Time to replace my 3700v2

[jmdeegan]

I have a Netgear 3700v2, it has served me well, but it is starting to get flaky. First thought it was bad firmware-and it may have been-but I have rolled back to the last known stable Netgear release. Now, it's gotten unstable again. Specifically, the 5ghz SSID will be unreachable off and on, while the 2.4ghz SSID is fine.

My setup currently is this...Verizon FiOS comes into the basement. from their device, i connect to the Netgear, and I have both the FiOS and Netgear broadcasting a total of 3 SSID. the house has 2 floors plus the basement, so it's trying to push the SSID up to the top floor, and now its not getting there.
When I first got the Netgear a few years ago, it was fine. wasn't as much traffic back then. the city we are in, the houses are close and everyone has wifi...so there is a lot of clutter. I work in networking, so I've used iStumblr to help ensure i am on the right channels, but i think at this point the router is just failing, and probably handling more devices than intended.

Now, I can run 1-2 apple TV, usually just one. there are usually 3 iPads and 4-5 iPhones connected, plus i have 3-5 PCs on wired connections and another 1 or 2 wireless at any given time (it is a 2 family home, i don't have THAT many toys

So, I think it's safe to say we've outgrown the Netgear.

I would prefer to keep the new device in the basement. Selfish reasons, but thats where my home office is. I could likely put it in the ground floor, so that its equidistant from the other two floors, but hopefully not needed.

I've looked at the ASUS line, as I have heard a lot of good things. I was looking at the N66, which looks nice but seems to be just a minor step up from the 3700, going from N600 to N900. I was looking at some of the AC models, thinking I could spend a little more now to be a bit more future proofed, maybe get USB3 (not a need, as i haven't set up the storage functionality on the 3700. just a printer)

My main two concerns are the ability to handle a lot of connections, and being able to get the signal on all 3 floors, in spite of the material and competing signals.

$150 is probably around the sweet spot for me.

thanks for the help in advance

 

[jmdeegan]

also, worth noting, at present i have ZERO AC devices. Hence that would be the future proofing end of it.

 

[stevech]

flaky service does not mean faulty router.

Have you considered putting an Access Point on a floor above the basement? Will make a big difference.

 

[jmdeegan]

i am pretty confident it's a flaky router. reason being, up until very recently the main floor had no issues. i was not (and am not) too concerned with the top floor. the one mac thats up there is wired, and if my brother in law wants to connect his PS4, he can fork out $$ to extend the network.

but the main floor, where there is the wireless laptop and apple, have really never had issues.

i also end up surfing from my macbook, ipad or iphone at night. and now, in the middle of surfing, sometimes very frequently, the wireless will just go away. if i flip to the verizon SSID, it's fine. so at this point, everything points to the netgear. the code upgrade i had done i undid, and it is back to the version it was running before the upgrade, which was rock solid.

today, while trying to stream a movie via the apple tv, i had to restart the movie a half dozen times before i just gave up. it stopped whenever the SSID/network dropped.

trying to get this done as an all-in-one set up because its my in laws place mostly. once my wife and i get into our own home, i plan on spending a bit more time and energy and getting a dedicated router and running access points, for better coverage and flexibility. less interested in that here, because my mother in law doesn't want to see the stuff. she just wants it to work.

 

[stevech]

have you tested to prove that WiFi fails but the wired connections are OK - at that same time?

 

[jmdeegan]

i am 99 percent sure that the wired stuff was fine--i was on a wired connection when the wireless was dropping, and i never had an issue with my connection.

my vpn phone for work, also hard wired, did reset once, but it does tht from time to time on its own, depending on whats going on with the telecom system at work.

plus, now i am watching istumblr, and my signal strength is terrible for my 5ghz network. it used to rival the 2.4 when i was one floor up. now its like a completely different network. (the 2.4 on istumblr has a signal of -55dbm, where the 5 has a signal of around -70. and i have toggled to all the channels, most others are actually worse. neighboring 5ghz networks are barely seen, and no channel issues there.

either reverting back to the last known good firmware hosed something, or after 3 plus years of constant use, its showing age.

part of me is still debating borrowing a cisco clean air AP from my stash at work....that would be a horse of a different color.

 

[jmdeegan]

just thinking out loud here, but in the direction of the cisco AP...if i grabbed one from work, or even bought an ubiquiti, i should be able to just hang that off of the wired portion of the 3700 and arguably get better wifi, no? even if i dont relocate it...tho i might

 

[stevech]

AP itself does nothing.
It's all about if the AP as an integral antenna with 12dBi or more gain.

But don't abandon finding a way to get an AP on the other side of the wall as discussed above.

 

[Trip]

jm - Which device is actually doing your routing, the 3700v2 or the FiOS unit? I'm assuming you've set the FiOS unit to bridge/pass-through mode, and the Netgear is handling routing, firewalling, dhcp, etc.? Just want to gain some clarity there.

Moving to the actual config, why not keep value where it still exists: if the 3700 is still functioning well as a wired router (it should have plenty of CPU/flash/ram to manage 20 SOHO clients), then just turn off all wireless, and put the whole $150 towards wifi AP(s). One example could be a ubiquiti unifi AP setup bottom side down in the basement (thus broadcasting the donut upward) plus another on the middle floor mounted vertically on the wall (reaching down to grab the base AP's signal, and broadcasting upward for the rest of your house, plus your brother-in-law, whom you could have pay for that unit if you wanted). I have a feeling something like that may solve your issues outright.

 

[jmdeegan]

basically correct. i don't use the fios router for much of anything...all my dhcp et al is on the netgear. i left the fios router up and with its wifi just in case, but pretty much no one uses it, just the set top boxes and i think one wired connection somewhere.

i am leaning toward the one or two AP solution and leaving the router as the router only....debating borrowing a cisco from my work stash in the short term, as i would expect the two to behave kinda similarly as AP. gives me an idea what i could expect.

fingers crossed