Router

[BigJ]

Needing a new router. Mine is starting to bug because too many devices. I have a nighthawk ac1900 and it works okay for my 3,000sqft house. Mounted on the garage ceiling on one side. I own my modem already. I have Comcast 900mbps and average around 200mpbs on the 5ghz channel and 120 on the 2.4ghz channel. Lots of home automation and devices.

Was contemplating this one but it's not on sale any longer. This is another option. If they have it in house, I'll buy it and try it.

Give me your input. Would a mesh system be better? Budget max is 300+ tax but would love to save a few bucks.

 

[TurboMirage]

i would check to see if there is a firmware update for the nighthawk they are usually pretty good about that.

i've been tossing tp-link routers in folks homes they are pretty much over the moon with coverage and speeds. plus you can manage it easily from your iphone from anywhere so if you have kids the parental controls and restrictions are awesome.

i have an older tplink ax1800 on the wall here, at a business i tossed an ax3000 recently. most places get the ax1800 too. my home is about 1200 sq ft. never used any of their mesh products... but the single router setup is pretty cheap. never had to reset any of these devices i've installed, i think i've deployed 8 of them now lol

i also have about 20 devices that connect, my home energy monitor is the only thing on 2.4 everything else is on 5 and has been updated with an AX card to match. my xbox one and wii U are both connected over ethernet.

 

[BigJ]

Good to know. Unfortunately, a lot of my devices are 2.4ghz due to being IoT. The rest I keep on the 5ghz channel. It's crowded now too it seems with my current router, not fast enough or enough memory to keep up it seems.

 

[Briansol]

it's annoying that all the baby stuff is only 2.4g. it messes up the one-mesh network that auto picks up the best in range.

2.4 has longer range, (think, AM radio) 5 has faster speeds, but less distance (think FM radio).

i split out my network id's in the ranges now for those devices and it's annoying have 4 id's (both bands, both regular and _guest networks).

But, yes, mesh is where it's at. I'm running a TP link one mesh router, i think it's the archer A7, the older version, not the new Deco product they have. I actually have 2 wall warts RE300 i think they are. My router is in my far guest bedroom on the 2nd floor. It's not centralized in the house like it should be, honestly. But, it's close to my office (right underneath), the tv/roku (under and over) and the basement wall 2 stories down that has my man cave tv/firestick. In my wife's office, which is the middle bedroom, we have a wall wart. that bounce it up for her office and our bedroom which is the opposite side of the house over the garage.
In the kitchenette, which is on the back of the house mid, we have another one.

This setup gives us wifi to the security cameras in the driveway and wifi on the patio/backyard close to the house. Idea set up would probably be having the router in my wife's office, but she doesn't want it there (clean/neat freak) lol. The only other logical central place it makes sense is in the laundry room, but there's no cable jack there. If it were central, i could probably get away with 1 puck. but for 50 bucks, it's too easy not to just tuck it away in the spare room under the console table.

If i were to do it again from scratch, i might try one of those fancy wifi6 with 10 antennae that claim to support big houses.

 

[TurboMirage]

A7 is like 3 chipsets behind now, I had the A7 back before kristen moved into my apartment.

 

[Briansol]

yeah, i got it about 4 or 5 years ago now.
1750 is fast enough when you consider that the re300's are only 1200.

There's better stuff out now, but it's not worth the upgrade for me yet, honestly. maybe in a few years i'll upgrade the whole thing.

 

[BigJ]

Yeah I'm leaning towards Deco setup or Eero 6+ now. I'm hearing significant speed improvements. My router can handle 35 devices and I'm prob past that.

 

[BigJ]

Got the deco xe75. Works great. Setup took 3 minutes and I utilized the previous name/pass so all my devices continue on. Speeds went from 220mbps to 400mbps.



Then I realized while setting it up, the Ethernet cords coming out of the ceiling were to 2 built in ubiquiti access points. Lol.

 

[TurboMirage]

built in? woof.

 

[BigJ]

built in? woof.

Ya. Prev home owner would contract out quite a bit of tech. Now the question is, do I go buy a PoE switch and try that mesh? Or just stick with this super simple mesh I just setup that kills.

 

[TurboMirage]

pass on the ubiquiti you already have something way better. if they are load bearing, i would leave em LOL otherwise toss and post em on craigslist.