PowerForward
New Around Here
I have a very specific type of small network building task at hand.
An apartment with a challenging zig-zag layout and walls made of steel enforced concrete. Cabling is not an option nor can I place the router to a central location. Therefore a wireless backhaul mesh setup is needed to cover the apartment corner to corner. Currently there is a combo of TP-Link Archer C7 + RE200 which is very reliable, but has two practical issues. The satellite connection is slow and devices tend to connect and stay connected satellite for some reason, even thought the bandwidth would be much better by connecting straight to the router. Especially the centrally located livingroom Chromecast is problematic in this regard.
So what we need is:
- An ASUS AiMesh solution, since it allows to bind devices to a specific node (the Chromecast and other stationary devices)
- Wireless backhaul
- Super tight budget
The use case is typical family living with a bunch of devices, streaming video and working from home. Nothing extreme in the use cases. The WAN Internet is currently on the slow side, with 150mbps 4G+/LTE. May be upgraded to 5G in the next few years, which is expected to double-triple the bandwidth, but definitely not in gigabyte scale.
I almost bit the bullet and got an Asus XD6 2-pack for 279€, but I am not a big fan of crippled satellite units and it also lacks a USB-port, which might be useful for a hard drive or office room printer. Performance wise it would have been more than enough.
So I am looking at different combinations of AX-56U, AX58U, AX-55U and AX-68U, but it is pretty damn hard to figure out the actual real-life benefits or weaknesses of these models that are so similar. As an example, many here seem to suggest that the 58U is somehow superior to the 56U, but when I read the tests and benchmarks, I can't see it. Currently the 58U is 50% more expensive in local stores.
Another thing I am pondering is the 68U that features a 3x3 antennae setup. It combined with 55U or 56U might just fit the budget, but what is the real life benefit of 3x3 vs 2x2 in this scenario?
Long post. Hopefully you get the idea, and I am more than eager to read any input from the SNB gurus. Been reading this forum for years, and now finally registered.
An apartment with a challenging zig-zag layout and walls made of steel enforced concrete. Cabling is not an option nor can I place the router to a central location. Therefore a wireless backhaul mesh setup is needed to cover the apartment corner to corner. Currently there is a combo of TP-Link Archer C7 + RE200 which is very reliable, but has two practical issues. The satellite connection is slow and devices tend to connect and stay connected satellite for some reason, even thought the bandwidth would be much better by connecting straight to the router. Especially the centrally located livingroom Chromecast is problematic in this regard.
So what we need is:
- An ASUS AiMesh solution, since it allows to bind devices to a specific node (the Chromecast and other stationary devices)
- Wireless backhaul
- Super tight budget
The use case is typical family living with a bunch of devices, streaming video and working from home. Nothing extreme in the use cases. The WAN Internet is currently on the slow side, with 150mbps 4G+/LTE. May be upgraded to 5G in the next few years, which is expected to double-triple the bandwidth, but definitely not in gigabyte scale.
I almost bit the bullet and got an Asus XD6 2-pack for 279€, but I am not a big fan of crippled satellite units and it also lacks a USB-port, which might be useful for a hard drive or office room printer. Performance wise it would have been more than enough.
So I am looking at different combinations of AX-56U, AX58U, AX-55U and AX-68U, but it is pretty damn hard to figure out the actual real-life benefits or weaknesses of these models that are so similar. As an example, many here seem to suggest that the 58U is somehow superior to the 56U, but when I read the tests and benchmarks, I can't see it. Currently the 58U is 50% more expensive in local stores.
Another thing I am pondering is the 68U that features a 3x3 antennae setup. It combined with 55U or 56U might just fit the budget, but what is the real life benefit of 3x3 vs 2x2 in this scenario?
Long post. Hopefully you get the idea, and I am more than eager to read any input from the SNB gurus. Been reading this forum for years, and now finally registered.