WI-FI ROUTERS and Modems. BEST!! brand and why.

Work with someone who specializes in designing, installing and servicing network and audio systems.  Cisco, Meraki and Ubiquiti work well depending on the scale of the home and system.  For the money that some of you are investing in audio hardware, you owe it to yourself to get a high quality network.

As I have mentioned before, seriously consider properly installed fiber.  We use fiber all the time for audio and network integration systems with wonderful success.  Systems sound and operate better on fiber.

Allan
www.In-Tone.com

I have used both Netgear and Linksys components. Netgear became very buggy and unreliable for a while. The very old Linksys stuff is very good, but since Cisco merged, the newer stuff is buggy and unreliable. I have found that Asus wireless routers with the Asuswrt-Merlin firmware installed are extremely reliable. They work and perform extremely well.  That being said, I have not worked with the latest Netgear/Linksys offerings.  If you get a "real" Cisco device (very expensive), I'm sure it will be fine.

I'm sure this response will get surely get responses from others that have had other results and the computer gurus will certainly weigh in. I can only comment on my own personal experiences.For many years I have used a Wifi connection for an Internet connection. Thru a couple of home PC's I had always used the most modern Lynksys router and Lynksys PCI adapter card (internal) in my computer.A couple of years ago I dropped my local cable ISP provider when fiber Internet service became available in my area, I subscribed to their slowest speed which is 50 Mb download and 20 Mb upload.For a while I used my existing Lynksys equipment which gave me very close to what the fiber ISP offered. But, I am one to always look into tweaking everything. So I bought a Netgear Nighthawk router (R7000) and a Netgear external (USB) adapter. I made no major changes to the rest of my system.Immediately, my upload speed (20 Mb) stayed about the same but the download speed went from 50 Mb to just over 100 Mb. I can't explain why but that's what happened. I research computer stuff extensively before I make changes and Lynksys/Cisco/ or whatever now seems to have more and more unhappy users.I'm sure there are plenty of folks that have had different experiences and maybe some with gripes about Netgear. Just saying....if download speed improvement is your aim look into the Netgear stuff. 

I use Linksys EA8500 without issues. My ISP box connects to it thru CAT 6 wire, and so does my audio computer. I haven't tried yet but was reading how the switching mode power supply noise from these devices in general gets into the computers even though the Ethernet connection is galvanically isolated, and that improvements can be obtained by using linear power supplies.
 

While I consider myself to have intermediate experience and expertise as an audiophile, I have had a lot of personal experience setting up and tweaking different routers and modems for my own house and for family and friends.  So based on my experiences with Cisco, Linksys, Belkin, and Netgear, I am brand-loyal to Netgear.  Why?  Fewest dropped connections, fastest speeds, and ease of setup, use, and "tweaks" if necessary or desired.  Your mileage may vary, but the Nighthawk line of routers (I've most recently had the R7500 and now utilize the R7800) have been rock solid and provided the fastest possible speeds with my previous Xfinity Blast service and my current Fios gigabit service.  And talk about signal coverage!  The previous poster who used an Orbi system must have a gigantic property:  My NIghthawk X4S provides 80-100% signal to all three floors of my house, including spots on the other side of concrete or plaster walls!