router upgrade (Mesh?) for plaster/lathe multistory house

[whywhywhy]

I'm ready to upgrade my Netgear R7800/openwrt. I have a fairly large 2-story house with plaster and lathe walls. I also need a ethernet port in the basement for an IoT device, but that doesn't need to be fast and was thinking I'd just put a wifi-extender there.

I have 300Mbps line now, but may upgrade to 1Gbps. don't see myself going to 2.5G. I can run a wired backhaul to one node, if I need to, but if wireless backhaul works, that's great. I'm hoping 2 nodes will do it - certainly should be an improvement. Coverage is weak in parts of the house.

main concerns are range, stability, security. I'm turned off by brands that make you buy a subscription for security features.

I ordered a pair of Asus XT8's on sale that haven't arrived yet, but after looking at some posts here, I'm not sure I want to open the box. I'd like to stay under $300. $250 would be better.

I use 3 hardwired LAN ports now, backhaul would be the 4th, but I've got an unmanaged 4-port switch laying around somewhere, if needed.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

 

[Tech9]

I'd like to stay under $300

Nothing much better than XT8 fits in your budget. Try it and see if it works well for you.

 

[tgl]

Avoid wireless backhaul if you possibly can. Thick walls already mean a challenging wifi environment; you don't need to double the challenges by having signal propagate through that twice.

Not sure what to tell you about the XT8s as opposed to something else. I had a pair of them for awhile and was not very happy, but maybe the latest firmware versions are more stable; and as @Tech9 says, getting something significantly better will cost you more. (Also, I was running them with wireless backhaul, so wired backhaul might improve matters.)

 

[degrub]

maybe you have coax in the walls ?
you can use moca for reliable backhaul. Possible conflict/restricitions if you have cable tv / internet service using DOCCIS3.1 .

 

[Tech9]

main concerns are range, stability, security.

Range - you'll probably get it, stability with wireless backhaul - depends on your Wi-Fi environment, security - similar to most consumer products. If any of this is really a concern - go wired and with business equipment. It will be supported longer and the expandability will be better. Better long term investment than consumer products.

 

[whywhywhy]

I don't have coax for moca or wouldn't expect powerline to work with my antique wiring.

If I'm going to run ethernet, is there a dual-band that's more stable?

And more generally, are these purpose-built mesh systems a good idea vs more traditional routers that support mesh, either using mesh nodes as the satellite (more aesthetic) or a lesser router as the satellite (is there an advantage?)

 

[whywhywhy]

Range - you'll probably get it, stability with wireless backhaul - depends on your Wi-Fi environment, security - similar to most consumer products. If any of this is really a concern - go wired and with business equipment. It will be supported longer and the expandability will be better. Better long term investment than consumer products.

any specific recommendations on business equipment?

 

[degrub]

Some here use TP Link Omada equipment as a lower cost entry for business. Many times business class APs are used in lower power, higher number installations to ensure full coverage rather than consumer gear designed to blast at as high a power to try to use only one device.

 

[Tech9]

any specific recommendations on business equipment?

Omada and UniFi are indeed lower cost options, but you can't fit in $300 budget.

In this case you have to lower your expectations to whatever is available in this price range.

 

[tgl]

And more generally, are these purpose-built mesh systems a good idea vs more traditional routers that support mesh, either using mesh nodes as the satellite (more aesthetic) or a lesser router as the satellite (is there an advantage?)

If you need wireless mesh, it's probably best to go with equipment that's primarily intended to be used in a mesh (ASUS, Netgear, etc). The radios are designed to be used in that configuration, the software is hopefully well-debugged in that usage, etc. Business-oriented gear may nominally support being put in a mesh but they don't see it as a primary use-case, and that shows. For example, SMB APs are usually only dual-radio (2.4G and 5G) which means they don't have a radio to dedicate to backhaul, which means performance is only about half what you can get from tri-band mesh units that use the third radio for dedicated backhaul. Also, my experience with Zyxel SMB gear is that the wireless backhaul mode is buggy; and while I've not personally tried that mode with my latest Ubiquiti gear, there's a lot of belly-aching about it not working too well over in the Ubiquiti forums.

Having said all that, my advice is still to avoid wireless backhaul if you possibly can. It will never match an ethernet cable for either speed or reliability.

 

[Tech9]

Having said all that, my advice is still to avoid wireless backhaul if you possibly can.

Indeed and this XT8 set may actually start working much better. Wireless backhaul has to be Plan B. If coax with MoCa is also an option - Plan C.

 

[glens]

I ordered a pair of Asus XT8's on sale that haven't arrived yet, but after looking at some posts here, I'm not sure I want to open the box.

I've mostly used my XT8s wired, and not AiMeshed, but, and knowing the limitations of wireless mesh, have had relatively great experience in every configuration. I highly recommend opening the box and trying them.

 

[sfx2000]

I ordered a pair of Asus XT8's on sale that haven't arrived yet, but after looking at some posts here, I'm not sure I want to open the box. I'd like to stay under $300. $250 would be better.

On my gosh - putting big honking routers as mesh points is kinda silly, IHMO...

Send them back...

 

[glens]

Big honking routers?