New wirless router for average home

[Crazydiamond]

New guy here

I have a 2100 SF ranch with full finished basement (so about 4000 SF total). Currently I have Comcast internet with close to 100mb/s download speed on my mac. I have a 2011 Airport base station and a express (G) extender to get some signal in the basement. N range is poor in the home. Overall it works - and I can get maybe 20mb/s in some areas, 10 Mb/s in others.

In the main living area and TV I did install a hard cat 6 cable. Wiring the rest of the home would be a pain (except maybe using cable system)

I am moving forward with streaming more HD around the home and plan to get rid of cable (with Ruku's) So HD and 4K ... as well as VOIP phone system. Of course the family has phones and laptops and printer using wireless as well.

I would like to maximize wireless range and throughput in the whole home.

I am thinking the ASUS models (either AC68U or AC88U) would be much better than my old Airport Extreme. However I have heard "OK" things about the newer Airport base station ( maybe not as good a range as ASUS), and also reading alot about new mesh products coming out all the time.


Suggestions ?

 

[Crazydiamond]

After more research here and elsewhere I have decided to go with the ASUS AC88U.

However I was surprised at semi decent performance reviews of the most current Airport Extreme, although its a few years old now.

 

[sfx2000]

However I was surprised at semi decent performance reviews of the most current Airport Extreme, although its a few years old now.

At any given range - they all pretty much perform the same - any router - as it really comes down to basic RF and physics - along with the client side aspects - 4200 sq ft is a lot of ground to cover across two floor...

Looking at the incumbent/current setup - the 11N airports aren't too bad - the last round of them probably did a bit better than the earlier ones - and range wise, they're pretty similar to what one would expect to see with 11ac - the key difference being that 11ac based clients will get a bit of a boost at any given range compared to 11N - but an AC class router has the same benefits/limitations as an 11N dual band...

That old 11g Express - that one is hurting your network and while they're nice little devices (put it in the travel bag and keep it handy for trips), since it is "extending" the 11N Airport, it is hurting the airtime availability for the other clients on the network.

I don't think a single Router/AP is going to probably meet all of your needs - if you're limited now, you'll be even more limited with a single AP, so something to consider perhaps.

For the price of the RT-AC88U, you can buy two Airport Extreme AC's (from the Apple Refurb Store), and pretty much flood both floors with 2.4GHz, and position them where people generally are for 5GHz coverage...

Something to consider...

 

[System Error Message]

range isnt everything. The client's range is important too. As mentioned physics and rf design play a role too. Theres no point having a 1MW AP if the client cant reach it back.
If you need to extend your wifi, use wires first as wifi to wifi bridges using omni APs rather than point to point links hurt performance.
planning your network on 2.4 Ghz and 5Ghz is challenging as their natures are different. many here even @sfx2000 can explain.

 

[Crazydiamond]

I understand the idea of routers on two floors linked by cables.

Also some mesh systems out there - including netgears new system out this month - to extend things.

https://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/orbi/?cid=wmt_netgear_organic

But when I look at CNET "range tests" it appears that some wireless routers do a significantly better job - then other routers at extended distances at sending signals out.

http://www.cnet.com/products/asus-rt-ac88u-router/2/

Also of handling multiple stream (MIMO) devices like my Roku's 4's and Fire TV's?

Don't claim to know anything - just been doing reading for the last few days.

Thanks for the responses !

 

[sfx2000]

But when I look at CNET "range tests" it appears that some wireless routers do a significantly better job - then other routers at extended distances at sending signals out.

Some of the third party reviews need to be mindful of site sponsors... so generally their reports/reviews will be favorable towards the marketing perspective...

 

[Crazydiamond]

Decided to take a pause for the next month or two .... Amplify HD is coming out, as is Netgear Orbi. Then I can consider all the options based on reviews here of all approaches to extending WIFI though a home for good streaming.

I am just a home user who wants a good stable (reasonably fast) WIFI g/n/ac signals through out my home to stream to Roku 4's and Laptops. Its a sprawling single story ranch with 2100 on the first floor and 1600SF finished basement. My current setup kinda sorta works but with steaming more and more video (goodbye Comcast cable) I need it to work well instead of kinda sorta.

 

[whsbuss]

Decided to take a pause for the next month or two .... Amplify HD is coming out, as is Netgear Orbi. Then I can consider all the options based on reviews here of all approaches to extending WIFI though a home for good streaming.

I am just a home user who wants a good stable (reasonably fast) WIFI g/n/ac signals through out my home to stream to Roku 4's and Laptops. Its a sprawling single story ranch with 2100 on the first floor and 1600SF finished basement. My current setup kinda sorta works but with steaming more and more video (goodbye Comcast cable) I need it to work well instead of kinda sorta.

Totally agree. I tried an extender for my rt-ac68u but I returned it. Lets see how these perform.

 

[Crazydiamond]

At any given range - they all pretty much perform the same - any router - as it really comes down to basic RF and physics - along with the client side aspects - 4200 sq ft is a lot of ground to cover across two floor...

Looking at the incumbent/current setup - the 11N airports aren't too bad - the last round of them probably did a bit better than the earlier ones - and range wise, they're pretty similar to what one would expect to see with 11ac - the key difference being that 11ac based clients will get a bit of a boost at any given range compared to 11N - but an AC class router has the same benefits/limitations as an 11N dual band...

That old 11g Express - that one is hurting your network and while they're nice little devices (put it in the travel bag and keep it handy for trips), since it is "extending" the 11N Airport, it is hurting the airtime availability for the other clients on the network.

I don't think a single Router/AP is going to probably meet all of your needs - if you're limited now, you'll be even more limited with a single AP, so something to consider perhaps.

For the price of the RT-AC88U, you can buy two Airport Extreme AC's (from the Apple Refurb Store), and pretty much flood both floors with 2.4GHz, and position them where people generally are for 5GHz coverage...

Something to consider...

I took your advice after reading and looking around at other sites and user experiences. I decided to buy a refirb Airport Extreme AC 6th gen base from Apple for like 120 bucks, with the idea I could wire to a second extreme base station in the finished basement if needed.

However after installing the new Airport Extreme AC base I saw my throughput and range greatly improve (3 times at least) around my home over my old 4th Gen Airport Extreme N station. The worst speed I am getting is 35 Mbps down/12 Mbps up in the far end of the finished basement. All other areas are 50 Mbps or greater on a 75-100 Mbps Comcast service. My patio and front lawn are all decent as well. The family Kindles, iPhones, roku's, and laptops all seem happy and they make use of AC band. It was easy to set up as well. For now thats all this home user needs. I can always upgrade again in another year or two to something better if I have issues.

Thanks.

 

[sfx2000]

Keep in mind that the 11n Airport Extreme can be used to extend coverage as well - cable it up and put it into what Apple calls "Bridge Mode", and you'll light up things pretty well, and fairly seamless roaming across the two Airports, one as the router/AP, and the other as an AP only...

Anyways - glad it all worked out, thanks for the follow up..

 

[pete y testing]

and fairly seamless roaming across the two Airports

lets not say seamless as thats not quite correct , lets just say your apple devices will move from one to the other with ease and quite quickly , that word "seamless" being the issue as it infers that there is no break in connection

 

[sfx2000]

lets not say seamless as thats not quite correct , lets just say your apple devices will move from one to the other with ease and quite quickly , that word "seamless" being the issue as it infers that there is no break in connection

Let's say it's fast enough that a VOIP call will not be impacted - Airport's support Fast BSS Transition - along with 11k/11r - common SSID and auth credentials means it's an 802.11 Layer 2 handover, and this can happen in less than 200 mSec

They're one of the only consumer AP's that can do this consistently across different platforms...