What's the best wireless network upgrade for my situation

mauz

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Dec 5, 2007
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I have what I hope is a quick question about a change I want to make in my home wireless network. The question I think is quick, but I’m giving you a lot of background so you have what you need to answer the question effectively.

I have a large 3 floor house which I had competely wired throughout with Cat-5e Ethernet cable 20 years ago. In May I changed interet providers so I now get 750 megabit down and 65 megabit up. I have confirmed this speed going through Cat 5e cabling from the router to my Gigabit then to a desktop computer.

I know one of my bottle necks is my wireless access Point I have a Belkin F5d8230 802.11x Pre-N Router. It gives me great signal throughout the house (at least juding by the bars) but wireless internet just seems slow.
The equipment that I’d like to wirelessly connect includes the following. Most of the time only 2 of these will be working at one time but we’d like them to have fast internet speeds throughout the house:
Dell Latitude 5580 Laptop w/Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 (a/b/g/n/ac)
Asus X551M Laptop w/Atheros AR9485 802.11 b/g/n
Apple iPad Air 16GB w/802.11, a/b/g/n/n 5GHz
3 year old Amazon Fire – not sure what this has
iPhone 7
Samsung S5
Obviously, this client equipment will be upgraded over time and I’d like my wireless network to be able to accommodate future speed capabilities over at least the next 5-10 years.
My question is what should I upgrade to that would give me the most bang for the buck. Please remember that I have Ethernet cabling throughout so I can hardwire a piece of equipment almost anywhere.
Should I:
1) Put in a wireless mesh system with a node on each floor? I found a great deal on Sam’s for a Velop AC3600 Dual Band system. Is this going to fit my needs now and into the future or will it be worth it to spend $200 more on a tri-band?
2) Put 3 access points with the same SSID since I am completely wired. If I do this will the access do handoff with each other based on signal?
 
Access points are great, because they can be placed where it's optimal. When new wifi tech comes out you can replace them.
Unifi is really nice. AP lite/LR, Pro, or nanohd. My AP Lite does 200-250Mbs 2x2 mimo. 4x4 mimo can get you 500Mbs. the hdnano is wave 2 ac. I'm not sure what it can do. For the most part the client is going to be the limiting factor. the hdnano can split it's mimo into smaller ones for more devices. 4 single mimo vs 1 4x4mimo for example. the other ones might be able to do it too.

Having multiple units can help with higher throughput.

Multiple units is where it gets complicated. Unifi is really nice. You have to adjust antenna power and set a client link rating minimum. When a client drops below it is dropped, and the client will reconnect to the best one. Unifi also has fast roaming. It shares encryption keys across APs that you can reconnect without a handshake. VOIP calls might drop still.