[SOLVED] Mesh router or standalone?

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Hello all. I just installed a ring bell camera on my door and now I need a new router. I live in a 3 bedroom apartment and the front door is steel. I had my router and modem next to my PC in one of the bedrooms and had my PC hardwired. The router I'm using is the cheap router I got from my network provider (Optimum). With the router in my bedroom the wifi did not reach the camera outside the door. I also saw that I had no wifi on phone when outside the door.

I moved the modem and router to the living and now it's about 8 feet away from the front door and the camera works fine. The problem now is that my download speed is pretty much cut in half on my PC which is about 20 feet from the router now. I pay for 300MB download speed and now I'm getting 130MB DL. If I go to the living room and do a speedtest on my phone I see 340MB download.

What would you suggest I do? I'm assuming that if I were to get a good standalone router and replace my current one with it then I would get the full download speed on my PC via wifi. Otherwise I could get a mesh router with 2 units and have on hardwired to the PC and one closer to the door for the camera.

I'm also not really sure what to look for in the routers these days lol

 

[kanewolf]

Hello all. I just installed a ring bell camera on my door and now I need a new router. I live in a 3 bedroom apartment and the front door is steel. I had my router and modem next to my PC in one of the bedrooms and had my PC hardwired. The router I'm using is the cheap router I got from my network provider (Optimum). With the router in my bedroom the wifi did not reach the camera outside the door. I also saw that I had no wifi on phone when outside the door.

I moved the modem and router to the living and now it's about 8 feet away from the front door and the camera works fine. The problem now is that my download speed is pretty much cut in half on my PC which is about 20 feet from the router now. I pay for 300MB download speed and now I'm getting 130MB DL. If I go to the living room and do a speedtest on my phone I see 340MB download.

What would you suggest I do? I'm assuming that if I were to get a good standalone router and replace my current one with it then I would get the full download speed on my PC via wifi. Otherwise I could get a mesh router with 2 units and have on hardwired to the PC and one closer to the door for the camera.

I'm also not really sure what to look for in the routers these days lol

Powerline network adapters for your PC. No change to the router.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Powerline network adapters for your PC. No change to the router.

Hello and thanks for the reply. My friend is recommending I get a standalone router since he likes to keep it simple and my place is not 3000+ square feet. He told me a good router is $200 but I told him I don't want to spend that much so he found me this for $115. https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-WiFi...fix=TP+Link+wifi+6+AX3000,aps,166&sr=8-3&th=1

Now that is a a standalone router. I'd like to have my PC hardwired so if I got that router and hardwired my PC in my bedroom and the wifi did not reach the camera at the door then that wouldn't work for me. I'm just not sure if this would work as I don't know how well it would reach that bell.

I also happened to see this. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B..._title_srh_2?ie=UTF8&smid=A3OC1UKRC2E9Y0&th=1 Looks like a mesh router for just $ 70? I could hardwire the PC and then plug in the other unit closer to the front door for the bell.

I also asked him about the powerline adapter but at this point he's already saying I'm reading into this too much lol and he doesn't think it would work that well. I pulled up powerline adapters on Amazon and I see some here for just $40. I'm not sure how they work though so I'm going to watch a video about that now. https://www.amazon.com/Tenda-Powerl...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[bill001g]

The marketing guys sure have people believing in magic when it comes to mesh. You can't just place the mesh units in the remote rooms. They will get the same crappy signal from the main router as end devices did. It does not somehow magically create a better wifi signal, in actually increases the interference in the wifi with the extra wifi signals even when it has optimum placement. In general you must place the remote units 1/2 between the main router and the end device.

In your case it maybe you could put the router back in the bedroom and place the mesh unit somewhat closer to the front door and it would work. This is all trial and error because simple things like closing a door to a room can make a huge difference.

There is no magic standalone router that will provide better coverage. Almost all router transmit at the maximum legal power. It could be your end device does not use full power. Portable devices many times do not to save battery. If you had a massive open room almost all router would get the same test results. How your house is built is the problem not the router you use.

Powerline networks are a good option for connecting something you want a wired connection. Say you had to leave the main router in the living room rather than using a wifi connection to your room you could use powerline networks. Also since you easily moved a router to a different room and it runs at 300mbps that means you likely have coax cable in both rooms. You can use a technology to use this cable called MoCA to get a ethernet connection. This though is going cost you about $120 for a pair but it can run full gigabit speed where powerline can only run about 300 in best case.

 

[gggplaya]

There is no magic standalone router that will provide better coverage. Almost all router transmit at the maximum legal power. It could be your end device does not use full power. Portable devices many times do not to save battery. If you had a massive open room almost all router would get the same test results. How your house is built is the problem not the router you use.

There are differences in antenna gain and transceiver circuitry. More expensive circuitry can lower the noise floor and provide better connection at the same signal level. But it won't be a night and day difference.

I agree though, mesh is terrible, especially cheaper mesh systems that don't have enough radio's for a dedicated backhaul channel.

The best router is ethernet>Moca>Powerline>Mesh.

Mesh is fine if you're using an ethernet backhaul. It is nice to have one group of access points and only have to manage 1 main interface. Handoff between units might work better than just buying access points alone.

 

[Pavel Pokidaylo]

Thanks for the replies guys, I hardly understand whats going on in the convo but still appreciated

I seem to have resolved my issue with that $70 mesh router. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...are-us-1360709240290984400-20&geniuslink=true

I put the modem and the new router back in my bedroom and connected the ethernet to the PC. I also plugged in the second unit for the mesh into a socket not too far from the front door. I did some speedtest runs and the results are as follows.

The PC - Ping, 9. Download Speed 343Mbps. Upload Speed 36.8Mbps.

Iphone XS sitting by the router - Ping 11. Download Speed 283 Mbps. Upload 36.8 Mbps. Jitter 3.1MS.

Iphone XS by the second mesh unit in the living room - Ping 13. Download Speed 131Mbps. Upload Speed 36.8Mbps. Jitter 2.1MS.

Iphone XS Right outside the front door where the ring bell is located - Ping 14. Download Speed 58.5Mbps. Upload Speed 9.16Mbps. Jitter 0.74MS.

I know very little about this stuff for example I have no clue what Jitter is but what I do know is that the connection outside the door is much better now than it was when I had the old router in living room in the same place where the second mesh unit is now.

The ring bell works very well now however once in a while it seems I have to restart the app but I'm ok with that.