Advice: Mesh System or 2 Routers?

[austxsun]

I’m looking to upgrade my home Wi-Fi system to account for a fairly large amount of streaming devices. Have 3 kids (8, 11, 14) and 2 adults, no cable, so there are definitely times we are all streaming (or playing video games) at once (& probably an occasion where 1-2 of the streamers is also playing intermittent short clips on their phone (reddit/twitter/etc)).

I’m trying to decide whether a nice mesh system, like the one with a dedicated band for uplinking, or two beefy (nighthawk, etc) routers would be better for throughput (off the remote device(s), not off the primary link to broadband) since they’re comparable price wise (any routers that have a dedicated band for uplinking?). I guess it would be nice to understand a little about the ability to handle 4-7 threads/streams at once too, but my assumption (poor?) is that both systems should be able to handle.

I think both solutions will provide more than adequate coverage for house & backyard.

I've dug around for a while & just couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. Considered buying it all myself & returning the lesser of the 2 options but feel a little squirrelly doing so if someone else knows this info already.

Thanks in advance!!!

(adding a poll just for the heck of it)

 

[thiggins]

What is your current router? Have you tried assigning devices to different bands?

 

[austxsun]

My current router is the WNDR3400v3. It's been ok but not great (needs to be rebooted every ~2-3 weeks or if 2-3 high bandwidth devices are in use for a couple hours or more). It has to be located at the very front of the house so my coverage to the furthest bedroom & backyard are not good. I currently have an extender (netgear n300 maybe?) that has been very pedestrian.

So, I'm looking to expand coverage & want to make sure that when I do, if I'm dropping $400+, I have the most robust network possible. I've not tried different bands yet on the current router but my point is that whatever I upgrade to shouldn't have a problem performing as I intend it to without much management from me.

 

[austxsun]

Have there been any tests of performance through a bridged router or a gambit of performance tests across a bunch of extenders? I don't think anything connected to the primary router (standard or mesh) is likely to be a problem, but would love to see performance through other devices (a la some of the mesh tests).

 

[fryrpc]

Similar question to me.
I have an 86U upstairs front, where the fibre ONT is located, providing coverage in the main parts of the house but need extra coverage to the downstairs rear and garden. Like the OP the question is add another 86U (2 routers) and use AiMesh or just deploy a mesh system to replace the existing WiFi service.

 

[thiggins]

Just moving up to an AC class router from an N router will provide a decent performance boost.
If you don't mind trying and returning, I'd start with a NETGEAR R7800.

If you want to go mesh, original Orbi (RBK50) is the way I'd go.

 

[austxsun]

Appreciate it - I've seen the performance stats for the Orbi & the R7800 - both were products on my short list just from the reviews here. I'd bet 2/3 of my high use devices will end up connecting to the extender/bridged router & after seeing some of the Mesh backhaul stats was really hoping to see something like that. There are no tests using extenders & a R7800 or using (2) R7800s then? & no known routers that use a separate band for the bridge connection (a la Orbi)? Essentially the backhaul performance(s) (I think)? Thanks again

 

[thiggins]

Routers aren't designed with a separate radio for extender backhaul links. Tri-band/three-radio routers can't be configured to extend using one of the two 5 GHz radios, either.

 

[tannebil]

If one AC router works adequately, there’s no reason to screw around with a multi-unit solution so +1 to Tim’s suggestion.

If you go with multiple units and can’t hardwire them, Orbi dominates the benchmarking although there have been some interesting results on latency with Plume so if your uses are latency sensitive, the new Plume might be worth a look. If you want to be able to fine tune a solution, Ubiquiti seems to be the favorite.

Personally, I like a multi-unit solution with a single point of management, so I’d stay away from two independent units. But that’s a personal preference .

 

[austxsun]

I guess I’ll try the r7800 first to see if it will provide adequate coverage.

If it does not, is there a ‘best’ method of expanding (a bridge, another router, etc) or should I just return it & try Orbi? The main reason I was thinking of using 2 routers was to see if quality & power of internals would play into outperforming an extender.

 

[austxsun]

Whoa - just saw that Netgear sells a mesh extender for it's nighthawk line. The "X6S Tri-Band WiFi Mesh Extender (EX8000)"... it's $180 right now so practically like buying another router... but anyone done any testing with it? (edit: see some of the articles now, will read through later after kids are asleep

Also, if I were to really dig into things, any free tools that might work best? I know netstumbler is good for dB readings (coverage strength) but don't really know the most effective way of benchmarking other than just turning on a bunch of data streams & see what happens (Netflix, video game, prime video, other?).

 

[tannebil]

I generally use Wi-Fi SweetSpots on iOS to test performance between the client and the access point and iperf3 (server on a wired Mac Mini, client using Hurricane Electric Network Tools on iOS) to test end-to-end throughput. This is simplistic testing since I usually only test a single client at a time. If you want to test under multi-client loads, it is a major step up in complexity.

I’ll sometimes use Speedtest (iOS) or DSLreports.com to test performance to the Internet but that adds variables outside the local network so it’s best for just testing ISP performance.

 

[austxsun]

Appreciate the toolset feedback! After reading through a bunch of the articles last night, I'm still having a little trouble deciding which route to take. I think about 2/3rds of my devices will be connecting to the satellite device(s) (rather than the main router) so my main decision point would lie with the strength/weakness of the EX8000 vs the Orbi satellites.

I'm leaning r7800 with an EX8000 extender but mostly because it's on sale today for Prime day ($143 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074F3M2W8/?tag=snbforums-20). But they do also have an Orbi kit on sale too ($220 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072ZN4PSB/?tag=snbforums-20).. decisions, decisions.