Does less-quality AP reduce benefit of good router?

[dg1974]

For example, if I were to get a Netgear X4 r7500 to use as my router, will the benefits of the dynamic QOS be lost/diminished if most of my streaming devices (2 rokus, couple ipads/ipod) are actually connected (wired and wireless) to a lesser-quality AP as opposed to the r7500 directly?

My house is somewhat spread out, and the room with the cable internet connection and my PC are in a far corner of the house. With a linksys ea6200 router, the signal doesn't reach very well from that corner to either the middle of house, much less to the other side of the house. So I've placed a linksys EA3500 router in the far room with the internet connection, and I've placed the EA6200 in the middle of the room as an AP. It connects to the router via powerline.

Considering upgrading the ea3500 router to an R7000 or R7500. At first I'd like to see if I can go without an AP if the new router is stronger than an ea6200/ea3500. But if it isn't, I'd use the ea6200 as an AP again. I'd like to avoid having to buy two R7500s ($$) to get decent performance.

Main goal is to maximize/optimize internet connection among possible 3-4 simultaneous streaming devices (ex - 1-2 devices on youtube, 1-2 devices on netflix/AP). I don't do any streaming from local sources. Internet connection is 60mbs. Currently seeing occasional dropped connection from the ea3500 (browser/app claims no internet connection, but if I refresh the page/app, it comes back). Thinking its time to retire the ea3500.

Also, if I do find I need an access point, am I better off using the "Better" router as an AP and the weaker one as the router?

thanks for any ideas/suggestions!

 

[azazel1024]

No. QoS is through the WAN connection to the internet, it has nothing to do with wireless QoS, which is purely a function of WMM, which all 802.11n and newer wireless devices have and it is all roughly equal between them (short of proprietary extensions, like airtime fairness).

For your final question, it depends on what you want and where it is located.

I am personally running my "better" router as my router and my "not as good" router as an access point. This is SOLELY because of where each is located and the wireless performance I want in each part of my house. So I have my 802.11ac router in my basement office which provides awesome speeds through my whole basement and that side of the house on the first floor. My access point is on the opposite side of the house on the first floor and provides good wireless performance for the rest of the house and garage. I then have a crappier router as access point out in my garage with the antennas run to the outside, providing okay, long range coverage to my entire backyard.

In terms of routing performance, my okay router as AP was/is more than fine with keeping up with my connection and various demands. I did a fair amount of testing when I got my Archer C8, and for my connection (75/75), there was negligible improvement in actual WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN bandwidth, latency and somewhat less tangible things like handling a ton of connections. Wireless performance however is a LOT better. Now if I had a 500Mbps connection or something, the Archer C8 might NEED to be the router, rather than just convenient as I doubt my WDR3600 could keep up, where as the C8 could (so long as hardware NAT was on).

That or possibly if I had a really crappy internet connection the QoS and other features on the C8 might be a bit more important.

 

[dg1974]

Thanks for the info.
Seems that if I want to take advantage of dynamic QOS in an R7500, it needs to be the router, not an AP.

In my case, if I need an AP, all wireless devices will connect to it, leaving the wireless capabilities of the router unused.

So I need to decide what's more important to me:

1) Routing performance - Use R7500 as router, and keep ea6200 as AP. Haven't had any wireless perf issues as far as I know with ea6200 as AP now. It's fairly centered in the house, and very close to where most streaming clients are located.

2) Wireless performance - With 60/5 internet, perhaps dynamic QOS isn't a big deal, so can have an R7500 (or maybe R7000) as an AP, and move the ea6200 as the router.


Ideally the R7500 can be the router and be strong enough to reach the other rooms in the house from the far corner, then I don't need an AP.


Looks like I'll need to try a few configs.

thanks!