AC-RT87U - questions on connecting a powered wifi booster

[Big_AL]

Hi everyone,

I really love this router - I've had it for a few years now and it has been absolutely rock solid. I'm running Merlin's FW on it as well. I have an old Victorian, brick walled house with a 1st floor. I have a 250MBs fibre optic feed into the house with an unlimited streaming / gaming package. My service provider has also been excellent and have never noticed any issues. I have probably 25 odd devices connected and have teenage kids who hammer the internet without mercy, Netflix, Xbox and Youtube .

I made sure that the feed to the house was long enough to be able to position my 87U as centrally in my house as possible for even radiation of signal...etc.

So I had ok signal strength in the kids rooms upstairs, but there were soon wails of poor wifii performance before long. So about 18 months ago I invested in 4 high gain antennae off of good old China Bay (I think these babies were 14dbs? - not sure tbh). I positioned them at 45deg as the output in radio waves is doughnut shaped? Noticed an improvement, enough to shut my kids up anyway....and all has been good.

So - i recently have had a change in my work situation and am now working from home. i have a loft / spare room that I want to have my home office in and have tried to work in there a couple of times. It's great for normal email but I frequently have to be on Skype conference calls and need to screen share via video....etc and the signal just isn't good enough for that. If I try and run my VOIP phone and am on Skype for screenshare, it drops frequently.

Range extenders don't really work - have tested some older Netgear ones and don't really make much difference. My electrical wiring in my house has different ring mains to up in the loft so those things you plug into your electrical outlets with the RJ45....etc yeild only 1.5mbs to the client in the loft...!

To use the new fancy Lyra Mesh solution, I have to change up my 87U (REALLY unhappy that it's not supported but i believe thats to do with the 5Ghz chipset and driver issues?) I would be in the hole for about £350 minimum, which i just cannot justify right now.

So, before I start thinking about drilling holes everywhere to run and tack 25 - 30 odd metres of cat45 through my house to solve this problem (but really put me deep in the dogbox with the Mrs) I have seen on the great Chinabay interwebs, 5w 2.4Ghz powered amplifiers for about £30 odd with delivery, to boost the transmission power (I have the TX power on max in Merlins FW).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5W-2-4GH...024272?hash=item2122fe7d10:g:ftcAAOSwdGFY0Pyi

Thank you for sticking with me, for reading all of this nonsense up to this point!

My questions are:

• What are the opinions of this esteemed forum on these type of boosters - do they really work?
• Will it be the same or better than the current power output in signal, than what the 87U currently emits?
  
• With the way that ASUS has designed the quad antenna broadcast - will that have a lopsided / detrimental effect in performance to all of my many and varied connected clients in my home (about 20 devices connected - when kids friends are around, that can go up to 30)...or is that all just marketing BS?
  
• Do all the anttenea output in 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz - are there only one or the other - if so - which ones out of the 4 output in 2.4Ghz only?

I know the only way is to just buy it and try it but I would rather spend my hard earned £35 on beer than waste it on something that might not work.

Agian - thanks to all who have read this up to this point!

 

[ColinTaylor]

I can't comment of whether that device would help you but the general consensus is that increasing the router's transmitter power is of limited or no benefit. The main reason being that whilst the router is "shouting louder" the clients replying are the same as before.

So in your (UK) case, the router is currently transmitting at 100mW and your clients are probably transmitting at about 30 to 60mW. Increasing the router's power can have some benefit if your clients are spending most of their time receiving data, but uploads like video conferencing won't improve unless the router has a higher gain receiver.

Oh, and did I mention that operating a 2.4GHz transmitter at more than 100mW is illegal in the UK.

 

[Big_AL]

I can't comment of whether that device would help you but the general consensus is that increasing the router's transmitter power is of limited or no benefit. The main reason being that whilst the router is "shouting louder" the clients replying are the same as before.

So in your (UK) case, the router is currently transmitting at 100mW and your clients are probably transmitting at about 30 to 60mW. Increasing the router's power can have some benefit if your clients are spending most of their time receiving data, but uploads like video conferencing won't improve unless the router has a higher gain receiver.

Oh, and did I mention that operating a 2.4GHz transmitter at more than 100mW is illegal in the UK.

Ok - thanks for the slightly passive agressive, 'Oh, and did I mention that operating a 2.4GHz transmitter at more than 100mW is illegal in the UK' info ;-) but the link you mention only discusses 5Ghz and not 2.4GHz. It also mentions 1000mW is the limit. Above that - one needs a license (if on 5GHz). You mention the router TX at only 100mW? Unless I have missed something ?

Does anyone know what the TX power of this router is please?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Ok - thanks for the slightly passive agressive, 'Oh, and did I mention that operating a 2.4GHz transmitter at more than 100mW is illegal in the UK' info ;-) but the link you mention only discusses 5Ghz and not 2.4GHz. It also mentions 1000mW is the limit. Above that - one needs a license (if on 5GHz). You mention the router TX at only 100mW? Unless I have missed something ?

Does anyone know what the TX power of this router is please?

If you read the first bit of that article it says: "In comparison, 2.4GHz is relatively simple – Just pick a channel between 1 and 11 (in some cases you can include 12 and 13 – although this is not best practice) and keep to no more than 100mW effective radiated power and all is groovy."

5GHz power limits as you have seen are different (and vary by frequency), but the device you're thinking about buying is 2.4GHz. The router's max power output on 5GHz is probably about 200mW for UK models.

 

[Big_AL]

If you read the first bit of that article it says: "In comparison, 2.4GHz is relatively simple – Just pick a channel between 1 and 11 (in some cases you can include 12 and 13 – although this is not best practice) and keep to no more than 100mW effective radiated power and all is groovy."

5GHz power limits as you have seen are different (and vary by frequency), but the device you're thinking about buying is 2.4GHz. The router's max power output on 5GHz is probably about 200mW for UK models.

I did read that, thanks but nothing to suggest that it's illegal? Is there such a table for 2.4GHz ? So far, I can't see how I could be breaking the law and who, with their clipboard, in this day of austerity in our public service would come round to my house and test my WiFi....? Seriously ?!

 

[ColinTaylor]

I did read that, thanks but nothing to suggest that it's illegal? Is there such a table for 2.4GHz ? So far, I can't see how I could be breaking the law and who, with their clipboard, in this day of austerity in our public service would come round to my house and test my WiFi....? Seriously ?!

I'm not trying to pick an argument with you or tell you what you should or shouldn't do (sorry if it sounded like that). I was merely answering your question and informing you of the limits in the UK as the device you quoted exceeded them. Given that information I expect you to make your own decisions. I'm not offering an opinion on what you choose to do.

 

[OzarkEdge]

OP: I think your best bet is to extend Ethernet or WiFi by conventional means. Bigger antennas (you tried that) and amplifiers are not conventional for various reasons.

OE

 

[ColinTaylor]

Is there such a table for 2.4GHz ?

This document, last entry on page 40. Also here.

 

[greggy101]

Hi everyone,

Have you considered using a "non-standard" aka unofficial firmware on your beloved 87U?
Something that would give you an option to increase the transmission rate/speed. You can make your router not necessary "shout" but just get it "loud" enough that your wireless clients will "understand" it better at more distant locations in your whole house.

 

[Big_AL]

I'm not trying to pick an argument with you or tell you what you should or shouldn't do (sorry if it sounded like that). I was merely answering your question and informing you of the limits in the UK as the device you quoted exceeded them. Given that information I expect you to make your own decisions. I'm not offering an opinion on what you choose to do.

Colin Taylor - I appreciate your post and info, friend. Have a Merry Christmas

 

[Big_AL]

T

Have you considered using a "non-standard" aka unofficial firmware on your beloved 87U?
Something that would give you an option to increase the transmission rate/speed. You can make your router not necessary "shout" but just get it "loud" enough that your wireless clients will "understand" it better at more distant locations in your whole house.

Thanks - the thought had crossed my mind but I am always weary of 'Bricking' my router..

 

[greggy101]

T
Thanks - the thought had crossed my mind but I am always weary of 'Bricking' my router..

Bricking is always a possibility...
I have been using Hugo's fork (based on official FW) on many routers over the last few years, sometimes going back and forth between the firmwares and never experienced any problems. I still have a few old 68's and 87's with Hugo's FW on them and they work great (using them only for a comparison/reference when dealing with troubleshooting my current setup)