Hello,
I live in a 3-story 3,000 sq ft house. I’ve been using Netgear R7000 (freshTomato firmware) located more or less centrally. Coverage has been great — I had internet throughout the house (other than the garage and outside). But I was only getting like 50Mbps link speed on my MacBook Pro in my office.
The house is already wired with Cat5e cables — there’s an Ethernet port on the wall in every room (which all go to the garage). I figured why not take advantage of it. So I moved my cable modem and R7000 from living room to the garage. I then put my old D-Link DIR-862L in the living room. I also moved TP-Link RE200 range extender from garage to my office and put it in AP mode.
Unfortunately, now my WiFi coverage is terrible! Dead spots everywhere.
1) Both TP-Link RE200 and D-Link DIR-862L are 802.11ac devices, just like R7000. Why is it that their range is so much worse than R7000? Is it the lack of external antennas? Less antenna transmit power? I put 30 dBm as the transmit power on DIR-862L which runs DD-WRT, but still the range is nowhere near what R7000 offered. I don’t see on SmallNetBuilder the transmit power rating for reviewed devices, so I am not sure how I’d determine which devices will provide strong signals.
2) I am thinking of buying Ubiquiti’s UniFi UAP-AC-IW (In-Wall) access points, because I already have Ethernet ports on the wall. I think it’d look really nice. Does anyone have any experience with Unifi’s In-Wall units? How do they compare to the round ones that seem to be more common? Given my terrible experience with DIR-862L and RE200 when it comes to range, I hope their range is more similar to R7000 than DIR-862L & RE200.
3) I know it’s best to put AP’s in the ceiling, but I’d like to avoid having to move the wire from the wall Ethernet jack to the ceiling. Will I be okay with the APs just sitting on the wall close to the floor? (Because that’s where the Ethernet jacks are currently located)
4) How many AP’s for my 3000 sq ft 3 level house? Does 3 x UAP-AC-IW sound reasonable? ($88 each) Or should I get 2 UAP-AC-IW’s PRO version instead? (They’re so pricy though)
5) Netgear Orbi has a pretty good review on SNB, and given the great range R7000 provides, I am thinking about Orbi, too. Netgear must know something about antenna design or something. Is Orbi a good option for me? I don’t need a mesh network — I’d rather use Ethernet backhaul since I already have Cat5e in every room. I want reliable internet, so I am a little reluctant to trust Netgear given the unreliable firmware they have been supplying for R7000.
Sorry for so many questions, and thank you so much for reading through!
I live in a 3-story 3,000 sq ft house. I’ve been using Netgear R7000 (freshTomato firmware) located more or less centrally. Coverage has been great — I had internet throughout the house (other than the garage and outside). But I was only getting like 50Mbps link speed on my MacBook Pro in my office.
The house is already wired with Cat5e cables — there’s an Ethernet port on the wall in every room (which all go to the garage). I figured why not take advantage of it. So I moved my cable modem and R7000 from living room to the garage. I then put my old D-Link DIR-862L in the living room. I also moved TP-Link RE200 range extender from garage to my office and put it in AP mode.
Unfortunately, now my WiFi coverage is terrible! Dead spots everywhere.
1) Both TP-Link RE200 and D-Link DIR-862L are 802.11ac devices, just like R7000. Why is it that their range is so much worse than R7000? Is it the lack of external antennas? Less antenna transmit power? I put 30 dBm as the transmit power on DIR-862L which runs DD-WRT, but still the range is nowhere near what R7000 offered. I don’t see on SmallNetBuilder the transmit power rating for reviewed devices, so I am not sure how I’d determine which devices will provide strong signals.
2) I am thinking of buying Ubiquiti’s UniFi UAP-AC-IW (In-Wall) access points, because I already have Ethernet ports on the wall. I think it’d look really nice. Does anyone have any experience with Unifi’s In-Wall units? How do they compare to the round ones that seem to be more common? Given my terrible experience with DIR-862L and RE200 when it comes to range, I hope their range is more similar to R7000 than DIR-862L & RE200.
3) I know it’s best to put AP’s in the ceiling, but I’d like to avoid having to move the wire from the wall Ethernet jack to the ceiling. Will I be okay with the APs just sitting on the wall close to the floor? (Because that’s where the Ethernet jacks are currently located)
4) How many AP’s for my 3000 sq ft 3 level house? Does 3 x UAP-AC-IW sound reasonable? ($88 each) Or should I get 2 UAP-AC-IW’s PRO version instead? (They’re so pricy though)
5) Netgear Orbi has a pretty good review on SNB, and given the great range R7000 provides, I am thinking about Orbi, too. Netgear must know something about antenna design or something. Is Orbi a good option for me? I don’t need a mesh network — I’d rather use Ethernet backhaul since I already have Cat5e in every room. I want reliable internet, so I am a little reluctant to trust Netgear given the unreliable firmware they have been supplying for R7000.
Sorry for so many questions, and thank you so much for reading through!
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