Cheap solution for the fastest possible Wi-Fi

[Mnky313]

Short backstory:
We upgraded to gigabit a few months ago but we are still using a combination of the included router/modem combo thing (that we refer to as a rodem) and an Asus RT-ACRH13, both work as wireless access points (the rodem is the router, the asus router is acting as just an AP.).

We have issues where devices don't switch between them when moving throughout the house and occasionally it will kick off certain devices and refuse to allow them to connect back until we reboot the asus router. Signal strength seems good throughout the entire house but speeds drop dramatically (from ~200-250mb/s to 50mb/s or sometimes less). 

All the devices are AC (some are phones (Iphone 6s+, galaxy s6 edge+, LG G6, Galaxy S5) and some are PCs which all have Intel AC7620s) but my laptop (Precision M6700) gets 300mb/s almost everywhere and my mother's laptop (Satellite P775D with the same wireless card as mine) only get ~50-100mb/s). There are more issues like the windows laptop sometimes cause the wifi driver to crash when trying to connect and my G6 will not connect to 5GHz on either router)>

Anyway I had 2 ideas for what we could do, the house is 3 levels ~2000sqft and would like to keep it as cheap as possible, definitely below $200:

Idea 1: Budget Mesh
We have 3 main areas where PCs are, see the s***y MSpaint drawing for more info
I can get a Linksys Velop AC4600 (AC2200 + 2x AC1200 Satellites) for ~$160, this would give all the PCs Ethernet (though It's still over wifi so it wouldn't be full speed but hopefully it would be faster than the Wireless N cards in the desktops and my mother's weird issue with her laptop)

Idea 2:
Instead of spending that money on a mesh system buy a better router that would hopefully cover the entire area and provide decent speeds.

S***y MSPaint drawing of my house (blue is linksys things from idea 1):

[Donut417]

4 hours ago, Mnky313 said:

We have issues where devices don't switch between them when moving throughout the house and occasionally it will kick off certain devices and refuse to allow them to connect back until we reboot the asus router. Signal strength seems good throughout the entire house but speeds drop dramatically (from ~200-250mb/s to 50mb/s or sometimes less). 

This is due to the fact there are multiple roaming standards and not all routers/AP's support the same standard. Plus each standard has pluses and minuses. 

4 hours ago, Mnky313 said:

There are more issues like the windows laptop sometimes cause the wifi driver to crash when trying to connect and

Had issues with my Ethernet adapter driver crashing when I would wake my computer. So its probably a driver issue, all you can do is try to find a better driver. 

 

 

In your drawing you show a Verizon router? Im going to take it you have Gigabit FIOS? 

 

Here the deal, many routers, even though they have Gigabit ports, they cant support gigabit internet. This is due to the fact they dont have enough power to do Gigabit LAN to WAN (NAT). Now Id look at ASUS, because they have that AI mesh. Meaning you can buy a decent router, and see if it works, if not, buy another one and set it up as a Mesh unit. 

[Mnky313]

11 hours ago, Donut417 said:

This is due to the fact there are multiple roaming standards and not all routers/AP's support the same standard. Plus each standard has pluses and minuses. 

Had issues with my Ethernet adapter driver crashing when I would wake my computer. So its probably a driver issue, all you can do is try to find a better driver. 

 

 

In your drawing you show a Verizon router? Im going to take it you have Gigabit FIOS? 

 

Here the deal, many routers, even though they have Gigabit ports, they cant support gigabit internet. This is due to the fact they dont have enough power to do Gigabit LAN to WAN (NAT). Now Id look at ASUS, because they have that AI mesh. Meaning you can buy a decent router, and see if it works, if not, buy another one and set it up as a Mesh unit. 

Yeah, it's gigabit fios and the included router/modem does fine for wired connections, its just wireless that we have issues. I can look into Asus, especially if I can still use AIMesh with 2 routers both connected over ethernet.

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Mnky313 said:

Yeah, it's gigabit fios and the included router/modem does fine for wired connections, its just wireless that we have issues. I can look into Asus, especially if I can still use AIMesh with 2 routers both connected over ethernet.

For the record its not a modem/router you have, its a Moca router. FIOS, doesn't have a traditional modem, it has an ONT some wheres in or outside your home and they use either Ethernet or Coax to bring internet and TV in to your home. Coax if you have TV. TV is delivered similar to how the Cable co does it and Moca is used for Internet connectivity. For speeds greater than 100 Mbps, I heard they use Ethernet directly for internet. So technically if the Ethernet port on your ONT is active, you can hook up any router to it and it should work. 

[Mnky313]

19 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

For the record its not a modem/router you have, its a Moca router. FIOS, doesn't have a traditional modem, it has an ONT some wheres in or outside your home and they use either Ethernet or Coax to bring internet and TV in to your home. Coax if you have TV. TV is delivered similar to how the Cable co does it and Moca is used for Internet connectivity. For speeds greater than 100 Mbps, I heard they use Ethernet directly for internet. So technically if the Ethernet port on your ONT is active, you can hook up any router to it and it should work. 

This is correct, when we upgraded we had to run an ethernet cable from the fios box (in our garage) to the Verizon router, I planned to plug any new router directly into this ethernet cable and leave the Verizon router for handling TV over Coax.