[noob] another 1900P as new AP or try AiMesh?

[amd7674]

hi guys,

Thanks Merlin for all your hard work and others for helping people

Thanks to you, I’ve been ruining my setup successfully for the last 6 months or so. I didn’t have time to fully optimize it due to family life and the need of internet (no time for downtime to play around)

I have a an average 2 story house. My main router is 1900P and it is located in the corner of the basement (front of the house). It is not ideal position and I had few Wi-Fi dead zones especially in the backyard and kitchen.

To fix this i used my old n66u as AP on the second floor close to the backyard. I’ve used Franks fork as per your recommendation. Also I’m using separate SSID for both 2.4 and 5 networks.

All is good however the switching between main router and AP is not ideal. Perhaps I should revisit roaming Assistant (left defaults) and perhaps pick/choose better channels for AP. There are still some weaker zones and I was thinking about moving n66u AP to the first floor.

Later this week I will get another 1900P (used) for fairly good price which I couldn’t resist.

So my question to you experts is, what would be my best option?

Should I add 2nd 1900P as 2nd AP on the first/main floor and keep n66u as AP on the second floor?

Try AiMesh with both 1900p? I think I would be able to still use n66u in AP mode with AiMesh nodes?

Or should I do/try another config?

Apologies for fairly long post and thank you in advance for your help

 

[Grisu]

you will have to try it on your own, everyone gets different results.
I would start with the 2x 68U in Aimesh mode and 66U as AP like now.

 

[L&LD]

hi guys,

Thanks Merlin for all your hard work and others for helping people

Thanks to you, I’ve been ruining my setup successfully for the last 6 months or so. I didn’t have time to fully optimize it due to family life and the need of internet (no time for downtime to play around)

I have a an average 2 story house. My main router is 1900P and it is located in the corner of the basement (front of the house). It is not ideal position and I had few Wi-Fi dead zones especially in the backyard and kitchen.

To fix this i used my old n66u as AP on the second floor close to the backyard. I’ve used Franks fork as per your recommendation. Also I’m using separate SSID for both 2.4 and 5 networks.

All is good however the switching between main router and AP is not ideal. Perhaps I should revisit roaming Assistant (left defaults) and perhaps pick/choose better channels for AP. There are still some weaker zones and I was thinking about moving n66u AP to the first floor.

Later this week I will get another 1900P (used) for fairly good price which I couldn’t resist.

So my question to you experts is, what would be my best option?

Should I add 2nd 1900P as 2nd AP on the first/main floor and keep n66u as AP on the second floor?

Try AiMesh with both 1900p? I think I would be able to still use n66u in AP mode with AiMesh nodes?

Or should I do/try another config?

Apologies for fairly long post and thank you in advance for your help

What is 'Franks fork'? Who recommends it?

 

[Grisu]

think he meant John's fork!

 

[amd7674]

you will have to try it on your own, everyone gets different results.
I would start with the 2x 68U in Aimesh mode and 66U as AP like now.

Thanks for your feedback. Would 66u be AP to the main router? Right?

think he meant John's fork!

yes I’m sorry my bad

 

[Grisu]

Would 66u be AP to the main router? Right?

Thats what I wrote.

 

[amd7674]

Thats what I wrote.

Thanks, I guess I had too much sun today lol

 

[Val D.]

Later this week I will get another 1900P (used) for fairly good price which I couldn’t resist.

Just make sure it's not a converted TM router, if the price is very low.

 

[amd7674]

Just make sure it's not a converted TM router, if the price is very low.

Thanks, since I’m in Canada, I don’t think too many people are using them. But you never know lol

 

[Grisu]

Thanks, since I’m in Canada, I don’t think too many people are using them. But you never know lol

you would know, they have magenta branding instead of Asus.

 

[amd7674]

Darn it, the seller decided to keep it :-(. Maybe he is reading this forums lol. So no AiMesh for me, at least for now.

I will bring my current AP n66 (John’s fork) from second floor to first floor and will try to find best channels for it using WiFi analyzer.

I live in neighborhood (one house next to the other) with everyone using most popular channels, which I believe is very common issue in North America:-(

I saw a cheap ac66 A1, do you it is worth buying for 2nd AP? I would install each AP on different floor (different SSID). However I’ve read too many APs can cause more harm than good? Another option might be to put ac66 as repeater on the first floor and keep n66 on the second floor as AP?

Thoughts?

Thanks again!

 

[Grisu]

I would wait for a cheap RT-AC68U/W/P or RT-AC66_B1 (!!! B1 !!! same as 68U only different housing from 66U).

If using AP mode you should use same SSID on all bands and routers so its easier for clients to change, but you cant manually tell them which one to take.
For this you could set guest SSIDs for each band, router1_2G, router1_5G, router2_2G and router2_5G, so in case you can choose different SSID on your client for special purposes.

Using Aimesh or not wont be the huge difference, it may be more interesting if you take 86U everywhere with SmartConnect (node and band steering).

 

[Val D.]

Thoughts?

If you have only a "few dead zones" with a router in the basement, then just move the router out of the basement to a central position on the first floor. If you can move APs so easily to the first and second floor, that means you probably have cables to the basement, or power line adapters. Why is your main router still in the basement? Average American 2-story house is made of wooden sticks and drywall. In most cases one router is enough to cover the entire house. Why complicate things?

 

[amd7674]

The cable modem is in the basement. Thus the main router sits beside it. Also my main switch and all the Ethernet runs are in there. However thanks for the great idea, I suppose I could use one of the runs to install router on the first floor and run back from the router to the basement to the switch. I will have to try this.... thanks

 

[Val D.]

I suppose I could use one of the runs to install router on the first floor and run back from the router to the basement to the switch.

If you can't run a cable back to the basement, use RT-N66U in Bridge Mode and connect it to the switch. In other words, turn RT-N66U into a high-power wireless client for all your wired devices. On relatively short distances it will keep steady 450Mbps link speed with your RT-AC1900P. All your wired devices after the switch will be more than happy with 450Mbps. Use firmware 380.66 on the bridge. The last version 380.70 doesn't hold the link well and you have to reboot from time to time.

 

[amd7674]

If you can't run a cable back to the basement, use RT-N66U in Bridge Mode and connect it to the switch. In other words, turn RT-N66U into a high-power wireless client for all your wired devices. On relatively short distances it will keep steady 450Mbps link speed with your RT-AC1900P. All your wired devices after the switch will be more than happy with 450Mbps. Use firmware 380.66 on the bridge. The last version 380.70 doesn't hold the link well and you have to reboot from time to time.

Thanks for all the info

 

[Swistheater]

What is 'Franks fork'? Who recommends it?

You have never tried franks fork?

 

[amd7674]

If you can't run a cable back to the basement, use RT-N66U in Bridge Mode and connect it to the switch. In other words, turn RT-N66U into a high-power wireless client for all your wired devices. On relatively short distances it will keep steady 450Mbps link speed with your RT-AC1900P. All your wired devices after the switch will be more than happy with 450Mbps. Use firmware 380.66 on the bridge. The last version 380.70 doesn't hold the link well and you have to reboot from time to time.

Wow... I’m just back home from vacation to find out it wasn’t dual Ethernet run but triple coax cable. It’s been 10 years since I did it, I guess my memory is getting worse:-(.

Before I try your suggestion. I will move AP n66u to the first floor. Also i will try to find better spot for 1900p in the basement (not much wiggle room) to see if I can improve on Wi-Fi.

I will report back... thanks guys

Cheers...

 

[heysoundude]

how about the 1900 on the main floor, with the bridged n66 on the upper? ethernet cable from modem in basement to 1900 on main floor, then an ethernet cable from the 1900 to the n66 upstairs...modems and routers don't have to co-habitate. Also/further, that coax can be used for fresh ethernet/UTP-8 pulls - coax is carrier transmission infrastructure, UTP-8 is end user networking.

Like you, the cable in my canadian home also comes into the basement and is run straight to the rec/family room. the modem now resides close to the demarc point, and I used the coax to backpull new UTP-8 Cat-6 from there to a cabinet on the upper level where my router resides now, and coverage is stellar. from there, I pulled a second Cat-6 to a point on the main level where I could locate a switch, with more Cat-6 fanning out to various points.

In both our cases, with the right cable in the walls, if need should ever arise to go with another router that runs AiMesh, the infrastructure for ethernet backhaul is in place between whichever router is hub and node.