[SOLVED] Wi-fi 6 router good for penetrating walls in a 1050 sq ft, 2 floor home?

[tytds]

I was thinking of purchasing this wifi 6 router D-Link DIR-X1870 AX1800 Mesh Wi-Fi 6 Router which comes with a discount promotion for the Mesh Wifi Extender. I currently have a dlink dir 867 DLINK AC1750. This router is currently situated at the corner of my house upstairs beside my modem, and I can't really reconfigure the location because of the cabling. I don't know if it would be beneficial to upgrade to the wifi 6 router because right now, I'm living in the opposite location of my router, in my basement. I'd get 11 mbps connection speed on my phone on 500 mbps internet plan. Should I opt for the wifi 6 router without the extender or with the mesh extender? Will it be sufficient to penetrate the walls and handle 12 devices connected to my home? I have 1 4k tv and looking to buy another 4k in the future for the basement.

 

[bill001g]

The coverage will not be any different. The are 2 main difference between 802.11ac and wifi6. The first is the use of 160mhz radio bands rather than 80mhz. This in theory will double the speed but it does not make the signal go any farther. The router you list only supports 80mhz channels so even though it claims wifi6 it is missing this key feature. The other is the use of OAM1024. This packs more data into the radio signal. Again it does not increase the coverage just puts more data in the signal. The problem is it is even more susceptible to damage from interfering wifi signals because of the complexity. It only works well at short distances. There is some very slight improvement in sharing but all clients must be wifi6 to really take advantage of these feature.

Now in your particular case the 802.11ac might run faster if you do not have wifi6 clients. The wifi6 router you list only supports 2x2 mimo and when it drops back to 802.11ac mode it will actually be slower than you current router running 3x3....assuming you have a device that can support it.

There are all these details that you have to take into account rather than just believing the marketing that wifi6 will somehow magically change your wifi experience. It is only true if you meet a lot of conditions many people do not have.

In any case the only way to really get better coverage is to increase the number of wifi radio sources. Mesh or repeater should be your very last option to solve this. Best would be if you have ethernet cables and could put in a AP or router running as a AP in the remote room. The next best option is to use MoCA if you have tv coax. You can connect a AP to that also. Then you consider using powerline networks like AV2-1000 or AV2-2000 units. You can get models with a wifi AP in the remote unit or you do like you do with ethernet or moca and use a router as AP.

Then when you can do none of those options you consider any mesh or repeater. It takes very careful placement of these units. They pretend you can just put in the remote rooms and by magic it works. This is very untrue since they will only receive the same crappy signal your pc currently does. It takes some trial and error to place the units close enough to the main router to get good signal but still be able to send the signal to the remote room. Sometime this is extremely difficult if a wall or floor is absorbing large amounts of signals.

I would not even consider mesh or repeater if you can make anything else work. There is just too much instability and random issue with multiple radio hops in the path.

 

[tytds]

The coverage will not be any different. The are 2 main difference between 802.11ac and wifi6. The first is the use of 160mhz radio bands rather than 80mhz. This in theory will double the speed but it does not make the signal go any farther. The router you list only supports 80mhz channels so even though it claims wifi6 it is missing this key feature. The other is the use of OAM1024. This packs more data into the radio signal. Again it does not increase the coverage just puts more data in the signal. The problem is it is even more susceptible to damage from interfering wifi signals because of the complexity. It only works well at short distances. There is some very slight improvement in sharing but all clients must be wifi6 to really take advantage of these feature.

Now in your particular case the 802.11ac might run faster if you do not have wifi6 clients. The wifi6 router you list only supports 2x2 mimo and when it drops back to 802.11ac mode it will actually be slower than you current router running 3x3....assuming you have a device that can support it.

There are all these details that you have to take into account rather than just believing the marketing that wifi6 will somehow magically change your wifi experience. It is only true if you meet a lot of conditions many people do not have.

In any case the only way to really get better coverage is to increase the number of wifi radio sources. Mesh or repeater should be your very last option to solve this. Best would be if you have ethernet cables and could put in a AP or router running as a AP in the remote room. The next best option is to use MoCA if you have tv coax. You can connect a AP to that also. Then you consider using powerline networks like AV2-1000 or AV2-2000 units. You can get models with a wifi AP in the remote unit or you do like you do with ethernet or moca and use a router as AP.

Then when you can do none of those options you consider any mesh or repeater. It takes very careful placement of these units. They pretend you can just put in the remote rooms and by magic it works. This is very untrue since they will only receive the same crappy signal your pc currently does. It takes some trial and error to place the units close enough to the main router to get good signal but still be able to send the signal to the remote room. Sometime this is extremely difficult if a wall or floor is absorbing large amounts of signals.

I would not even consider mesh or repeater if you can make anything else work. There is just too much instability and random issue with multiple radio hops in the path.

Should I buy the wifi 6 router, have it connected to my isp modem, and then use the router i currently use as an AP in my bedroom by connecting to the wifi 6 router, which is connected to the modem? In my bedroom, i have a network cable that runs to the opposite side of my house where the modem is. The problem is if the AP wireless signals will interfere with the wifi 6 router signals from the modem room

 

[kanewolf]

Should I buy the wifi 6 router, have it connected to my isp modem, and then use the router i currently use as an AP in my bedroom by connecting to the wifi 6 router, which is connected to the modem? In my bedroom, i have a network cable that runs to the opposite side of my house where the modem is. The problem is if the AP wireless signals will interfere with the wifi 6 router signals from the modem room

No they won't if you setup your home properly. You manually set the channels on all your WIFI sources. Channel 1, 6, or 11 for 2.4Ghz and below 50 and above 150 if possible for your 5Ghz. Set your channel width to 20Mhz on 2.4Ghz and either 40 or 80 on 5Ghz.
With a wired connection, back to the primary router, you don't want them on the same channels.

 

[tytds]

No they won't if you setup your home properly. You manually set the channels on all your WIFI sources. Channel 1, 6, or 11 for 2.4Ghz and below 50 and above 150 if possible for your 5Ghz. Set your channel width to 20Mhz on 2.4Ghz and either 40 or 80 on 5Ghz.
With a wired connection, back to the primary router, you don't want them on the same channels.

If i get a mesh solution such as this TP Link Deco, can I ditch my router and connect one of the mesh points to my modem, connect the 2nd mesh point to the main mesh point using a long ethernet cable (2nd mesh in basement) and plug my PC to that second mesh point, and have the 3rd mesh point wirelessly connect to the mesh point in my living room?

The 2nd mesh point will also provide wireless coverage in the basement. One problem though is that I dont want the QOS feature as I had to disable qos on my router to get my pc to run at my advertised ISP speeds by ethernet connection

 

[tytds]

No they won't if you setup your home properly. You manually set the channels on all your WIFI sources. Channel 1, 6, or 11 for 2.4Ghz and below 50 and above 150 if possible for your 5Ghz. Set your channel width to 20Mhz on 2.4Ghz and either 40 or 80 on 5Ghz.
With a wired connection, back to the primary router, you don't want them on the same channels.

Doesn't changing the channel on both routers affect only wireless connection? I did test my pc through ethernet on 2nd router and found it was slower compared to it being plugged in primary router. I followed your suggestion to change channels on both routers. Any suggestions to make sure my ethernet connection on 2nd router performs as advertised/ i get my isp internet speed?

 

[kanewolf]

Doesn't changing the channel on both routers affect only wireless connection? I did test my pc through ethernet on 2nd router and found it was slower compared to it being plugged in primary router. I followed your suggestion to change channels on both routers. Any suggestions to make sure my ethernet connection on 2nd router performs as advertised/ i get my isp internet speed?

You used the term "AP" in post #3. An AP assumes a WIRED connection back to the primary router. If that is what you are planning on, then it should provide full bandwidth. If you are thinking that a wireless link back to the primary router and then an ethernet connection to the router, then it is no different than a standard WIFI connection. You HAVE to get wire between one end of the house and the other.
Ethernet is just a matter of quality cables, and hardware rated for gigabit connection. It is pretty fool proof.