Upgrading TP-Link Archer C7 help

[Steve40th]

I just rearranged my home a bit. The Archer C7 works well, up to about 20 feet then start to fall, on the same floor of my home. 2600 square foot, 2 story.
The router is downstairs in living room, above fireplace..
All the electronics were moved upstairs for a room for the kids.. So, one is a N based wifi blue ray player with netflix etc. The other is a not smart tv with Firestick 4k, which is AC I believe.
I went upstairs to check the speeds using my AX based laptop, and with door shut, the internet speed almost shut down. Door shut, the testing sites wouldnt even connect. If I open the door, speeds were livable.. Here are some screen shots in the room of the two sites I used. Downstairs and then in room with door open. Speeds look okay, but, when downstairs things loaded much quicker.. Door is 25 feet away and not directly in view of router, but close to a straight line of site.
The thing that concerned was my laptop couldnt connect with door shut while in the room, but everything is fine with door open, which it Wont be when kids are in there.
But, what I need is a new AX router and one that delivers better N and AC range too.
Asus is what I am looking at AX86U.
Thanks in advance.

 

[degrub]

What is your isp bit rate down/up ?
a plan view, roughly dimensioned, of your two floors showing location of wireless router would be very helpful .
What is the construction of the interior walls, door, and floor/ceiling ?

do you have coax, RG6, in the house ? if so, please show on plan.
Is it in use for cable tv ? if so, is it DOCCIS 3 or 3.1 ?
or is it for DISH sat tv ?

The 5 Ghz band of AC and AX will not penetrate much more than one wall usually.
Is the door solid wood, metal, or hollow core ?

What channel widths are you allowing the wireless to run on 2.4 Ghz 20/40/80 ?
5 GHz 40/80/160 ?

 

[Steve40th]

Doors are hollow core.
Floor plan is 19 x 20 downstairs. Stairs, 12 steps standard 6 to 8 inch lift are directly across living room going up to the FROG, with a short 3 foot wall blocking the door at the top of the stairs. Walls a sheet rock. as well as ceiling. Floors are hardwood, from living room up to the FROG.
Plan is Xfinity 600Mbps down, 20Mbps upload. I have coax going into a SB 8200 Motorola modem, then Cat 5E to the router..
Channel widths on 2.4 set on auto, 5 is on auto within AX210 adapter. . Within TP Link 5ghz is channel 48 and 2.4ghz is auto.
RG6 feeds the house..
You can see the layout of the room, and how the door on the top right is somewhat hidden by wall.

 

[Tech Junky]

A couple of options come to mind.

1. MOCA to use the cable to extend an Ethernet port to the new room and plug the old router into that
2. Keep things the way they are and add an AP that covers the space better. I use an NWA210AX and it covers 1300+ sq ft easily.
3. Redo everything to bring it up to date and not have to deal with it again in a couple of years

 

[Tech9]

Asus is what I am looking at AX86U.

AX86U or cheaper AX86S is perhaps all you need. Both routers have the same radios - AC Wave 2 + AX. Archer C7 was a solid router few years ago, but too slow now for your 600Mbps ISP line. What you can expect from newer generation routers is about 20% more range and higher speeds to clients.

 

[degrub]

Try putting the 2.4 GHz on 20 and then possibly on 20/40 channel width. Set to N only or AC/N. You dont want a,b,g if possible. You can use a simple tool like apple Airport Utility for IOS, select WiFi scan, 20 second duration, to check signal strength and overlap with neighbors. Anything less ( more negative) than -65 dB will be difficult, particularly if the neighbors are overlapping at similar or greater strength on same or adjacent channels. Worst case is someone blasting on 80 MHz width. You may have to change the channel to get a less crowded band. Narrower channel width sometimes provides better effective throughput. Also, the issue may be with the receiver as much as the wireless router so a stronger router wifi may not solve the issue, particularly if the device does not support wave 2 or other improvements. The iphone or ipad you are using may have a better radio than the devices mentioned.

See if you get better connection and throughput on 20 MHz channel width.
It does look like the signal might be going through two walls. Since this is occupied space above a garage, building codes usually require thicker sheetrock or two layers in the garage ceiling and adjacent walls to act as a restriction to fire spread to give more time for escape. Also true under stairs.

The communications will be much better with ethernet to the room, even if it is over powerline AV2 adapters. The only hitch may be if the house has arc fault breakers in the electrical panel. Those can be show stoppers.

moca is the other possibility, but let’s see what any of the above can do first.

 

[Steve40th]

I did a wifi scan of the area.Apple didnt work, so I used insidder and wifinfoview utilities, and I put my 2.4 ghz on 20 only and the channel with the least amount of people on it, 8 which also had the highest signal strength.

 

[Steve40th]

Here are the newest results. I think it is better now.

 

[degrub]

that was with the door shut ?
That was with the laptop i assume.

You should test the two receivers ( fire stick and blue ray) to verify ok performance at several times of day, particularly evening and weekends.

 

[Steve40th]

That was with door shutand I did check Blu Ray Netflix . Worked great.

 

[Tech9]

Worked great.

Replace the router with something fresher with at least AC Wave 2 for better and more consistent results.