What speed Access Point for Bt Home Hub 5?

robodelfy

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May 20, 2013
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I am trying to buy the cheapest but also reliable access point to plug in to my BT homehub 5.

Im confused about speeds. The two most popular ones on amazon are both TP links, one is 300mbps and the other 450mbps.

Which one do I need? When I do a speedtest I get about 15mbps, thats just using the wifi from the homehub.

Will the TP link stuff be ok for home wifi, or is it better to go with a better bran like Ubiquiti?

Sorry I dont understand this stuff very well!

Thanks
 
Solution
The faster speeds are only helpful if you can use them.

If your internet connection is 20mbps and you are not using your wifi to send data locally between computers then it makes absolutely zero difference between 450mbps and 300mbps. Now if you say transfer very large files from a local NAS or other computer then that is a completely different story.

Also, most wifi devices only have a 300mbps wifi card in them. Thus if no device can go 450mbps then your router having it is pointless; its like paying more for the 170mph rated tires vs the 130mph rated tires for the family mini-van.


For an access point (meaning you are connecting the two routers together via an Ethernet cable), the TPLink WDR3600 is a good unit.
Good single band...
TP Link is fine for home wifi.

As far as speed:
Are you looking for an access point or a wireless range extender? These are two different things (even though some devices can do both functions).
An Access Point connects to your primary router via an Ethernet cable and thus the WiFi speed of the primary router and Access Point are independent of on another and thus it really does not matter.
A range extender receives wifi signal from the primary router and rebroadcasts it. Thus getting a Range extender that is as fast as your primary router is ideal.
Now what that said I in no way recommend range extenders. First of all the hardware is usually cheap or low end; but most importantly most consumer grade range extenders only have 1 radio in them, thus your total bandwidth gets cut in half as it has to first talk to the router THEN talk to your device and thus takes twice as long.
 

robodelfy

Honorable
May 20, 2013
62
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10,640
Hi Boosted

Yes I am looking for an access point to run wifi from the router in the main house out to another building.

Can you reccomend the simplest TP link or other brand model that would do the job, there are so many on amazon its confusing!! There seem to be a fair amount of bad reviews for the TP link ones I was looking at which is off putting

Any advice appreciated
 
The faster speeds are only helpful if you can use them.

If your internet connection is 20mbps and you are not using your wifi to send data locally between computers then it makes absolutely zero difference between 450mbps and 300mbps. Now if you say transfer very large files from a local NAS or other computer then that is a completely different story.

Also, most wifi devices only have a 300mbps wifi card in them. Thus if no device can go 450mbps then your router having it is pointless; its like paying more for the 170mph rated tires vs the 130mph rated tires for the family mini-van.


For an access point (meaning you are connecting the two routers together via an Ethernet cable), the TPLink WDR3600 is a good unit.
Good single band units (2.4ghz only, no 5 ghz band) are the Netgear WNR3500L and the AUS RT-N12.
The Netgear and the ASUS will both have a slightly smaller wifi range then the TP-Link does.
The ASUS one is a good inexpensive unit, but it only has 100mbps Ethernet ports so it will be limited to that speed; if you are using this for a 20mbps internet connection then no big deal; if you have 150mbps internet or do large file transfers this would be slower.

I do not believe any of these units come with a "access point mode" built in, but it is very very easy to configure any router to be an access point.
If say your primary router IP is 192.168.10.1 then set the A.P. (access point) IP address to be 192.168.10.1 and gateway address to match the router (so in this example 192.168.10.1). Dissable DHCP server, and then plug the Ethernet from primary router into a LAN port and not the WAN port. That is it.
Of course you can google more model specific directions for any of them.
 
Solution