AP(s) for $250

[Hackzzila]

I need to get one or a few APs for my house, I have a budget of $250 and I ALREADY have a pfSense router. I want then to be AC. I was looking at just getting something like a WRT1900AC but I don't know if I should get 3  or so. I live in a 1 story house.

[Kyuubixchidori]

if you live in a 1 story house you do not need 3 AC access points. I live in a 3 story, 3,000 sq home. our AC router is in the far corner of the house, the office. the only place it doesnt reach is the basment corner opposite of it. even with a long ranch home, you could get away with just another AP. 

[Hackzzila]

if you live in a 1 story house you do not need 3 AC access points. I live in a 3 story, 3,000 sq home. our AC router is in the far corner of the house, the office. the only place it doesnt reach is the basment corner opposite of it. even with a long ranch home, you could get away with just another AP.

With our Netgear WNDR4500 (it died D:), my dad wasnt getting good coverage in his room and with our current WNR2000v2 the coverage SUCKS! Would you reccoment this or this?

[SImoHayha]

With our Netgear WNDR4500 (it died D:), my dad wasnt getting good coverage in his room and with our current WNR2000v2 the coverage SUCKS! Would you reccoment this or this?

Why not get some extenders ? Or use some old routers as an access point that way you can extend things

[InVis]

Why not get some extenders ? Or use some old routers as an access point that way you can extend things

no! Never get extenders

 

 

With our Netgear WNDR4500 (it died D:), my dad wasnt getting good coverage in his room and with our current WNR2000v2 the coverage SUCKS! Would you reccoment this or this?

 

From those two, the asus one (even tho it looks like a hedgehog)

 

 

I would really recommend that you pull some ethernet and place some good access points near where you need the most throughput

Ubiquiti are good and cheap.

I believe you can set the asus one up as an AP and connect it to your pfSense box with no problem  

[SImoHayha]

no! Never get extenders

 

 

 

From those two, the asus one (even tho it looks like a hedgehog)

 

 

I would really recommend that you pull some ethernet and place some good access points near where you need the most throughput

Ubiquiti are good and cheap.

I believe you can set the asus one up as an AP and connect it to your pfSense box with no problem

Yes get router extenders Use another router if needed mate its better then a powerline connector

[InVis]

Yes get router extenders Use another router if needed mate its better then a powerline connector

No

 

Extenders / Repaters act like clients, which will cut your throughput in half for the clients connected to the repeater + they often have limited features in terms of tx power, channel management and heat dissipation (which will impact performance further under load)

 

Adding an additional router will almost always give some kind of issues (with games and Playstation / Xbox), as you add another NAT and firewall to your network, which can be problematic

 

The way to go is an Access Point of some sort or convert the router to an Access Point from its interface.

[SImoHayha]

No

 

Extenders / Repaters act like clients, which will cut your throughput in half for the clients connected to the repeater + they often have limited features in terms of tx power, channel management and heat dissipation (which will impact performance further under load)

 

Adding an additional router will almost always give some kind of issues (with games and Playstation / Xbox), as you add another NAT and firewall to your network, which can be problematic

 

The way to go is an Access Point of some sort or convert the router to an Access Point from its interface.

yea lol that's what I meant. Of course having two routers being DHPC servers will confuse the shit outta systems

[Hackzzila]

no! Never get extenders

 

 

 

From those two, the asus one (even tho it looks like a hedgehog)

 

 

I would really recommend that you pull some ethernet and place some good access points near where you need the most throughput

Ubiquiti are good and cheap.

I believe you can set the asus one up as an AP and connect it to your pfSense box with no problem

How do I setup multiple without having to connect to a different network when I'm on another side of the house?

[InVis]

How do I setup multiple without having to connect to a different network when I'm on another side of the house?

 

The cheap, quick and easy way would be to use Ubuquiti and set it all up via a centralized controller (UniFi Controller, which is free software) - you only need the controller for setting the APs up and updating them.

If you want the controller accessible all the time (for monitoring and reports), you can either set it up on a linux server or on an AWS server in the cloud. 

 

 

There is also xclaim which xi-3 Linus has recommended (i have a few of those aswell and they perform very good). Those come with a cloud manager now (which costs nothing) - and you can also just configure them from your phone (that is a cool option).

 

In both cases, you can have all the APs broadcast the same SSID and WPA2 keys so the clients can roam freely between them

[Hackzzila]

The cheap, quick and easy way would be to use Ubuquiti and set it all up via a centralized controller (UniFi Controller, which is free software) - you only need the controller for setting the APs up and updating them.

If you want the controller accessible all the time (for monitoring and reports), you can either set it up on a linux server or on an AWS server in the cloud. 

 

 

There is also xclaim which xi-3 Linus has recommended (i have a few of those aswell and they perform very good). Those come with a cloud manager now (which costs nothing) - and you can also just configure them from your phone (that is a cool option).

 

In both cases, you can have all the APs broadcast the same SSID and WPA2 keys so the clients can roam freely between them

The problem is that those options are both at the top of the budget for just one.

[InVis]

The problem is that those options are both at the top of the budget for just one.

 

Do you need AC wireless?

You could always get 2 xi-1 or 2 xi-2?

http://www.xclaimwireless.com/#products

 

You could also buy an xi-3 and then add another one later on?

 

I would recommend that you get an AP set up near where you need the most throughput of data and it might reach the rest of the house then.

 

In my home I have an xi-3 in the living room and a xi-1 near the bedroom, that works very well.

 

 

The "pain" is to install the ethernet cabling - when that is first there, its pretty easy to just install another accesspoint if you need to change it later on

[Hackzzila]

We just got an upgrade to 100/10 and now none of our wireless devices can get that speed with N so I really want AC now

[InVis]

We just got an upgrade to 100/10 and now none of our wireless devices can get that speed with N so I really want AC now

 

Before you invest - are you sure that your clients can take advantage of AC? and how many streams do they support?

[Dautin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181332

[Neth]

What about the D-link access point listed below. Please note I have no experience with them just adding something else to the discussion.

 

http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Wireless-Gigabit-Extender-DAP-1650/dp/B00JFOP688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440895339&sr=8-1&keywords=d-link+access+point