Question Will an Asus AC86U speed up my setup?

[NM20]

I live in a 1700 Farmhouse with 0.5m thick walls and a very wide spread of rooms. Currently I have a TalkTalk Router / Modem at one end of the house where my internet comes in. When next to this router I get around 70Mbps Download and Upload. This router is connected to a Powerline to spread the connection to other APs in the house.

In the living room I have an Asus AC66u setup as an access point. This is attached to a powerline and then a TV, Nvidia Shield, Xbox one and a Nintendo Switch. From this router I get around 30Mbps Download and 70Mbps Upload.

In the Office (next door to the living room) I have an old TalkTalk router setup as an AP connected to a PC. This again is fed by a Powerline.

In my bedroom (above the living room) I have an Asus DSL AC56u setup as an AP. I get awful speeds from this and it keeps dropping out. This again is fed by a Powerline.

I have another couple of Powelines in the house, one attached to a Sonos, another attached to HTPC and a third attached to another Nvidia Shield and TV in the conservatory.


I pay for superfast fibre which should have a speed of 67mb.

My questions are around the fact that I intend to replace the AP in the bedroom (Asus AC66u) with an Asus AC86u.

1) Should I see better performance and posisbly remove the Asus in the bedroom above?

2) Secondly, is this overkill for an AP and should I invest my time and money (£100) in another improvement?

Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Your bedroom issues, being fed by the powerline and then to the AP, might be a case of the house wiring, not necessarily the AP.

 

[NM20]

I reckon you could well be right, that is why I am hoping am improved AP in the room below will remove the need to have this one. I also stupidly bought a DSL version for the Bedroom instead of an RT version, this may be impacting its performance too?

 

[bill001g]

The DSL modem makes no real difference other than you paid for the modem. The rest of the device is the same as the model without the modem.

First thing to do is test on your powerline with ethernet cable so you can get best case. The AP may not be the problem.

The 86u is a nice box, I use it for vpn because it has a special feature but I don't know if it is going to be that much better for wifi.

Most issues with wifi are the end device not the routers. The end devices have low power transmitters and small antenna many times. In addition if you buy a router that support say 3x3 or 4x4 mimo it will not use that feature to talk to your end device if it only has 2 antenna which is extremely common. It will just drop back to the 2x2 mimo that a much cheaper router also supports.

Just be careful to research what you can actually use and avoid the bigger number is better trap.

A note on powerline. They share the bandwidth so if you have 1 unit by the router and 2 units remote they all take bandwidth from the same pool. There is also some inefficient as you add more units. It is even worse if you try to run 2 independent pairs they interfere with each other. If you do not already have av2 based powerline that maybe a better use of your money especially if you are not getting good rates connected via ethernet.

 

[NM20]

Thanks for the detailed response. I have different sets of Powerlines, but they are all AV2. My actual ethernet speeds are quite good and I get at least 5MBps speed when downloading games from Steam.

I didn't think it could be device end, but that is a good point. I have been basing all my speed tests on an iPhone 7+ speedtest app.

I think I get more annoyed by the constant dropouts, which I get from the DSL router. Replacing this may help with my overall feeling of my network.

I may give the new router a go, if it is no good I shall send it back to Amazon.

 

[bill001g]

You may get better performance be removing 1 of the power line units and make it network of 3. They "should" work even if the brands are different. But it does sound like your problems are wifi related if you get good speeds on Ethernet.

 

[NM20]

Thanks for the ongoing support.

I wish I only had 3 powerline adapters, I actually have 7!! One next to the main router, one for the HTPC, one for the Kitchen, one for the Conservatory, one for the Office, one for the Living Room and one for the Bedroom.

I can’t reduce the number as the walls are so thick as soon as you move from one room to another the wifi goes, so I need to get the signal to each room theough the power lines and then either plug a device directly into a powerline or into an AP in the room.