advice please - node location & what to do with 66U (non B1) after aimesh upgrade

[brucemac]

Howdy all. Looking for some advice. Recently setup aimesh and it appears to be working well. I still have a little bit of a weak spot in the corner of our house (5G), back master bedroom on main. Haven't really done any critical analysis, just using speedtest.net to get an idea of dl/ul speed in different areas.

House is two stories, just shy of 3K feet. Vaulted two story ceilings in living room. Open loft (half wall) upstairs.

I've got a 68U in the stairwell closet as the primary router. Fairly centrally located and right next to the fiber that comes into our house. Don't really want to move it.

Then I've got a second 68U acting as a node in the main living room, probably only about 50ft from the router sitting fairly low in my HT rack.

And then I've got a leftover 66U (non B1) that I have just sitting here. Wondering what I should do with it and am looking for some advice in my configuration. Should I move my 2nd 68U node upstairs in the loft? Would that give me a stronger signal being higher up in the house? If so, would you recommend setting the 66U up as an AP and hardwire it back to the main router? I'm using 3 or 4 of the node's LAN ports currently for streamers, Sonos, etc, but that shouldn't be a big deal.

On non-AC devices, I'm getting anywhere from 35-40Mbps, sometimes a little higher, but it doesn't look like I'm getting "full bars", just one shy--at least on my iPhone. Should it be higher? I have synchronous 100Mb up/down fiber.

Looking for some insightful suggestions. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[indark]

to me, the best way to max coverage/get better signal is to reduce the obstacle (walls) between router n device.

and I would probably set the 66U in mediabridge mode for devices(streams, sonos .. etc) and free the 2nd 68U node. so you have more freedom to where to place 2nd 68U.

 

[brucemac]

Thanks for the reply indark. Really appreciate it. I understand there is benefit to having routers as high as possible in a house, but the only physical place I could put the second 68U upstairs would be directly above the main router. So barring flooring, insulation and drywall, the physical space between the two would only be about 10 feet. Would you guys still recommend that? Any thoughts on my non-AC download speeds? Am I in the ballpark, or should it be higher?

 

[indark]

the router has omnidirectional antenna, meaning it's broadcasting and receiving signal from all direction. it's really just the distance between router n and your devices.
i didn't think of that earlier, but you can just check the the official aimesh page for the graph https://www.asus.com/AiMesh/ it should give you a clear picture how to set your router up.

there could be many factor that affect wifi speed, signal strength/interference/ or even device's processing speed, maybe your iphone were hit by the stealthy throttle came with update?
Since you mentioned you didn't have full bar, I will try test the device near the router and test both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz first, to see how it does. as long as it gets full speed near router, I think it's good enough

 

[wouterv]

'...
I've got a 68U in the stairwell closet as the primary router. Fairly centrally located and right next to the fiber that comes into our house. Don't really want to move it.
...

I would really try and see what difference it make to (temporary) move the router out of the closet!
Use a longer network cable and put the router somehow away from the closet.
In my and many others situation it makes a "day" and "night" difference in signal strength and throughput, not only for wireless clients directly connected to the router but also for any repeater, bridge or AiMesh system.
AiMesh, repeaters or bridges will not help you much when the performance of the main router gets disturbed by a bad location as starting point.