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Asus Routers - Best Choice for My Situation

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Canuk_HomeNet

New Around Here
Looking for a bit of advice... I currently have a small network in my home and need to make an upgrade. When we built the house I installed two Asus dual-band RT-AC66U routers, one configured as a router and the other as an access point. They have served me well for about 4 years and the access point router (on a wall in the garage. ya, I know, not the best environment but is the best location for coverage given our config) finally stopped working. I've been very happy with the Asus products and would like to replace it with another. Which one is the dilemma... Here are some specifics about our home set up....

- rather large house, needing to cover 4,000+ square feet
- run a variety of devices including streaming TV's, Roku, PlayStation game console, one hardwired gaming class PC, numerous cell phones and a 5 device Sonos network.
- I have a Synology diskstation NAS and would like to add link aggregation
- Currently running a small, unmanaged TP-Link switch. I have purchased but not installed an HP semi-managed switch (planning to change out for LAG)
- We often entertain 20+ people at family gatherings, all whom want some level if WiFi connectivity.

I'm considering changing out the Ac66U access point for an Ac-3200 for the tri-band capability, but I was not sure if there would be a conflict with the dual band router that is functioning just fine. Do I need to switch both? Is there a better choice? Any other suggestions? Love the site, learned a lot from it. This is my first post.... Thanks in advance....
 
Your AP and your router do not need to match. I am surprised/impressed you are getting great coverage across all 4000sqft of your house as it is. My house is 40% smaller and I can barely get "great" coverage with two APs....although they are not placed in the most optimal locations. I have great 2.4GHz coverage, but just adequate 5GHz coverage upstairs (both APs are in lower floors).

In your situation, before you buck up for a tri-band device, have you confirmed your 5GHz is functional in all the required locations? Or are your clients dropping to 2.4GHz often?

Also to note, is your Sonos using WiFi or SonosNet? That has the potential to greatly impact your 2.4GHz performance.
 
Thanks for the post and the guidance. A couple of thoughts in response.... The Sonos system is running on SonosNet for streaming via the Sonos Bridge. Controller devices running the Sonos app (phones/tablets primarily) connect to the bridge via WiFi, however, no streaming media is passed through the controllers. I don't believe that we've experienced any load related WiFi performance issues even when streaming different content across all 5 Sonos units in the house. (I do love Sonos for that reason alone).

You raised a very good point wrt the 5GHz coverage. It's currently a bit spotty in some locations in the house, but it's difficult to say with the access point out of commission. I hadn't specifically measured the coverage across the rooms in the house before the AP gave up. The AP services the main living area in our home and the area where we often entertain large groups, so I think I'm going to go with the tri-band router to get optimized coverage. Thanks again. Good advice.
 
IRT-AC66U supports several connection types to a wide area network.
 

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