Replacement Router

StealthArsenal · August 2, 2014

Hello All,

I have been having issues with the N-Band on my Linksys E3200 router. It seems that N-Band just drops and only G-Band is discoverable and/or able to be connected to. Just as an idea of what is occurring, I can reset the router, it will work fine with both bands for lets say three (3) days (this time frame can vary and is just for background information). At some point at the end of three (3) days, the N-Band will just vanish. I won't be able to see it with my Ipad, Desktop, Laptop, Galaxy, PS4, etc. Once I reset the router, it will come back and work again. Currently I am using the newest Firmware. I had tried to contact Linksys/Cisco about this a while back, but they weren't really of any help other than having me reset and factory reset the router a couple of times.

After going through several troubleshooting steps with this router, I am still dropping the N-Band I am noticing now (the original issues started about 6 months ago and had been troubleshooting since that point) that I am starting to have issues with the G-Band as well in terms of signal strength and what not. With this said, I think my router may be dying. Maybe going to 101mbs down and 50 up killed it, who knows. I am looking at replacing and getting something overall stronger and with more range. Likely a unit with external antennas again. I was looking at the Netgear Nighthawk 1900AC and the Linksys WRT1900AC. I had looked at the Netgear AC1750, but for $30 more I can go to the Nighthawk. Thoughts on this? Should I be looking elsewhere?

Network Breakdown:
(2) - 5 port workgroup switches (Linksys) - Not all being used simultaneously for the most part, but sometimes.
(2) - Always wireless PC's with N-Band adapters
(4) - Always Wired PC's
(2) - Ipad's
(3) - Smartphones
(3) - Wireless Laptops (Obviously we can't use everything at once, but they are normally on and connected)
(2) - Wireless Printers (Brother 2270-DW and Canon MG5320)
(1) - Mac Mini

House Square footage ~2500 Square feet combining upstairs and downstairs.

Thanks
Chris

StealthArsenal · August 3, 2014

As a follow-up. I have been doing some research and such on each of the routers I mentioned above. While I am a fan of the Nighthawk with OpenVPN and some of its other features, I am not sure going with such a high end AC router is the way to go. Currently I do not have any AC adapters in the wireless machines. I could make the argument to go with a bit lower Asus RT-AC66U or the Netgear R6300V2 (both of which are roughly $150 and have the ability to add AC adapters later and take advantage of beam forming. On the flip side to this, based on the fact that I do not have any AC compliant adapters I could go for the Asus RT-N66R and call it a day. My question on that front are as follows:

1. Does the RT-N66R provide an improved range over my now defunct Linksys EA3200?
2. Does it provide better performance than my EA3200 (both wirelessly and wired)?

skywake · August 3, 2014

If the routing functions of your router are fine and it's just the 5Ghz radio playing up. Why not just get a new AP? I mean by the sounds of your setup I assume that you have network cables running to most parts of your house. And you've got two stories so that's not going to help with range. So drop a second AP somewhere away from the first, disable the 5Ghz band on your current router if it's playing up. If you're really intent on spending that much on replacing it why not buy a really, really nice AP or two?

StealthArsenal · August 3, 2014

Skywake,

It's not just the N-band that is failing now, the g-band is now following in the same footsteps. Signal strength has significantly dropped off (nothing has changed). I can stand in front of the router and only get a bar of signal strength to my laptop or tablet. Seems like a router issue at this point. Keep in mind this thing is 4-5 years old now, I have significantly added devices to the network since I first got it (nothing within the last year). I don't have a problem spending the money, however I would like to get the best bang for the buck. If that is a cheaper router, than so be it. I just need something that worked as well as this router did a year or so ago.

skywake · August 4, 2014

Just FYI there's no such thing as "N Bands" and "G Bands". It's 5Ghz for a/n/ac on and 2.4Ghz for b/g/n. So the question is, is it just wireless performance that's failing on your router? If it is then your money would be better spent replacing just the wireless functions. Purely because you can generally get a little bit more for your money but also because when you have separate devices you're not replacing all of the things every-time one part of it fails.

I speak from lived experience here and lessons learned. I had an old wireless g modem router which was fine but I wanted to upgrade to N, I replaced it with an N150 modem router for the extra performance of N. Then I got a NAS and I wanted Gigabit speeds so I replaced it with an N300 modem router with Gigabit ports. Eventually I wanted something on 5Ghz so I got ANOTHER modem router which was N600. Now I have four functional modem/routers which I have no use for. It's stupid. So when I wanted to upgrade to AC recently I just got an access point and pocketed that $100AU or so extra I would have paid for yet another router.