Not saying you are wrong but the flipside is this You are missing out on a revenue stream. $5 a router for a service could net you $500 a month for each $100 customers. If they want to do port forwarding charge them a change fee or tell them they have to get their own router. It’s so amazing to be able to log into a customer router and say “I see the laptop you are having issues with is a -81. Where is it?” and the customer tells you it’s in the basement. Problem solved.
I agree with some of the other threads. Selling a router is a blackhole of despair. This is why Comcast doesn’t sell routers, but will “rent” you one. If you don’t want to deal with routers of any kind make friends with a local IT shop and do some training with them on Mikrotik. Come up with a script they can paste in to any router they buy. You can then tell your customer the only supported router is available from XYZ IT company down the road. Anything else will work, you just won’t troubleshoot. We put this into practice on ZigWireless and it worked fairly well. The IT guy was happy because it brought him walk-in business. We still had access to the router when necessary. Justin Wilson j...@mtin.net --- http://www.mtin.net Owner/CEO xISP Solutions- Consulting – Data Centers - Bandwidth http://www.midwest-ix.com COO/Chairman Internet Exchange - Peering - Distributed Fabric > On Oct 7, 2015, at 1:49 PM, Sterling Jacobson <sterl...@avative.net> wrote: > > This is my biggest gripe right now. > > The more internet you provide to them, the worse this problem is. > > I think my contractors are selling mid-range $100 linksys routers. > I’m not sure that’s the best thing. > > I too need to find a handful of routers that really get the job done right. > > I’ve noticed the Apple routers tend to be pretty good, especially if they > have Apple Ecosystem/devices. > And apple extenders seem to work better with their apple environment and are > way easy for the customer to set up. > > Other than Apple, I usually recommend a router with external antennas. > And TRY to get our people to NOT install the routers in the basement under > all the metal ducting, lol! > > Ideally they are installed on the main floor in a somewhat central location. > > What I am considering is selling a NON-wireless router for our end point > inside the house near the clustered wiring. > Then programming any router they get in BRIDGE mode. > > I still don’t like doing that because the router features are something most > of these people want anyways. > > But with my speeds I would almost just rather make sure they have a wired > Gigabit Ethernet router that I can manage and I know is capable, then let > them buy however many wireless routers they need to fill in gaps all over > their house (or, preferably, ONE powerful wireless router). > > I just don’t want to be stuck changing port forwarding crap etc. > > What I really wish was that a separate company would do this for a one time, > or monthly charge and handle all their router woes. > > > > From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com <mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com>] On > Behalf Of Glen Waldrop > Sent: Wednesday, October 7, 2015 11:39 AM > To: af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Consumer routers? > > Thanks for the input guys. > > I was mostly looking at what to recommend. I'd rather help on occasion, but > my responsibility ends at the CAT5 coming out of the POE. > > I've been bouncing around the idea of a $5 a month managed RB951 2HnD or > something. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Justin Wilson - MTIN <mailto:li...@mtin.net> > To: af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> > Sent: Wednesday, October 07, 2015 11:51 AM > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Consumer routers? > > My take on this is you have to look at what supporting a customer router > costs you in support and service calls. We have several clients who are > doing one of a couple things. > > Some are selling a managed router service for $X a month. This is typically > a Mikrotik the ISP has access to. The ISP sets up the wireless, manages the > router, and other such functions. This allows for a reference point on the > customer side for testing, etc. > > The other way to approach this is if you don’t want mess with router > configuration some folks are including a “modem” that is essentially a hAP or > 750. This is just in bridge mode or is the PPPOE client. The customer then > is free to plug in their own router if they so desire, but you still have a > reference point from the customer side. If you need a customer to bypass > their router you simply ask them to plug into port5 or whatever on your > “modem”. That port can be setup to do DHCP or whatever. > > You have to look at how much support consumer routers is costing you. Many > folks look at the cost of the routers and the cost to install them or replace > them. But if it cuts your support calls by 30% that might mean the > difference between hiring another person, or other “soft” costs. > > > Justin Wilson > j...@mtin.net <mailto:j...@mtin.net> > > --- > http://www.mtin.net <http://www.mtin.net/> Owner/CEO > xISP Solutions- Consulting – Data Centers - Bandwidth > > http://www.midwest-ix.com <http://www.midwest-ix.com/> COO/Chairman > Internet Exchange - Peering - Distributed Fabric > > On Oct 7, 2015, at 11:58 AM, Glen Waldrop <gwl...@cngwireless.net > <mailto:gwl...@cngwireless.net>> wrote: > > Are there any consumer routers that don't suck these days? > > I used to recommend Linksys/Cisco, but since the Belkin buyout quality seems > to be going down. They jink with teh firewall and I can't block specific > outgoing traffic, can't remote admin anymore, etc... >
