Best way to connect 2 routers

[Chris3k2]

I have a RT-N66R as my main router. I just recently bought a RT-AC-56R from walmart because they had it clearance for $55 and it seemed like a good deal. I have not really used the 56R yet. I have a two story house that is about 3000 sqft. My internet has been pretty decent but I have noticed I have a few problems with wireless connecting to my Xbox One.

The Xbox appears to be connecting fine and I can watch Hulu and netflix without too much problems but I start noticing when i'm playing certain games like Call of Duty or The Division there is a slight bit of lag. I orginally had it connected to the 5GHz speed and the xbox shows everything working well from the network settings with signal quality around 70-80%. When I play a game like Call of Duty though my connection lags somewhat often. I then switched over to the 2.4GHz speed and i'm not getting as fast a speed but the signal is 90-100% and majority of the lag is missing. I can still see it jump/skip from time to time for like a second though.

Just this morning I decided to connect the AC56R to the N66R through the repeater mode. It actually turned out to be pretty great. Everything connected fine and my signal and speeds were spot on. The best part was I couldn't see any problems with lag while playing CoD or The Division. Only thing I noticed was that I had 3 different SSID's.

My question is what is the best way to use both routers. My whole house is wired for ethernet in every room. The only thing I messed up on was that I didn't put a ethernet connection on each wall so while I can connect the second router using ethernet I'd have to figure out a way to hide the cable. So taking just Access Point off the table which method is the best to use? Repeater mode or Media Bridge mode? and which router should I use as the primary router and which one should be the repeater/media bridge router? Also any specific settings I need to have changed after setting them up?

I could really use some advice or help. If i'm missing some information that would help give a better answer please let me know so I can provide it to you. The repeater/media bridge would be up stairs and the router would be downstairs. I have TWC and get 60Mbps down and 5 up. I also want to continue using IPV6. Thanks in advance for anything you can provide.

 

[L&LD]

My question is what is the best way to use both routers. My whole house is wired for ethernet in every room. The only thing I messed up on was that I didn't put a ethernet connection on each wall so while I can connect the second router using ethernet I'd have to figure out a way to hide the cable. So taking just Access Point off the table which method is the best to use? Repeater mode or Media Bridge mode? and which router should I use as the primary router and which one should be the repeater/media bridge router?

The RT-AC56U is what I would use as the main router.

Look at flat LAN cable to put behind baseboards and/or under carpets before you consider Repeater or Bridge mode as neither of the latter options can be favorably compared to a wired connection.

 

[Chris3k2]

The RT-AC56U is what I would use as the main router.

Look at flat LAN cable to put behind baseboards and/or under carpets before you consider Repeater or Bridge mode as neither of the latter options can be favorably compared to a wired connection.

I definitely understand. The reason I had my house built with ethernet in every room is because I always prefer the wired option. I'm also not very good with actual home type of projects. so removing carpet and things like that just isn't gonna work for me right now. I'm sure I could go up and over the door and try to make it as inconspicuous as possible but would like to avoid that if I can. From when I had it in repeater mode for that short amount of time I noticed no difference between wired and wireless speed.

So I will use the AC56R as the main router and the N66R as the secondary. If I can hide the cable good enough that my fiance doesn't have a problem I will run it as an access point. What would be the options or features I should turn off to make it run as smooth as possible. I'm assuming the main router wouldn't need anything changed and the AP router would. Also if I can't do the wired route, which of the other options is better? Repeater mode or media bridge mode?

And thank you so much for the input. I hope my reply doesn't sound like i'm ignoring your device. I agree that the wired method would be ten times better. But if my fiance doesn't approve of the placement of the cables then I still need to use one of the other options. So in your opinion or anybody else's out of the 2 wireless methods which would be preferred and what options and features would I need on or off in order to make it the best connection possible. Thanks everybody.

 

[L&LD]

I'm not clear on how you tested in Repeater mode? Did you test only a single device?

A better test would be testing with at least two or three wireless devices consecutively and that may show you how limiting Repeater mode really is.

WiFi is a time shared and half duplex medium. When there is a single device active on the repeater, the whole network will be performance compromised. Because the whole network has to wait for the device(s) on the repeater (twice) for each network request before the radios can be used for any other tasks (even for devices not on the Repeater).

Bridge mode is the same (effectively), if the radios are used for clients on the Bridge router. If the Bridge router is only used for wired connections to clients, then it is superior to Repeater mode but will still be a potential bottleneck depending on how many of the wired clients need consecutive and sustained network bandwidth. This will depend on the type of network load the clients present and also the type of connection and the quality of the connection back to the main router.

My advice? Pay a handyman a small sum to make the required wiring 'pretty'. Then both you and your fiancé can be happy with the results for a long time to come.

 

[Chris3k2]

well i tested it by doing a couple of test with speedtest.net I also ran both games I play often, The Division & Call of Duty. Both games ran a lot smoother with having both routers compared to just the 1. I can't really recall if I had multiple devices running while doing any of those "tests" though. I do know multiple devices were connected to the signal just not putting any "stress" on the bandwidth. I understand what your saying with the multiple wireless devices but what should I actually do to test them all at once? Should I be running a speedtest on each device at the same time while playing an online game or would I get more real world results by streaming music or a movie from the wireless device while playing an online game?

I will setup the AC56R the same way I did last time and take some pictures of a speedtest result before the repeater and after i set it up as a repeater. After reading a couple a days ago that having it in any other mode except Access Point mode cuts the bandwidth in half, I too was surprised by my results with it as a repeater. From everything a read it shouldn't be getting the same speeds as a wired connection but yet thats what it was showing based off the speedtest results. I'll try to get it done now and post pictures in a separate reply.

 

[Chris3k2]

I actually found a spot to place it where the wires shouldn't be too noticeable so I'm going to reset both routers and set them up in router and access point mode. Including my images from the repeater mode setup though in order to show you what i'm getting on my end with that setup.

images wouldn't load

 

[Chris3k2]

dropbox link with results I hope. You should be able to switch to the list view to see a thumbnail and name of the image which describes what band was tested. I had 4 wireless devices connected each time I did the test and was streaming movies from 3 of the devices while playing call of duty on the xbox.

Network Results

 

[L&LD]

The images (and their names) are very cryptic to me. Can you describe further your testing, results and conclusions for us?

 

[Chris3k2]

My results were fairly steady at 55-60mbps on each wireless band and on using a wired connection. I streamed movies from 3 different devices and also played an online multiplayer game on the Xbox one for at least 30 minutes while on each wireless band with the n66r as the only router. I did the same tests for when I used the Ac56r in repeater mode. So I tested the 2.4g band with only a router and then tested with a repeater added. I also did the same for the 5g band. I tested my connection with computer hooked up to Ethernet cable and saw little to no difference in internet speed when using wired or wireless. So I haven't seen where having it in repeater mode has affected me yet.

But as I said before. I found a spot to put the ac56r where I can use it as an access point and not have to worry too much about visible wires. I really do appreciate your help. Now is there certain features I should leave off or turn on when having one router as an Access Point?