sodage9908
New Around Here
Hey all,
I live in a home that is one floor approximately 2,000 sqft in size (high ceiling) with an approximately 2,000 sqft screened-in pool outside, perpendicular to and on the corner of the house. At the moment, I use an Arris TG1682 modem+router combo to deliver internet, however, it only covers most of the inside of the house when doors/windows are closed and maybe half of the house when doors/windows are open. I'm looking for a way to completely fix this coverage issue inside the house and add coverage to the pool area too while potentially future proofing for 1 gbps wireless speeds. My current bandwidth is about 230 mbps so I'd like 230 mbps wireless speeds at a minimum.
I've been doing a lot of research and it seems like there are two main options here. I could obtain two or three APs and configure them to act as one wifi network or I could buy a dedicated mesh router + satellites. My concern with the former is roaming. I know there are some standard APs which support 802.11r/k/v and thus Fast Roaming but I've been reading that Fast Roaming isn't very reliable due to unsupported devices, bad implementations on clients/routers, and being designed for enterprise or large scale networks. Standard APs also aren't very likely to support the force disconnect feature which helps with roaming on many mesh routers. At least, I haven't found any standard APs that support the feature. All of this is to prevent devices from sticking to APs that clearly have a bad connection and to have a seamless transition from node to node. If getting mesh router equivalent roaming or better with standard APs is not possible, then I'd like to go with a mesh router, but I'm not sure exactly which one to buy. There are terms such as Wifi 6 and Tri-band thrown around but I'm not sure if they are necessary to achieve the coverage and speeds in my case because I have no problem using a wired backhaul. I'm looking at the mesh routers for their advanced roaming capabilities and because of the wired backhaul, their wireless transfer speeds don't matter beyond getting the data from the wireless device to the nearest node (no wireless transferring of data between nodes necessary, except to coordinate roaming).
I think the best case scenario for me would be standard AP routers with roaming capabilities equivalent or better than mesh routers, with open source firmware installed, supporting gigabit wireless speeds everywhere, and at a decent price. The open source firmware is preferable to have complete control over my network but from what I've read, it seems as though open source mesh roaming support isn't very good. If roaming is simply not good enough on standard AP routers, then my remaining option is to find a mesh router that best fits my use-case.
After scouring the internet for advice, it seems the best mesh routers are the TP-Link Deco, ASUS AiMesh/ZenWifi, Amazon Eero Pro, NETGEAR Orbi, Synology mesh routers, and Ubiquiti. The Eero is apparently a privacy nightmare. I'd rather not have a router that sends sensitive browsing data and analytics to a third party. I've seen many people around the internet complain about the Orbi dropping frequently which is a huge problem for me. A router needs to be reliable. But, maybe it's been solved now or is a defect in a small percentage of units. If we look at the Wifi 6 and Tri-band routers, the best options seem to be the Deco X90, ZenWiFi AX6600 XT8 2PK, Orbi RBK752, and a combo of Ubiquiti routers but if we look at their price points, they're kind of steep at the $450 mark (RBK752 on sale at Amazon for $330 !!). If we look at the Wifi 5 and Tri-band routers, the best options seem to be the Deco M9, Orbi RBK23, and ZenWiFi CT8. All of their price points are listed around the $300 mark, with the Deco M9 taking the lead at $250.
I guess all of this really boils down to a few questions. First, are standard APs good at roaming or should I go for a mesh router? Second, if I should go for a mesh router, what specs does a mesh router need to give me the performance that I want? Would a $250-range mesh router like the Deco M9 work? Third, which router(s) would you suggest for this scenario?
Thanks for sticking with me
Edit: Seems like the Orbi RBK852 is on sale from $700 to $550 too!
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Whole-Tri-Band-System-RBK852/
I live in a home that is one floor approximately 2,000 sqft in size (high ceiling) with an approximately 2,000 sqft screened-in pool outside, perpendicular to and on the corner of the house. At the moment, I use an Arris TG1682 modem+router combo to deliver internet, however, it only covers most of the inside of the house when doors/windows are closed and maybe half of the house when doors/windows are open. I'm looking for a way to completely fix this coverage issue inside the house and add coverage to the pool area too while potentially future proofing for 1 gbps wireless speeds. My current bandwidth is about 230 mbps so I'd like 230 mbps wireless speeds at a minimum.
I've been doing a lot of research and it seems like there are two main options here. I could obtain two or three APs and configure them to act as one wifi network or I could buy a dedicated mesh router + satellites. My concern with the former is roaming. I know there are some standard APs which support 802.11r/k/v and thus Fast Roaming but I've been reading that Fast Roaming isn't very reliable due to unsupported devices, bad implementations on clients/routers, and being designed for enterprise or large scale networks. Standard APs also aren't very likely to support the force disconnect feature which helps with roaming on many mesh routers. At least, I haven't found any standard APs that support the feature. All of this is to prevent devices from sticking to APs that clearly have a bad connection and to have a seamless transition from node to node. If getting mesh router equivalent roaming or better with standard APs is not possible, then I'd like to go with a mesh router, but I'm not sure exactly which one to buy. There are terms such as Wifi 6 and Tri-band thrown around but I'm not sure if they are necessary to achieve the coverage and speeds in my case because I have no problem using a wired backhaul. I'm looking at the mesh routers for their advanced roaming capabilities and because of the wired backhaul, their wireless transfer speeds don't matter beyond getting the data from the wireless device to the nearest node (no wireless transferring of data between nodes necessary, except to coordinate roaming).
I think the best case scenario for me would be standard AP routers with roaming capabilities equivalent or better than mesh routers, with open source firmware installed, supporting gigabit wireless speeds everywhere, and at a decent price. The open source firmware is preferable to have complete control over my network but from what I've read, it seems as though open source mesh roaming support isn't very good. If roaming is simply not good enough on standard AP routers, then my remaining option is to find a mesh router that best fits my use-case.
After scouring the internet for advice, it seems the best mesh routers are the TP-Link Deco, ASUS AiMesh/ZenWifi, Amazon Eero Pro, NETGEAR Orbi, Synology mesh routers, and Ubiquiti. The Eero is apparently a privacy nightmare. I'd rather not have a router that sends sensitive browsing data and analytics to a third party. I've seen many people around the internet complain about the Orbi dropping frequently which is a huge problem for me. A router needs to be reliable. But, maybe it's been solved now or is a defect in a small percentage of units. If we look at the Wifi 6 and Tri-band routers, the best options seem to be the Deco X90, ZenWiFi AX6600 XT8 2PK, Orbi RBK752, and a combo of Ubiquiti routers but if we look at their price points, they're kind of steep at the $450 mark (RBK752 on sale at Amazon for $330 !!). If we look at the Wifi 5 and Tri-band routers, the best options seem to be the Deco M9, Orbi RBK23, and ZenWiFi CT8. All of their price points are listed around the $300 mark, with the Deco M9 taking the lead at $250.
I guess all of this really boils down to a few questions. First, are standard APs good at roaming or should I go for a mesh router? Second, if I should go for a mesh router, what specs does a mesh router need to give me the performance that I want? Would a $250-range mesh router like the Deco M9 work? Third, which router(s) would you suggest for this scenario?
Thanks for sticking with me
Edit: Seems like the Orbi RBK852 is on sale from $700 to $550 too!
https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Whole-Tri-Band-System-RBK852/
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