Everything Apple (the Mac heads thread)

Routers and WiFi provided by ISPs are universally shit, there are no exceptions that I've heard of.

You need to put your ISP modem into "modem mode" then hook up your own equipment.

My current recommendations (been the same for a few years, it still rules):

Ubiquiti EdgeMAX Router is the router, does DHCP, each port is a different physical network, handles firewall, this thing is flawless, fanless, silent, very fast.

Ubiquiti Unifi UAP does WiFi. It is power-over-ethernet so only needs a single cable and isn't too ugly so can be put anywhere. Incredible range, speed, and power.

Ubiquiti ToughSwitch provides cabled ports if you need wired devices and you want to run them off a single network (the EdgeMAX has every port supplying a different network).

Those three, together, basically power the homes of a lot of people at Cloudflare. They are super fast, and are long-term investments as you can take them anywhere and use them. Since buying mine I've been blissfully disconnected from the "What is the best of all the shitty home router/wifi things out there?", now I don't care... it all works.

I have a couple of Airports and they run pretty flawlessly... it's just annoying you still need a router/modem to plug them into which might cause some sort of bottleneck? Maybe? I have no real idea.

I'd agree with the Ubiquiti wifi point. I bought a few routers with wi-fi and wireless extenders and crap before deciding to ditch them and just go with that. I went with the long-range version https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016K5A06C as wi-fi seems to have a real problem in my flat. It wasn't quite as powerful as I hoped but once I had it positioned properly it now works throughout and is fast enough for video streaming anywhere.

@Velocio how simple is the EdgeMax router to set up? I'm getting occasional dropouts which could be due to my router but I have a load of static addresses, port forwarding, etc that I'll have to set up again so want something relatively straightforward.