2 routers or 1 plus access point for move to AC?

[wiredup72]

I have a two story home with plaster walls and lots of Cat6 cable. I want to replace my NT66U with an AC router and my extender ( access point ) that is in my bedroom that is connected to my LAN via Cat6 (or cat5e, need to double check).

I don't let the wireless network handle DHCP, I do that on my dedicated firewall. Also, I have the wireless on my FiOS router disabled and just use the moca lan for my set top boxes. I also have several switches in use. Most of my stuff is hardwired, servers, printer, music players.

My issue is that I don't have as much to spend as I have had in the past, but I am getting frustrated with the ASUS dropping in and out and the access point (shoot, maybe it is in bridge mode, I'll check when I get home) seemingly having to be unplugged so I can reboot the ASUS. Based on the setup I followed, the access point upstairs has a different SSID for the 5ghz channel.

So, I have been researching AC and setups and now I am confusing myself to death.

I am leaning towards a netgear 6400 and their 6150 for my bedroom. It looks like I can hardwire the 6150 to get the best possible speeds.

I have looked at the TPLink stuff and it intrigues me because of price. I like good GUI's, but as long as it works, I'm fine with trouble shooting. So I am even considering two C7 's. Their website shows a new access point AP500, but I don't see it available anywhere yet. I would even consider their C9 and the AP500.

Any tips, pointers, advice or questions would be wonderful.
You folks have a great day!
-Ben

 

[bobsilver]

I have a two story home with plaster walls and lots of Cat6 cable. I want to replace my NT66U with an AC router and my extender ( access point ) that is in my bedroom that is connected to my LAN via Cat6 (or cat5e, need to double check).

I don't let the wireless network handle DHCP, I do that on my dedicated firewall. Also, I have the wireless on my FiOS router disabled and just use the moca lan for my set top boxes. I also have several switches in use. Most of my stuff is hardwired, servers, printer, music players.

My issue is that I don't have as much to spend as I have had in the past, but I am getting frustrated with the ASUS dropping in and out and the access point (shoot, maybe it is in bridge mode, I'll check when I get home) seemingly having to be unplugged so I can reboot the ASUS. Based on the setup I followed, the access point upstairs has a different SSID for the 5ghz channel.

So, I have been researching AC and setups and now I am confusing myself to death.

I am leaning towards a netgear 6400 and their 6150 for my bedroom. It looks like I can hardwire the 6150 to get the best possible speeds.

I have looked at the TPLink stuff and it intrigues me because of price. I like good GUI's, but as long as it works, I'm fine with trouble shooting. So I am even considering two C7 's. Their website shows a new access point AP500, but I don't see it available anywhere yet. I would even consider their C9 and the AP500.

Any tips, pointers, advice or questions would be wonderful.
You folks have a great day!
-Ben

In the Netgear world I suggest the R6400 as you thought (or ideally an R7000) and for the bedroom look at the EX6100. The EX6100 can be configured as an Access Point (as well as repeater). The AP mode is the preferred way of extending your coverage since you have a cat 5/6 cable in your bedroom. Repeaters would be a last resort approach. The 6150 you mentioned is a repeater only.

Bob Silver
Netgear Networking Advisor

 

[pete y testing]

So, I have been researching AC and setups and now I am confusing myself to death.

the good thing here is you dont need a spaking wireless router as other things are handling the router and dhcp etc so in reality you just need 2 wireless access points eg 1 per floor and you may as well make them the same , seeing as your not trying to cover both floors with a single transmission you dont have to buy the latest and the biggest

depending on what speed over wifi you are after something like a tp link archer C5 per floor running in wan bypass mode so they act as pure access points and switches may be the way to go , the C5 are 300M on 2.4 gig and 867M on 5 gig

again i do suggest what ever you get match them as it makes the transition from one to the other just a tad better when roaming between them

 

[wiredup72]

Thanks for both replies.
Bob, the Netgear page says the 6150 has access mode:

• Two WiFi modes to extend your existing WiFi connection or create a new WiFi access point
  http://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/wifi-range-extenders/EX6150.aspx#tab-techspecs

It's too bad the price of the 6400 looks higher than when I first looked a few weeks ago or I would by two of those. I wish I could find them for $90-100. I'm surprised they haven't dropped more with all the new releases.

I did think about just two access points, butI just wasn't sure if they can "host" the SSID; which I guess they should since you can use multiple ssid's. hmm.

thanks for the thoughts.
I am starting to lean towards two C7's for the faster speeds and its good rep for coverage.

 

[stevech]

I have a two story home with plaster walls and lots of Cat6 cable. I want to replace my NT66U with an AC router and my extender ( access point ) that is in my bedroom that is connected to my LAN via Cat6 (or cat5e, need to double check).

I don't let the wireless network handle DHCP, I do that on my dedicated firewall. Also, I have the wireless on my FiOS router disabled and just use the moca lan for my set top boxes. I also have several switches in use. Most of my stuff is hardwired, servers, printer, music players.

My issue is that I don't have as much to spend as I have had in the past, but I am getting frustrated with the ASUS dropping in and out and the access point (shoot, maybe it is in bridge mode, I'll check when I get home) seemingly having to be unplugged so I can reboot the ASUS. Based on the setup I followed, the access point upstairs has a different SSID for the 5ghz channel.

So, I have been researching AC and setups and now I am confusing myself to death.

I am leaning towards a netgear 6400 and their 6150 for my bedroom. It looks like I can hardwire the 6150 to get the best possible speeds.

I have looked at the TPLink stuff and it intrigues me because of price. I like good GUI's, but as long as it works, I'm fine with trouble shooting. So I am even considering two C7 's. Their website shows a new access point AP500, but I don't see it available anywhere yet. I would even consider their C9 and the AP500.

Any tips, pointers, advice or questions would be wonderful.
You folks have a great day!
-Ben

ASUS. Netgear-not.
Even an ASUS NT56 will give good performance; mine supports the ISP's 100/10 service, even to my Samsung phone in another room. Advice: don't overspend.
Plaster walls may lead you to need wired connection, or less desirable, adding an access point (the ASUS has an access point mode option).

 

[wiredup72]

Well, I bought two C7's and they are going back. The 5ghz network simply wouldn't play nice with my Zyxel firewall and dhcp server. TpLink support tried, but they couldn't get it to work either. The 2.4 network was darn fast, I might add. Way faster than my current Asus RT-N66U; but, I am back to square one.

I want to start another thread about 5ghz, but before I do, I'll ask here: what's the problem with networking on this band? Every time I start researching any router, no matter the company, the majority of the problems seem to be with the 5ghz network band.
Especially with iOS, which I am sure is an Apple issue <tin foil hat on> because I don't trust their IPStack anymore and I suspect there is too much crossover in some of this coding between iOS and OS X that they can't seem to work out. But any way...

So, I will do some more searching through the forums to read up on 5ghz stability with the current batch of routers, I just hate the idea of having to spend $2-300 on a single router because I am saving up to buy or build a new firewall with 2GBps throughput and SSL. My USG40 has been rock solid for several years, but that is my final bottleneck. Too bad their USG60W doesn't have AC band wireless.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading have a nice day!

 

[wiredup72]

update. Thanks for the advice everyone.

At the beginning of the summer I put an Asus AC56u in my bedroom (hard wired with cat6 and in WAP mode) and was astonished and relieved at the improvement over my old ea66n. Especially streaming video.
Since I was tracking the prices of different routers using camelcamelcamel.com (I have Amazon Prime) I only paid $70.

for downstairs I kept waiting for the AC88 to come down in price. Even the AC3100. I also tracked the AC68. And I began tracking their pricing on eBay also. Frankly, I'm astonished at the price of the AC88.
I almost pulled the trigger on the AC68 at $149, but last week an AC56R popped up on a 3rd party Amazon prime seller for $60 and free shipping of course.

tested it out. Loaded up Merlin. and BAM. I couldn't be happier. this is also in WAP mode with cat6. My Zyxel handles dhcp.

now I can afford to either build or buy a pfsense box with gigabit throughput to replace my 5 or six year old Zyxel while I wait for Mu-MIMO to work out its kinks.

thanks for the advice (in this thread and all the others.) I've been out of IT for over a decade (sys admin and security admin; then forensics) and have enjoyed reading through the forum and getting caught up on the actual tech.

Now, I look forward to getting dirty with PFsense, as I was part of the mail lists and was very active back during the great BSD license throw down between Theo and Darren when PF forked from Darren's IPF. (for those who know about all that, I was staunch IPF, but agreed with OpenBSD's licensing policies and demands. it was interesting to say the least; and look how far PF has gone now. reminds me of OpenSSH).

Cheers!