UK home network 2000sqft house NAS Wifi6 350mb WAN Advice needed please

[KeenWifiUser]

Hi I have really struggled and spent so much time looking that I am suffering extreme analysis paralysis and need help from you kind folks please:

I want to upgrade my current Apple Airport with 2 extenders network (12 years old) reliable but increasingly poor connections and lots of black spots in the house and garden

Here are my requirements:

1. 5 bed 3 floor house 2k sqft and small garden in London (congested with neighbours wifi) - I want thorough coverage in the house or garden
2. Currently 350mb WAN connection but want to get ready for the new 800-1.3gb connections in the next few months
3. 4 residents all heavy users of wifi, streaming (all TV is IP based now) and multi-media (up and download) and lots of IoT devices. All work from home so reliability a must
4. House is cat 6A wired in every room, with a gigbit switch and a central NAS (4 year old QNAP) drive (which replicates to the cloud) heavily used for photographs and videos so want a wired backhaul - sometimes switch to ethernet for large transfers
5. Must - Wifi 6, probably mesh is better idea and ideally (probably a Must) 160Mhz support - want high speed performance
6. Prefer (not a must) 2.5gb or dual WAN support since we may have two broadband providers and load balance or cutover should one fail.
7. Proper support for Guest network - often have guests and need guest network through the house not just on main router and need decent speed on the guest network. At present, the Apple gives only about 10% of throughput to the guest from just one router.
8. Small Possibility of opening ports - although probably safer not to
9. Finally, I probably need to pay handsomely but I like a bargain

Which router/Mesh would you buy to last another 12 years?

thanks for your kind advice

 

[ulaganath]

As tech advances i dont expect anything beyond 3-5 years . One need to keep rolling for latest as demand keeps changing.

If you want multi wan and every room is wired best is AP and gateway setup a way to go. Keep your pocket open.

Dream Machine Pro

All-in-one, enterprise-grade UniFi OS Console and security gateway designed to host the full UniFi application suite. Connect the Dream Machine Pro with a USP RPS to create an uninterruptible network. Features: Pre-installed UniFi Network application LAN ports: (8) GbE RJ45, (1) 10G SFP+ WAN...

store.ui.com

This will take care of future need as well 10gig SFP+ and 8 Gig lan port and NVR ready

Switch Flex - Ubiquiti Store

Flexible 5-port, Layer 2 PoE switch for indoor and outdoor use, that can be powered with PoE++.

store.ui.com

You need for powering AP's If you need more than 4 AP i suggest for 16-Port or two of these.

Or the below if you plan for Camera's in future or already have that can POE

Switch 8 - Ubiquiti Store

An 8-port, Layer 2 PoE switch with a Gigabit PoE passthrough output.

store.ui.com

UniFi6 Long-Range

High-performance, indoor/outdoor WiFi 6 access point with extended signal range. Features: 5 GHz WiFi 6 band (4x4), 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 band (4x4) 3.0 Gbps aggregate throughput rate Horizontal, downward-tilted antenna pattern to widen coverage area (1) GbE RJ45 port (PoE In) Powered with PoE+...

store.ui.com

Get these 3-5 where ever you feel you need best coverage. This will be good for years to come can handle 1gig duplex so you are covered.

UniFi6 Lite

Compact, dual-band WiFi 6 access point with flexible mounting options. Features: 5 GHz WiFi 6 band, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 band 1.5 Gbps aggregate throughput rate Focused antenna pattern for optimal ceiling or wall mounting (1) GbE RJ45 port (PoE In) Fits UAP nanoHD covers and the recessed...

store.ui.com

only for portable and IOT where bandwidth not matters but connection this will suits. Can handle general browsing and streaming good for upto 500Mbps anything beyond you need LR to get atleast 80% of 1gig can go upto 915Mbps

 

[L&LD]

A well-placed RT-AX86U or a couple of them (in wired backhaul mode) if needed for the garden coverage is all you may need. The fewer 'APs' the better, particularly in congested areas.

With the 2.5GbE port the RT-AX86U offer, the superior Wi-Fi (throughput and coverage, see Tim's latest article), and the lowest latency consumer router you can buy today, this is where I would start to begin searching for new wireless network equipment.

For all we know, the RT-AX86U will be viable for the next 12 years at some level or another, but I agree with @ulaganath above that a more realistic usable life span be acknowledged from the start.

When a 2016 era router (RT-AC3100) could cover 5,000 SqFt 'easily' for a customer, a five-year newer router should at least match (and it exceeds it, actually). Forget what you know about Wi-Fi with the old airports.

Buy two current routers and only unbox one and test it in your environment fully before unboxing the second one too (I am guessing you won't need it, even if you may want it).

Best Practice Update/Setup Router/AiMesh Node(s) 2021

AiMesh Ideal Placement

L&LD | SmallNetBuilder Forums

 

[KeenWifiUser]

@ulaganath and @L&LD thank you for those excellent responses

Two different approaches - let me think and I will report back.

 

[KeenWifiUser]

Ok I said I will report back and here i am. I decided to go with the ASUS RT-AX86U and I have to say it is great - been running for a about 3 months, especially since i have just had an 800Mb fibre line installed and indeed, I get pretty close to the full 800Mb when I'm connected to Asus unit itself. So a good recommendation.

But the radio range is still not strong enough to cover all of my house and garden and I've kept a couple of the old Apple Airport Expresses going via wired backhaul - they are acting as old school APs to the main Asus so the performance is old school and no benefits of AI Mesh. Two APs seems necessary due to maybe there is too much stuff in my house blocking signal.

So I would like to buy at least one, maybe two additional AiMesh APs for the current Asus and remove the old Airports from my life once and for all!

@L&LD, you suggested buying two AX86Us and running the second as an AIMesg AP? I'm concerned that I might need two APs. So, this could be expensive using the AX86U as an AP. Would I be better off buying something like Zen minis - two for half the price of one? Will i get the full AI Mesh benefits with this or who recommends the best bang for buck wired APs for my AX86U?

Many thanks for sharing the knowledge