Router Suggestion for BT 900 FTTP

[MrSweetE90]

Hi All,

Been scouring the Internet for a while but I just wanted to ask before I committed to anything. I got BT 900 setup and it's not been too bad but I want better wireless signal/speeds around the house and I want to be able to separate SSID's of the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi which is something I could do on Virgin Medias Superhub 4 but not on BT's smart hub 2. My son uses Shadow (a cloud based pc) which requires relatively little speed (20Mb/s) but low ping/latency.

I don't want to spend a lot of a router tbh, I've seen on this forum the Asus RT-AC86U and RT-AC88U mentioned with the AC86U being the favoured out of the two due to bugs on the AC88U (I think?) I would have liked to get an AX router to try out WiFi 6 but that pretty much seems to narrow down to the RT-AX86U if I recall correctly which is a lot more than the other AC's I've looked at.

So, if I want a descent boost in my speeds over WiFi compared to my ISP Smart Hub, would my best option as of now be an AC86U with the next best being an AC88U or would you suggest I put more towards something else?

Many Thanks

 

[Tech Junky]

Why not just get an actual AP instead that offers 8 SSID's per band and as many VLANs you can stomach?

NWA110AX - $!30

or if you need a touch more horsepower / coverage

NWA210AX - $160

The only consideration would be if the provider modem is offering the ability to do VLAN's or if your existing router does. If either do then there's no need for another RT device to contend with.

 

[MrSweetE90]

Why not just get an actual AP instead that offers 8 SSID's per band and as many VLANs you can stomach?

NWA110AX - $!30

or if you need a touch more horsepower / coverage

NWA210AX - $160

The only consideration would be if the provider modem is offering the ability to do VLAN's or if your existing router does. If either do then there's no need for another RT device to contend with.

Hi mate,

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately it seems the prices in the UK are vastly different. For example the 210AX is around £190/£200 in comparison to the AC86U (£50/£70) and slightly more for the AC88U (£80ish)

Now the BT modem/router I believe connects to the Asus router via the WAN port and connected with pppoe. Hopefully that connection explains to the more experienced what's available to me in terms of hardware.

The SSID separation is just to get my devices upstairs to connect to the 5Ghz band which gets around 200+Mbs vs the 55Mb/s over 2.4ghz. But I could only force this by turning off 2.4ghz completely which I then lose connection to my smart lights, plugs and cameras.

The more important one for me I suppose is a stronger WiFi connection/better speeds so things like my sons Shadow (cloud based pc) works well upstairs.

 

[Tech Junky]

PPOE is just the authentication to activate the link

Splitting the SSID's is ideal and I do the same for low BW devices as well. Some older ones also only work on 2.4 like printers / thermostats.

I would be looking at a 4x4 router then for good coverage and AX for the improvements in handling traffic. AX also boosts the speeds for each band compared to AC.

If you're going to put the money into it and want the true speed or as close as possible spending a little more now will give you longevity in the equipment. With the NWA210AX I can hit 1.5gbps over WIFI. The other thing that comes to mind is upgrading the WIFI cards on your devices will yield better performance as well. The Intel AX210 ($35) will get you where you want to be for speed son laptops & desktops.