Long time lurker, first post. First off let me say thanks to Tim for this site. It has helped me numerous times and is one of the first sites I visit when I'm looking to make changes in my home network.
I'm thinking that it may be time for me to upgrade part of my wireless network to AC, but I'm not sure if it's worth the cost.
My existing setup consists of two wired segments connected through a wireless bridge. We have DSL and the phone line comes out of the wall in a fairly central place in our home. I'm using a Netgear WNDR3700 as the main wireless access point and the wireless coverage is good on both floors of our 3400 sq ft house. The wireless computers connect to the 2.4GHz network running on the 3700. Most of the other wireless devices are connected to an Actiontec Q1000 DSL modem acting as another 2.4GHz access point. I have these other devices on their own VLAN. On this side of the lan I also have a few servers and media devices connected via 1gig Ethernet.
Due to the construction of the home, vaulted ceilings, finished basement, etc. it would be difficult to run Ethernet to my office where I have a few more computers and servers. To connect the office side of the network to the rest of the house and internet I'm using a Dlink DAP-1522 in wireless bridge mode to connect to the 5GHz N network on the WNDR3700. This is the only device connected to the N wireless network.
The 5GHz wireless N signal is fairly strong and the connection has been surprisingly reliable. I can go months without rebooting either the WNDR3700 or the DAP-1522 and the connection never drops. My only complaint is the speed. It's faster than our internet connection 20Mbps down/0.8 up so that's not really an issue, but I'd like to be able to run some backups between the 2 segments without them taking forever. The speed as measured by iperf is about 50-60Mbps and Lan Speed Test shows it around 70Mbps.
My question is if it would be worthwhile for me to buy a couple of AC routers and use them on either end, one as an access point and the other as a bridge. I don't really need a router, using pfsense for that, but AC access points and bridges seem few and far between and also expensive. I figure two AC (probably AC1900) routers will be cheaper and may offer more flexibility. Ideally I'd like something that can separate different SSID's using VLAN's but I can work around that, as I am now, by plugging the different access points into different ports on my switches.
I'm mainly looking at either the Asus RT-AC68U or the Netgear R7000 and wondering if a pair of these will give me enough of a throughput boost to make the expense worthwhile. The distance between the two segments is only 20-25 feet, but there are a couple of wood frame/sheetrock walls in between. I can, and do at times, run 1gig Ethernet down the hallway and across the floor to connect the segments, but my wife isn't crazy about the idea for long periods of time. If I could double the throughput then I may consider it, more than that I'd probably move ahead.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I figured the background info is pertinent to the question.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Bill
edit: I have tried homeplug, but haven't found it any faster than the wireless N speed I'm already seeing.
I'm thinking that it may be time for me to upgrade part of my wireless network to AC, but I'm not sure if it's worth the cost.
My existing setup consists of two wired segments connected through a wireless bridge. We have DSL and the phone line comes out of the wall in a fairly central place in our home. I'm using a Netgear WNDR3700 as the main wireless access point and the wireless coverage is good on both floors of our 3400 sq ft house. The wireless computers connect to the 2.4GHz network running on the 3700. Most of the other wireless devices are connected to an Actiontec Q1000 DSL modem acting as another 2.4GHz access point. I have these other devices on their own VLAN. On this side of the lan I also have a few servers and media devices connected via 1gig Ethernet.
Due to the construction of the home, vaulted ceilings, finished basement, etc. it would be difficult to run Ethernet to my office where I have a few more computers and servers. To connect the office side of the network to the rest of the house and internet I'm using a Dlink DAP-1522 in wireless bridge mode to connect to the 5GHz N network on the WNDR3700. This is the only device connected to the N wireless network.
The 5GHz wireless N signal is fairly strong and the connection has been surprisingly reliable. I can go months without rebooting either the WNDR3700 or the DAP-1522 and the connection never drops. My only complaint is the speed. It's faster than our internet connection 20Mbps down/0.8 up so that's not really an issue, but I'd like to be able to run some backups between the 2 segments without them taking forever. The speed as measured by iperf is about 50-60Mbps and Lan Speed Test shows it around 70Mbps.
My question is if it would be worthwhile for me to buy a couple of AC routers and use them on either end, one as an access point and the other as a bridge. I don't really need a router, using pfsense for that, but AC access points and bridges seem few and far between and also expensive. I figure two AC (probably AC1900) routers will be cheaper and may offer more flexibility. Ideally I'd like something that can separate different SSID's using VLAN's but I can work around that, as I am now, by plugging the different access points into different ports on my switches.
I'm mainly looking at either the Asus RT-AC68U or the Netgear R7000 and wondering if a pair of these will give me enough of a throughput boost to make the expense worthwhile. The distance between the two segments is only 20-25 feet, but there are a couple of wood frame/sheetrock walls in between. I can, and do at times, run 1gig Ethernet down the hallway and across the floor to connect the segments, but my wife isn't crazy about the idea for long periods of time. If I could double the throughput then I may consider it, more than that I'd probably move ahead.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I figured the background info is pertinent to the question.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Bill
edit: I have tried homeplug, but haven't found it any faster than the wireless N speed I'm already seeing.
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