Last minute advice before taking a hammer to my Asus Routers?

[OzarkEdge]

I own a house in Spain close to the sea. It's build with concrete columns and slabs with hollow brick walls. I'm using 3x wall plate AP's in this house and it's a small 1200sqf bungalow style. In Canada I use 4x APs to cover my 6600sqf house, and one of the APs is outdoors and rarely used. So what you're saying is correct, but for our North American matchstick houses only. @cjw76 uses the wrong equipment, misled by Asus' advertisements. He needs perhaps more APs, but on low power and on different channels. This is what AiMesh can't do.

Yes, I appreciate those details. People have to assume responsibility for their own circumstances and use this forum resouce for what it's worth at any given time. Given little opening information other than 'I give up', I suggested the OP get professional help. And I'm pretty sure 6 APs is too many for 1650sf. Ball's in their court.

OE

 

[Tech9]

I suggested the OP get professional help.

The best option and my advice as well.

And I'm pretty sure 6 APs is too many for 1650sf.

Agree. One proper AP per room is a viable option in some specific conditions, but not AiMesh with no power control and on all the same channels.

 

[cjw76]

Yes, I appreciate those details. People have to assume responsibility for their own circumstances and use this forum resouce for what it's worth at any given time. Given little opening information other than 'I give up', I suggested the OP get professional help. And I'm pretty sure 6 APs is too many for 1650sf. Ball's in their court.

OE

The house is in the UK so lots of concrete and block walls....but I obviously started with one, progressed to 2 in the past and measured signal strength....maybe some professional help is the "Rolls Royce" solution to the problem, but I thought I would come here first. Grateful for all the tips and advice given...going to put them into practice and see what results that brings. The help provided and more info on SNB site which I hadn't seen before, feel a bit more equipped to set things up correctly and validate that my equipment isn't a stack of lemons...just poor setup!

 

[Tech9]

measured signal strength...

You don't need full bars in every corner. What I would do is use AX88U as wired router with Wi-Fi off for user friendly GUI and wire some PoE powered Omada or UniFi APs with Tx power control, centrally managed via network controller or setup in stand alone mode to reduce the cost. The network controller can be added later. If no Ethernet wires inside the house, I would run them outside. Plenty of materials available to make it nice.

 

[heywire]

What firmware version have you tried? If only Merlin, then try the latest official firmware in order to see if it there is a bug in the current Merlin that could be causing the issue. They are running slightly different version numbers, as Merlin is based off the later released GPL-firmware from Asus.

 

[cjw76]

....in case anyone is still around, I've re-surfaced from the chaos of moving house...re-setup the home network, taking onboard the advice given here, using APs, suggested firmware and only a few of the network points on the router and...

...it's working like a dream...been in 2 months and not a single unexpected drop out, router is supporting the same amount of devices

...just a shame the speed from the exchange to the router is slower

But anyway, wanted to stop by and say thanks for all the help!

 

[L&LD]

@cjw76, just wondering what the final layout of the network is now. Are you still running 6 routers?

 

[Tech9]

taking onboard the advice given here, using APs

What did you end up with?

 

[cjw76]

@cjw76, just wondering what the final layout of the network is now. Are you still running 6 routers?

No, the signal strength and house layout in the new place just didn't need as many. Now only have the main router and currently 2 APs, but will need to add one in the loft as a couple of devices on the 2.4Ghz struggle occasionally.

Unlike before, this time each of the wifi stations are spread out across the geography of the house too, which is helping. On the ground floor have one near the front of the house in one corner and the other on the same level is in the opposite corner. Then on the 1st floor the point is in a different corner again, to avoid them being on top of each other etc. so the last one to add will be in the last remaining corner but on the 2nd floor.....signal-wise everything is a little more rounded and less condensed than the last place.

The other big difference is we don't have the same level neighbouring Wifi's to contend with either...in the new place the neighbours are further away and only pick up 1 other network, so don't have to worry too much about channel battles!