Sub $200 upgrade - Prosumer or Consumer?

[dynoto]

Hi guys, allow me to introduce myself.

I'm Dave, new guy here ... been a reader here for years but haven't created an account.

Would like to ask for some opinions to upgrade my hardware.

Currently I own an AC66U which is positioned on the corner of bedroom, 60 cm above the ground; but it has problems with range especially outside my bedroom where there are quite a few walls blocking the signal.
So currently I'm in the market for an upgrade.

After browsing Amazon for awhile, it boils down to two choices
Ubiquiti EdgeMax router + UAP-AC-PRO vs Asus AC3200

If I went for Ubiquiti, I can hang the AP higher on the wall so to get better range, but then the bandwidth will be limited to AC1750, though I do like enterprise-grade equipment (i have reasonable amount of knowledge in networking devices so no problems in configuring routers)

If I went for ASUS, I won't be able to hang this as the setup looks bulky and possible risk of falling, so have to rely on the transmission power of the router.

My current constraints
- no drilling, only 3M hanger hooks
- can't reposition the router anywhere else in the room (or the house)

 

[Nullity]

What are your goals? The Ubiquiti devices will undoubtedly more featureful and future-proof.

The two setups are quite different.

 

[Trip]

Echoing Nullity - we need more info to make a solid recommendation:

What is your internet speed up/down in Mb/s?
What makes up the bulk of your traffic, both local and internet? (ie. mostly just light web browsing and email checking; gaming; file-transfers, local and/or remote streaming, torrenting, etc.)
How many endpoints do you have, and what type? (desktop, laptop, server, phone, tablet, media boxes, etc.)
What are your minimums for wifi coverage and bandwidth, as precisely as you can describe? (helps to include square footage numbers, number of floors, rooms, and/or more observations about how the AC66 performs currently given the layout)
Besides typical router services (DHCP, NAT, Firewall, DNS, etc.), are you looking to run anything else on the box? (VPN, QoS, other)

 

[sfx2000]

OP - you'll find a lot of good advice here - so welcome aboard...

On the high end - just consider that half-life of most solutions in the home network game is about 12 months... tech is moving pretty fast - and chasing the high end is going to cost some cash...

That being said - if you're in a rental unit - drilling holes, etc.. not likely going to win friends with the landlord - what I call a BHR - Big Honking Router - will cover a 2 bedroom apartment (flat) and 15-25 clients or so very nicely... and there, one cannot go wrong with any AC1900 class consumer device - Asus has a good one with the RT-AC68U (and the subsequent RT-AC3100 perhaps), and Netgear's R7000 (prime, as they're perhaps launching another similar device but completely different) - if needs are simple - there's always the Airport Extreme AC... all perform well..

If one wants to explore mesh type of things - Netgear's Orbi has good feedback, and seems like eero and google's Wifi thingies are a good bet - one might lose a bit of config options with these devices, but most folks seem ok with it (in other words, they meet the 95 percentile...)

Coverage -- with most - 2.4GHz will give good coverage out to 2500 sq ft in most cases, 5GHz -- about half that, but punching thru walls take a bit of wind out of it.

Keep things simple - and you'll be right as rain...

 

[dynoto]

Hi guys, thanks for the reply
key information as follows

- I'm currently renting a room in a 4 bedroom apartment, there is a main router Asus RT-56U in the living room so i'm not entirely concerned about wifi signal reaching their rooms
- Unfortunately, my room is at the very end hence i used a TPLINK 500Mbps powerline adapter to route the internet to one of the power sockets inside my bedroom, then connect it to my AC66U.
- I can't move my powerline adapter as based on my testing only this socket provides the best throughput
- House layout : https://goo.gl/photos/MdTCqfamUniJXmQA6

pink : my bedroom
green : other's bedroom
grey : living room
brown : misc rooms
turquoise : toilet, blue : kitchen
x : the routers (my AC66U and the public RT56U
​

Internet usage information
- 200Mbps FIOS Up and Down
- I have Intel NUC that is used for torrent
- One ipad
- Two phones
- Two macs
- One PS4

Now, the issue that i would like to tackle is that, how to make the signal reach the kitchen.

(There are some reasons of why can't just use the living room wifi, but i can't ... so i'm tapping into the FIOS network using powerline adapter instead)

 

[dynoto]

OP - you'll find a lot of good advice here - so welcome aboard...

On the high end - just consider that half-life of most solutions in the home network game is about 12 months... tech is moving pretty fast - and chasing the high end is going to cost some cash...

That being said - if you're in a rental unit - drilling holes, etc.. not likely going to win friends with the landlord - what I call a BHR - Big Honking Router - will cover a 2 bedroom apartment (flat) and 15-25 clients or so very nicely... and there, one cannot go wrong with any AC1900 class consumer device - Asus has a good one with the RT-AC68U (and the subsequent RT-AC3100 perhaps), and Netgear's R7000 (prime, as they're perhaps launching another similar device but completely different) - if needs are simple - there's always the Airport Extreme AC... all perform well..

If one wants to explore mesh type of things - Netgear's Orbi has good feedback, and seems like eero and google's Wifi thingies are a good bet - one might lose a bit of config options with these devices, but most folks seem ok with it (in other words, they meet the 95 percentile...)

Coverage -- with most - 2.4GHz will give good coverage out to 2500 sq ft in most cases, 5GHz -- about half that, but punching thru walls take a bit of wind out of it.

Keep things simple - and you'll be right as rain...

actually i like the idea of the mesh networking, but starting at $200 (well .. gotta buy at least 2?) without those rudimentary functions like port forwarding really puts me off. I'd like to have a router that provide at least equal if not better networking functionality compared to what i have currently.
due to seedbox requirements .. and also i'm hosting a plex server which i'd like to access outside my residence

 

[System Error Message]

you dont necessarily have to place it on the wall, there are many ways and places you can plays a wifi AP. You can place it on a shelf, or ontop your cupboard for instance. It doesnt matter how far the router is from the wall as it will still lose the same amount of energy passing through it if you are on the other side of the wall.

 

[thiggins]

If you have thick stone / concrete walls, a bigger number router isn't going to fix range issues. Nor is any solution that requires WiFi to connect access points. This includes mesh.

You didn't say what you expect for bandwidth / speed in your kitchen location.

You can try a simple experiment with an AC1200 class wireless extender. If it doesn't give you a usable signal, a mesh solution won't either.

If powerline is working for you, use it to connect a second access point in the kitchen.

 

[Trip]

Thanks for the details. Is your FIOS line 200Mb/s *symmetric*? ie. 200 down / 200 up? I would assume not, but if yes, very nice. (I'd be running all kinds of externally-accessible servers in my place if that were the case!) You definitely want to make sure your primary router (56U) is able to handle the 400Mb of aggregate bandwidth, so as to preserve your connection quality downstream to the rest of the apartment residents (yourself included, of course!).

Next thing to look at would be your powerline adapters. If you haven't already, I would test them to make sure they're giving you adequate throughput. Many 500Mb units unfortunately don't even deliver 100Mb/s in many scenarios. If you find you're noticeably below full WAN utilization (ie. 200/200) and you do want to max it out, then an upgrade to an AV2 1Gb+ model may be necessary. If you do upgrade, note that products based on different chipset brands often vary in throughput and general performance. No 2 use-cases are ever the same, so the only way to know which model is best for you is to try them if you can front the cash, then return the loser. If you're in the American market and can order off Amazon, I'd try the Extollo LanSocket 1500 (Broadcom) and a TP-Link PL9020 (Qualcomm). Another option is MoCa, if you have runs of coaxial cable and drops in the right places. I find it to be more stable and less prone to ping spikes and/or momentary dropouts than Powerline, but of course YMMV. The Actiontec ECB-6200 is the go-to choice there.

Re- reaching the kitchen, per Tim's warning, if blockages are a real concern, more powerful radios and/or more access points in fringe locations might not penetrate well enough. Best to deliver a link to the kichen via wire, powerline or MoCa, then deploy whatever AP(s) you need from there. I would pick up a 3rd identical powerline unit, see if a kitchen outlet will work well enough, then deploy a low-power AP there. If all you need is N150 or N300, the $30 Asus RT-N12 running AdvancedTomato to is a rock-solid no-brainer.

If you stick with standalone, unmanaged APs, just run all the ones you'd like on the same subnet under the same SSID, on non-overlapping channels, and you should be good to go.

As for mesh or not, you tend to gain some nice-to-haves such as centralized management, true multi-point redundancy and/or zero-handoff roaming. Regarding your concern on re-purposing, while many of the whole-house products come configured as routers *and* APs by default, most have an AP-only or "bridge" mode you can put them in to allow for another box to handle routing, firewall, etc. This is the case with Orbi and Eero, at least. They'll typically advise against this, as they'll say you're "giving up" the full feature set by doing so, but honestly, it's more of a support cop-out than anything, especially for a user who knows what he/she is doing. If you're savvy enough, Ubiquiti UniFi is another product to look at. It requires a controller for setup and ongoing global control, but it's a very nice system as well. Even with all that considered, these systems may be overkill for your needs when considering price. That one is up to you.