Synology RT2600ac – 4x4 dual-band Gigabit Wi-Fi router, MU-MIMO, powerful parental controls, Threat Prevention, bandwidth management, VPN, expandable coverage with mesh Wi-Fi

This is the best router that I have used that has straight forward parental controls that didn't require an extra subscription fee. The user interface is friendly, and while I am an IT professional, I believe it is simple enough for most people to be able to get it setup and configured.During setup the only issue I ran into is after the initial setup config, I could not connect my windows laptop to the newly created Wifi - it kept saying it needed a pin. Connecting a smartphone or tablet worked just fine, however all I needed to do was to run the firmware update and it was good to go - I'm not sure if other people will run into this issue, but it is the only foreseeable "hiccup" that I have noticed so far.The parental controls allow for profiles to be created, in my case I created a user profile for each family member, and of course the important "My Network (LAN)" profile for every device to get some kind of filtering.Each child user in my house then can have an individual internet schedule, time quota, web filter and safe search - which is great for my family as we have various ages and needs depending on the person.Blocking by category is also possible - if someone hits a block page, there is also the option (if enabled) to "submit a request" so if a particular website is miscategorized or it is a particular site that you wish to allow, you can do that pretty easily - Oh, and I didn't mention that when someone does hit a site that is blocked, you can get an app notification to your smart device in real-time.There is also the ability to turn on logging to see what devices are hitting which sites - this is under the network center > traffic control > monitor, and then use the drop downs to find what you are looking for. There also is a few settings that you may need to enable to get this working.Overall I have found this router a great options to keep my family safer while online - notice I didn't use the word safe. With all digital technologies, it is impossible to see / block / manage every aspect of a connection, however this product does a decent job at some of the basic blocking that many other routers seemed to be lacking.There are also other advanced features available that I am not using, including to create a media server (with an attached USB device) a DNS server, a Radius server, Cloud station and download station. I did just enable the threat protection service and am beginning to look at that now.The only downside is that this isn't a Wifi6 router, however being that it has what I was looking for where it came to parental controls - I simply set my Wifi6 router to Access Point mode, and plugged it into one of the lan ports and now I have the best of both worlds - this setup does require a good understanding of how to get an existing router into AP mode, but with the help of the web, you should be able to find a guide on how to do this. In this config anything that connects to my network, including devices to the WIFI6 (now AP) can get the parental control / protection.

This router replaced an older Asus Ac68U router. I have been very pleased with this router it does everything I could want and more. It is for the more advanced user I would say But once you learn the interface, it's a breeze to navigate and set up.Its very powerful and the interface makes it so it you can do so many things, and the security is powerful. I am presently surprised how robust the security is on this device and the amount of safety features for not just advanced users but also children. There is a ton of customization as far as some settings such as, LED lights, WIFI Schedule, and othersThe routers WIFI signal is very strong and has higher support on the 5GHZ bands for some of the latest devices that support some additional frequencies and it has enough signal to do a very large home. The 2.4 GHZ band is also very strong and delivers plenty of speed even to some of the latest devices, so don't think this router can't do it.Now all that being said what about performance and streaming, okay well I can stream 1080P videos from 4+ devices at a time. I have some fast cable internet but the way the router manages traffic is just awesome! Not to mention you can increase your overall speed and performance by having a good DNS in the router settings to increase locate the web page time and speed up all connections.Firmware is updated regularly you may have to manually update firmware to most current version. I had to update my router to the most current manually and then it started to update its self. There are loads of other features and download packages available for this router I recommend the "threat protection" package but you'll need a USB flash drive and I would use a USB 3.0 or higher drive do to the speed.It is a great router, My only other choice would have been a new NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro Gaming XR500 due to the Price and the New OS. Or an Asus RT-AC88U same reason Price.