First of all, I am reasonably tech savvy. I build my own computers. I also build them for others as a small side business. And I have some modicum of networking knowledge...albeit limited. Here's my issue.
For the past six years I have lived in an old two story farmhouse with cinderblock/plaster walls. The place was build in 1915 and was very structurally sound. However, I could make no network infrastructure changes (such as running ethernet all over) because I was renting. Nonetheless, my trusty eight year old Asus wireless router (RT-AC66R) served us well and we got decent signal everywhere.
So fast forward to now. We have moved into a three story town home. The Man Cave (where my main/gaming computer and our media server reside) is now in a large finished basement room just behind the garage. Above me is the kitchen/dining area and the great room. Then yet another floor up are the bedrooms.
From the moment we moved in, the Asus just simply lacked the juice to reach the top floor. We got decent (not great) signal on the second floor, but really weak on the third level. So in casting about for a solution, I came across Netgear's Nighthawk X4S Mesh Extender...which it was claimed would work with your existing router and create a powerful mesh network. So I bought one, took it home and proceeded to set it up. The setup process was pretty promising as all went well and it connected easily to the old router. Then I took it to a remote location and plugged it in.
At first, I tried it on the third floor. But after a day or so I noticed it would lose it's link to the router. I would unplug/replug it and it would work for a time. Then it would lose the link again.
So I moved it down to the second floor. And it maintains a solid connection to the router now. But now we have slow to low connectivity on the third floor again!!!
So my question is two fold.
1. As the old Asus is dual band and the Netgear extender is tri-band, would I be better served by upgrading to a new tri-band router in the basement? I am assuming the extender is using one of the bands to link to the router, so I am guessing that a tri-band router would give it a dedicated channel to link to...? Maybe? Or am I way off base here?
2. Would I be better served turning off the radio in the Asus and hardwiring a powerful access point (such as a Unifi AC Long Range or a Amped Wireless Athena) to the router? I have ethernet access to the second floor from/to my router in the basement. So I could easily place an AP on my second floor, hard wire it, and let it handle wireless duties. The Amped product sounds interesting as it boasts 5db of antenna gain and 800mW of output power to better penetrate walls. However, I know advertising hype can be deceiving. And I have worked with the Unifi AP's in an enterprise environment where they performed like champs.
So there ya have it. My tale of wireless networking woe. Sorry to make it long, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible. Any suggestions? Questions? Please fire away.
For the past six years I have lived in an old two story farmhouse with cinderblock/plaster walls. The place was build in 1915 and was very structurally sound. However, I could make no network infrastructure changes (such as running ethernet all over) because I was renting. Nonetheless, my trusty eight year old Asus wireless router (RT-AC66R) served us well and we got decent signal everywhere.
So fast forward to now. We have moved into a three story town home. The Man Cave (where my main/gaming computer and our media server reside) is now in a large finished basement room just behind the garage. Above me is the kitchen/dining area and the great room. Then yet another floor up are the bedrooms.
From the moment we moved in, the Asus just simply lacked the juice to reach the top floor. We got decent (not great) signal on the second floor, but really weak on the third level. So in casting about for a solution, I came across Netgear's Nighthawk X4S Mesh Extender...which it was claimed would work with your existing router and create a powerful mesh network. So I bought one, took it home and proceeded to set it up. The setup process was pretty promising as all went well and it connected easily to the old router. Then I took it to a remote location and plugged it in.
At first, I tried it on the third floor. But after a day or so I noticed it would lose it's link to the router. I would unplug/replug it and it would work for a time. Then it would lose the link again.
So I moved it down to the second floor. And it maintains a solid connection to the router now. But now we have slow to low connectivity on the third floor again!!!
So my question is two fold.
1. As the old Asus is dual band and the Netgear extender is tri-band, would I be better served by upgrading to a new tri-band router in the basement? I am assuming the extender is using one of the bands to link to the router, so I am guessing that a tri-band router would give it a dedicated channel to link to...? Maybe? Or am I way off base here?
2. Would I be better served turning off the radio in the Asus and hardwiring a powerful access point (such as a Unifi AC Long Range or a Amped Wireless Athena) to the router? I have ethernet access to the second floor from/to my router in the basement. So I could easily place an AP on my second floor, hard wire it, and let it handle wireless duties. The Amped product sounds interesting as it boasts 5db of antenna gain and 800mW of output power to better penetrate walls. However, I know advertising hype can be deceiving. And I have worked with the Unifi AP's in an enterprise environment where they performed like champs.
So there ya have it. My tale of wireless networking woe. Sorry to make it long, but I wanted to provide as much detail as possible. Any suggestions? Questions? Please fire away.