[SOLVED] Two routers vs Mesh

[samitro]

Hello,

I have a question please and I appreciate any recommendation.

I live in a 2 floors house and have 100Mbps internet link. I have tried previously TP-Link Deco P7 and currently have Deco M4 and while the coverage is OK, I'm having a lot of issues with latency spikes and poor performance and hate the fact that there is no way to troubleshoot to identify the issues, even a ping from my ISP is not possible so I would like to get rid of the decos and replace with something else.

One option is to replace with another Mesh system but I'm afraid that even if it performs better, it will somehow have limited configuration and will be expensive so I'm thinking about getting two routers, one connected to my ISP and the other in the second floor in AP mode hardwired with the primary. I know there will be no clients handover/roaming between the two routers but would get better coverage and performance. Do you think this is a good idea? Any better idea?

TP-Link has the powerful Archer AX20 or AX50 at a reasonable price so thinking about getting two of those. Asus may be a better option with AiMesh but would need to get their "low end" series such as RT-AC59 as they are more expensive than TP-Link.

Thank you

 

[bill001g]

If you already have 2 router and you have a ethernet cables in the walls you might as well try running the second router as a AP. This has been the industry standard method of extending networks since the beginning of wifi. You do not see large business using wifi repeaters.

Wifi6 routers do not have any more coverage than other routers. In some ways they have less coverage the more complex encoding and larger channel width make it less likely the signal will not be damaged and it will drop back to the other data encodings. They many times will just function as the older routers.

Big question is why do you actually NEED roaming. I hope you are not the idiot who watches netflix and falls down the stairs in his house. In general you can pause what you are doing, walk to the other room, stop and start the wifi if it did not switch by itself and resume what you were doing. Mesh does not actually do seamless roaming all it is really doing is forcing a disconnect when it THINKS the end device has a better connection and then it hopes the end device picks the better source. It really is doing nothing different that you as a person do when you stop and start the wifi but generally the person actually knows when there is a better signal.

 

[samitro]

Clear, thanks for the response. I don't have 2 routers but thinking of getting them to replace the mesh (mess) I have. Not much concerned about the roaming, but my wife and kids will not be forcing the wifi switch manually but not so much concerned about that, it should work somehow. As for Wifi 6, I wouldn't pay a penny for it now but have the ability to tje TP-Link AX20 for the same price as the Asus router that has less powerful CPU and without Wifi 6 support. Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

Many of the so called mesh units can run as a AP. It all depends I guess if they have a ethernet port.