Should I bridge my Actiontec MI424WR

[bman03]

I have home office and the Actiontec MI424WR rev I router. A couple times in the past few months the wifi signal just died. No SSID. All connections dropped. The wired connections were still working. The SSID came back after a couple of minutes. One time I was on a conference call. I'm worried it might happen again, so I'm considering getting another wifi router and bridging the Actiontec?
I counted and I have 16 possible wifi devices working at time.
I'm considering the ASUS RT-AC86U or ASUS RT-AC88U but, my wife is calling me crazy for spending $200 on a router. She thinks the wifi is "fine".
1) Will the newer routers have the problem with disappearing wifi connections?
2) Will I benefit from an performance gains from a newer wifi connection?

Thanks

 

[degrub]

Is that the ISP's device ?
If it is, tell them what is going on and ask if they will replace it, no charge, perhaps with a wireless AC version.
Check the router logs to see if the drop out corresponds to a firmware update and re-boot or other hardware issue.

 

[bman03]

I called them after the second event. I've been with the ISP (Verizon) so long the router is "out of warranty" and if I want to another one it's a $10\mo charge. They can't guarantee it won't happen again. I don't see anything obvious in the router logs.

 

[degrub]

Can you run the VOIP over wired instead of wireless ?
Then when the wireless causes enough issues, 200 won't be.

 

[bman03]

I don't have ethernet in the office but, I do have COAX. Is there a device which will allow me to use the TCP over COAX while keeping the MI424WR as the main router?

 

[degrub]

Depends on what you have. MOCA 2 needs RG6 coax. MOCA 1.1 needs RG59 coax.

If it is an unused coax run, then just get a pair of Actiontec MOCA modems. If you have RG6, a pair of Actiontec bonded 6200 will work at close to Gigabit speed.

If the coax is part of an existing MOCA network tied to the ISP or cable tv provider, you will want to match the MOCA version although MOCA 2 is supposed to run at MOCA 1.1 speed.

Search the forum here about implementation in mixed environments and consult the ISP or cable tv company's support pages.