Mesh VS APs

[techboy]

Hi there.

Note - I’m in India, so the walls are really thick and range is tough to have.

What would be preferable for a 3 floor house on a 350 yards plot. Basement. Ground. First. Floors. In India. The first floor is the house. The ground floor is the office. The basement is extended office, cinema, drawing room etc.

1. Netgear Orbi 3 pack RBK53. One unit on each floor. Connected by Ethernet backhaul.

If the budget is tight, would a 2 pack do? With 1 unit on the basement and the other on the first first.

How about 2 sets of 3 units each of TP Link Deco. So 2 units per floor for a total of 6 units.

Or

2. If possible:

Asus RT-AC86U 2-3 units. If two units then will do top and bottom floors. Otherwise 1 each. Ethernet backhaul. Not sure whether would have money for three units though.

If money is tight, might need to do 3 units of RT-AC68U, 1 on each floor. Would that be preferable to 2 units of RT-AC86U?

Or

3. Netgear Nighthawk R7000 x 3 units. 1 as the router. 2 as access points. Connected through Ethernet.

Or

Top floor Netgear X4S
Bottom floor X4S
Connected by Ethernet. Ground floor nothing.

Requirement:

Same SSID

Want 100-200+ Mbps on both 2.4 and 5 GHz throughout the plot. With no dead zones.

What would work for this?

 

[dfarning]

I am also new to this.... The most important thing would be to check the signal strength. Without that, you or anyone else will just be guessing.

To test, you can just put an existing router somewhere on each floor and turn it on. Then install a signal strength analyzer on your phone or laptop. I used inSSIDer but there are a bunch of different ones available.

Then, just walk around each floor to make sure that you have enough signal strength everywhere you care about. Adjust router placement as necessary to improve performance.

 

[techboy]

Haven’t moved into the new house yet. And can’t really buy and sell routers again and again as that would end up being really expensive.

 

[dfarning]

You can test signal strength with any router you have lying around.

 

[Fyodor]

When you say 350 yard plot, do you mean that each floor spans 350 square yards (i.e. 3150sq ft). I think that might be hard to cover with a single access point on each floor. Would you have a central location for each one?

 

[techboy]

First floor and ground floor will be around 2300 sq ft each. Basement will be around 1500 sq ft.

It would be possible to keep the access points at a central location in each floor.

My idea is that my iPhones and iPads connect to the strongest signal using the same SSID. Is that possible using RSSI technique with Wifi repeaters in each room?

 

[Fyodor]

I think that if you want to cover a 6000 foot home you're either going to need to be willing to to some trial and error with returns or overspend a bit to err on the side of extra coverage.

 

[degrub]

what is the floor construction for ground/basement and ground/first ? poured concrete/wood framing,wood floor/ other ?
what are the dimensions of each floor ?

 

[thiggins]

If you have Ethernet to a central location on each floor, you might be able to get by with an AP per floor. If you have Ethernet at both ends of each floor, even better.

If you have Ethernet, you don't need to spend lots of money on Orbi. You'd be wasting money on a 4x4 backhaul radio that you won't use.

There are plenty of good 2x2 APs for around $100 that you could use. BTW, 200 Mbps in 2.4 GHz with the one or two stream radios you're likely to have in most of your devices will be a stretch. 100 Mbps is more like it, depending on signal strength.

 

[techboy]

I’m in India. So all concrete. No wood.

And because I’m in India, there are no returns. The second hand market also is dead. So whatever I sell I will lose about 60-70% of the original value.

Something like the Asus RT-AC68U costs like USD 190. And if I sell it second hand I will only get like USD 70-80 for it. Because the market doesn’t exist.

Is there any way to have sub USD 100 routers that allow me to configure RSSI below a certain value for roaming? What about such wifi repeaters?

 

[techboy]

The walls are brick and concrete.

Also, will a R7000 placed in the center of a 2500sq ft floor cover it entirely? What if I do this and add two similar R7000 and configure them as APs using Ethernet on the other floors?

Can the same be done using TP Link P5 or C9 as well? I could afford 3-6 TP Link C9 units if needed.

But how do I configure RSSI for smart roaming?

 

[degrub]

need to know the Length and Width of the space you are working with. A 25 x 100 ft space - maybe, a 50 x 50 space likely. But depend on internal walls. If also concrete block, then maybe not.

 

[techboy]

Internal walls will be concrete and bricks as well.

If I use six AC1200 routers, how do I configure them to allow seamless roaming? I want the same SSID and my iDevices to connect to the strongest signal.

Do any routers allow me to set RSSI thresholds?

 

[degrub]

If you can get to clear space over top of walls to mount AP that would help.
stay on AC 2.4 GHz 2x2 radios if you have to use wireless. Get one device and see what level of penetration you can get. AC 5GHz will likely only work in the room.
hardwire ethernet to each room - maybe from overhead attic on 1st floor and from basement ceiling on ground floor. If the interior wall blocks are hollow you can drop cables directly in assuming not too much mortar fill. Use ethernet as direct connection or backhaul for APs/mesh devices.

 

[techboy]

But how do I manage seamless roaming?

 

[degrub]

that is up to the device. You will likely have to reduce the transmit power in the radios if there is too much overlap at above -67 to -72 dB. The walls may take care of that for you. You will just have to experiment.
i would start with two AP devices and an ethernet backhaul to connect them to the WAN.

Ask around the neighbors that wireless and a similar floor plan and see what they have done and how well it works.

 

[techboy]

Ok. Thank You.