jmantn
Regular Contributor
i have a two story house where my internet is ran through the basement (no choice on this). I currently have an RT-AC87U connected to my Modem and until a year ago most of my time was spent downstairs.
Things have changed and both floors see heavy internet usage all day so I've ran some Cat 6e cable from my 87U which is downstairs and connected it to my RT-AC68U router upstairs via a Wired Bridge (Access Point Mode). I've set up both routers to share the same SSID and Key for each band (so 2.4 has its own SSID but shared between routers and same for the other band that way I can put some devices on 5 and the rest on 2.4)
My thinking for this is the latest and greatest router (87U) would be connected to the Modem and the old router (68U) could provide additional WiFi coverage upstairs and I do have some stuff hard wired to it as well.
My question is if there is a better way to make the most of my equipment? Upstairs the signal isn't great 40-60ft away through a few rooms (drywall). Moving the router isn't an option though switching them is and the router that can provide more coverage is stuck downstairs but if I move it to be the Wired Access point I lose some of the newest software features.
I'd really like to make use of the Multi User MIMO Beta feature (in Merlin's latest firmware) and beam forming that the 87U provides upstairs but those options aren't available I don't think in Access point mode.
Also as for my devices I have several iPad Air's, iPhone 6s Pluses, two 4th Gen Apple TV's and various other devices such as dropcam so there's multiple streams 24/7 here.
Things have changed and both floors see heavy internet usage all day so I've ran some Cat 6e cable from my 87U which is downstairs and connected it to my RT-AC68U router upstairs via a Wired Bridge (Access Point Mode). I've set up both routers to share the same SSID and Key for each band (so 2.4 has its own SSID but shared between routers and same for the other band that way I can put some devices on 5 and the rest on 2.4)
My thinking for this is the latest and greatest router (87U) would be connected to the Modem and the old router (68U) could provide additional WiFi coverage upstairs and I do have some stuff hard wired to it as well.
My question is if there is a better way to make the most of my equipment? Upstairs the signal isn't great 40-60ft away through a few rooms (drywall). Moving the router isn't an option though switching them is and the router that can provide more coverage is stuck downstairs but if I move it to be the Wired Access point I lose some of the newest software features.
I'd really like to make use of the Multi User MIMO Beta feature (in Merlin's latest firmware) and beam forming that the 87U provides upstairs but those options aren't available I don't think in Access point mode.
Also as for my devices I have several iPad Air's, iPhone 6s Pluses, two 4th Gen Apple TV's and various other devices such as dropcam so there's multiple streams 24/7 here.