AC Router upgrade... and setup help

[sugarbear]

Hi guys,
I live in a totally concrete house (ceilings/walls) with ethernet runs in every room. I'm running an ISP-provided router (SmartRG SR500N) with it's wireless capability shut off, and using my own wireless access points. We have 15Mbps internet (I know) and a wireless N-only network with the following access points:

Donwstairs - Asus Dark Night (RT-N66U) also as ethernet switch
Room 1 - D-Link DIR655
Room 2 - Diamond WR300N (old school)

With 2 iPhone 6S's, iPad Pro 9.7 and iPad Mini 4, we finally have some AC wireless devices in the house. There are a few N-only devices around.

Questions:
1) would upgrading the access points to AC improve streaming performance when several devices are using the internet connection? (MIMO? MU-MIMO?)

2) other than Ubiquity, are there any really good "access point only" devices on the market or is my best bet to basically configure a router as an AP?

3) I'm currently running the same SSID and password on both 2.4 GHz and 5Ghz bands for all access points. Should I be doing this? (should this one be in a separate thread?)

Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

Questions:
1) would upgrading the access points to AC improve streaming performance when several devices are using the internet connection? (MIMO? MU-MIMO?)

AC yes, MU-MIMO, probably not...

2) other than Ubiquity, are there any really good "access point only" devices on the market or is my best bet to basically configure a router as an AP?

Any consumer Router/AP can be converted - There's an article on the main site on how to do this...

Since you're pushing thru concrete and rebar... find some cheap/used router/AP's and convert them...

3) I'm currently running the same SSID and password on both 2.4 GHz and 5Ghz bands for all access points. Should I be doing this? (should this one be in a separate thread?)

Not a bad idea - will always be connected - and this makes it easier for you to do one network config setup on the client...

 

[sugarbear]

Any consumer Router/AP can be converted - There's an article on the main site on how to do this...
Since you're pushing thru concrete and rebar... find some cheap/used router/AP's and convert them....

So, I'm researching routers to convert. Should I not care really about much of the features since they'll only be access points?
I was looking for beam forming, MIMO and QoS... maybe an AC1900 series. Overkill?

 

[sfx2000]

AC1900's - by nature and 802.11ac, they do MIMO and Beamforming...

QoS is something to manage at the ingress router...

 

[sugarbear]

Ok. So I can talk myself out of the expensive tri-bands and keep it cheap

 

[MichaelCG]

I have found that I need to keep my 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs unique otherwise all of my clients end up pegged to the 2.4GHz and things come to a screeching halt when things get busy. I keep all of my media streamers forced onto the 5GHz SSID and the mobile devices on the 2.4GHz SSID since it has much better range. Also to note when I had multiple APs using the same SSID, I also had performance issues with devices staying connected to the far off AP instead of the closer one as I moved about the house.

I would assume with concrete walls, your 5GHz range is going to pretty much be crap. So this is where the more the merrier comes into play with multiple cheap APs. AC1900 I feel is way overkill for your setup considering your ISP bandwidth is so low and you didn't specify local high bandwidth as a requirement.

 

[sfx2000]

Ok. So I can talk myself out of the expensive tri-bands and keep it cheap

Pretty much - R7000 is fairly sorted, the RT-AC68 series is good (unless you're in the Apple ecosystem), Linksys has a few - Airports tend to work well, but there are folks kinda adverse to that platform - there are others in the $100-$200 range that are very good...

If one wants to look at Mesh/Multiple point - consensus there is that Orbi seems to be the one to beat - but they're a bit spendy...

 

[sugarbear]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! This is very helpful.

Mesh is a no-go with all this concrete, I think. Since I already have all the Ethernet runs...

I'm warming up to the Ubiquiti Unifi Ap-AC Lite (~$80 on Amazon). I'll think I'll try one out.

 

[rstark18]

I had two AP's, an Asus RT-N66U and a Linksys E3000 both running Shibby. The N66U was my AP/router and the E3000 was just a switch and AP. I got sick of the handoff between the two AP's being so bad (especially for voip) that I decided to replace the E3000 with a Netgear Switch and a Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC Lite. I also added a UniFi to the N66U and turned off it's radios. I love the new AP's. Really great upgrade to my home network.

 

[MichaelCG]

I am also toying with the UniFi devices right now to replace my N66U. I purchased two UniFi UAP-LR-AC and so far have just one installed. Initial impressions are that signal strength is more consistent across the house. My speeds are only better in the center of the house and mostly only for my couple of AC devices. My N devices are actually a tad slower due to the 5GHz radio only being a 2x2 while the N66 is a 3x3....however places where my N devices previously had pretty poor signal/performance are for sure improved.

I have not had a chance to bring the 2nd UniFi online yet to test the handoff/roaming behavior. Just a single UAP-LR-AC is probably "enough" for me....but I already purchased two and it is more work to send one back so I will work on getting a new Ethernet run to the far side of the house and bring the 2nd one online eventually.