Network Upgrade - Multiple Routers

Seearbe

Seearbe

Seearbe

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31 Jul 2019
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543
With an eye on the January sales, I'm contemplating upgrading my network a bit as coverage across my house and garden remains a bit patchy in certain places on account of distance and some thick walls.

I currently have three Asus RT-AC86U routers - one at the front of the house acting as the mothership and connected to the internet (1GB FTTP getting 750 download and 920 upload (yep!)), one at the back of the house and one in an outbuilding at the end of the garden - both of which are wired into the main router with Cat 5e. All three are at ground floor level.

I'd like to get another router to go in the loft, again wired into main router. Getting a bit of height on things should help with wifi range and also gives me some additional connections options out of the way (e.g. adding in CCTV or NAS).

Looking at things around the £250 mark, is it worth going for something like the TUF-BE6500 (wifi 7) or might something like the RT-AX89X with a stupid number of antennas give better coverage? Honestly, I'm losing sight of what would provide genuine performance improvement vs all the marketing snake oil.

Should I upgrade the main router and put one of the RT-AC86U in the loft or stick the new one up there for range purposes?

Thanks!
 
Should have said that the satellite routers are configured in AP mode so I have a "seamless" wifi network.

What do you mean by proper router?
 
Seearbe said:
What do you mean by proper router?
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One not made by Asus. If you do some research you'll find the horrors of their history with security issues which mean many of us will never trust them. They are also over hyped by social media and Asus make claims that defy the laws of physics and regulatory WiFi limits.

Good quality access points are also a lot cheaper than £250 routers and are designed to work seamlessly with other APs. Far better than buying routers and not using most of their features irrespective of Asus issues.
 
I never had any issues with my 2 RT-AC86u. I had one as the router and one as AP in Mesh so the same SSID was broadcast. People cling onto the asus issues in the past without actually looking at newer details or the patches. If you want to make it easy, another Asus device that has their mesh feature will work best (but use that as the main router and the others in AP mode). I've moved on from my RT-AC86u setup because they are now end of life and the firmware I was using, Asus merlin, will no longer issue updates.
 
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Well I can't say I've had any major issues with the Asus routers I do have and what I've set it up to do works, albeit not with quite the coverage I would have hoped. Not sure if that's because the routers aren't that good or I'm just unrealistic about the area it can cover.

Whilst I'm happy to go and do a bit of research, are there any recommendations for good quality access points that I could look into further?

Note that I also have wired devices connected to each of the routers too.
 
Seearbe said:
Well I can't say I've had any major issues with the Asus routers I do have and what I've set it up to do works, albeit not with quite the coverage I would have hoped. Not sure if that's because the routers aren't that good or I'm just unrealistic about the area it can cover.

Whilst I'm happy to go and do a bit of research, are there any recommendations for good quality access points that I could look into further?

Note that I also have wired devices connected to each of the routers too.
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Ubiquiti APs, how many wired devices do you need at each location? Ubiquiti for a good reason dominates this sector.
 
Hyburnate said:
Ubiquiti APs, how many wired devices do you need at each location? Ubiquiti for a good reason dominates this sector.
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Ah, thanks. Will take a look.

Main router will need 3 wired connections (2 satellite APs plus connection from wired hub), both AP routers currently have 2 wired connections each.
 
Thanks to the input above, I've been looking into the Ubiquiti gear along with WiFi theory in a bit more detail and come up with something of a plan, albeit with some final questions I'd appreciate some thoughts on.

Ultimate goal here remains reliability / range of wifi connection rather than pure speed. I'm not using a gaming laptop connected to Wifi for example and the TV is wired in, so it's only really phones, tablets and the variety of smart devices that I'm concerned with. I currently have my wifi set so that there are 4 SSIDs - a trusted network on the 2.4G and 5G bands which gives full network access and a separate guest network that the smart devices etc are connected to, again one per band (although I'll probably turn off the 5G one).

If I were to upgrade to Ubiquiti, I'd probably get:

1) Cloud Gateway Max to act as the mothership - located downstairs at the front of the house
2) Flex 2.5G POE located in the loft - this can act as the central point at which wired connections come in, hard wired into the mothership
3) A wireless AP at the top of the house - either in the loft or on the outside wall looking down the garden
4) Possibly a second wireless AP on the ceiling of the ground floor
5) Dumb 2.5G switches where extra wired connections needed

First question is essentially whether the Ubiquiti would address the reliability and range point vs the Asus. High level spec of the Asus routers are 3x3 on the 2.4G band and 4x4 on the 5G band, so in my brain swapping for a 2x2 and 4x4 device doesn't add anything. Am I thinking about this all wrong and the Ubiquiti devices have more powerful antennae or are simply better at managing traffic?

Second question is how nuts should I go on the wireless AP - I'm thinking Wifi7 is unnecessary but that 6E is worthwhile for the 6G band. All lends itself to the U6 Enterprise.

And final question is how directional are the APs? Would an AP in the loft pointing downwards cover the garden or would I need something pointing up the garden too? Garden is probably 50m long.
 
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