A good AP to go with Asus RT-AC68U?

[elias4444]

My old Linksys E3000 bit the dust last week, so I used this site's router ranker and decided on the Asus RT-AC68U as a replacement (thank you SmallNetBuilder!!! You're amazing!).

The Asus cost a bit more than I wanted to spend on a new router, but it sounds like it hits the sweet spot for functionality and reliability (very important to me). I just realized however, nothing I have on my network can actually utilize the AC1900 it comes with.

I have a second computer across the house that uses a Linksys Plek500 powerline adapter to connect to the switch. When transferring files or streaming to it I get around 9 megabytes per second (according to the Windows file copy dialog box). I'm wondering if buying a second AC1900 router, flashing DD-WRT onto it, and setting it up as an AP would improve on that? And if so, what's a good (but cheaper than the Asus) router to do that with?

Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated!

 

[L&LD]

I would suggest the RT-AC56U (around $100 on sale) with RMerlin firmware on it in Bridge Mode.

 

[colecaz]

Likely your speeds are restricted by the powerline adapter. If you can run an ethernet cable to that end of the house and then deploy an access point, that would be the best. One of the AC class routers configured as an access point, like L&LD suggested, makes a good access point and if needs change, can be configured back to a usable router.

I had the same problem in my house and found that I could use spare pairs of wires in the telephone wiring in the house to get 100 mpbs ethernet to a far room in the house. It only takes four wires to do it. My run was about 100 ft overall counting wall height and cable routing.

 

[Trip]

If a run of ethernet cable is not possible, you might consider replacing your PLEK500 with a newer AV2 powerline kit. 90Mb/s (aka 9MB/s file transfer) is already respectable with the PLEK, so something like an Extollo LanSocket 1500 or TP-Link TL-PA8010P might get you into the low hundreds of Mb/s (so 20-40 MB/s file transfers, maybe higher). That's really not bad, considering any other alternatives, short of wiring.

Another option would be a MoCa 2.0 kit (Actiontec ECB6000) if you have cable in the house, and in close enough proximity to where you current router is and where you'd place the second AP. But again, that hinges on the fact you have cable wired in your house, which you may not.

Worst case would be a WDS bridge, but only as a last resort, as wireless repeating/bridging can be wrought with L3 issues and usually involves halving the total repeater/bridge link speed, and doing it "right" would be interpreted as overkill by many (ie. two radios, dedicated solely to being bridge ends, then separate radios as the actual APs.

 

[sfx2000]

My old Linksys E3000 bit the dust last week, so I used this site's router ranker and decided on the Asus RT-AC68U as a replacement (thank you SmallNetBuilder!!! You're amazing!).

The Asus cost a bit more than I wanted to spend on a new router, but it sounds like it hits the sweet spot for functionality and reliability (very important to me). I just realized however, nothing I have on my network can actually utilize the AC1900 it comes with.

I have a second computer across the house that uses a Linksys Plek500 powerline adapter to connect to the switch. When transferring files or streaming to it I get around 9 megabytes per second (according to the Windows file copy dialog box). I'm wondering if buying a second AC1900 router, flashing DD-WRT onto it, and setting it up as an AP would improve on that? And if so, what's a good (but cheaper than the Asus) router to do that with?

Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated!

You're probably good where you are - maybe an update to the powerline side..

I can't really see throwing another AP/Router into the bunch with 3rd party FW - really depends on your skills/patience/time to sort out after the fact...

sfx