For RT-AC68U: Which repeater & dongle is best?

[SaintNick]

I just bought a RT-AC68U to replace my ageing Netgear WNDR4500.
I love the firmware/config specs and reviews of this thing already. Now I need a couple more things:

1. which is the best USB2 dongle I should get for direct connect to the RT-AC68U?

2. which is the best wifi-wifi repeater for RT-AC68U?

Preferably no overkill, pricewise the just-good enough (2013?) to get the best out of this router.
Every suggestion will be much appreciated!

Nick

 

[System Error Message]

usb2 cannot fully utilise the 3 stream AC bandwidth because they only go up to 480Mb/s. Many use usb3 but you can still use usb2 with it if you dont mind wireless N speeds. I use an asus USB-AC56 which works well for me but also relies on having the software installed.

If you want a wifi repeater your only other choice would be a 3 stream wifi AP because the AC68U isnt MU-MIMO. That means you can get another AC68U or another router or perhaps an AC3200 as the main router and direct one of its radios with the AC68U.

I dont get why you have to use wifi to wifi when wire is much better to extend wifi and gives you wider options. Its not like a consumer wifi AP commonly breaches 100M in distance. Unless you're using wifi to wifi to create a link to a wired device clients on the extended wifi do get better signal but their throughput remains as poor as ever as if there wasnt an extender. The exception to this would be with multi radio wifi (i.e. 2.4 for clients, 5 Ghz for link or triple link radios where one 5 Ghz for link, one 5 Ghz for client).

Although i dont know how your setup will be or what your usage would be but this is my opinion in building a good network. Even using it in the least optimal situation would work but it really depends on whether or not you need performance.

 

[powerleakin]

I guess maybe it's the wiring that's putting OP off?

I stay in a stone house (in Asia) and would like to do wired APs, but have no idea how to do the cabling without them just running all over the place. All the videos I watch online are on American/European homes where the wall is thinner and not concrete like what we have here..

Being a diy man myself, calling in a professional service to come in and would be the last and least preferred method...

 

[SaintNick]

Thanks SEM for your thinking with me. You've given me lots to think about.

Re the reason for wifi-wifi extending instead of wired-wifi: pure laziness on my part. Having an American style timber-framed drywall house (exceptional in these parts), I have no excuses for not wiring all the way up to the attic, where one of my sons lives. The garden house at 35 yards/meters from the router is another question (a sad story in fact*).

Especially your saying "their throughput remains as poor as ever as if there wasnt an extender" begs thought. There though, I think we can agree there must be tipping point where the signal is so weak that it can make sense to use a wifi-wifi repeater (e.g. for the garden house).

So, thanks and I'll be giving it all some thought and research with your input.

Cheers, Nick

* The sad story is that when we had the garden house built only three years ago, and my son laid all the water and wastewater and electric connections all the way under the garden and under the house, I had the keen of mind to tell him to lay a string together with the electric cable inside the insulating tube which went all the way and came up into the utility cupboard where my routers are. Of course with in mind to at some time in the future just pull a UTP cable through. Comes the day, and I prepared well buying strong fishing nylon, I started the process of pulling the cat 5e cable trhough, and it only went 10 yards before it got absolutely completely stuck! The insulating tube we had used was just too narrow, we should have chosen a spacier gauge. I almost pulled my fingers off, using all my strength. Frustrating, and sad :-( So wifi it will be, for the garden house.

 

[SaintNick]

Internet over the powerline is something I use for some years, to great satisfaction actually. I got a set for free from my provider, for the IP-TV signal. The first "200" ones were okayish, but since they upgraded my set for free to the newer faster "500" ones it's been perfect. Theoretically but unsupported, you can have two separate VLAN networks over the same powerlines, one for IP-TV and another for Internet, but my experiment with the "200"'s was not successful because they proved to interfere too much with each other (choppy TV, bad Internet). Maybe they've got better since then (three years ago).
But if you only want internet distribution to a remote location in the house, it's definitely something to look into...