Planning to go for ac87u router and ac68u as AP/Repeater

Hi All,

This is my first post ever here. Read a lot on the forums. I need help to boost the wifi at home. We use A MAcbook Air 2013, 2 Samsung Note 4 phones , an iMac 5k and an ipad. Mostly devices which use ac wireless. Im not into hardcore networking and will only set up a plex media server on my iMac. Thats it. We just want fast AC wireless in the entire home

My current setup is the following:

1) Living Room Corner: Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (older flat one)
2) Inside bedroom Corner : Apple Airport Express (older one with the plug)
Both are connected via ethernet cable. So we have 2 wifi zones (One in the hall and when I go to the bedroom I have to switch to the airport express) There are 2 Thick Walls in between them. My goal is to have a one router solution which will cover the entire flat without any dead zones.

I recently bought a Netgear X6 Nighthawk thinking it would replace the above but when I placed it where my base station is now, the inside bedroom got very poor signal. Almost one or less bar on the 5ghz band. I returned the Netgear. The area of the flat is about 900 Sq feet but there are walls and the routers are placed at the moment in a L shaped location on the corners of the rooms.

Now I was contemplating doing the following:

Option 1:
Living Room: ac87u as the single main router. No access point in the bedroom. But will it cover the inside areas without signal drop. The X6 Nighthawk could not do it!!

Option 2:
Living Room - ac87U as the main router with the internet lan cable plugged (provided by our cable operator with a speed of about 8mbps).
Bedroom - ac68u which will replace the airport express as an accesspoint / media bridge

Option 3:
Living Room - ac87U as the main router with the internet lan cable plugged (provided by our cable operator with a speed of about 8mbps).
Bedroom - Second ac87u which will replace the airport express as an accesspoint / media bridge (will it be overkill?)

Option 4:
Living Room and Bedroom : Apple airport extreme base stations (new tower design ones) connected via ethernet cable.

My queries are the following:
1) Looking at the various posts, are Asus routers trouble prone as compared to the apple airport base stations because frankly speaking, I have never had a single hiccup with them since I installed them. They just work and Internet is available on tap.

2) What would be the differences in speed compared to Apple roters and Asus ac87u and ac68u. Given that in Mumbai, India where I live the internet speeds are not all that great. 8MBPS but not constant.

Kindly let me know what would be the best option for us. The Asus setup would go higher in budget but a little more tha the apple setup. Will it be worth plonking that extra cash?

Thanks a lot

Sunny

Good old roaming problems!
Welcome to the real world!

Look, there's no perfect answer to your problem!
Roaming between 2 BSSIDs (that's the word for the same SSID that's broadcasted by a device either router or access point) doesn't have a bullet proof solution. And there's a reason for it: roaming is always client decision - clients stays on the same BSSID up to the moment it doesn't see that BSSID; AP can force a client to disconnect unless it has a certain signal level, but client has to have a better AP in its "list" to roam to as fast as possible. And main problem here is that clients choose to save power and don't scan for better APs so client has no clue what's better for himself. The entire story is bigger than I can explain here...

Don't expect to have no interruption when roaming between APs. Expect to have a lower speed unless you force the client to roam. Asus has a reasonable good way for home network - it can kick out a client when it drops to a configurable signal level. And that will force the client to search for a better AP. But it's up to you to adjust that power level to the conditions you have at your place.

But, again, expect some interruption! Is the way most clients are built! Worst one in my experience is MacOS 10.x - Apple choose not to listen to AP broadcast messages and once it loose the signal it start to scan/listen and then decide and associate. It takes a LOT of time...seconds! That's acceptable for some users and not acceptable for some other users.

I'm trying to draw a conclusion: if your problem is your devices don't pick up the best signal all by themself - you won't be able to fix it!
It may help if you choose to replace the Airport devices with Asus but you need to tweak "Roaming assistant" parameter to suit your needs. But don't expect miracles, no matter what devices you are using and definitely no miracles if you are a MacOS user!

drabisan said:

Good old roaming problems!
Welcome to the real world!

Look, there's no perfect answer to your problem!
Roaming between 2 BSSIDs (that's the word for the same SSID that's broadcasted by a device either router or access point) doesn't have a bullet proof solution. And there's a reason for it: roaming is always client decision - clients stays on the same BSSID up to the moment it doesn't see that BSSID; AP can force a client to disconnect unless it has a certain signal level, but client has to have a better AP in its "list" to roam to as fast as possible. And main problem here is that clients choose to save power and don't scan for better APs so client has no clue what's better for himself. The entire story is bigger than I can explain here...

Don't expect to have no interruption when roaming between APs. Expect to have a lower speed unless you force the client to roam. Asus has a reasonable good way for home network - it can kick out a client when it drops to a configurable signal level. And that will force the client to search for a better AP. But it's up to you to adjust that power level to the conditions you have at your place.

But, again, expect some interruption! Is the way most clients are built! Worst one in my experience is MacOS 10.x - Apple choose not to listen to AP broadcast messages and once it loose the signal it start to scan/listen and then decide and associate. It takes a LOT of time...seconds! That's acceptable for some users and not acceptable for some other users.

I'm trying to draw a conclusion: if your problem is your devices don't pick up the best signal all by themself - you won't be able to fix it!
It may help if you choose to replace the Airport devices with Asus but you need to tweak "Roaming assistant" parameter to suit your needs. But don't expect miracles, no matter what devices you are using and definitely no miracles if you are a MacOS user!

Click to expand...

Dear Drabisan

Thanks for the in depth comments. you are right. After reading this I'm also considering going in for a TP-Link Archer C9 dual configuration. Router at one end and ethernet connected from router to second C9 in the inside room. Looking at the cost implications.

Thanks and best regards

Sunny