Getting Drop outs. Whats best Solution for 2 story home with these routers i have (repeater, access point or something else?)

[itzthrillz]

Hello everyone. I'm new to this wireless networking & I live in a 2 story home.. Upstairs is where my cable model and router is located & my TV is downstairs. I use Sonos as my home sound theater but during streaming a HD movie from amazon or vudu sometimes I get audio drop outs or buffering video issues. I brought different equipment to see if it helps but always get issues. So far just using Nighthawk works best without too many drops outs / video buffering issues but still happens. I tried using
ASUS (RT-AC68R) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router as a repeater downstairs but saw it still happened plus on speed test my speed dropped more. Worked better with just Nighthawk working alone. Maybe i had it setup wrong.. i'm not sure

Here's all the equipment i have but now im just using 1 router (nighthawk) connected to my cable model (They are just in storage for now)

NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1900 Dual Band WiFi Gigabit Router (R7000)
Securifi Almond - (3 Minute Setup) Touchscreen Wireless Router / Range Extender
Vizio XWR100-CA 300Mbps 802.11n Dual-Band 2.4/5GHz Wireless LAN/Firewall 4-Port Router w/USB port
Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-N 600mW Smart Repeater and Range Extender (SR10000)
ASUS (RT-AC68R) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router




Devices connected to Nighthawk
Cable Modem i have a 80 MBPS download Speed, and 6 MBPS upload speed
2 Roku Players
Tivo
10 Sonos wireless speakers connected to bridge (Bridge is connected upstairs to my router, it's suppose to connect all wireless speakers downstairs and help with connection)
laptop
iphone & tablet


What would be best solution so that iI won't get any more video buffering issues or sound drop outs? Which routers to connect without having to make holes in walls and using long ethernet cables. Rather all wireless

My tivo for wireless says its 75 percent signal with nighthawk.

 

[bill001g]

Repeaters make your wireless network much slower and if you run multiple they greatly degrade things. If you can run with only one central wireless device it is optimum. You are trading signal strength with a repeater for interference. The Sonos system also causes interference with your wifi signals and even the roku transmit a extra interfering signal for their wireless remotes.

There is only a fixed amount of radio available and your neighbors are all likely trying to use it all also so this is on top of what you have.

Likely your best option is to use the cable tv wire between the floors. It is going to depend on what type of cable boxes you have. There is a technology called MoCA that allows you to run network over tv coax. You would use it to connect from the router on the second floor to a AP on the first floor. You would set the AP on the first floor on different channels as the main router. This should minimize the interference between the routers and since you are not dependent on a radio signal between the 2 devices you will not get the huge degradation in speed.

Problem is the cable tv and other DVR builders use the same part of the tv coax moca does to provide their whole house dvr solutions. So you have to be sure that it is compatible.

Your only other option is powerline networks. It generally works much better than a wireless repeater but how well it works is very dependent on pathing of the house wiring.


As you imply the best solution is running ethernet cables.

 

[itzthrillz]

Repeaters make your wireless network much slower and if you run multiple they greatly degrade things. If you can run with only one central wireless device it is optimum. You are trading signal strength with a repeater for interference. The Sonos system also causes interference with your wifi signals and even the roku transmit a extra interfering signal for their wireless remotes.

There is only a fixed amount of radio available and your neighbors are all likely trying to use it all also so this is on top of what you have.

Likely your best option is to use the cable tv wire between the floors. It is going to depend on what type of cable boxes you have. There is a technology called MoCA that allows you to run network over tv coax. You would use it to connect from the router on the second floor to a AP on the first floor. You would set the AP on the first floor on different channels as the main router. This should minimize the interference between the routers and since you are not dependent on a radio signal between the 2 devices you will not get the huge degradation in speed.

Problem is the cable tv and other DVR builders use the same part of the tv coax moca does to provide their whole house dvr solutions. So you have to be sure that it is compatible.

Your only other option is powerline networks. It generally works much better than a wireless repeater but how well it works is very dependent on pathing of the house wiring.


As you imply the best solution is running ethernet cables.

Thanks for suggestion but yes really don't want to use ethernet cables all over the house. You said to use powerline networks, Is this device one of them to buy?

http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PA511-Powerline-Starter-Kit/dp/B0081FLFQE/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1406399433&sr=1-3

 

[bill001g]

Yes those are correct but look at the moca adapters first unless I miss read your post and you do not have a coax near the tv downstairs. Moca if you can use them tend to be more stable than even the powerline adapters since there is less stuff to interfere.