[SOLVED] Help Need New Modem and Router Now

[dfellows_5]

Hello, I have a question on modem and router needed. My 2 teenage grandchildren have now had to move in with my wife and I permanently and the original cable company box will not cut it with the Wi-Fi needed. Spark light cable company Gig Ultra internet with up to 1000 Mbps down and 50 up for up to 30 devices. We do not have any tv service we stream from Firestick. We will now have 4 streaming tv’s with Firestick and or Roku boxes, 4 cellphones, 4 computers, 2 PS 5’s and 4 iPad or Kindles not at same time of course or hope not lol. The home is an older 1960’s single story brick 1800 SF home with 1 bedroom remodeled from a carport so it has a brick wall between living room and bedroom. I am 65 and have been away from the up-to-date computing/networking arena for a while now. Am looking at buying a new modem and separate router and am looking toward the NETGEAR - Nighthawk AX5200 WiFi 6 Router Model:RAX48-100NAS and ARRIS - SURFboard 32 x 8 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem Model:SB8200. I don't think I have any devices that use WIFI 6 but I think they are backwards compatible. Any ideas on this setup or any better recommendations? Thanks for any help.

 

[bill001g]

Don't get conned by the big numbers on technology.

If you don't have wifi6 end device that router will not function much different than say a 802.11ac with a 1450 number. The vast majority of end user device can only use the a speed similar to a router with a 1200 number. So buying fancy routers only really buys you something if you also have a end device that can use it.

Make sure that modem will work on the plan you use. That is very popular model so it is likely supported but check which modem the ISP recommends for your connection. Like routers the fancy modem will be backward compatible but you pay extra for a feature your ISP is not actually using.

All this has nothing to do with wifi coverage though. There really is no magic wifi device that will get better coverage. The key thing that determines coverage is the radio power. Almost all routers transmit at the maximum legal power so they more or less have the same coverage. It will be things like the firestick modules that do not transmit at full power so will limit the coverage more than the router.

The total number of device a router can support is fairly high. What is more of a problem is how many are actually active at the same time. This can only be fixed by using more radios. You can look at tri-band routers that have 2 5g radios and then attempt to balance your devices. The problem with this theory is it assumes you can use all the radio channels yourself and ignore the fact that all your neighbors are doing the same. You may double the radios but you now increase your chance of inference.

The best solution is to find a way to put a radio source in the remote rooms. In a older house is going to be hard. You likely do not have ethernet cables. The next best option is coax tv cables and using MoCA to carry signals over it. You could look at powerline networks but the performance is not all that great....maybe 300mbps maximum if you are lucky.

In any case you need to get some kind of wire to the remote room then you use a second inexpensive router as a AP. In theory you could put a AP in every room and then only the users in each room would have to compete for the radio bandwidth. You have to be careful though to turn down the radio power to avoid stomping on yourself