Best way to re-purpose old N66U

[POGtx]

I just received my new AC68U that will be taking over for my old trusty N66U. I'd love to get some help on how to best use the N66U in my network.

The AC68U will be in a closet in the far end of the house next to the cable modem. On the opposite end of the house is a PC which is hard wired to that location (AC68U). Is it possible to instead hard wire the N66U into the AC68U and then plug the computer into the N66U? Can I make use of the wireless capabilities of the old N66U in anyway?

I was hoping to have the AC68U broadcast a 5GHz AC SSID, a 2.4GHz N SSID and, if possible, the N66U broadcast a 5GHz N SSID and again, if possible, somehow extend the range of the original 2.4GHz N SSID.

Is this possible or even a good idea? Will the AC and N 5GHz interfere? Will devices on each different router be able to "see" each other? If extending the 2.4GHz network, are there any throughput reductions? Or does that only apply to a wireless extender (as this would be wired).

Thanks!

 

[Ronv42]

I used my old N66U as a dedicated wireless access point for my security camera's. Since they don't need access to the internet I plugged my computer that is hosting the recoding software on the switch of the N66U and setup a 2.4 Ghz network on a different channel that my main channel with a hidden SSID and configured the cameras to connect to it. All self contained running well.

My old N-16 for a while was also setup as a access point in a far area in my house that didn't have good wireless coverage. Again I picked an unused channel with the same SSID as my main router and I could now roam into that area of the house.

I have always stayed away from WDS and directly wired up the remote access points. One is WDS drops your effective wireless bandwidth in half and two it's wireless, wired home runs are always better.

 

[POGtx]

access point mode. Awesome. Looked up some old posts here and set it up as an access point and I'm good to go. Re-broadcasting both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSID's with different channels.

It seems like the AC68U only has N+AC mode and not AC only. I assume including N support does not slow down max AC speeds then?

I had been having some weird issues with the 5GHz network on the N66U (thus the reason for the upgrade), but just swapping it to access point mode on the older Merlin build I have installed seems to have fixed the issue. Hopefully it doesn't come back again.

 

[L&LD]

You do not want to use N+AC mode; Auto is preferred.

 

[POGtx]

You do not want to use N+AC mode; Auto is preferred.

thanks, I've switched it over to Auto.