Posted July 2, 2014 The reason I'm looking to upgrade my router is because my current one simply sucks. It's pretty cheap and obviously shows it. It can't reach across my house and in my room, which is the furthest place from the router, I get 10mbs download when my actual speed is 30mbs. And occasionally my phone can't even pick up the signal. I just want a router that beams a signal. And that's fairly cheap(>150$US). I don't need any features that are just for marketing. And the cheaper, the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 2, 2014 The reason I'm looking to upgrade my router is because my current one simply sucks. It's pretty cheap and obviously shows it. It can't reach across my house and in my room, which is the furthest place from the router, I get 10mbs download when my actual speed is 30mbs. And occasionally my phone can't even pick up the signal. I just want a router that beams a signal. And that's fairly cheap(>150$US). I don't need any features that are just for marketing. And the cheaper, the better. Asus ac-66u. Done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 2, 2014 Get a wireless range extender. No <$150 router is going to be that great at distances through walls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 2, 2014 Author Asus ac-66u. Done! 170$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 170$ Then you are in the wrong country mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 The reason I'm looking to upgrade my router is because my current one simply sucks. It's pretty cheap and obviously shows it. It can't reach across my house and in my room, which is the furthest place from the router, I get 10mbs download when my actual speed is 30mbs. And occasionally my phone can't even pick up the signal. I just want a router that beams a signal. And that's fairly cheap(>150$US). I don't need any features that are just for marketing. And the cheaper, the better. Pretty typical scenario. Really, wireless sucks especially with distance You're always going to have problems even if you buy the "best" router if you're trying to get a signal from the other side of a house. Particularly if it's a brick house. As an example I have a fairly basic Netgear N600 router and its performance drops from ~80Mbps down to 20Mbps DL after ~10m indoors and <5Mbps after 15m. I also have a cheap AV200 powerline adapter that's still doing 30Mbps after 25m "as the crow flies". The best you can do is minimise the things that make wireless suck. Make sure you have a dual-band router/AP (N600+ or AC1200+) so that not all devices, particularly higher bandwidth devices, are sharing the same crowded 2.4Ghz band. Place it in as central and as high a location as you can. When I did that 15m was outside rather than in the kitchen and back rooms. It's still not perfect but it's good enough to the point that "bad WiFi" is only an issue during summer when we use the Patio. Also consider whether or not powerline or running Ethernet is an option, especially if distance is the issue. Maybe run two APs, prefferably connected to each other by Ethernet or Powerline rather than using an extender, if you're still running into issues with coverage. There are a lot of ways to improve coverage and a lot of them are better than throwing money at a slightly better AP. Get a wireless range extender. No <$150 router is going to be that great at distances through walls. True.... but range extenders suck. If you're going to add a second AP at least consider using Powerline as the backhaul. Using WiFi as a backhaul to extend WiFi is pretty average.... Fools think they know everything, experts know they know nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 True.... but range extenders suck. If you're going to add a second AP at least consider using Powerline as the backhaul. Using WiFi as a backhaul to extend WiFi is pretty average.... I agree...but it should give better performance than just replacing the existing wireless router and for half the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 Get Asus. System 1: Thermaltake Element Q - Thermaltake 220W SFX - Asus AT5IONT-I mini-ITX - Intel® Atom™ D525 onboard 1.8GHz Dual-Core HT - Integrated NVIDIA® ION™ - 2x 2GB Kingston DDR3 - Samsung 120GB 840 Series - Scythe Kama Rack 3.5 - Asus DVD-RW System 2: Thermaltake Element Q - Thermaltake 220W SFX - Asus E2KM1I-DELUXE mini-ITX - AMD E2-2000 onboard 1.75GHz Dual-Core - Integrated AMD® Radeon HD 7340 - 2x 4GB Kingston DDR3 - Samsung 120GB 840 Series - Scythe Kama Rack 3.5 - Asus DVD-RW Building: Bitfenix Prodigy Black - Corsair AX860i - Asus Maximus VII Impact - Corsair Hydro Series H100i - Intel® Core™ i7 4790K - Asus Matrix Platinum GTX 980 4GB - Corsair 16GB Dominator Platinum 2x 8GB DDR3 2400MHz CL10 - Samsung 1TB EVO 840 Series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 Get a wireless range extender. No <$150 router is going to be that great at distances through walls. Range extenders suck on speed unless it's in AP mode (if they have that option and a LAN port) and the cheap ones (most) will operate on the same channel as the router which causes more issues then they solve and the RT-AC66U is $170 which it puts out more power to antenna dBm than the FCC allows so it trumps the power of neighboring routers on the same channel so you have little interference. Mein Führer... I CAN WALK !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 Range extenders suck on speed unless it's in AP mode (if they have that option and a LAN port) and the cheap ones (most) will operate on the same channel as the router which causes more issues then they solve and the RT-AC66U is $170 which it puts out more power to antenna dBm than the FCC allows so it trumps the power of neighboring routers on the same channel so you have little interference. It's also more expensive than the OP's budget...so it's pointless to keep harping on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 Other than the range, does your existing router do all that you require? DHCP server, Gigabit ports, port forwarding, static IP assignments, etc... your existing router probably has all of those things. All you probably need is stronger wifi signal/range. A Ubiquity UniFi LR (about $90 USD) plugs into your existing router. Use it instead of your existing wifi router signal. I just ordered one and they have great reviews. That said, I also have an Asus n66u. It is great in most situations, but in my recent apartment (with metal beams/studs) it has weak signals just a few rooms away. The Asus used to work great in my previous home, a large house (with wooden beams/studs). But now I'm in a large apartment and the metal studs and many wifi interferences cause the Asus N66U to struggle just to barely reach the outer perimeter of the apartment (very weak 1 bar with barely 1-3 Mbps ugh!). My plan is to plug the Ubiquity into my N66U to easily reach all areas of the apartment. It is consumer grade and has a range of 600 ft. Just don't set it right near your desk or head, some say it could be a health hazard the signal is so strong. That is power! ha *edit: FYI the Ubiquity UniFi LR access point broadcasts B, G, N signals. But not AC. Do you have any/many AC wifi devices? If you really just want to buy a new router and don't need AC signals the Asus N66U is less money (about $125 USD) than the AC66/68U units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted July 3, 2014 I agree...but it should give better performance than just replacing the existing wireless router and for half the money. Well if it's for the cost benefit alone and not the range at the cost of speed thing why not just get an access point without the router bit? Or find a range extender that allows you to use it as an access point and try that first? A fair chunk, but sadly not the majority, of range extenders can also be used simply as access points. So potentially if you wanted to see if a wireless ugprade was all that was needed just get one of them. Disable the wireless of the current router, connect the new AP directly to it and place it as best as possible. If that doesn't solve it try it as a range extender. If that sucks, and it probably will IMO, then grab a powerline adapter kit or run Ethernet and use that as backhaul. A quick google and there's a D-Link DAP-1665 for ~$100US, AC1200, no thrills, single Gigabit LAN access point which can also be used as a bridge. Also the Netgear EX6100 for ~$90US which is an AC750 "range extender" which sucks at range extending apparently but is also a nice little compact wall plug sized access point. If just replacing the wireless with one of them doesn't do the job you've worked out that the original plan was crap but have about $50 left to spend on a powerline kit for backhaul. If it works you've saved yourself $50. Fools think they know everything, experts know they know nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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