Which is the best setup for my need?

[striker500]

Hi guys…I’m asking for some advice on which setup would be best for my needs. I have the Asus Rt-AC68R on one side of the house and I stream to 2 Roku 2’s both which are all the way on the other side of the house. Sometimes it streams without any issues but sometimes videos are slow to load and reload in the middle.
My parents happen to need a new router so I have 2 choices…give them my RT-AC68R and get the Asus RT-AC87u or the Netgear Nighthawk X6, or keep the Rt-AC68R and get another to use as a bridge and replace one of the Roku 2’s with a Roku 3 and connect it to the bridged router with an Ethernet cable.

What I really want is fast stable streaming to the Roku’s.

Any advice or ideas would be appreciated!

 

[Trip]

I'd do another 68. Way more mature product firmware-wise. Bridge one to the other, wire in the Rokus, and you should be good to go.

 

[striker500]

I'd do another 68. Way more mature product firmware-wise. Bridge one to the other, wire in the Rokus, and you should be good to go.

Thanks! Question, if I get the new Rt-AC68p from BestBuy since it's a little updated would I be able to bridge it with the "R" version I have without any problems? Or do I have to have the R or the U version since they are exactly the same.

 

[RogerSC]

You can use the RT-AC68P in place of the RT-AC68U or RT-AC68R. That's what I'd do anyways, since the RT-AC68P is a bit more up to date.

 

[striker500]

You can use the RT-AC68P in place of the RT-AC68U or RT-AC68R. That's what I'd do anyways, since the RT-AC68P is a bit more up to date.

Thanks. I do have one more question, can I use one brand as a the main router and another brand as the bridge? Would that be a problem? The reason I ask is I can get the Netgear Nighthawk X4 today for quite a bit less than the RT-AC68p would cost. I read there is a new firmware which improves the performance of it quite a bit. I would use the X4 as the main router and the RT-AC68r as the bridge.

I would like to go this route if it is possible.

 

[Trip]

You can certainly use mixed brands, but I prefer to use identical chipsets, radios and firmware as much as possible when doing wireless bridging. For a myriad of reasons (usually in how wireless transmissions and packet handling are being processed), mixing brands can have its challenges. More often than not, it works just fine, but why introduce the possibility if you're given the chance to avoid it? Just my two cents anyways.

 

[jegesq]

Agree completely with Trip. I would either get another 68U, or the 68P and use that as a router, and set the 68U in "repeater" mode, or if possible, run cable to the 68U and use it as an AP in order to avoid speed drops as much as possible. Alternatively, if you can't run cable to the AP, then as I mentioned, set the 68U as a repeater and plug your Roku's into the LAN ports on the repeater instead of streaming to them wirelessly from the repeater (you'll get better signal without the loss that occurs when the repeater re-transmits the wireless signal from the router. Be sure to set your primary 5ghz channel to 80mhz (if you can do so without any interference from neighbors), and I would suggest you use one of the upper 5ghz band channels, such as 161 (Kenhlan would disagree, pointing out that if you live near a military base or airport this will interfere with the 5ghz band...and he may or may not be right about that). That's what I'd do though and while you can mix brands, I'd stick with the same chipsets if possible.

Also in response to your statement that "I can get the Netgear Nighthawk X4 today for quite a bit less than the RT-AC68p would cost" where is that? And is it a used R7500 or a refurbished one? The reason I ask is that Amazon shows the Nighthawk X4 R7500 is priced more closely to the Asus 87U, which is a completely different animal than the 68U's or 68P's that you're talking about. The 68U can be had for anywhere from $169 - $199, and Best Buy is selling the 68P for $199. If you can find a brand new Nighthawk for less than the price of the 68P, please let the rest of us know where that is....I'm guessing you're thinking of the Netgear R7000 (not the x4) which retails for $199 at Best Buy. The X4 is a 4x4, whereas the R7000 is 3x3.

 

[striker500]

Hey, Thanks for your advice. The way the Netgear X4 R7500 would have cost less than the Rt-AC68U is on that day amazon had it on sale for $199.99. I was going to price match it at Staples (my local Staples had the X4 in stock) I also had some Staples rewards to put towards it. It was at $199.99 at amazon for a couple of days but has since gone back up to $258.

Anyway I did not go that route. Amazon has the Asus Rt-AC68W for $149.99. It is exactly like the Rt-AC68U which they are selling for $179.99 only it's white. I also have an AMEX offer for amazon of a $15 statement credit when you spend $15. So I think I'm going to do this today. I decided it would just be better, easier and eliminate unnecessary problems by using 2 of the same routers.

 

[jegesq]

Yep. Excellent choice, great pricing.