New Router & Access Point Questions

[RickL]

In a few weeks I am moving to a much bigger house with many different rooms. Some walls are brick, some are stud (the house has been extended a few times).

For sure I am going to need an access point of some sort in order to solve any coverage issues.

 

I currently have an Asus RT66U which is dying from overheating. 2 things wrong here.... Its dying... and if it wasnt dying then with it being the low end model it does not support AiMesh otherwise my situation would have been solved already.

 

I would like a seamless mesh network, I'll run CAT 5e to the areas required (loft, one in the front room of the house and the other in the dinning room) for those latency required items.

I like to have features such as port forwarding, QoS, DNS, VPN etc the same as I have / had now but im not sure on what on earth to buy. I also run my old PC in the loft which serves as a PLEX server, MC Server, FTP Server, NAS, CCTV Server etc. 

 

Do I keep the RT66U (once I have resolved the overheating issue) and purchase a small access point bundle with Mesh? If so... what do I buy? I dont want to break the bank but I want to ensure good coverage with fast internal transfer speeds (Obvs I will use cables for the most important ones).

 

Note: I do have the ability for POE with my spare POE Switch but im concerned that the link speed drops to 100mbps? I would want alot more than that for internal wifi!

 

I could do the below?

Buy 2x Asus AC68U's and create an Ai Mesh network - Cost around ~ £280.

Keep the 66U, use the router side of things for the VDSL, disable the wifi and purchase the TP-Link Deco M4 Wifi Mesh network - Cost around ~ £140.

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 hours ago, RickL said:

I'll run CAT 5e

id run 6 these days

 

Since your running wires, don't get a mesh network, just get wired aps.

 

Id personally run the uifi ap system here, wired cheap good aps. look at the ap ac lite.

 

8 hours ago, RickL said:

Note: I do have the ability for POE with my spare POE Switch but im concerned that the link speed drops to 100mbps? I would want alot more than that for internal wifi!

You can do poe over 1gbe.

 

 

You can keep the asus as a wired router, or get anouther wired router,.

 

[RickL]

Ok this is where I am torn, to get a mesh kit or to get APs but, will they create a mesh network or will they just be individual SSIDs?

[beavo451]

Set the SSIDs and passwords to the same one and devices will handle it. Modern devices are pretty good about moving from AP to AP.

 

A mesh network is basically a group of wireless extenders connected to each other. Wired access points with the same SSID is far better.

[Electronics Wizardy]

6 hours ago, RickL said:

Ok this is where I am torn, to get a mesh kit or to get APs but, will they create a mesh network or will they just be individual SSIDs?

If your running wires you don't want a mesh, its just gonna make it slower as the wires will be metter.

 

Something like the unifi system allows you do easily have clients switch to the best ap and can have one ssid for all aps.

[EpiCheeseTime]

I personally run a Ubiquiti USG as my router. The Ubiquiti software has all that you are looking for. If you are confident with some Ubuntu and know how to Google, you can make a pretty sick router out of it. I then have a managed POE switch that connect my Ubiquiti AP Pros hardwired with a UAP-AC-M-US in the backyard to cover that. I love it and have no issues at all. I only have 2 AP Pros and it covers the whole house (3140 sqft).

[RickL]

Thanks guys!