my mind, if that was done in a lab, real life = ~140-150.
This evening, I've gone ahead and ordered a Motorola MB8600.
I figure after that I'm hopefully good on home networking for at least another 10 years.


(Oh, overclocking usually isn't possible - I use custom firmware. Was using Toastman TomatoUSB on the old router. I'm using a newer AdvancedTomato on the new one. Loving it's new GUI, yet still has same features I was using previously)

[JamminR]

Today, we're updating the modem.
So.
This is before new modem (Motorola MB8600), after the new router mentioned above.



....
Will edit this post with 'after' in a few..hopefully, if self-activation all goes well.

EDIT
I love overprovisioning.


Though upstream is no faster, it did reach max faster.
The ISP is still limiting me to 4 upstream channels, new modem downstream connection has twenty-four Docsis 3 channels and one Docsis 3.1 connection going.

NOC equipment upgrade done for a while.
Now I just need to get off my lazy butt and reroute and re-tie cables.