Wireless-AC router recommendations?

Hallo!

Currently, I have a Netgear WNR2000v5 router (Wireless-N) and I'm looking to replace it with a Wireless-AC router. However, I haven't really kept up with networking tech for awhile so I'm not really sure what good choices there are out in the market today. To start, here's my scenario:

• My main concern is that I want to improve the wireless performance for my desktop. It has a Wireless-AC antenna (motherboard is an Asus Z170I Pro Gaming, which only states that it's 2x2 and uses MU-MIMO). It sits in my bedroom next to the wall, with the router sitting in the living room on the other side of that wall. Router is on the opposite side of that wall, so the distance between the router is 12 feet + that wall. Right now, my SFTP transfers are maxing out at around 3-4 MB/s for a large (1GB) file (as an example), and I'd like to improve that number considerably.
• The other major requirement I have is that the router needs to have two USB ports. I plan on hooking up my printer (HP LaserJet p1102w) to the router to share across the network, as well as an external HDD to back up my server's data to (if the router can limit access to the HDD to specific computers, even better, though I don't think routers implement such controls).
• The current router has 10/100 LAN ports, and I'd like to upgrade to 10/100/1000 LAN ports. The amount doesn't matter as much, since I plan on also buying a 10/100/1000 switch along with the router.
• Sometime in the future, I would like to expose my server to the public internet, which would require a DDNS service and possibly port forwarding, etc.
• It would be nice if the router has a good firewall built into it, as well as other security features.
• If it helps, here's my network setup: for wireless, I have my desktop (my main computer), and one to two laptops that occasionally use the network (one which has AC, an Intel 7265 iirc), as well as my cellphone (also AC, iPhone 6s Plus). For wired, I have my home server, a Roku 3, and will be adding a PS4 sometime this year.

With that said, so far I've mainly focused on the Linksys WRT1900ACS, though the reviews on it seem mixed and for something around the $150 mark, I was hoping for better reviews from it. What other options do I have that would be better choices for around that price or lower? As for the Linksys, I've read that it doesn't have MU-MIMO whereas a lot of the competition does; how important is such a feature for a single user, and who I notice the difference, given the above?

 

Nevermind, I ended up buying the WRT1900ACS.

 

That was probably the best choice anyway considering that the most demanding task you had in mind was using a router as a sort of NAS.
WRT1900ACS is based on Marvell SoC which is by far the best when it comes to dealing with storage (especially NTFS formated ones).
You can expect up to 100MB/s with this router while other expensive routers will top at 30-40MB/s - and that's the best ones. Most will not even get there.

I like your choice of the router but I don't like its price-tag

 

Well, I didn't either, so I ended up getting a refurb unit on Amazon. And, better yet, I completely forgot about my CC points, so I ended up paying about half of the price of the new version

 

I'd recommend getting a wired router to handle throughput and then get as many AP as you need for your house. I have 2 APs at the 2 ends of my house and they cover everything. I get my full speed on Wifi everywhere in the house. Best router and APs I have ever used. Rock solid!!

Ubiquiti Edgerouter Lite ERLITE-3 Desktop Router
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Edgerouter-ERLITE-3-Desktop-Router/dp/B00HXT8EKE/ref=sr_1_1

Ubiquiti Networks Unifi 802.11ac Dual-Radio PRO Access Point (UAP-AC-PRO-US)
https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-802-11ac-Dual-Radio-UAP-AC-PRO-US/dp/B015PRO512/ref=sr_1_1

 

Errrr, ignoring that I've already purchased a new router (and other equipment), that's really overkill.

• My bottlenecks are my ISP connection (60Mb/s down, 5 up) and my NAS storage (WD Reds in RAID 5), so regular gigabit Ethernet and even the lowest wireless-AC bandwidth can handle that.
• Biggest distance I need to cover is just a few meters as mentioned in OP (I live in a single bedroom apartment).

 

If you live in a single bedroom apartment, be a considerate neighbor and tone down transmission power on your radios to such a level at which you will still have great signal strength yet you will cause less interference for neighbors (by basically limiting the range of your radios)

 

Understood. I have the same DL/UL speeds. I had a nice AC Router for a while and I was not happy with the single wifi AP setup. Repeaters didn't work very well and just degraded throughput. I just know that for a 2 story house there are deadzones and weak spots and this guarantees consistent coverage. I am glad you found a solution that worked for you. As @downloads said, turn down the power if it is a small space

 

Yeah, when I get my own house I'll definitely have to rethink my networking. For now I just want my SFTP wireless transfers to be decent

 

So far with the WRT1900ACS (ended up with the v2) and a gigabit switch, I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Here's a snapshot of Filezilla on my desktop when I was uploading some videos to my server: