Upgrade or wait?

[ACwifiguy]

Hi all. I have three Netgear R6250’s at home and looking for your opinions. I am running COX 300/30 internet and will soon be upgrading to 1,000/35 (I have a Netgear CM1000 modem).

The reason for the upgrade is that I regularly upload HD and 4K videos (often two at a time or I am live-streaming while uploading) for work - more upload speed always helps.

My main router is running Netgear firmware and only runs 2.4gHz on its own 2.4gHz SSID. 2.4gHz has a ring doorbell and six other smart devices.

I have two APs running Kong dd-wrt firmware running 5gHz only / AC only with a shared 5gHz SSID. There are four total newer apple iPads and iPhones on this network. They roam halfway thru the house- takes roughly a second to roam - enough to cause a brief disturbance in live streaming. These APs are located in the most critical places where I work with several wired devices connected behind these APs. These APs are connected to the main router with cat 6A cable and everything else in the house is wired with cat 6A.


Main questions - any value in upgrading to:
1) A system that supports 802.11k or 802.11r to improve this transition? If so - what system?
2) 4x4 antenna APs to improve bandwidth - comparing the newer routers to my R6250’s they are nearly double the performance at the short distances I am working with on the smallnetbuilder charts! https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wir...gear-r6250-smart-wifi-router-reviewed?start=3 I know that I am not saturating my ISP’s download but would there be any benefit? Any 4x4 devices recommended?

 

[L&LD]

The R6250's are rather dated today with technology that was developed in 2012. Anything you buy should show an improvement in your network.

I think that a single RT-AC3100 (RMerlin's firmware recommended) would easily handle your network and give you improvements in all important aspects. Even if you can't centrally locate it.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/s...-go-with-the-rt-ac1900p-v3.34748/#post-281391

Not only will you be getting a more simplified setup, but you will also be getting enhanced performance and security too.

The only other sane option today would be considering the RT-AC86U or possibly the RT-AX88U if you really have a need to spend cash. The RT-AC86U with RMerlin firmware should be even slightly above the much older RT-AC3100.

The RT-AX88U may become a great router in the not too distant future with firmware upgrades from Asus (closed source) and RMerlin's contributions, but in the meantime, know that you are a beta tester, first.

Please let us know how you make out with this upgrade project if you decide to go ahead.

 

[thiggins]

Sub second roams require 802.11r, which very few consumer products support. The good news is that if your i devices are running iOS 9 or higher, they support 11kv and r.

11kvr implementation is much more common in mesh systems since they are designed as multi-AP systems.

The bad news is that even if you find APs that support all 3, you're still unlikely to have glitch free roaming. Be happy your devices are roaming in only a few seconds!

 

[ACwifiguy]

Thanks for the feedback!

L&LD- I have been looking at the ASUS products extensively. I agree the AC86 and AX88 are both impressive hardware. My house’s walls and bookshelves take their toll on the 5gHz band and I anticipate that I’ll still want two APs for my work and I hope that this summer or fall hopefully all those software issues mature and make it worth the upgrade! Looks like I’ll have to be patient for a couple more months to see if there is an integrated approach that would be better (maybe the future AX92U 2 pack system or similar would be perfect?).

Thiggins- All the devices are running iOS 12. I have loved the roaming articles on the site. I hope that even though roaming is client driven that at least we see more consumer level router 802.11 kvr support come out this year. I would love a mature aimesh setup that offers more available adjustments to node channels/frequencies, permanently used a hardwire backhaul for those of us with wired houses, and eventually goes open source to enable further optimization (not very clear what protocol their aimesh proprietary system is using k, v, and/or r?).