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Best router for Steam Home Streaming?

O

Odrion

Banned
Like the title says, I want to get serious about streaming Steam throughout my home and my router is reaaaallly lacking. Same goes for PS4 streaming. It could be better.

Is there a unanimous agreement on what the best router is? Anyone here with good impressions of the router they use for streaming? Any help would be great.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
I use the ASUS stealth bomber router listed above. It's great.

That being said I think nvidia's implementation of streaming is better than Steam's when put head to head. That requires nvidia hardware though.
 
K

KePoW

Banned
Odrion said:
Like the title says, I want to get serious about streaming Steam throughout my home and my router is reaaaallly lacking. Same goes for PS4 streaming. It could be better.

Is there a unanimous agreement on what the best router is? Anyone here with good impressions of the router they use for streaming? Any help would be great.
Click to expand...

First question for you... are you doing it wireless or ethernet?
 
T

therapist

Member
Any old (GB) router because you want it wired for remote play.

If that isnt an option , first reply is best. Or the n66u version as well.

Asus routers are beast
 
D

Dr Dogg

Member
Gigabit (1000 BASE-T) capable for wired and make sure you have at least Cat5e cables. If you have long cable runs and the route passes items that will cause interference get shielded cables. Quite a few ISPs here in the UK still only send out Fast Ethernet Routers but you can pick one up quite cheap. I use a £10 network switch on my streaming setup and, well I'll let the bandwidth speeds talk for themselves.
CtKedix.png
 
S

spwolf

Member
Krejlooc said:
Goddamn, that's first post.

Yes, TC, if you want good in-home wireless streaming, go with a dual-band wireless AC router and never look back. This is a damn good one.
Click to expand...

not sure why would anyone need dual-band AC for streaming when it uses pretty low bitrate.

problem is always going to be quality of wireless coverage, not the maximum bandwith.

I am not really impressed by steam streaming when using it to play FM2015... RDP works better for me which is really silly.
 
L

LumpOfCole

Member
I use the Apple AirPort Extreme and it works perfectly for nVidia Shield streaming, Steam In-Home streaming (on an 802.11ac-enabled MacBook Air; mileage may vary if your laptop or wireless card doesn't support 802.11ac), and for streaming the PS4 to my Vita on the same network, but it doesn't play nice with the PS4 when trying to stream to the Vita on an external network.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
I use an Asus AC68U. Haven't tried it for streaming but it's a fantastic router.

That being said, the best router right now is probably the Netgear Nighthawk. It's a huge beast, but it outperforms even the Asus in most scenarios. Around the same price.
 
alf717

alf717

Member
How much of an improvement would gigabit make over 10/100? I tested this when it was out of beta and it worked OK for me but was kind of slow. Would the host PC have to be pretty beefy as well because of the encoding? My test game was Sonic CD it worked but it was a bit rough to play via streaming.
 
V

Vossler

Member
Asus above as stated - nowhere near as ginormous as the Nighthawk and stupid fast throughput throughout my LAN.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
spwolf said:
when it uses pretty low bitrate.
Click to expand...

LOL the bitrate is variable, steam will select the best optimal bitrate for your connection automatically, but if you have a badass router like the above you can manually push your bitrate up very high.

If you are getting a low bitrate, it means you have a lousy router.
 
P

plainr_

Member
If you want to get serious, wiring your home with cat5e/cat6 is a must. You can then get a decent gigabit switch for cheap that will outperform any router mentioned in here.
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
Is it worth getting an AC router? Currently have a Cisco e4200. It runs ok but kind of does weird stuff sometimes where I'll stop being able to connect on the 2.4 band.

Was looking at the Netgear AC1450 refurb people keep mentioning as it can be flashed to AC1750 (R6300v2).
 
S

Smokey

Member
I currently use an Asus router . It's really good. I'd likee to step up to AC though. Would the ASUS mentioned in this thread be better than Netgear Nighthawk?
 
F

FirmBizBws

Becomes baffled, curling up into a ball when confronted with three controller options.
I'm a noob at this stuff, so could someone explain something to me.

I'm on a plan with Verizon that's supposed to deliver me speeds of up to 50mbps, I only get about 12 Mbps maximum on a good day when being a few feet from my router.

My ps4 gets around 15-37 because it's hooked up via Ethernet. However for my other devices Ethernet is not an option.

So how does this router business work? If I get a "dual band" router, will that help me achieve the speeds that I'm supposed to recieve, or will that help me go beyond that? Or will it not have any impact?

I always see people say that they get 90mbps but I have no clue how. So can anyone explain to me now this stuff works in terms that w novice could understand please? Thanks
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Smokey said:
I currently use an Asus router . It's really good. I'd likee to step up to AC though. Would the ASUS mentioned in this thread be better than Netgear Nighthawk?
Click to expand...

The Nighthawk outperforms the Asus by a bit in most benchmarks. The Neatgear is significantly better when it comes to USB performance, so if you plan on setting up a network drive then I'd definitely go with the Nighthawk. Otherwise, the main downside with the Nighthawk is that it's physically massive.
 
J

jblank83

Member
Akronis said:
Best router I've ever owned:

http://www.asus.com/us/Networking/RTAC68U/

No problems whatsoever with it and it worked beautifully when I streamed (although I only streamed to test; not a regular thing for me at all).
Click to expand...

Just bought an Asus RT-N66W, a dual band N900 router after owning D-Link and Linksys routers for years.

Am very happy with it. Good router management. So far none of the client disconnect problems that have plagued me for the last year. Good stuff.
 
K

Krejlooc

Banned
FirmBizBws said:
I'm a noob at this stuff, so could someone explain something to me.

I'm on a plan with Verizon that's supposed to deliver me speeds of up to 50mbps, I only get about 12 Mbps maximum on a good day when being a few feet from my router.

My ps4 gets around 15-37 because it's hooked up via Ethernet. However for my other devices Ethernet is not an option.

So how does this router business work? If I get a "dual band" router, will that help me achieve the speeds that I'm supposed to recieve, or will that help me go beyond that? Or will it not have any impact?

I always see people say that they get 90mbps but I have no clue how. So can anyone explain to me now this stuff works in terms that w novice could understand please? Thanks
Click to expand...

You ever see references to stuff like 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11g? Sometimes it'll just be called "wireless n," "wireless g," "wireless ac," etc. These are the standards at which the wifi signal operates at, specifically the frequency band it outputs at, and how much bandwidth it can broadcast.

The latest standard is 802.11ac, which guarantees a minimum of 500 megabit down and up to 1 gigabit down.

I assume you have your standard router from verizon, so that's likely 802.11n.
 
P

Persona7

Banned
FirmBizBws said:
I'm a noob at this stuff, so could someone explain something to me.

I'm on a plan with Verizon that's supposed to deliver me speeds of up to 50mbps, I only get about 12 Mbps maximum on a good day when being a few feet from my router.

My ps4 gets around 15-37 because it's hooked up via Ethernet. However for my other devices Ethernet is not an option.

So how does this router business work? If I get a "dual band" router, will that help me achieve the speeds that I'm supposed to recieve, or will that help me go beyond that? Or will it not have any impact?

I always see people say that they get 90mbps but I have no clue how. So can anyone explain to me now this stuff works in terms that w novice could understand please? Thanks
Click to expand...

Are you using a router/modem supplied by your ISP? Describe your network setup. If you are on a 50mbps tier then that is the most you will get while connected to the internet but there are various factors for the speeds you will be able to get.

As for dual band, do your wireless devices support 5GHz wifi?
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
FirmBizBws said:
I'm a noob at this stuff, so could someone explain something to me.

I'm on a plan with Verizon that's supposed to deliver me speeds of up to 50mbps, I only get about 12 Mbps maximum on a good day when being a few feet from my router.

My ps4 gets around 15-37 because it's hooked up via Ethernet. However for my other devices Ethernet is not an option.

So how does this router business work? If I get a "dual band" router, will that help me achieve the speeds that I'm supposed to recieve, or will that help me go beyond that? Or will it not have any impact?

I always see people say that they get 90mbps but I have no clue how. So can anyone explain to me now this stuff works in terms that w novice could understand please? Thanks
Click to expand...

What model router is it? Usually if you subscribe to a high speed plan, the ISP will provide a combo modem/router that is able to support the advertised speeds.
 
C

catspit

Member
So when I do speed tests with my CPU, it usually come in at 90mb down.. My ps4 is attached via wifi and when I run a test on my ps4 I get around 20mb down... So
If I had a router with this new specification.. It could boost my ps4 speed close to my pc?
 
T

Tak3n

Banned
catspit said:
So when I do speed tests with my CPU, it usually come in at 90mb down.. My ps4 is attached via wifi and when I run a test on my ps4 I get around 20mb down... So
If I had a router with this new specification.. It could boost my ps4 speed close to my pc?
Click to expand...

on wifi it is all about changing the channel data looking for a channel no one else uses...

5GHZ is a must and channel 13 I find good
 
B

Bytes

Member
henhowc said:
Is it worth getting an AC router? Currently have a Cisco e4200. It runs ok but kind of does weird stuff sometimes where I'll stop being able to connect on the 2.4 band.

Was looking at the Netgear AC1450 refurb people keep mentioning as it can be flashed to AC1750 (R6300v2).
Click to expand...

If you are going to do Steam In-Home Streaming, wireless AC is pretty much a must. My old wirelss N router (ASUS N66U) couldn't handle it, but my new AC router (ASUS AC66U) streams so well it's like playing the games directly on the source computer.
 
D

Dragon

Banned
Tak3n said:
on wifi it is all about changing the channel data looking for a channel no one else uses...

5GHZ is a must and channel 13 I find good
Click to expand...

5 GHZ also doesn't go through walls as well as 2.4 in my experience. It's a balance between having the frequency loaded up in apartment complexes.
 
A

Akronis

Member
Stimpack said:
lol, the $200 router isn't terrible. There's a shocker.
Click to expand...

Yet that isn't the most expensive you could potentially get. It's the best price for performance that I've found. Brings me back to the glory days of the WRT54G before Cisco butchered it.
 
B

baconcow

Member
I have the AC68U and it is solid for everything I have thrown at it, so far. Got lucky and found it new at Staples for $170.
 
A

Akronis

Member
Goldenmoney said:
I don't have any connection issues, but you guys are making me want to buy that router. Seems a little pricey though.
Click to expand...

It's lasted me a lot longer than any other router I've owned. Built in PPTP and OpenVPN is super nice too. Makes Skype LAN parties really easy :D
 
notoccupanther

notoccupanther

Member
FirmBizBws said:
I'm a noob at this stuff, so could someone explain something to me.

I'm on a plan with Verizon that's supposed to deliver me speeds of up to 50mbps, I only get about 12 Mbps maximum on a good day when being a few feet from my router.

My ps4 gets around 15-37 because it's hooked up via Ethernet. However for my other devices Ethernet is not an option.

So how does this router business work? If I get a "dual band" router, will that help me achieve the speeds that I'm supposed to recieve, or will that help me go beyond that? Or will it not have any impact?

I always see people say that they get 90mbps but I have no clue how. So can anyone explain to me now this stuff works in terms that w novice could understand please? Thanks
Click to expand...

Wireless can be slower unless you have killer Wireless card or that ilk from my experience
 
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