Ubiquiti Networks Networks Edgerouter Lite 3-Port Router

VERY COOL HARDWARE. Does take some time to learn it, but there is VERY good documentation out there to find.I got sick of commodity home grade craptronics wifi routers failing or needing to be rebooted sporadically. My uptime on this one is now nearly two months, and I've had only solid reliable performance. Capable of gigabit speeds, it's also fairly future-resistant with home internet service (if that doesn't apply to you neither does this review). I was considering the ER-5 (5-port one) and the ER‑X (more of a switch really -- read the details on ubnt.com). I chose this one because it has the hardware routing (ER-X doesn't, which I bet is why it has a faster cpu) and I couldn't quite get myself to justify the cost increas of the extra two gigabit ports on my WAN-LAN router. I am using two other (disposable grade crap) wifi routers in AP only mode for wifi (using dd-wrt) and that's working quite well. Though I'll certainly get a UniFi AP before ever buying another "home wifi router"It did cost me a couple nights learning what the hell I was doing, but I did get this little buddy set up the way I want, even OpenVPN set up and working better than I've ever seen from dd-wrt on those other home-consumer units I tortured myself with. (e.g. faster connection to the ER-3 from "out there" and never disconnects or hangs, and NEVER crashes the OS or hardware -- that was the crux of my frustration with the old linksys one on dd-wrt that led me to buy this one).Summary: More RAM than ER-X, cheaper than ER-5, TONS and tons of official and community documentation and examples for configuration.

I recently upgrade my internet service to Fios Gigabit speed and found that, although my existing router/switch had gigabit Ethernet ports, it could not actually handle gigabit-speed internet traffic. My situation is a bit unique. I have an Ethernet-wired house and internet service enters in the basement where I have a structured media center to manage all of the wired connections. My router connects directly to the Verizon ONT in the basement. I have a WiFi access point on the main floor to provide WiFi coverage to the house (it's actually a WiFi router being used as an access point).I needed a basic, robust gigabit router that is fast and reliable. This EdgeRouter definitely meets those requirements. This unit has many more capabilities than I will ever use, but that's OK because it meets my needs. I was a bit concerned by other reviews talking about the complexity of setting up this unit. I'm not a networking expert - only an advanced home user. The good news is that I found setup to be very easy. Establishing a basic network is straight forward. The default settings out of the box will get you started. As others have pointed out, to ensure full gigabit support, it's best to enable Offloading to the hardware. Instructions for this are available in numerous places. It needs to be done from the Command Line Interface. This was the only somewhat "advanced" part of my setup process.One VERY important thing to note that has been pointed out by others - this is ONLY a router. There are no switched ports on the unit. What this means is that you need to wire the output of Port 1 or 2 directly to a gigabit switch which can then feed your other hardware or WiFi network. With Offloading enabled and feeding through a gigabit switch, I was able to get exactly the same gigabit speed that I measure directly from the Fios ONT. This router is FAST, and if it's as reliable as other reviews indicate, I expect to be very happy going forward. Definitely a 5-Star experience so far.

This router is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I've been using this at home for the past 9 months and it's been running nonstop without a hiccup (except for when I've updated the software and intentionally restarted it); I don't really have any specific need for a router like this besides enjoying tweaking settings for my own personal use and learning about networking. It's straightforward to setup if you're even moderately technically inclined, though I wouldn't recommend this to someone whose computer knowledge consists solely of how to use an Internet browser and use simple productivity software (for example). So far it's handled everything I've thrown at it (heavy internet usage with many connections and a lot of bandwidth in both directions, running a VPN server, running a frequently queried SNMP server, etc). There are many features I haven't touched yet and they keep adding more features with software updates (including deep packet inspection with 1.7.0).If I buy any more networking equipment it's almost certainly going to be from Ubiquiti.Pros:+feature-rich+fast hardware+software is actively developed and updated (unlike many consumer routers with security holes that never get fixed)+beautiful/capable GUI+capable CLICons:-not geared towards people who don't want anything to do with the technology they're using (not really a con)-official documentation for certain things is lacking (though is rapidly improving)-GUI is lacking some features available in the CLI (though this is also improving with each update)