new ap thoughts/questions

[evh909]

2800sqft two story house, no basement, drywall/wood. currently have a linksys e3200 (2&5ghz) with tomato which is positioned upstairs in the center of the house, extending anything downstairs with hardwires would be a pita but not out of the question. have 15 devices, g through ac, most of the n devices connect to g when downstairs. looking at the usage logs, we download over 300 gb a month. i do use my usb external drive for central storage of files.

assuming that I will not put an ap on the first floor, thought was simply to get a 1900 class ap and use that for n/ac and leave the e3200 for g. reasonable? any other suggestions are welcome as well as a recommendation for the new ap, was leaning towards the linksys ac1900, I am partial to them but not so much since they were purchased.

finally, I am partial to alternative firmware, anyone have experience with alternative firmware for the linksys 1900? are there any other 1900 class routers that have good alternative firmware options?

 

[stevech]

No matter the choice of AP, the first order problem is how to connect AP to router. You may know these, #1 is best
1. Cat5 cable in attic, down interior walls, fire-rated cable in air return shaft (code compliance?), hidden on outside wall facades, etc. There is flat cat5 cable to use too.
2. IP over power line
3. IP over existing TV coax (MoCA)

On 2 and 3, see forum section. No sense spending more than $50 on an AP, or any router reconfigured as an AP, since only #1 can provide the speeds needed for 11ac.