Wireless Router Purchasing help

[Adam Crowley]

Hi guys,

Need to purchase a new wireless router and looking for advice.

I know a little about wireless technology, but not an expert. I am quite good with technology, but have not stayed on top of developments in around 9 years. I am hoping to save hours and hours of research on wireless routers by tapping into the knowledge on this forum.

The house would be medium sized one story with the router placed in the middle of the house. At most there will be 3 walls to travel through, all timber and plasterboard. Majority of time there will be 0 - 1 wall to deal with.

There will be 2 laptops and a desktop, 3 phones and two smart tvs in use all the time.

For the first time I am attempting to ditch the hardwired cable to my desktop as there is no Ethernet port in the new office (we are renting).

Most devices use wireless AC, the desktop will be 2x2 (not sure on others)

There is no 4K streaming but simultaneously there could be 3 devices streaming 2k a 2 devices generally browsing and myself gaming on the desktop.

I hate products that are poorly designed, so I am looking for the most reliable product that could provide speed and range for my situation.

I may have left out some vital information.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[psychopomp1]

Based on your requirements, the Netgear R7800 or Synology RT2600AC would be ideal for you as these are the 2 best routers for wifi coverage/range. You shouldn't need any additional APs but obviously that's not guaranteed.

 

[Adam Crowley]

Would there be any benefit to having a tri band router, to seperate the 5ghz channels. I am hoping to replicate Ethernet speed and reliability with a wireless setup. With our old router there have been times that simultaneous use has caused congestion issues with the devices listed above.

I understand Ethernet will always be faster but I don’t need blazing fast file transfer, just enough reliable bandwidth to stream media.

 

[degrub]

you don't mention anything about your wireless environment - neighbors, wireless survey results - what and who are using which channels. That may be as much of your issue as anything.

Have you considered powerline ? it may be good enough for your desktop or the tvs. i would limit to no more than 3 powerline adapters. Point to point is better usually.

Do you have any cable in the wall for cable tv ? RG6 cable would allow you to put in MOCA2 adapters and extend your ethernet that way. Either to a AC AP or just devices. You may already be set up if you have cable as your ISP with digital cable service.

 

[Adam Crowley]

There is one wireless network that is in range of my house. It has a low signal and appears to be a dual band network.

There is RG6 in the walls but it can’t be converted. In Australia it’s used for our standard tv network.

I’m not a fan of power line adapters.

There is cat 6 in the walls but they are not terminated in the right spot. One spot is the central location where the AC router will be placed.

I don’t have a wireless network setup in the house (still have to by the router), so no current performance to work with.

I just want to make sure that I don’t spend $400 on a router when I could have spent $500 and achieved better performance. (Australian prices are expensive)

 

[degrub]

Moca2 runs on a different set of frequencies to avoid conflict issues like that. It was designed to sit on the same cable as analog or digital catv. If you have not already checked the frequency bands, it might be workable. Actiontec 6200 bonded moca2 are good devices that pass the tv signal through.

What are the dimensions, layout of the house ?
2.4GHz will probably reach through the multiple walls, but 5GHz can have trouble with more than one, depending on the density and moisture of the wall material.

 

[Adam Crowley]

Thankfully the central point where the AP will be placed means that most points in the house are 0/1 wall only. On TV will have three walls to pass through, if it becomes a problem I would be happy to get some kind of extension product (mesh or AP extender) to fix that problem.

 

[degrub]

An extender is by definition half duplex, so only use it to extend an ethernet wire, not to provide additional wireless coverage. It also has to sit on otherwise unused bands, so 2.4 GHz bands would be the choice to dedicate for distance and not allow other devices to attach.

Mesh sounds good in theory, but has the same issues as extenders.