wifi Upgrade to ac or ax wifi in 2020?

[abhi_ssj5]

Currently i have a modem+router provided by the ISP which supports 802.11 b/g/n and plan is 100 mbps down and 20 mbps up. I have a total of 10 devices connected to the internet via wifi. 3 laptops, 1 desktop, 4 smartphones and 1 chromecast (All of them support ac wifi). Ever since the corona lockdown i have been experiencing speed problems because at minimum 4 of the devices are being used at once. So, what wifi router should i upgrade to?. Points to consider: I have a medium to large house with 6 inch thick concrete walls, My max. budget is 300USD, high bandwidth for sharing media among home devices.

[Falcon1986]

1. Do you have the ability to run gigabit ethernet?
2. Can you log into the ISP’s gateway device? What is the make/model?
3. Can you share with us a rough sketch of the house’s floor plan with the location of the gateway and where WiFi signals are strong/weak?

[abhi_ssj5]

Yes, Modem does support gigabit ethernet.

Modem device model is "Genexis Platinum-4410".

 

I have attached an image of rough floor plan. Its a single story house.

 

* is where the Modem/Router is located.

Signal strength is measured using a macbook pro.

 

These speed are for best case scenario, weak just becomes unresponsive when traffic increases.

Strong: 50 to 100 mbps

Medium: 15 to 50 mbps

Weak: 0 to 15 mbps

. is where is sit.

[Falcon1986]

@abhi_ssj5

 

The Genexis Platinum 4410 is an ONT/gateway device. It has WiFi support for both N (300Mbps max) and AC (750Mbps max).

 

Do you have any WiFi 5 compatible devices that can connect to the ONT?

 

If you could move the ONT to a more central location you might get better signal propagation. Even if you were to get another wireless router, it will still suffer the same problems if you keep it at one corner of the house.

 

I’d run gigabit ethernet from the ONT’s current location (you don’t have to drill holes if you don’t want to; you can secure the cable along the side of the wall/ceiling) to the ceiling in the middle hallway and mount an access point there. If it performs well, then you’re done. If you’re not getting a strong enough signal “where you sit”, you can also run more ethernet and mount another AP closer to you.

 

As to whether to use WiFi 5 or WiFi 6, that’s up to you. There are some very mature WiFi 5 APs that will work perfectly fine. Personally, I lean towards Ubiquiti products if the budget allows. In your case, 2 UAP-AC-Lites should be more than enough if you wire them into a simple unmanaged gigabit switch and then into the ONT (the specs note that only 1 ethernet port is gigabit).

[abhi_ssj5]

All the devices i have support ac wifi.

I have checked in modem settings, it doesn't support ac wifi. And when i checked online it shows different modem for the same model no..

[Falcon1986]

2 hours ago, abhi_ssj5 said:

All the devices i have support ac wifi.

I have checked in modem settings, it doesn't support ac wifi. And when i checked online it shows different modem for the same model no..

Yes, the website I saw mentioned something different.

 

Since you have webUI access to the Genexis, this makes it easy to configure any wired-in APs with static IPs. Then you can turn off the WiFi on the Genexis and let the new APs handle the WiFi.

 

1 hour ago, Benji said:

But if you want a really good and stable connection, use the access points as a wired bridge and not just as a wireless repeater.

That’s the point of running them in access point mode.