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Router for family member - Orbi system or Stand-alone router - for wifi range

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njweb

Senior Member
I am upgrading the cable modem and router for a family member.
Cable modem - Getting them the same MB8600 D3.1 modem I have.
Just looking for new router recommendations given their environment:

Environment:
They have a recently built two story home (including large finished basement) with an open central floor plan (bedrooms an bathrooms are closed off, but the rest of the house is wide open - living room and kitchen is one huge open space and dining room is mostly open on one side - no door or long wall on the inside side of the DR).
The router is in a bedroom on the main floor in a relatively central location.

Needs:
The wifi signal should reach every room and the basement.
I know no router is perfect, so let me state that for their needs, range and stability are far more important than ultimate speed (throughput) since there is mostly streaming on just one device at at time and phone wifi use or laptop wifi use (so 2 devices at a time at most, except when additional family visits).

Given the router is in a relatively central location and there are only two levels, I am not sure an Orbi would help much / make much sense.

Recommendations?:
Looking to get a router with excellent range and stability: I checked the router ranker.
The DLink DIR882 tested well here, but users are having issues as reflected in horrible reviews on bestbuy.ca. I want this router to be stable as they are not tech savvy and should not have to deal with frequent disconnects.
The R7800 and Synology RT2600ac seem decent too and may be more stable than the DLink.
Any recommendations?

Prefer to keep the price down to ~$250 IF a stand-alone router makes sense for their environment, otherwise the price will start creeping closer to the Orbi.
Do not mind paying for Orbi - i.e. $425 - $470 - if that will give the best range for their environment - details above.

Too bad I sold my RT-AC5300 (for around $260) when I bought my Orbi, otherwise I would have gone with that for them...
 
Go for the R7800 its the best performing 5Ghz router I have seen, the Synology is close to it in performance as they share similar hardware. The R7800 factory refurb is as low as ~$120 on Amazon.
 
Well, it depends on your housing and even the neighbor networks if you will get coverage of your home by only one router - you need to give it a try: place a router into the middle of the area/levels and check the corners of your house with a Android SmartPhone running the "Wifi Analyzer" app for signal levels above -60 dBi (remember: lower dBi value is better as you are dealing with negative values)!

If there is no sufficient coverage for your needs, you need to give a 2nd router in Access Point (AP) mode the chance to cover up the needed areas - of course you need to find a good place for both devices AND the AP needs a wired connection (LAN cable or PowerLine adapter) to the router.

Same approach as I did with 2 routers/APs (see footer) - there is no magic solution: You need to bring WLAN in the black spots by adding transmitting devices... ;)

PS.: You can check this recent thread about a discussion/solution on mesh vs. multiple router/AP.
 
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Go for the R7800 its the best performing 5Ghz router I have seen, the Synology is close to it in performance as they share similar hardware. The R7800 factory refurb is as low as ~$120 on Amazon.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
Well, it depends on your housing and even the neighbor networks if you will get coverage of your home by only one router - you need to give it a try: place a router into the middle of the area/levels and check the corners of your house with a Android SmartPhone running the "Wifi Analyzer" app for signal levels above -60 dBi (remember: lower dBi value is better as you are dealing with negative values)!

If there is no sufficient coverage for your needs, you need to give a 2nd router in Access Point (AP) mode the chance to cover up the needed areas - of course you need to find a good place for both devices AND the AP needs a wired connection (LAN cable or PowerLine adapter) to the router.

Same approach as I did with 2 routers/APs (see footer) - there is no magic solution: You need to bring WLAN in the black spots by adding transmitting devices... ;)

PS.: You can check this recent thread about a discussion/solution on mesh vs. multiple router/AP.

Thanks!
Right, I know it depends, so I figure if I can find the router with a top 3 range that should work nicely.
Their ISP (Comcast) supplied them with a modem / router combo since they use the ISP's VOIP service (soon to be cancelled in favor of Ooma Telo); it actually has surprisingly good range compared to the prior generation combo which they finally swapped out.
So I am confident that a single router with great range should also be able to adequately cover the whole house with a sufficiently strong wifi signal.
 
Any other recommendations for router or wifi system?

I will be going to visit them in a few weeks and will hook up the cable modem, router or wifi system and Ooma Telo.
Then phase two (a different visit) will be getting them Tivo devices.

Thanks for the feedback so far.
 
Based on the recommendation, my relative ended up ordering the Netgear R7800.
They also ordered the same Motorola MB8600 cable modem and Ooma Telo I have.

So the only difference is that we have an Orbi and they will have an R7800. There is a sale on the Orbi ($369) soon but they only wanted a black system. The only whole home in black is the Velop but I felt it would not offer them much advantage since their router connection is centrally located anyway; also my Velop success was limited (which is why I stuck with the Orbi for our home).

I will be setting it up for them in a few weeks.

Thanks again for the feedback!
 

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