Mildly Infuriating

I’d also spend a month researching the exact perfect router

Every time I do this I come away disgusted with how trash most technology is and just how awful manufacturers are willing to make the experience just to get those precious data harvesting bucks. See also: this thread. Womp womp.

If it helps, mine was like $150 and it’s pretty solid upper-mid-range (asus rt-ax82u) right out of the box with minimal setup. My partner got a $400 ish one because he’s very high level IT, and wanted it for remote work, and it’s way overkill even for his use (but as long as the hardware doesn’t fail or the standards change, it’ll be good for a long time no matter what speed increases/demands happen). I guess if you simultaneously stream a lot up/down or need something capable of supporting a small office of people, but if not the mid-range routers are pretty good, lots of options, QoS features, and mine has its own built-in vpn host that can be set up if not running something like openvpn (tho it can also handle those). Dunno if thats standard these days, but it certainly makes my pihole more useful, since I can use it on my phone when I’m not home.

Really, if you go with something made for a purpose that’s a bit beyond your own use (in my case, gaming model because it’s designed for online multiplayer with low latency and a house full of connected devices, which is well beyond my own streaming of solo games), it’ll at least be better than the combined models (which are very low end), and probably way more than you actually need, so you have room to grow if desired. Plus in the long run it’ll be significantly cheaper since you won’t be paying $5/mth for something you never own (I assume that’s what you are being charged as that’s standard around me). It pays for itself in ~2-2.5years, depending what you get, and after that it’s all savings, since a decent router can be good for considerably longer than 2 years.