I had an AC56U on far side of house, and a Linksys WRT54G as a cabled AP on opposite side. 2000 ft^2 bungalow with about 65 to 70 feet between routers. Occasionally wifi was dropping out. For me, stable Wifi is more important than speed, as the best internet connection I can get at my acreage is about 40 Mbps, and I don't imagine that is going to improve for years.
Yesterday, I began experimenting to see if I could run everything with one router as I suspected "sticky wifi" was the reason I was dropping internet (thank you to old forum posts for pointing me down this path!). After some testing, I convinced myself it was possible to run everything off one router if the router was centralized. I pulled cables, and installed the AC56U centrally. The WRT54G was disconnected. If anyone is wondering, the AC56U has far superior coverage on 2.4 GHz as compared to the WRT54G based on WIFI analyzer readings. So far, I think the new set up is working OK. The worst signal I get is about -65 to -67 on 2.4 GHz and that is in a bedroom where the only device we might use is a phone and it wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to move for better reception or use cell data. All work computers are on ethernet. Just laptops, google homes, alexa's, etc on wifi.
While I was at the store, I bought an AC86U which was on boxing day sale for $149 Canadian. I haven't opened it and I suspect I should return it. I really want to find a way to justify this expense and I thought I would ask the forum what the benefits of this router might be over the AC56U? I suspect it would have better WIFI coverage due to beam forming and external antennas, but I haven't been able to find any direct comparisons. I'm not running a VPN. I suspect the AC86U might give me sufficient signal that the 5 GHz might work throughout the house, but I'm not sure I gain much when our internet is so slow. We don't do much networking between devices. Thoughts on ways to justify this expense or is the smart money to return it?
Yesterday, I began experimenting to see if I could run everything with one router as I suspected "sticky wifi" was the reason I was dropping internet (thank you to old forum posts for pointing me down this path!). After some testing, I convinced myself it was possible to run everything off one router if the router was centralized. I pulled cables, and installed the AC56U centrally. The WRT54G was disconnected. If anyone is wondering, the AC56U has far superior coverage on 2.4 GHz as compared to the WRT54G based on WIFI analyzer readings. So far, I think the new set up is working OK. The worst signal I get is about -65 to -67 on 2.4 GHz and that is in a bedroom where the only device we might use is a phone and it wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to move for better reception or use cell data. All work computers are on ethernet. Just laptops, google homes, alexa's, etc on wifi.
While I was at the store, I bought an AC86U which was on boxing day sale for $149 Canadian. I haven't opened it and I suspect I should return it. I really want to find a way to justify this expense and I thought I would ask the forum what the benefits of this router might be over the AC56U? I suspect it would have better WIFI coverage due to beam forming and external antennas, but I haven't been able to find any direct comparisons. I'm not running a VPN. I suspect the AC86U might give me sufficient signal that the 5 GHz might work throughout the house, but I'm not sure I gain much when our internet is so slow. We don't do much networking between devices. Thoughts on ways to justify this expense or is the smart money to return it?
