68u or blue cave for primary router?

[oldlady]

Hi, I have 2 68u, AC1900 on stock current fw. one is the router, other is wired aimesh node.
have FIOS gigabit speed.

I want to add another wired AP / node to the back of the house, so I got the blue cave AC2600, on the recent sale of $90. I figured it was as good as any other router in that price, if I'm using it as an AP,( plus it has bonus?) aimesh.

should I make the blue cave the main router and use the 2 68us as the nodes/AP, or add the blue cave to the existing network as a node/AP. the blue cave has more antennas and higher speed.

the main router is in the unfinished basement where the internet comes in. The living area is up one level-- that is where i need the 2 nodes- one in the front of the house, one in the back. both are wired.

I am trying out aimesh, and if it's unstable, I'll just do regular wired AP.

we have regular consumer products: laptops, phones, tablets, a few ring/wyze cameras, tv, tivo.

no vpn, mostly bec I can't decide on a provider. i suppose once we get that, the 68u would have to be the main one..

i know a lot of changes are happening in wifi in the next few months, so I don't want to put a lot of money in now, for our last gen wifi clients.


edit: I also got teh Deco M9 on a recent deal, and am willing to use that, behind the 68u if overall speeds and stability would be better. I have many wired devices and need to use those ethernet ports on the 68u one of which goes to a switch for more wired stuff. I may not have it set up effectively though


thanks!!

 

[OzarkEdge]

More OP application details here:

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/configuration-help-requested.54932/

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/large-estate-asus-or-orbi.57822/#post-510568

OE

 

[oldlady]

hi OE, a lot of that is not fully relevant. I did order 2 blue caves, but i probably only need to deploy 1. They should arrive tomorrow.

i gave up on ubiquiti and the netgear . I would go ubiquiti, but I don't have a ceiling drop for the AP and am not doing it.

so the current hardware I have is 2 68Us and 2 blue caves and a Deco M9.

Deploying 1 blue cave ($90) is about 1/2 the cost of the M9 ($220).

either the blue caves or the M9 will be returned/sold

 

[OzarkEdge]

hi OE, a lot of that is not fully relevant. I did order 2 blue caves, but i probably only need to deploy 1. They should arrive tomorrow.

i gave up on ubiquiti and the netgear . I would go ubiquiti, but I don't have a ceiling drop for the AP and am not doing it.

so the current hardware I have is 2 68Us and 2 blue caves and a Deco M9.

Deploying 1 blue cave ($90) is about 1/2 the cost of the M9 ($220).

either the blue caves or the M9 will be returned/sold

It's all relevant. You have the equipment to install and answer your own question. If you still can't tell the difference, then it doesn't matter which router you install as your site router.

OE

 

[oldlady]

I guess I'll get my 1200 baud modem out

 

[Klueless]

I'm confused. The Deco mesh should obliterate the need for anything else, yes?

If you stay the Asus (AC68Us and Blue Caves) course check the THiggins reviews. I don't remember anything glaring between the two (of course I don't remember what I had for breakfast either) and didn't notice anything earth shaking when I switched between the two.

As far as what to locate where how about using simple aesthetics as a tie breaker? The AC68U will look great in the unfinished basement while a Blue Cave might complement your, say, living room nicely ; -)

BTW: Great price on those Blue Caves!

 

[Val D.]

no vpn, mostly bec I can't decide on a provider. i suppose once we get that, the 68u would have to be the main one.

RT-AC68U will limit your VPN speed to about 30Mbps.

For VPN you'll need something better like RT-AC86U or RT-AX88U. Those routers have the new ARM processors with hardware AES-NI support and can do >200Mbps with OpenVPN. This only in case you chose the right provider with servers that allow >200Mbps connections. Users here report ExpressVPN and NordVPN can reach such speeds. I personally can see 225Mbps with NordVPN local server using RT-AC86U router.

 

[oldlady]

Thanks, all. Sorry OE, I was cranky that day and responded badly.

I kept the 68u as the main router and added the blue cave and a 68 u as aimesh nodes. It turns out that aimesh nodes cannot do guest networks.

So I reset the two nodes as true wired access points.
Things like my ring cameras are still connecting to the basement router when presumably the upstairs AP would bring them a stronger signal. I enabled roaming assistance and set it to drop at -65. I guess the next step would be the drop the transmission power in the basement or see if I can turn off that wifi radio and keep the AP ones running in guest mode. The iOT devices are on the guest network.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Thanks, all. Sorry OE, I was cranky that day and responded badly.

I kept the 68u as the main router and added the blue cave and a 68 u as aimesh nodes. It turns out that aimesh nodes cannot do guest networks.

So I reset the two nodes as true wired access points.
Things like my ring cameras are still connecting to the basement router when presumably the upstairs AP would bring them a stronger signal. I enabled roaming assistance and set it to drop at -65. I guess the next step would be the drop the transmission power in the basement or see if I can turn off that wifi radio and keep the AP ones running in guest mode. The iOT devices are on the guest network.

You might want to review this thread now that you have tried some things: https://www.snbforums.com/threads/configuration-help-requested.54932/

OE

 

[Grisu]

Thanks, all. Sorry OE, I was cranky that day and responded badly.

I kept the 68u as the main router and added the blue cave and a 68 u as aimesh nodes. It turns out that aimesh nodes cannot do guest networks.

So I reset the two nodes as true wired access points.
Things like my ring cameras are still connecting to the basement router when presumably the upstairs AP would bring them a stronger signal. I enabled roaming assistance and set it to drop at -65. I guess the next step would be the drop the transmission power in the basement or see if I can turn off that wifi radio and keep the AP ones running in guest mode. The iOT devices are on the guest network.

In AP mode you wont get guest Wifi too!!!
Yes, you can turn it on but then its not guest anymore but clients on AP guest-Wifi will have same access to your network as main-SSID on master router!
Your master router wont see any differences whether clients use guest or main SSID on your AP-node.

You get same security using only guest SSID as main SSID for all clients and turn off guest SSID.