Replacing my AC68U media bridge; Athena-EX or EX8000?

[ashG]

My old Asus AC68U is finally ready to go to the great parts bin in the sky. It just couldn't handle life as a media hub for my office and the issues just kept mounting up regardless of firmware.

My house network is powered by an Edgerouter X and a AP-AC-PRO. Super stable and fast! I need a new media bridge to service my office. The two I've identified as potential replacements are the Amped Wireless Athena-EX and the Netgear EX8000. Both have solid reviews across a variety of sites. Netgear is a known entity to me; I've never owned anything from Amped Wireless.

What saith the peanut gallery? Which would you recommend?

 

[Easy Rhino]

in your previous post you also mentioned that most of the rest of your house is running ubiquiti stuff:
https://www.snbforums.com/threads/planning-a-major-overhaul-critique-my-purchase-plan.46797/

First question, what are the possibilities of you running Ethernet down to your office? It would definitely help out with speed and stability on the devices. And if you needed wifi coverage you could get another Unifi AP.

 

[ashG]

Why a wireless bridge? Rental house: can't run patch, can't move modem, bad wiring makes powerline networking poor. I have solid wifi coverage in my office from the AP-AC-Pro; I also have two computers, my repair desk. and a NAS that need wired connections.

 

[Easy Rhino]

Ah, so lack of Ethernet probably means a ubiquiti product isn't going to work for you. Is there coaxial in both locations? Theres a chance that MoCA might be an option.

Anyway, I wasn't familiar with the Amped wireless product. It seems fine? It uses the same mediatek chipset as the Dlink DIR 878 and 882 that have been reviewed here on SNB, although they don't support bridge mode in their firmware.

However, if you wanted to save a buck you could get a 4x4 or even 3x3 router that you can set to bridge mode. Even another AC68U.