[SOLVED] Upgrading my home network - Budget system for 2 bed flat

[cjhmason]

I live in a single floor rented 2 bed flat in the UK.

Unfortunately, the telephone connection to the flat is in the bedrooms, so I have my 'EE Smart Hub' at one end of my flat and the majority of Wi-Fi devices are at the other end.

I have ethernet connected to my 'EE Smart Hub' to one of the TP-Link TL-PA7010PKIT wall plugs (I cant drill holes through walls to run cables as it is a rented flat), then the other TP-Link TL-PA7010PKIT wall plug is plugged into the lounge plug socket which then goes into an old Virgin router which is a Netgear WGR614 v9.

This works great for the wired stuff, TV, X-Box 1, Media PC, Raspberry pi (octopi), but we have issues with the Wi-Fi dropping out randomly (mostly works fine, but iPhone's seem to have issues and occasionally the eco dot's disconnect).

I have the Netgear WGR614 v9 setup as a 'slave' router, so the DHCP is being organised by the EE Smart Hub. Both have the same SSID and password.

I have bought an 8 Port network switch (Netgear GS108UK) which should be arriving in the next couple of days. I bought this to separate the wired stuff from the second router and give me more ports. It means that I can now turn off the router and turn it back on to re-set it and not affect the wired devices when there is an issue with the Wi-Fi.

I'm wondering if the issues are caused by the Netgear WGR614 v9 just being too old and needing replaced?

After a bit of research I've come across the Asus RT-AC66U B1 which looks like an ok router and not a bad price to be a new replacement for the Netgear WGR614 v9.

Just wondering if there is anything I could have done better with my current devices, or if there are other router options which might be better than the RT-AC66U B1 for around £100?

Thanks in advance for the responses!

 

[bill001g]

I suspect your largest issue is you live in a apartment with many close neighbors all doing something similar. Used to be people only had 1 router that did all the wifi. Now people put in mulitple wifi device, many put them in every room using that stupid mesh stuff. All the extra wifi does is stomp on everyone more. Kinda like turning your stereo up louder because your neighbors has his on too loud.

That asus will be much faster but if money is a big concern you can get a tplink archer c7 that has very similar specs and costs about 1/2.

It is hard to say if it will fix your drops. It could be defective, it could also be low power. Unlike modern routers many older routers did not put out the full legal power. The new router will give you the addition option of using the 5g radio band. This might have less interference, it will be massively faster. The netgear router you have is what they are now calling wifi3. So it is 3 full generations old, 4 if you count the newest wifi6e just coming to the market.

Your solution with the powerline networks is a good one. You are better off calling the remote router a "AP" rather than a "slave". Both the tplink and the asus routers have a AP function but you can use any router as a AP even the ones without a special feature. Mostly it lets you use the WAN port as a extra LAN port.

 

[cjhmason]

I suspect your largest issue is you live in a apartment with many close neighbors all doing something similar. Used to be people only had 1 router that did all the wifi. Now people put in mulitple wifi device, many put them in every room using that stupid mesh stuff. All the extra wifi does is stomp on everyone more. Kinda like turning your stereo up louder because your neighbors has his on too loud.

That asus will be much faster but if money is a big concern you can get a tplink archer c7 that has very similar specs and costs about 1/2.

It is hard to say if it will fix your drops. It could be defective, it could also be low power. Unlike modern routers many older routers did not put out the full legal power. The new router will give you the addition option of using the 5g radio band. This might have less interference, it will be massively faster. The netgear router you have is what they are now calling wifi3. So it is 3 full generations old, 4 if you count the newest wifi6e just coming to the market.

Your solution with the powerline networks is a good one. You are better off calling the remote router a "AP" rather than a "slave". Both the tplink and the asus routers have a AP function but you can use any router as a AP even the ones without a special feature. Mostly it lets you use the WAN port as a extra LAN port.

@bill001g yes there are probably 20+ WiFi networks that come up on the list when connecting so that sounds very reasonable that there is lots of interference.

I’ll take a look at the c7 as cheaper with the same features sounds like a no brainier.
Thanks for letting me know about the term Access Point, that does sound better. And having a strong 5g radio band also sounds good with the new generation of WiFi.

glad to hear that the power adapters are a good choice, they do seem to work well!

many thanks!

 

[cjhmason]

I suspect your largest issue is you live in a apartment with many close neighbors all doing something similar. Used to be people only had 1 router that did all the wifi. Now people put in mulitple wifi device, many put them in every room using that stupid mesh stuff. All the extra wifi does is stomp on everyone more. Kinda like turning your stereo up louder because your neighbors has his on too loud.

That asus will be much faster but if money is a big concern you can get a tplink archer c7 that has very similar specs and costs about 1/2.

It is hard to say if it will fix your drops. It could be defective, it could also be low power. Unlike modern routers many older routers did not put out the full legal power. The new router will give you the addition option of using the 5g radio band. This might have less interference, it will be massively faster. The netgear router you have is what they are now calling wifi3. So it is 3 full generations old, 4 if you count the newest wifi6e just coming to the market.

Your solution with the powerline networks is a good one. You are better off calling the remote router a "AP" rather than a "slave". Both the tplink and the asus routers have a AP function but you can use any router as a AP even the ones without a special feature. Mostly it lets you use the WAN port as a extra LAN port.

@bill001g after seeing your comment of WiFi 6, I have found a router called TP-Link Archer AX50 do you think this is a good option at £130?

 

[bill001g]

I would avoid any wifi6 equipment unless you actually have end devices that can use it today and feel it is worth it. Wifi6 will be a dead technology as soon as your general consumer finds out about wifi6e. As of right now only the techie guys know about wifi6e the marketing arms of these big companies want to sell out all their inventory of wifi6 before they become of little value. Wifi6e is going to be the biggest thing we have seen in wifi almost since the beginning of wifi. It is not some new data encoding it still using wifi6. The FCC has authorized the use of a huge block of radio bandwidth in the 6g band. It should for a while allow you and all your neighbors to find bandwidth without stomping on each other. I suspect by this summer the end consumers will start to see stuff as equipment actually will be easily available to purchase.

 

[cjhmason]

I would avoid any wifi6 equipment unless you actually have end devices that can use it today and feel it is worth it. Wifi6 will be a dead technology as soon as your general consumer finds out about wifi6e. As of right now only the techie guys know about wifi6e the marketing arms of these big companies want to sell out all their inventory of wifi6 before they become of little value. Wifi6e is going to be the biggest thing we have seen in wifi almost since the beginning of wifi. It is not some new data encoding it still using wifi6. The FCC has authorized the use of a huge block of radio bandwidth in the 6g band. It should for a while allow you and all your neighbors to find bandwidth without stomping on each other. I suspect by this summer the end consumers will start to see stuff as equipment actually will be easily available to purchase.

Thanks very much for your response, really great information, you’ve saved me a bunch of money and it is very much appreciated!

 

[SamirD]

bill001g nailed this one as I've run across the same issues myself at our last apartment that had 100+ access points screaming in the air 24x7 even in 5Ghz. The solution there was an c5 (little brother of the c7) and then leave the channel selection at auto (since everyone else was also on auto and hopping around constantly), and then upgrade our internet speeds to make up for the losses in the air. Luckily I was able to not worry about that at our new place--I don't think I see even a dozen ssids here.

And while your older netgear may not be useful anymore as an access point, you can always turn off the wifi on it and it will work very well as a switch. I used to pick up old routers just for this purpose as they were cheaper than buying switches.