Router Issues - New or upgrade?

[MultiCofy]

Salutations,

I've had issues with my TP-Link 300M Wireless N Gigabit Router where I have to reset it once a day and is generally slower. I have up to 10 devices connected at one time (averaging at 5-6) and, also, the 2.4GHz range seems to be quite a bit crowded in my area (WiFi Analyzer results here - http://prntscr.com/e4swg9 - mine is the red one) whereas 5GHz range is completely empty.

Furthest point from my current router is about 15 meters from the router and it has to penetrate a brick wall. My question is: In my situation, do I stick with a 2.4GHz router (maybe something on ch14?) or do I move to 5GHz? Also, would it be viable to upgrade the firmware on my current router (to something like DDWRT or such) in order to possibly get more performance?

In case of a new router, I would really, really appreciate it if you could recommend one

Thanks a lot to anyone reading and helping out,
Trish

 

[Solandri]

As you don't describe what kind of issues you're having (just that you're resetting the router daily), it's impossible to say if modifying or replacing the router will fix the issues.

A 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT won't improve performance per se. It does let you tweak output power which might give you a little more range, but that comes at the cost of signal distortion meaning you'll get slower speeds. Still, slow speed is better than no speed. It does have a keepalive function which will reboot the router on a schedule (like 3 AM every day). That can be handy if the default firmware doesn't have a keepalive function and you've been rebooting the router manually every day. DD-WRT is free to try, so if you're having problems why not give it a shot. Aside from complexity (and in some cases difficulty installing the firmware), I haven't run into any serious downsides of using DD-WRT, Tomato, or OpenWRT. A lot of times it's my "fix" for bugs in the default router firmware.

For a crowded area like yours, assuming all or most of your devices are capable of 5 GHz, I would definitely recommend getting a simultaneous dual-band router ("simultaneous" because some of the older "dual band" routers could only use 2.4 or 5 GHz, not both at the same time). Bear in mind that you need to run WiFi Analyzer at the router, and also at all locations where you're trying to connect to the router. I ran into one situation where there were no interfering WiFi networks at the router, but the room where the customer was having problems connecting turned out to be closer to the neighbor's router than his own, and the channels were overlapping.

The only reason I can think of for waiting to upgrade is that the U.S. opened up the 70 GHz band last year (64-71 GHz). So I expect some time this year or next we'll start to see devices which support this frequency (supposed to provide much faster speeds with less interference since the signal attenuates much more quickly due to atmospheric oxygen). So if your budget is limited, your connectivity problems are not onerous, and you want to future-proof yourself, you may want to hold off a year or two.

 

[MultiCofy]

Not sure quite how quoting works, so I'll just copy and paste bits of your response (also, thanks for the lengthy answer, much appreciated).

"As you don't describe what kind of issues you're having (just that you're resetting the router daily), it's impossible to say if modifying or replacing the router will fix the issues." - Issues like very slow internet (not just wifi, cable too), gradually decreasing to the point where I have no internet connectivity available. Is fixed with a router restart.

"assuming all or most of your devices are capable of 5 GHz" - I presume I'd have to check on device-to-device basis? (manuals and such)

"I would definitely recommend getting a simultaneous dual-band router" - What brands would I be looking for?

"Bear in mind that you need to run WiFi Analyzer at the router, and also at all locations where you're trying to connect to the router" - the pic you saw was away from the router, I presume there's no point in checking at the router, 'cause it'd obviously be the strongest.

"The only reason I can think of for waiting to upgrade is that the U.S. opened up the 70 GHz band last year" - Seeing as Serbia is not on the cutting edge of tech, it's way ahead of our time for now, so upgrade it is

Again, thanks for a real lengthy answer, very informative...