Hi!
I have a Asus RT-AC68U running since maybe 8 years, and now changing providers I get for free an eero 6.
We have a 3 stories house which should be covered with wifi: We live downstairs where the router is (and will be) installed pretty central. Upstairs are tenants and we share internet, in the basement will be eventually our sleeping rooms when the kids are older, currently there is a small office and a TV (rarely used these days since the kids are still young and we don't want to be watching too far when they sleep).
With the current Asus router, I have fine connection in the office in the basement, at the location of the TV it is a mixed bag (this TV is also more then 10yrs old and has only Ethernet input, so I use a very old TP-Link router with gargoyle installed as a pure wifi receiver-to-Ethernet bridge). The tenants upstairs use a wifi repeater (not sure which model), which makes it ok, otherwise the room which is their office is a weak spot. Also, our tenant needs from time to time an Ethernet connection and seems to have a hacky solution which works only ok for this.
We are updating our internet connection from 50/10 to 120/20 currently, not really needing more speed but it's a cheaper contract for more. There is no fiber installed in our street yet.
We don't do crazy video gaming where ping speeds matter, so it's down to a stable coverage of the area with decent speed, with the max of 2-3 video streams or calls in parallel. Beside whatever goes on over the internet, there is no crazy data shifting within our network, some local music streaming using LMS/squeezebox and copying files onto this server, but these music files aren't crazy large, so I am not needing 10GB speed through the LAN...
Alright, time for the question: The provider gives us an eero 6, which gives wifi 6 (I guess a few of our devices, mostly the phones, can use it), and is a mesh router (I don't care about the built in Zigbee at the moment). So with this, we could in theory add 1-2 more eero repeaters, or better eero routers, since the routers have 2 Ethernet ports. At the main router only one Ethernet port would be available, so for certain things I would need a switch there (could be a bridged router which I have already).
On the other side: The current Asus has Asus AiMesh capability, so we could also add Asus devices. I guess the Asus router has a better coverage by itself then the eero? The Wifi 5 speed might not be the limiting factor compared to the eero's wifi 6, right? The RT-AC68U got AiMesh only after a FW update years ago, so might not be as good as a dedicated mesh router or a newer Asus AiMesh device? I like the configuration options of the Asus router, e.g. QoS and fixed IP addresses, not sure if eero has these options?
If we'd go this route: Should I get a newer Asus router as a main router and use the current one as an extension, or buy a an extender like the RP-AX56 and keep the router as is?
Or any other alternatives, Linksys etc? The above two options have the advantages I don't have to buy all devices but can build on something.
I have also some experience from a previous job setting up Ubiquity Unify, but the prices for this is quite a bit above the consumer devices.
I totally understand ideally I should wire up all the floors to get each access point wired, and I might do this at least partly when we do renovations in the basement in a few years, but for the moment a wireless solution might be the best.
I have a Asus RT-AC68U running since maybe 8 years, and now changing providers I get for free an eero 6.
We have a 3 stories house which should be covered with wifi: We live downstairs where the router is (and will be) installed pretty central. Upstairs are tenants and we share internet, in the basement will be eventually our sleeping rooms when the kids are older, currently there is a small office and a TV (rarely used these days since the kids are still young and we don't want to be watching too far when they sleep).
With the current Asus router, I have fine connection in the office in the basement, at the location of the TV it is a mixed bag (this TV is also more then 10yrs old and has only Ethernet input, so I use a very old TP-Link router with gargoyle installed as a pure wifi receiver-to-Ethernet bridge). The tenants upstairs use a wifi repeater (not sure which model), which makes it ok, otherwise the room which is their office is a weak spot. Also, our tenant needs from time to time an Ethernet connection and seems to have a hacky solution which works only ok for this.
We are updating our internet connection from 50/10 to 120/20 currently, not really needing more speed but it's a cheaper contract for more. There is no fiber installed in our street yet.
We don't do crazy video gaming where ping speeds matter, so it's down to a stable coverage of the area with decent speed, with the max of 2-3 video streams or calls in parallel. Beside whatever goes on over the internet, there is no crazy data shifting within our network, some local music streaming using LMS/squeezebox and copying files onto this server, but these music files aren't crazy large, so I am not needing 10GB speed through the LAN...
Alright, time for the question: The provider gives us an eero 6, which gives wifi 6 (I guess a few of our devices, mostly the phones, can use it), and is a mesh router (I don't care about the built in Zigbee at the moment). So with this, we could in theory add 1-2 more eero repeaters, or better eero routers, since the routers have 2 Ethernet ports. At the main router only one Ethernet port would be available, so for certain things I would need a switch there (could be a bridged router which I have already).
On the other side: The current Asus has Asus AiMesh capability, so we could also add Asus devices. I guess the Asus router has a better coverage by itself then the eero? The Wifi 5 speed might not be the limiting factor compared to the eero's wifi 6, right? The RT-AC68U got AiMesh only after a FW update years ago, so might not be as good as a dedicated mesh router or a newer Asus AiMesh device? I like the configuration options of the Asus router, e.g. QoS and fixed IP addresses, not sure if eero has these options?
If we'd go this route: Should I get a newer Asus router as a main router and use the current one as an extension, or buy a an extender like the RP-AX56 and keep the router as is?
Or any other alternatives, Linksys etc? The above two options have the advantages I don't have to buy all devices but can build on something.
I have also some experience from a previous job setting up Ubiquity Unify, but the prices for this is quite a bit above the consumer devices.
I totally understand ideally I should wire up all the floors to get each access point wired, and I might do this at least partly when we do renovations in the basement in a few years, but for the moment a wireless solution might be the best.
