router Router Recommendations for Large building and NAS

[NCSGeek]

Hi, I set up my family member with a NAS and now it's become evident that a new router is necessary as the range and speed of the one they have is terrible.

 

So I am trying to get a new router to:

• Cover the entire building (Aproximately ~3200 sqft over two floors)
• Provide great wireless speeds over that range to facilitate moderate to heavy NAS usage and access.
  • I only care about LAN speeds since for WAN, they have to use a T-Mobile sim card / mobile data router. I'll be connecting that to the new router over ethernet and disabling NAT on the new router.
• Wifi 6E/7 are not necessary as they dont have many modern devices at all.

So far, I've just been going to rtings and sorting by range & large home ratings then reading customer reviews and data sheets. From this, I've found these two routers:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BQ417K47
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09VW5JHPH
One is mesh and one is not.

I'm hesitant to go with a mesh setup because I worry about complexity (wifi clients choosing the fastest node) and the fact that only one of the mesh nodes would have access to ethernet. (Any more would be fully wireless)
If none of this would be a problem and it'd get me the best results then I'll go with a mesh setup, but I'd need to be sure of that.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated! I wanted to pass this by more people and get some second opinions rather than going solely on rtings, reviews, and my own research.

[Donut417]

19 minutes ago, NCSGeek said:

One is mesh and one is not.

They both support MESH. ASUS uses a thing called AI Mesh. Basically you can connect any ASUS router with another mesh, as long as both have the AI mesh feature. That might be the one to go with, as you can see how well one works and if you decide you need better coverage you can get another one. I personally dont have any experience with ASUS routers so I cant speak for how well they work, just that their AI mesh feature is a decent feature. 

 

 

I personally have the Synology RT2600AC, they have a newer version with WiFi 6 as well. It does well, but our home is only 1300 ish sqft. I know that I dont necessarily  get full speed around the house, but the other devices are just Roku's and one office PC that doesnt really need full speed. 

[NCSGeek]

8 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

They both support MESH. ASUS uses a thing called AI Mesh. Basically you can connect any ASUS router with another mesh, as long as both have the AI mesh feature. That might be the one to go with, as you can see how well one works and if you decide you need better coverage you can get another one. I personally dont have any experience with ASUS routers so I cant speak for how well they work, just that their AI mesh feature is a decent feature. 

 

 

I personally have the Synology RT2600AC, they have a newer version with WiFi 6 as well. It does well, but our home is only 1300 ish sqft. I know that I dont necessarily  get full speed around the house, but the other devices are just Roku's and one office PC that doesnt really need full speed. 

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. I'm aware of "AI Mesh" and it is nice to have the option.

 

That synology router seems nice in general but probably not so for my current needs. I'm hoping to get high wireless speeds throughout the house so that NAS access can be greatly improved.

[Donut417]

16 minutes ago, NCSGeek said:

I'm hoping to get high wireless speeds throughout the house so that NAS access can be greatly improved.

The issue is no one is going to be able to guarantee any router will be able to do that. WiFi performance is dependent on the environment it's deployed in. Everyone environment is unique. The best way to make this happen is generally having potentially a few wireless AP's spread around the building all wired up back to a central router. Outside of that you have to settle for good enough. Like in my case, all the important bits are wired (NAS, Plex server, Gaming machine, and hopefully soon my MacBook Pro). All my other devices are wireless, but they are a mix of streaming sticks, iPhones, and an office PC. 

 

The other thing. 2.4 Ghz is built for distance not speed. 5Ghz is built for speed but not distance. 6Ghz is built for even faster speed but even less distance than 5Ghz. Thats not taking in to account any interface from other WiFi routers OR other devices that use the WIFi spectrum as it's used for other things as well. 

[NCSGeek]

4 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

The issue is no one is going to be able to guarantee any router will be able to do that. WiFi performance is dependent on the environment it's deployed in. Everyone environment is unique. The best way to make this happen is generally having potentially a few wireless AP's spread around the building all wired up back to a central router. Outside of that you have to settle for good enough. Like in my case, all the important bits are wired (NAS, Plex server, Gaming machine, and hopefully soon my MacBook Pro). All my other devices are wireless, but they are a mix of streaming sticks, iPhones, and an office PC. 

 

The other thing. 2.4 Ghz is built for distance not speed. 5Ghz is built for speed but not distance. 6Ghz is built for even faster speed but even less distance than 5Ghz. Thats not taking in to account any interface from other WiFi routers OR other devices that use the WIFi spectrum as it's used for other things as well. 

I understand that I cannot get a guarantee. That makes sense, as there are so many variables involved. I suppose what I'm really asking here, boiled down, is whether or not the issues I explained with mesh networks would be problematic enough to not go that route, and if not, what mesh hardware recommendations people have.

[OhioYJ]

I know I'm using two Ubiquiti APs  in my house (one on each end essentially). I have essentially specified a minimum signal level to ensure things get booted to the next AP just in case. It's never really been an issue. I have a few items like cameras that I've locked to the closest AP as well.  However in this case, the handoff between APs in seamless, no one here ever notices it happens. Which is actually the way it should work.

 

I think I would at least leave the option for a mesh open in an area that large.

[NCSGeek]

2 hours ago, OhioYJ said:

I know I'm using two Ubiquiti APs  in my house (one on each end essentially). I have essentially specified a minimum signal level to ensure things get booted to the next AP just in case. It's never really been an issue. I have a few items like cameras that I've locked to the closest AP as well.  However in this case, the handoff between APs in seamless, no one here ever notices it happens. Which is actually the way it should work.

 

I think I would at least leave the option for a mesh open in an area that large.

Alright, thanks for the input. Any opinion on fully wireless APs?

[NobleGamer]

10 hours ago, NCSGeek said:

Any opinion on fully wireless APs?

I can speak to my ASUS experience and a bit about Ubiquiti - Click links for tech specs:

 

I have an ASUS ZenMini AX1800 set of 4 APs, only one I run fully wireless and the other 3 are wired (via MoCA). The original set of 3 has one primary/router-type unit that the others need some kind of connectivity to. I run the whole set in AP only mode because I have a separate dedicated router...

 

My Ubiquiti Unifi UCG Ultra router gives me multi WAN in case I need auto failover from mobile 5G home internet to slow DSL.

 

Keep in mind:

• Both brands have many other options with different features.
• Taking advantage of some features such as seamless roaming between APs can be highly dependent on the devices connecting to wifi APs, and how close or far apart the APs are.

So here's what my hardware can & cant do as they relate to fully wireless APs:

 

ASUS:

• Easy AP to AP wired and wireless connections
• Has band steering settings that may force devices between 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz when device's current band gets weak
• Supports basic guest wifi networks, to isolate these devices from main network
• Has some advanced config, but less than Ubiquiti & Unifi
• Cannot configure individual AP with different settings except like turning off 2.4 GHz or making the SSID hidden
• Doesn't have as elaborate firewall/IDS/IPS

Ubiquiti Unifi:

• Relatively easy AP to AP wired & wireless connections, though...
• Lots of their APs require PoE, so expect to buy either PoE injectors (more likely in wireless AP to AP backhaul) or PoE switches. Ubiquiti may have a different brand that doesnt.
• Do research on how well or poorly Unifi handles wireless AP connections, as I've heard a bit that it's not great, but who knows if the complaints are from people putting them so far apart that it makes a 5 GHz backhaul unreliable or some such inherent environment issue
• Elaborate enterprise level support for guest networks, even custom landing pages and advanced authentication
• Lots of advanced settings available, but has a good number of automatic settings
• Has comprehensive zone based firewall, IPS, and IDS.

[NCSGeek]

2 hours ago, NobleGamer said:

I can speak to my ASUS experience and a bit about Ubiquiti - Click links for tech specs:

 

I have an ASUS ZenMini AX1800 set of 4 APs, only one I run fully wireless and the other 3 are wired (via MoCA). The original set of 3 has one primary/router-type unit that the others need some kind of connectivity to. I run the whole set in AP only mode because I have a separate dedicated router...

 

My Ubiquiti Unifi UCG Ultra router gives me multi WAN in case I need auto failover from mobile 5G home internet to slow DSL.

 

Keep in mind:

• Both brands have many other options with different features.
• Taking advantage of some features such as seamless roaming between APs can be highly dependent on the devices connecting to wifi APs, and how close or far apart the APs are.

So here's what my hardware can & cant do as they relate to fully wireless APs:

 

ASUS:

• Easy AP to AP wired and wireless connections
• Has band steering settings that may force devices between 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz when device's current band gets weak
• Supports basic guest wifi networks, to isolate these devices from main network
• Has some advanced config, but less than Ubiquiti & Unifi
• Cannot configure individual AP with different settings except like turning off 2.4 GHz or making the SSID hidden
• Doesn't have as elaborate firewall/IDS/IPS

Ubiquiti Unifi:

• Relatively easy AP to AP wired & wireless connections, though...
• Lots of their APs require PoE, so expect to buy either PoE injectors (more likely in wireless AP to AP backhaul) or PoE switches. Ubiquiti may have a different brand that doesnt.
• Do research on how well or poorly Unifi handles wireless AP connections, as I've heard a bit that it's not great, but who knows if the complaints are from people putting them so far apart that it makes a 5 GHz backhaul unreliable or some such inherent environment issue
• Elaborate enterprise level support for guest networks, even custom landing pages and advanced authentication
• Lots of advanced settings available, but has a good number of automatic settings
• Has comprehensive zone based firewall, IPS, and IDS.

Pretty comprehensive, thanks! Have you any data on how the one fully wireless one you have performs?

[NobleGamer]

10 hours ago, NCSGeek said:

Pretty comprehensive, thanks! Have you any data on how the one fully wireless one you have performs?

The "physical link rate" of the wireless AP that is one room away with almost line of sight is less than half of the theoretical max (1800mbps, hence AX1800).

 

However I have no meaningful data on real world performance because my internet connections tend to be <200 mbps and I don't think I have any devices that support AX, have more than one antenna (versus 4 on most decent APs) that could even try to reach 900 mbps, and that can reach the wireless AP (like my 2x2 PC desktop antenna is on the opposite end of the house and a different floor).

[NCSGeek]

On 5/17/2025 at 11:14 PM, NobleGamer said:

The "physical link rate" of the wireless AP that is one room away with almost line of sight is less than half of the theoretical max (1800mbps, hence AX1800).

 

However I have no meaningful data on real world performance because my internet connections tend to be <200 mbps and I don't think I have any devices that support AX, have more than one antenna (versus 4 on most decent APs) that could even try to reach 900 mbps, and that can reach the wireless AP (like my 2x2 PC desktop antenna is on the opposite end of the house and a different floor).

No problem. I don't expect you to run some kind of test or anything. I just wanted to know if you had anything you could refer to. I appreciate the info. Thank you.