Orbi vs new extenders

[dea107]

Hey folks,
I'm new to this forum, but ran across this site while looking for WiFi answers and suggestions for my home.
Alot of you seem pretty knowledgeable about this stuff and I'm a networking novice.

Here is my current situation: I have a 3200 sq ft home. I use verizon gigabit service (it's kind of overkill, but it was the same cost as 150/150 when it rolled out). My router is a linksys ea9300. I also use an NetGear EX7300 as an extender. We have a moderate amount of devices to connect (4 phones, 3 tablets, TV, FireTV, Bluray, A/V Receiver, Sonos, Thermostat).

My issue and what I'm trying to do: The entertainment room in my home is at the very opposite end of of house where the internet router is. So, after traveling though multiple walls and a floor, the signal for all the entertainment stuff begins to suffer. So, I'm trying to improve the coverage there AND would also like to remove the EXT networks and have a more seamless system.

So, I have a 2 part question: 1) what would be a better option to do this? I was looking at the Orbi system, but I then saw the new NetGear ex7500 and ex8000, as well as the Lynksys re9000. Would any of these extenders be a better option with the router I have? Or should I just skip all that and go with an Orbi?

I have read that using the new extenders would be efficient if I can dedicate the high 5 gig band to the backhaul of the extender (which would make a mini-orbi system, from what I understand). IF this the better option, how do I dedicate that band to the backhaul of the extender? (step by step instructions would be cool if you could provide) <---here is where my novice issue comes into play.

Thank you!

 

[Internet Man]

Hey folks,
I'm new to this forum, but ran across this site while looking for WiFi answers and suggestions for my home.
Alot of you seem pretty knowledgeable about this stuff and I'm a networking novice.

Here is my current situation: I have a 3200 sq ft home. I use verizon gigabit service (it's kind of overkill, but it was the same cost as 150/150 when it rolled out). My router is a linksys ea9300. I also use an NetGear EX7300 as an extender. We have a moderate amount of devices to connect (4 phones, 3 tablets, TV, FireTV, Bluray, A/V Receiver, Sonos, Thermostat).

My issue and what I'm trying to do: The entertainment room in my home is at the very opposite end of of house where the internet router is. So, after traveling though multiple walls and a floor, the signal for all the entertainment stuff begins to suffer. So, I'm trying to improve the coverage there AND would also like to remove the EXT networks and have a more seamless system.

So, I have a 2 part question: 1) what would be a better option to do this? I was looking at the Orbi system, but I then saw the new NetGear ex7500 and ex8000, as well as the Lynksys re9000. Would any of these extenders be a better option with the router I have? Or should I just skip all that and go with an Orbi?

I have read that using the new extenders would be efficient if I can dedicate the high 5 gig band to the backhaul of the extender (which would make a mini-orbi system, from what I understand). IF this the better option, how do I dedicate that band to the backhaul of the extender? (step by step instructions would be cool if you could provide) <---here is where my novice issue comes into play.

Thank you!

If you have gigabit Fios then you must be using the 3x3 Fios Quantum Gateway, right? Did you bridge it to your EA9300 or something? I'll assume that's what you did.

Ideally you'd just reconfigure the devices that you've already purchased. According to its simulated web UI, the EA9300 does not support wireless bridge mode so the ideal setup of using the EX7300 as a wired access point to add a second 5GHz band to the Fios Gateway does not seem to be possible. What follows is the best solution I can come up with using your existing hardware...

I would probably turn the Fios Quantum Gateway's Wi-Fi back on and use the EX7300 to connect back to the 5GHz network of the Fios Gateway from the entertainment room. Configure the EA9300 in bridge mode and plug the LAN port of the EX7300 into one of the LAN ports of the EA9300 turning the EA9300 into a simple access point. Disable the 2.4GHz network on the EX7300 and EA9300 since coverage from one device should be sufficient and you don't want to make 2.4GHz interference worse. Read about the available 5GHz channels in your region. I assume you're in the US or Canada. Pick two non-overlapping channels that support 80MHz Bandwidth (or greater); one for the Fios router, and another for the EA9300's 5GHz network (disable the second 5GHz network). This likely means channels 42 and 155. According to FCC filings, all three of your devices support DFS so that may open up a few more potential channels but it's also possible that some may not actually support DFS channels.

So you'd end up with something like this:

Fios Quantum Gateway

• 2.4GHz wireless clients
• 5Ghz channel 42 <-> EX7300

EX7300 (entertainment room)

• Ethernet wire <-> EA9300

EA9300(entertainment room)

• 5GHz channel 155 <-> 5GHz wireless clients

 

[dea107]

Well, what I was thinking was I could try to ditch the quantum router all together. I don't use verizon for anything but internet, so I've read that I could simply turn off the wifi signal on the quantum router, reset the dchp, plug the ea9300 into the Ethernet cable, and be ok there. (Feel free to let me know if that would end up in a disaster, I have not done it yet).

The issue I was trying to remedy was eliminating the EXT SSIDs and get better coverage in the entertainment room on the other side of the house. So, I was thinking of changing the ex7300 to one of those new extenders I mentioned in the original post. OR going with just Orbi.

I just did not know what the best option would be.

 

[thiggins]

First, today's extenders, including those you refer to, can connect to ANY router or AP. The base router/AP doesn't need to support extender mode. That's required for extenders using an older technique called WDS. Current extenders don't use WDS, but act like client devices.

The EA9300 is a three-stream, three radio router. Both the EX8000 and RE9000 have four-stream 5 GHz backhaul radios. So backhaul link throughput will be lower than if you were connecting to a four-stream router.

With a "tri-band" router, you don't need to do anything extra to set up the dedicated backhaul connection if you are operating with the same SSID for all bands. If you are using a different SSID per band, connect the EX8000 to the high band radio (ch 149 - 165) and the RE9000 to the low band (Ch 36-44). If the base router is a dual-band, set the 5 GHz as described above on the base router before you connect the extender.

In your situation, I'd try the Orbi (RBK50) to get four-stream backhaul. Otherwise you'd need to buy an AC5300/5400 class router, plus the extender, which would cost more.

By the way, you can set your current extender to use the same SSID if you prefer.

 

[dea107]

First, today's extenders, including those you refer to, can connect to ANY router or AP. The base router/AP doesn't need to support extender mode. That's required for extenders using an older technique called WDS. Current extenders don't use WDS, but act like client devices.

The EA9300 is a three-stream, three radio router. Both the EX8000 and RE9000 have four-stream 5 GHz backhaul radios. So backhaul link throughput will be lower than if you were connecting to a four-stream router.

With a "tri-band" router, you don't need to do anything extra to set up the dedicated backhaul connection if you are operating with the same SSID for all bands. If you are using a different SSID per band, connect the EX8000 to the high band radio (ch 149 - 165) and the RE9000 to the low band (Ch 36-44). If the base router is a dual-band, set the 5 GHz as described above on the base router before you connect the extender.

In your situation, I'd try the Orbi (RBK50) to get four-stream backhaul. Otherwise you'd need to buy an AC5300/5400 class router, plus the extender, which would cost more.

By the way, you can set your current extender to use the same SSID if you prefer.

Thanks alot. That is exactly the type of advice I was looking to get. I think I will try the Orbi.

Just out of curiosity, would the combo of a ac5300/ac5400 router plus the ex8000 give you significantly better results? Cost wise, it would be about 200.00 more than the Orbi set up, so that is a serious issue. But I was wondering if the more powerful base router would translate to better results.

 

[thiggins]

Just out of curiosity, would the combo of a ac5300/ac5400 router plus the ex8000 give you significantly better results? Cost wise, it would be about 200.00 more than the Orbi set up, so that is a serious issue. But I was wondering if the more powerful base router would translate to better results.

In multi-node/AP systems, more power is not necessarily your friend. If there is too much overlap between nodes, devices may bounce back and forth between nodes or not move to a node with a stronger signal.

It all depends on your particular Wi-Fi environment.

 

[Fyodor]

Well, what I was thinking was I could try to ditch the quantum router all together. I don't use verizon for anything but internet, so I've read that I could simply turn off the wifi signal on the quantum router, reset the dchp, plug the ea9300 into the Ethernet cable, and be ok there. (Feel free to let me know if that would end up in a disaster, I have not done it yet).

The issue I was trying to remedy was eliminating the EXT SSIDs and get better coverage in the entertainment room on the other side of the house. So, I was thinking of changing the ex7300 to one of those new extenders I mentioned in the original post. OR going with just Orbi.

I just did not know what the best option would be.

A few points:

1. You can use another router with FIOS if the feed running from the FIOS fiber modem is ethernet, rather than coax.

2. If you are getting FIOS TV #1 , with FIOS STBs, this is a bit trickier. I'd check the FIOS forums.

3. As others have noted you can just set your repeater to use the same SSID and you won't need to manually switch. The smart roaming systems supposedly do a better job forcing switches to the strongest signal but I've never had issues with my "dumb" router/access point system.

4. Do you have coax in the remote room? Your FIOS router has a MoCA-to-Ethernet bridge in it. If you get one for the other room you can use it to feed an access point.