Advice on Upgrading from Motorola Surboard

[gregsl]

Hi,

Short time lurker, first time poster here.

I currently have a Motorola SBG6580 Surfboard on the middle floor of a three story house. Internet service is 40 mbps down, 6 mbps up (irrelevant though because its fast enough for my use).

Basement
hardwired for xbox and media player
occasional wireless use- ipad, iphone 4s and iphone 5

Middle Floor
surfboard is located here
wired network storage/ media player WDTV Live Hub
ipad and iphones used on this floor 75% of the time
Ipad is mostly used to stream movies from the network drive

Top Floor
Main computer running Linux and recently upgraded to TP Link WND4800 450mbs dual band card
secondary computer- windows xp with a 300 mbps USB wifi adapter- not dual band
Wireless IP cam used as a baby monitor

Main computer is used to download and transfer files to the media player. I am getting a 2.8 MB/ s transfer speed on a 500 MB file to the network storage. Speed is averaging about 75 mbps (according to LINSSID and the network manager)

Before I upgraded to the new adapter i was using a D link DWA 130 - 300 mbps USB stick (located at the front of the computer). I was getting way above 200 mbps but only 1 MB on file transfer rates.....

I am thinking that the signal to my new adapter is being blocked so i ordered 3 external antennas.

So with all that background info. I have two questions (keep in mind the surfboard only offers 2.4 OR 5 ghz,, not both at the same time and the speed is only 300 mbps).

1. Will upgrading my wireless router help with the transfer times?
2. Should i get a new N router or get an AC1900 and upgrade the other devices accordingly?


Sorry if this is lengthy, I just havent seen much about the Surfboard and various configurations. Thanks

G

 

[stevech]

I urge you to use WiFi only for handheld devices, and for these, have one one WiFi access device on each floor. The WiFi router counts as one. The others need to be WiFi access points (APs), such as this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...20168&ef_id=UQNl9AAADDSsxuj6:20140114191218:s

which I bought at Fry's for $35. Put one on top of tall furniture and pointed antennas down so they are hidden. Connect it to the router via cat5 or the alternatives as below.

Try really hard to get cat5 cable - in the walls vertically, or in the same wall space as furnace air returns vertically, etc. Well worth it.

Failing the cat5 to each area, suggest you use a cat5 alternative such as MoCA (uses existing TV coax outlets) or Powerline IP.

A better WiFi router won't fix the coverage problem.

 

[gregsl]

I urge you to use WiFi only for handheld devices, and for these, have one one WiFi access device on each floor. The WiFi router counts as one. The others need to be WiFi access points (APs), such as this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...20168&ef_id=UQNl9AAADDSsxuj6:20140114191218:s



which I bought at Fry's for $35. Put one on top of tall furniture and pointed antennas down so they are hidden. Connect it to the router via cat5 or the alternatives as below.



Try really hard to get cat5 cable - in the walls vertically, or in the same wall space as furnace air returns vertically, etc. Well worth it.



Failing the cat5 to each area, suggest you use a cat5 alternative such as MoCA (uses existing TV coax outlets) or Powerline IP.



A better WiFi router won't fix the coverage problem.

It's been a couple days with the n56u. I figured I'd report back. I have it set up according to all the tips and tricks I found on here and elsewhere.

I've improved my coverage dramatically and have been getting 300 Mbps connection speed consistently with 5 MB/s transfer speeds on large files in 5ghz. 2ghz is slightly slower at about 4 MB/s.

I think it's partly due to no one in my neighbourhood running 5ghz. Also, I got three external antennas for my wireless card and that seemed to help with interference around my desktop.

I didn't expect to get this much of an increase so I'm thinking maybe my surfboard was on the way out...

I'm thinking with this performance increase I don't need to add any additional APs.