Best layout with AC68 & AC87?

[jmantn]

i have both the AC68U and AC87R and due to the issues with the AC87R and the layout of my house I used the 87R as my router with wireless radios off in my basement where my cable internet is and have a cat 6E cable ran upstairs connecting to my AC68U as my wired Wifi access point.

Now that the AC87R/U firmware is up to snuff for the most part should I switch and put the 68U in the basement and turn wireless radios off and put my 87R into a wired wifi AP upstairs?

Is there a better way I'm not considering?

I hate to put the 87R into AP mode as I lose out on some of the other features like security and QoS. But wanted that extra speed upstairs between devices hence the flip flop.

Just wondering what others would do in my situation as I hated not getting the full speed out of the AC87R with my devices in house but I may hate missing some of the other features as well when it's in AP Mode.

 

[fax]

I would go for it after having installed the latest AC87R firmware (build 4950). QoS works very well here and Aiprotection is top and not far from what you get with expensive UTM appliances.

 

[netwrks]

Unless you feel the need to switch them around in your house.. Use the 87R as router with wifi enabled. Use the 68U as an AP. I would give the AP a static IP. My preference, though.. (point-to-point connection back to the 87R). Same SSID's different channel selection for 2.4ghz and 5ghz. Try with or without WIFI Beam forming. The beamforming "may" effect roaming.. Experimenting is part of the fun!

 

[jmantn]

Thanks for the replies and input! Glad to hear QoS and AiProtection work a lot better. Been wanting to try those but didn't want a huge performance hit.

 

[W4RH34D]

AiProtection is amazing, but didn't they include it in the 68u at some point? I just think the 87u is more powerful. It's been a much improved experience over the 68u.

Currently, we have one particular setup that uses 87u as a router, a 68u and 2 66u's as AP's. One 66u is an ap for the the other 66u which acts as a repeater due to cabling issues. Works very well in that regard. The way things are, guests can only use the 87u to connect, which is fine. There's a lot of space to cover, we're still researching how to cover the rest of the grounds with wifi.

 

[jmantn]

That's funny as my total setup consists of an 87, a 68, and a 66.

My 66 is a repeater and 68 is an access point as well.

As for best coverage I've read the 87 beats out the 3200 and read somewhere Asus is already working on successors to those that may be out by mid to late summer.

As for my question and due to the feedback I kept my setup as is except using my 87 with wifi radios on. No issues here except for IPv6 with tunnel 6rd so basically good to go!

 

[vanic]

AC68U has AiProtection and Adaptive QoS in RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_378_4585-g44c234f.trx

http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTAC68U/HelpDesk_Download/