Currently have an Asus RT-AC68U - Need more range

[brbbX]

Hey guys,

I have currently an Asus RT-AC68U, and due to the furniture and cabling, I can only have it on a corner of my apartment (it is approx. 100 sqm).
The router performance is great, I have fibre broadband of 76/20mbps here in London and it always gives me full speed.
However, due to its positioning, the farthest room isn't very well covered, meaning that if the wireless range could go a like 3 meters farther, it would be enough.
Since I`m very happy with Asus performance, I was thinking that maybe upgrading to the RT-AC3200 could give me that little boost in range?
I couldn't find any tests comparing ranges between those routers, only speed, and to be honest, I don't need more speed than what I already have.
I tried buying a cheap wifi extender, but it was 2.4ghz only and the speed was not satisfactory.
Do you think my problem could be solved with that Asus upgrade? Or should I think more in terms of a power line extension?

Thank you very much!

 

[Trip]

Give powerline a shot. At 76/20, though, you want a top-shelf AV2 unit to ensure you have the best shot of actually delivering that throughput to the other side of the room. Then wire in another AP of choice -- consumer AC all-in-one set as an AP, purpose-built AP, whatever you prefer. Make sure SSID, security and credentials are the same, select non-overlapping channels and you should be good to go!

 

[brbbX]

Give powerline a shot. At 76/20, though, you want a top-shelf AV2 unit to ensure you have the best shot of actually delivering that throughput to the other side of the room. Then wire in another AP of choice -- consumer AC all-in-one set as an AP, purpose-built AP, whatever you prefer. Make sure SSID, security and credentials are the same, select non-overlapping channels and you should be good to go!

Thank you, but to be honest my problem with the powerline is that is doesn't look very good on the bedroom wall, and my wife really cares about that. I think extending the range from the router in the living room would be a simpler solution, if I could do that.

 

[RMerlin]

When dealing with high-end router models, there isn't much to be gained by upgrading to a 1-2 years newer model. The range will be very similar.

Tim's charts do show how performance look like as the range increases. That should give you an idea of the range of different products.

Repeaters, access points and powerline are the best solutions.

 

[nagle3092]

Thank you, but to be honest my problem with the powerline is that is doesn't look very good on the bedroom wall, and my wife really cares about that. I think extending the range from the router in the living room would be a simpler solution, if I could do that.

Moca is an option as well. I just recently jumped on some actiontec ECB6200's and so far I am very impressed. Though you will need coax runs its an option if you have them.

 

[thiggins]

Well, WAF is an important factor.

Try an AC1200 extender, but be sure to put it around mid-way between the router and your bedroom. The extender needs bandwidth to extend and it won't get any if you put it in a dead spot.

Use the Wireless Extender Ranker to choose.