Will this solve my networking issues?

Xanthe_2871 · November 28, 2018

I currently have about 30 WiFi devices at home, and this is likely going to rise to as high as 50 over the next year. I am having issues with devices either disconnecting or saying they can't find Internet. It was suggested here in a previous post that adding more wireless AP's would fix the issue, since it's not a internet bandwidth problem, it's a local networking issue with too many devices trying to "talk" at once. I don't want to spend more money than I need to to fix this. I currently have a Linksys EA8300 router, with about 15-20 devices on the 2.4 Ghz band and about 5-15 on the 5Ghz band. The bulk of my devices are smart home devices, like Google Homes, Chromecasts, Chromecast Audios, and Wemo Light Switches/Dimmers. I don't find anything online suggesting they have mu-mimo and even if they did I don't believe my router supports it.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-300Mbps-Repeater-TL-WA801ND/dp/B004UBU8IE/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1543368148&sr=8-10&keywords=wifi+ap

Will this, or something of similar price, fix my issues? I already have a ethernet run into my kitchen from the upstairs router, so one of these could add a new AP on that level of the house.

Alternatively, I'd consider Google WiFi, but at $250 I'd need absolute certainty that it would not have these issues. For that kind of money I expect 99.99% uptime no issues on any devices not connecting. Plus it seems to be meant for WiFi only, so I'd need to spend even more money on an additional gigabit switch to add to the Google WiFi since it alone won't have enough ports for my wired devices.

My other question: if I do buy this $25 thing, or if you guys suggest something similar that won't break the bank, will I need to set up all my devices again? Will it repeat the same SSID/Password and just act as a new stronger AP for nearby gadgets, or will I need to set everything up on a new SSID? My fears here go both ways; if I don't set up a new SSID what's to stop these devices from ignoring the new AP and continuing to bog down my existing AP upstairs? If I do make a new SSID and this device fails later on, which has happened before when I attempted a dual AP setup, then i have to individually fix every single device in the interim while I wait on a new AP, or go without those connected devices while I wait.

Electronics Wizardy · November 28, 2018

Why such a cheap AP, its gonna be pretty bad.

Id get something like the unify aps, that way you can have one SSID, and they work well with lots of devices.

Xanthe_2871 · November 28, 2018

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Why such a cheap AP, its gonna be pretty bad.

Id get something like the unify aps, that way you can have one SSID, and they work well with lots of devices.

Like this? https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Ap-AC-Long-Range/dp/B07CLN4BBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543369621&sr=8-1&keywords=unify%2Bap&th=1

It's $200 for two, $100 for one. Would I need 2, or could I use 1 with my existing router?

Electronics Wizardy · November 28, 2018

3 minutes ago, Xanthe_2871 said:

Like this? https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Ap-AC-Long-Range/dp/B07CLN4BBM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543369621&sr=8-1&keywords=unify%2Bap&th=1

It's $200 for two, $100 for one. Would I need 2, or could I use 1 with my existing router?

You can probably go without the LR version.

Id get multiple, 50 devices is a lot for a single ap.+

Xanthe_2871 · November 28, 2018

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

You can probably go without the LR version.

Id get multiple, 50 devices is a lot for a single ap.+

Could I buy this? https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UAP-3-802-11n-Wireless-Access/dp/B00HXT8RDI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1543369959&sr=8-7&keywords=unify+ap

Have one in my Kitchen on my existing gigabit ethernet switch, one in the garage (about 30 feet away) on my existing powerline ethernet switch, plus the router I already have upstairs, and maybe put the 3rd one of these in my bedroom, that one would need to connect with a wifi to ethernet adapter... this would give me 4 AP's. My router, one of these connected by ethernet, one of these connected by powerline ethernet, and a 3rd one still an AP but running off a WiFi to ethernet adaptor, so it's still bottlenecked by a single 2.4Ghz WiFi connection, but at least it's acting as another AP so all of it's connected devices aren't directly running off the router's AP...

Would that work? Or just use two of them, one in the kitchen and one in the garage. Would the SSID be the same for all? Would devices actually use them correctly and not skip them in favor of the overloaded router AP?

Electronics Wizardy · November 28, 2018

Just now, Xanthe_2871 said:

Could I buy this? https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UAP-3-802-11n-Wireless-Access/dp/B00HXT8RDI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1543369959&sr=8-7&keywords=unify+ap

you really want ac, id get this

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-Dual-Band-passive-UAP-AC-LITE/dp/B016K4GQVG/ref=dp_ob_title_def

1 minute ago, Xanthe_2871 said:

Would that work? Or just use two of them, one in the kitchen and one in the garage. Would the SSID be the same for all? Would devices actually use them correctly and not skip them in favor of the overloaded router AP?

Really, id repalce them all with one brand, id probably go unify aps. That way you can easily switch between the aps(otherwise its just messy)

Xanthe_2871 · November 28, 2018

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

you really want ac, id get this

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Networks-Dual-Band-passive-UAP-AC-LITE/dp/B016K4GQVG/ref=dp_ob_title_def

Really, id repalce them all with one brand, id probably go unify aps. That way you can easily switch between the aps(otherwise its just messy)

I want the cheapest answer to keeping everything on the network, on the network. I will spend good money and switch everything to one brand, but only if I know 100% it's going to work perfectly. If I'm always going to have issues then I'd rather spend as little as possible on some bandaids. It seems one or two cheap AP's that just connect to ethernet and offer the same network but from new antenna will help, because my understanding is the problem isn't my internet speed, or my overall local bandwidth, but is an issue inherent to WiFi itself, where each device takes turns talking to the router. If I understand this right, then adding more AP's, even if they are cheap or mixed brands, will offer more lines for devices to talk. My router can do just fine talking to several devices at once, it's just being limited by WiFi having one mic, and the devices needing to share it. So more mics, more devices able to talk at once. If every single devices were hard wired then the only issue would be internet speed and local network bandwidth, and in my case those are both fine.

Or, maybe I'm totally wrong and my understanding is false. i will concede that it possible too.