New Router? Add Powerline? Add Extender?

[twitchyzero]

Currently using AC56U, really happy with it. However the range doesn't reach the detached garage 60-80ft away. Clients used in the garage are your typical mobile devices like a iPhone 6+.

We have an old DIR-655 but it can only serve as a AP not a repeater or extender.
We have tried cranking the AC56U tx power to 200mW..no difference.

dilemma right now:

1. Upgrade to a AC87U: At first this seems ridiculous consider the AC56U is still one of the best bang for buck routers out there esp with CFW. But if I buy it and sell my existing one...I'll come out roughly the same price as a good extender/powerline. No heavy users but we do have 10 people that uses this connection. My question is:

i) Will there be good reception in the garage? 60-80ft away, both house and garage are wooden but the router is placed in the basement of the house where it sits on concrete.
ii) SNB reviewed AC87U negatively last year. Has everything been patched up and working as advertised? Is ASUSWRT/Merlin stable on it?

2. Range Extender
Looking for recommendations on which to buy. It needs to be able to automatically connect the clients once router reception is no more and it needs to support 802.11ac. External antenna preferred.

3. Powerline Adapter.
Do they come with 802.11ac ones? Also needs to connect automatically once router signal is dead. Please recommend some that fits this criteria.

Thanks for the input.

 

[ulaganath]

If you have budget go for wave 2. Netgear R8500 is promising. Then use current one as extender

Sent from my ASUS_Z00AD using Tapatalk

 

[pege63]

No need to buy a 400USD Router when you can get the same value with a 200USD Router.
Depends of the needs ASUS RT-AC68U, Netgear R7000 both AC1900 Routers small budget good price good value.
Linksys EA8500 or a Archer C2600 middle price range AC2600 Routers.
Or spend BIG Netgear R8500 IF you wait you can buy soon ASUS RT-AC88U, Netgear R7500 V2.
All depends of you needs, how much money you can spend and so on.
Am thinking off a upgrade myself but i wait after christmas for the SALES here in Sweden, BUT thats me.

 

[thiggins]

It's unlikely a different router will make a significant range difference, especially for 5 GHz.

The only combination powerline / AC wireless adapter is the recently-announced NETGEAR DST6501. It's only available from Best Buy.

Single-band extenders reduce throughput by 50% due to rebroadcast. But some dual-band repeaters can use one band for backhaul and the other to connect to the device. Here's our ranking of AC1200 class extenders.

Can't say which method is best because each case depends on a lot of factors. For powerline to work, it has to be on the same side of your power company's distribution transformer.

You'll have to try both and experiment.

 

[twitchyzero]

I'd like to stick with asus router due to the overwhelming community support. No point practically sidegrading to the AC68U...I only gain 3x3 radios which I doubt will make a difference.

Yep the garage is powered by the same transformer. i'm confused at that BB exclusive powerline adapter. If you don't have a Netgear router or want the one bundled, you need to buy two of the DST adapters for it work?

Tim, do you expect the AC88U to hit the shelf in a month or so or are the Q4 estimates pretty optimistic and it'll likely ship next year? Any idea on the price?

I think I will give the EX6200 a try for now. I know it tells you where to place it optimally...but would it be more reasonable to put it in the garage where the clients are or at the end of the house facing the garage while still in good range of the router?

 

[thiggins]

The DST adapter is HomePlug AV2. So just buy a http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/powerline/view for the router end of the link. Probably SISO, not MIMO.

I have no information on the AC88U. It's based on Broadcom's first MU-MIMO chipset, so you're signing up for a science experiment. MU-MIMO doesn't improve range or throughput with current devices. You need devices that support 4x4 1024-QAM to get the advertised throughput, IF they ever hit the market.

You NEVER place wireless extenders in the dead zone. They go about midway between the dead zone and the main router. They can only extend 50% of the bandwidth they receive. So if you put them in a weak signal spot, the dead zone will get no bandwidth.

 

[System Error Message]

using wire and than plugging a wifi router to it is cheaper than trying to use a wireless extender. The main reason is that for a wireless extender to work properly you have the 2 bridge APs and a general AP for the other side so it means you need 3 APs just to extend wifi and you have to buy directional antennas too. If you just try to extend wifi using the built in function while also providing wifi to the area you will be disappointed with throughput and stability so either you extend wifi the proper way or end up just suffering because the cheap way just uses omni antennas so you actually get alot less than 50%.

When you extend wifi cheaply you are only getting at max 50% of what the extended AP is getting with the main AP but if you extend wifi properly using 3 APs and the right antennas you can get full bandwidth. I still think wire is a lot better. Basically you can use a wifi router with 2 radios and you would need to figure out which antennas belong to which radio but you would have to place the same router at both ends.

 

[Trip]

Avoid wireles repetition and don't buy combination devices if you can help it (ie. wireless repeater + wifi extender). That type of stuff is marketed on convenience, and while they may be jacks-of-all-trades, they're quite often masters of none...

Stick with powerline if it can deliver the requisite bandwidth. In my experience, LEA Networks models for simple, low-bandwidth, long-range or the Extollo LanSocket for higher throughput. No TP-Link. No Netgear. Zyxel maybe. Then tack on additional APs at the link ends. Better performance and lower latency all the way around. It's as good as you can get without running cable directly.

 

[twitchyzero]

laying wire to a detached garage is out of the question
so none of the gigabit powerline adapters have dual band wireless aside from the one Tim posted? I think I will wait until they're available in Canada....$150 usd = $200 CAD is a bit more than I'm willing to pay right now

 

[Trip]

Again, I wouldn't look for combo units. Just do yourself the favor and get separate pieces of hardware: a powerline kit and a separate AP, both purchased on their respective abilities alone. The only downsides are slightly higher power draw and an extra wall-wart, but the upsides are no-compromises on each piece of tech.

 

[thiggins]

A wall-wart AP is just fine for lighting up a dead spot. They're convenient and have good WAF. The Ethernet connected NETGEAR EX6100 I use to handle my kitchen dead spot does the trick nicely.