Upgrading router or more?

[SniffyTofu]

Hi All,
I am new to this forum and I came across the forum while using google search in regards to couple router comparisons. I hope someone can assist me in giving some insight on what I can do to fix some existing issues and I hope I posted in the right section. sorry if I didn't. I'm not extremely knowledgeable so yea...

I currently have a router (Netgear R7000) and a extender (Netgear EX7000). I am having some problems with streaming and file sharing within the home network, I assume its because the router and extender cannot provide capacity for the high traffic. The following things are being connected to the network, where only one or two are wired by ethernet cable. The Extender is in the basement (one floor down), while the router is upstairs in the computer room (one floor up). The router is broadcasting 2 SSID, one for 2.4ghz and one for 5ghz.

Wireless:
- Extender
- 4 iphones
- iPad mini, air, and pro
- ASUS laptop, 2 macbook pro, desktop, printer
- Android tv box (3 of them),
- 4k samsung tv, LG+Samsung Smart tv, old Samsung LCD tv
- Chromecast 1st gen, 2nd gen, ultra
- Xbox One S

Wired:
- VOIP modem

So basically, there are hours of day where I am streaming 4k content through my computer with plex, the transcoding buffers my comp at near 100%. The 4k h.265 runs smoothly and nothing is wrong until someone else starts streaming. I have two others at home that either stream online videos on amazon prime, netflix, youtube, or online sites. Sometimes I even cast my chrome onto my other tv for stock dashboard. ISP wise, I am on a 60mbps down 10 mbps up, and I have changed providers to a 250mbps down starting mid May. While all of these occur, there are also other things I do or others do on the network, like browse on the internet or talk on the phone, if the news is on we also have the android tv box on at the other room. However, its hard to have all of it running simultaneously. Either the 4k stutters, or the online streaming completely not work, phones not connecting to the wifi internet etc.

What can I do to fix this problem? I was thinking about getting a new router, so I was googling on the ASUS RT AC88U, Netgear X8, Dlink 885, but I'm not sure which one or is it even necessary?
Previous I had the extender hooked up to a powerline with the router, however two powerline adapters broke within this year, where the adapter always says poor connection. I'm clueless as to what I should really do at this point.

Thanks in advance for any advice that anyone replies with.

 

[MichaelCG]

What you haven't provided is details as to what is on 2.4GHz vs 5GHz.

 

[SniffyTofu]

What you haven't provided is details as to what is on 2.4GHz vs 5GHz.

My bad, so on the 5ghzi have the ipad pro, all the iphones, 4k samsung tv, chromecast ultra, desktop, xbox one, one of the macbook pro.

The rest are all on the 2.4ghz since none of the android boxes support 5, I can't throw them over.

 

[MichaelCG]

You mention the Extender was previously using PowerLine...is that how it is still doing back-haul? Is the Extender using a different channel than the main router?

If you are getting stuttering on the 4k Plex stream when any other Internet activity hits, this leads me to point at WiFi congestion more than anything else. That stream should have nothing to do at all with your Internet connection, so any hiccup would be on the WiFi side.

 

[SniffyTofu]

The Wi-Fi extender is no longer powered by a powerline. I haven't figured out why all the powerline adapters stopped functioning properly, always bad connection.

So if I'm having a wifi congestion problem , what can I do to improve it? Get a better router? Triband?

I also set up the wifi on different channels from the ones nearby to avoid problems. However, because the extender is no longer a separate access point, it's just repeating my current signal. I upgraded my current isp for downloading 4k content quicker n hopefully i get btr ping for gaming? Iunno if that helps?

 

[MichaelCG]

You can go down the path of a BHR or go down the path of multiple APs distributed across the house. It really depends on what your overall goals are. When dealing consistent WiFi coverage for multiple devices across an entire house, you will generally get better performance/results from multiple APs that are closer to the devices/users.

Solve your in-house issues first before chasing your Internet bandwidth issues. If you can get Ethernet runs to multiple points in your house, put in a couple of APs, that would be the best solution. If you can't get Ethernet runs across the house, you need to look at some type of Wireless, PowerLine, or COAX type back-haul. If using wireless, you may just continue to fight for bandwidth and airtime.

There is not a single solution that just works for everyone. You have to define what your budget is, what issue are you trying to solve, how much effort you want to put in, and how flexible is the cabling options within the house.

Your extender using WiFi for back-haul is the first thing I will point at. That pretty much automatically cuts your available WiFi bandwidth in half. Doing that along with several chatty clients and problems arise. If you want the simplest most immediate solution, fix your powerline issue. Then if you want to continue to improve things, take a closer look at your entire setup and start laying out requirements and limitations and go from there.

 

[SniffyTofu]

Apart from doing powerline, there really isn't much of other things I can touch so cabling around the house isn't really an option. I'm definitely just looking at solving the problem under $500 at this moment. I can spend more in the near future, just not now.

So lets just say I buy a new set of powerline and hook it up to the extender and turn it into an ap again, that would easy more high traffic problem a bit?

For the long run though, what can I add to make this smoother? new router? network switch? or mandatory to cable through the house?

 

[MichaelCG]

Yes, getting your powerline back-haul back up and running will "help" your issues. No idea if it will resolve them completely or not, but should at a minimum free up some of the WiFi airtime for your chatty clients.

Long Run?

For the most part, you need to free up more WiFi airspace/airtime. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this:
- Less WiFi clients (cable more of your chatty clients)
- More WiFi Access Points (add more lower power APs closer to the clients)
- More WiFi bandwidth (Move to AC 2x2 or 3x3 clients and APs, your Netgear stuff is AC...just a matter if all of your clients are)

If getting access to CAT5/6 or COAX cabling aren't options, you may want to continue to build out your PowerLine stuff and add more APs across the house. This way you can better spread the load of the various active clients across more radios. You will still be limited by the PowerLine connections at some point....that just depends on how well they work in your house. Some people get several hundred Mbps from them...others (like me) get less than 50Mbps from them.

 

[RMerlin]

I would move all the slower clients that don't need high performance to the 2.4 GHz band, freeing up more bandwidth for the high throughput clients. That means things like phones, tablets, etc... should be on the 2.4 GHz band - they don't need the higher throughput, and would only slow down the faster clients.

Having two APs using different 5 GHz bands might also help (i.e. having some on channel 36, and others on channel 157). That could also be done with a tri-band router, but having separate APs might allow you to relocate them in different places.

 

[RogerSC]

Do you have cable TV wiring in your walls? If you do, and you have cable TV outlets in useful places *smile*, you can use MoCA 2.0 to get your full ISP download bandwidth distributed to your TV's (for example) and your extender as well (maybe). It's more expensive that powerline networking, but also more reliable and much faster, depending on the condition of your cable TV wiring. Works well, Actiontec makes some popular adapters.

There's a forum where MoCA is discussed here on SNB. This is the kind of thing that you're looking at for adapters:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013J7O3X0/?tag=snbforums-20

I see that the adapters have come down in price since I last looked...I'm going to look into these as well now *smile*. Powerline networking is poor in my house, but MoCA works well. I've got some MoCA 1.1 adapters that were working well, but I scrapped them when I got 200Mbps download speed from my ISP, and wireless got to be faster than MoCA. The MoCA 2.0 adapters have no problem with 200Mbps.

 

[degrub]

Do you have cable TV wiring in your walls? If you do, and you have cable TV outlets in useful places *smile*, you can use MoCA 2.0 to get your full ISP download bandwidth distributed to your TV's (for example) and your extender as well (maybe). It's more expensive that powerline networking, but also more reliable and much faster, depending on the condition of your cable TV wiring. Works well, Actiontec makes some popular adapters.

There's a forum where MoCA is discussed here on SNB. This is the kind of thing that you're looking at for adapters:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013J7O3X0/?tag=snbforums-20

I see that the adapters have come down in price since I last looked...I'm going to look into these as well now *smile*. Powerline networking is poor in my house, but MoCA works well. I've got some MoCA 1.1 adapters that were working well, but I scrapped them when I got 200Mbps download speed from my ISP, and wireless got to be faster than MoCA. The MoCA 2.0 adapters have no problem with 200Mbps.

B&H has them same price, free ship, no tax
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1179502-REG/actiontec_ecb6200k02_bonded_moca_2_0_network.html

 

[RogerSC]

B&H has them same price, free ship, no tax
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1179502-REG/actiontec_ecb6200k02_bonded_moca_2_0_network.html

Don't pay shipping anyways, Amazon Prime. And I don't mind paying sales tax, maybe it'll go into the California Secession Fund. Or to pay for single-payer healthcare insurance in California. I can hope *smile*.

 

[pege63]

I would move 4k samsung tv, LG+Samsung Smart tv, old Samsung LCD tv, Xbox One S, to a wired solution to the (Netgear EX7000) and use the 5GHz band to the (Netgear R7000) as backhaul.