oddly-shaped two story house

[pugdaddy]

Hello, I would appreciate some router buying advice for my situation... I have an oddly-shaped two story house, approx. 3,300 sq. ft. total, somewhat long and wide, where the cable modem comes in on one end of the lower story. I can't really move the location of the modem. So I need to have a router that can cover all the way to the upstairs of the house on the other end.

Right now I am using a Netgear WNDR3700 (v1, I believe), and the coverage has been very spotty. I can barely get 5Ghz signals in a room directly upstairs above the router -- but a few feet out of the room, the signals are lost. On the same downstairs level, I can't get reliable wifi on either band when trying to stream videos to my phone.

I don't have too many people living in the house at the moment, and no AC devices either (yet); but we do a fair amount of downloading and streaming, plus Ooma, so some type of QoS or bandwidth prioritizing is important as well. On top of all this, I am trying to stay within a budget, with AC1900 prices to be the ceiling.

I am looking at the RT-AC68U, as I never seem to have much luck with Netgear so I am a bit leery of trying a different model. But I am open to any suggestions and directions that can fit my needs. All advice are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[thiggins]

What are your internet up and download speeds?

 

[System Error Message]

even though the modem is at one end its not like your house is 100m across. Just wire some ethernet cables so you can put wifi in a good spot.

 

[pugdaddy]

What are your internet up and download speeds?

Up to 60 Mbps download, according to Charter... Not sure what the minimum upload speed is.

 

[pugdaddy]

even though the modem is at one end its not like your house is 100m across. Just wire some ethernet cables so you can put wifi in a good spot.

The "center" of the house is actually upstairs, around the kitchen/breakfast nook area, and the wifi can be affected by the usage of microwave. :-(

 

[thiggins]

An AC router may help since it can improve performance even for non AC devices. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...oes-an-ac-router-improve-n-device-performance

AC1900 is just fine. AC1750 or AC1200 would also probably work fine. You don't have to overspend. You can get refurbished Linksys routers direct from them. Amazon Warehouse also is a good place and you get 30 days to try stuff out.

If you would like to experiment with a more central location, a pair of HomePlug AV2 adapters between the cable modem and router WAN port will let you move the router most anywhere. Powerline adapters can be sensitive to high-frequency noise from cellphone chargers and other "wall-wart" power supplies. But getting 60 Mbps should be doable.

The ASUS AC68U is a good product. So it NETGEAR's R7000 Nighthawk.

 

[stevech]

Hello, I would appreciate some router buying advice for my situation... I have an oddly-shaped two story house, approx. 3,300 sq. ft. total, somewhat long and wide, where the cable modem comes in on one end of the lower story. I can't really move the location of the modem. So I need to have a router that can cover all the way to the upstairs of the house on the other end.

Right now I am using a Netgear WNDR3700 (v1, I believe), and the coverage has been very spotty. I can barely get 5Ghz signals in a room directly upstairs above the router -- but a few feet out of the room, the signals are lost. On the same downstairs level, I can't get reliable wifi on either band when trying to stream videos to my phone.

I don't have too many people living in the house at the moment, and no AC devices either (yet); but we do a fair amount of downloading and streaming, plus Ooma, so some type of QoS or bandwidth prioritizing is important as well. On top of all this, I am trying to stay within a budget, with AC1900 prices to be the ceiling.

I am looking at the RT-AC68U, as I never seem to have much luck with Netgear so I am a bit leery of trying a different model. But I am open to any suggestions and directions that can fit my needs. All advice are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

You'll likely need 1 or 2 WiFi Access Points (APs) to provide better coverage. 3300 ft. multi-story is too much for one WiFi router even it it was centrally located.
see http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/basi...w-to-add-an-access-point-to-a-wireless-router
and a couple of other articles on the topic of APs, alternatives on how to connect AP to router via cat5 cable, MoCA (IP over existing TV coax), or IP over house power wiring).

You can save money by shopping for a WiFi router that has a supported AP mode choice. It will behave as an AP even though it has a WiFi router mode choice. These are less expensive that (the same hardware) sold as AP-only. I use and recommend ASUS mid-range, about $100 or so, Newegg.com, Amazon, etc. I feel that WiFi 802.11ac routers are overpriced for this need.

WiFi extenders are receive/retransmit "repeaters" and are the least desirable.

 

[pugdaddy]

An AC router may help since it can improve performance even for non AC devices. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wire...oes-an-ac-router-improve-n-device-performance

AC1900 is just fine. AC1750 or AC1200 would also probably work fine. You don't have to overspend. You can get refurbished Linksys routers direct from them. Amazon Warehouse also is a good place and you get 30 days to try stuff out.

If you would like to experiment with a more central location, a pair of HomePlug AV2 adapters between the cable modem and router WAN port will let you move the router most anywhere. Powerline adapters can be sensitive to high-frequency noise from cellphone chargers and other "wall-wart" power supplies. But getting 60 Mbps should be doable.

The ASUS AC68U is a good product. So it NETGEAR's R7000 Nighthawk.

Unfortunately my office and the main desktops are in the same room as the modem, it probably doesn't make sense to move the router to somewhere else, because several computers and NAS are on wired connections.

But I will give Powerline adapters another try. Currently I have only one pair of TP-Link TL-PA511 AV500; but using them with just one wall between the adapters (maybe 12 ft. distance max?) I am only able to get the lowest signal rate. Maybe the AV2 standard will be better -- I was hoping to use Powerline to supplement any dead spots and to get around the microwave interference.

Given that both AC68U and R7000 have had a couple of years to mature since the reviews, is there anything that may tip the advantage for one over the other?

 

[thiggins]

Flip a coin on the routers.

Homeplug AV2 is a significant improvement over AV500. But Homeplug requires some experimentation and tracking down and eliminating noise sources.

 

[mactenchi]

But I will give Powerline adapters another try. Currently I have only one pair of TP-Link TL-PA511 AV500; but using them with just one wall between the adapters (maybe 12 ft. distance max?) I am only able to get the lowest signal rate.

Try different outlets. Those nearby outlets may be on different circuits; far from each other wiring-wise.