Best Performing Router for 2 story house + basement for about $200?

[LaboonTheWhale]

Hey guys. 

 

Yes I used the Search function but it didn't come with any good results that applied to my situation or anything recent. 

 

So we are currently using a Linksys EA6400 and i think its going out. Very poor performance one floor up while Comcast's Modem/Router combo performs better but on the same floor, it does decently. Next to the router, we get 110 Mbps but when we go to the other side of the house, it sits at about 10 Mbps and drops streaming connection. So I'm not sure what could be wrong with it? While the Comcast router sits at about 20-30 Mbps. 

 

I am the primary internet user of this house so I prefer to stay wired in, but my PC is in the basement so we would have to put the router in the basement. My father streams shows up on the 2nd floor so he needs to have decent connections 2 stories up. our 2 current routers are unable to do that form our basement. (not powerful enough of antennas? i dunno) I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to networking gear. 

 

My father thinks from the basement, buying a router thats like $200 would be best, so thats why I put it in the title. 

[Akolyte]

If you just want a home router, then I would get a combination of a router and an extender personally, but it's up to you. 

 

You can get a TP-Link Archer C9 (AC1900) for $120, Here.  You can get a TP-Link AC1200 wireless extender for $70, Here.  Just my opinion if you have a basement and 2 stories, getting a range extender and a router both with decent ranges and speeds should be the best way.  You can put the range extender where the signal is in most need. Or even get another extender and put it up to the second story or whatever.  

 

Hope this helps! 

 

[skywake]

Worst option: Buying a new router. It won't make things worse but if your issue is coverage it probably won't make it better either

Not Much Better: WiFi Range extenders. Will they extend range? Well sure. But they'll also halve your bandwidth or worse....

Possibly ok: Mesh WiFi system. Some of these are just glorified range extenders but some have a dedicated radio for backhaul. A bit pricey but

Not Bad: Powerline + WiFi combo units. These use powerline for backhaul which adds another variable. But potentially greater speeds is the result

Best: Run Ethernet to where you want good WiFi and add access points. The only limitation here is the WiFi spec itself

[LaboonTheWhale]

12 hours ago, Mike_The_B0ss said:

If you just want a home router, then I would get a combination of a router and an extender personally, but it's up to you. 

 

You can get a TP-Link Archer C9 (AC1900) for $120, Here.  You can get a TP-Link AC1200 wireless extender for $70, Here.  Just my opinion if you have a basement and 2 stories, getting a range extender and a router both with decent ranges and speeds should be the best way.  You can put the range extender where the signal is in most need. Or even get another extender and put it up to the second story or whatever.  

 

Hope this helps! 

 

Thanks for the idea! as my father is the one with the final decision i'll explain to him! 

[Remix]

Can I ask what internet speeds you have? If you have 100+ Mbps, you'll want to avoid Powerline or Extenders at all costs. They'll slow you down more than they'd help.

[LaboonTheWhale]

43 minutes ago, Remix said:

Can I ask what internet speeds you have? If you have 100+ Mbps, you'll want to avoid Powerline or Extenders at all costs. They'll slow you down more than they'd help.

Its odd. We pay for 150Mbps down. but when we hardwire into the router itself, we get 230

[Remix]

5 minutes ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

Its odd. We pay for 150Mbps down. but when we hardwire into the router itself, we get 230

It sounds like you're on Xfinity? If that's the case, your speeds may've been recently upgraded to 200 Mbps. Since the beginning of 2016 they've been rolling out Blast 200, which is 200/10. Comcast overprovisions lines by 20%, meaning 240 Mbps by 12 Mbps. This may explain that.

 

With extenders/powerline, I wish you good luck. The extender will need decent coverage... and 5GHz coverage at that to provide a suitable signal at those speeds. You'd be better off using MoCA if available. 

[LaboonTheWhale]

1 minute ago, Remix said:

It sounds like you're on Xfinity? If that's the case, your speeds may've been recently upgraded to 200 Mbps. Since the beginning of 2016 they've been rolling out Blast 200, which is 200/10. Comcast overprovisions lines by 20%, meaning 240 Mbps by 12 Mbps. This may explain that.

 

With extenders/powerline, I wish you good luck. The extender will need decent coverage... and 5GHz coverage at that to provide a suitable signal at those speeds. You'd be better off using MoCA if available. 

Personally I want to be hardwired in, but my rig is in the basement (hard wired to do intranet stuff). The problem is our current router cannot go up to the 2nd floor well just to stream. very spotty connections on the 2nd floor. So I thought maybe a newer router may help (just one thats a little more up to date I guess) than one I bought 4 years ago. It worked well with Verizon when we had them, but for some reason its not doing the hottest now. 

[Remix]

Just now, LaboonTheWhale said:

Personally I want to be hardwired in, but my rig is in the basement (hard wired to do intranet stuff). The problem is our current router cannot go up to the 2nd floor well just to stream. very spotty connections on the 2nd floor. So I thought maybe a newer router may help (just one thats a little more up to date I guess) than one I bought 4 years ago. It worked well with Verizon when we had them, but for some reason its not doing the hottest now. 

 

Do you have coax available throughout the home? 

[LaboonTheWhale]

1 minute ago, Remix said:

Do you have coax available throughout the home? 

one on each floor. Basement, 1st, and 2nd floor. 

[Remix]

1 minute ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

one on each floor. Basement, 1st, and 2nd floor. 

You can use MoCA paired with an Access Point. MoCA converts coax into ethernet at both points and is fairly good. It's much more reliable than powerline.

[LaboonTheWhale]

4 minutes ago, Remix said:

You can use MoCA paired with an Access Point. MoCA converts coax into ethernet at both points and is fairly good. It's much more reliable than powerline.

could you link me on what would be good? I'm not the best with whats good or whatnot. 

[Remix]

17 minutes ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

could you link me on what would be good? I'm not the best with whats good or whatnot. 

https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483827024&sr=8-2&keywords=moca+adapter

 

Pair that with an Access Point, such as... 

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UAP-AC-LITE/dp/B017MD6CHM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483827173&sr=8-1&keywords=UAP-AC-LITE

 

Those are both Amazon Choice picks. 

[LaboonTheWhale]

1 minute ago, Remix said:

https://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Bonded-Ethernet-Adapter-ECB6200K02/dp/B013J7O3X0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1483827024&sr=8-2&keywords=moca+adapter

 

Pair that with an Access Point, such as... 

https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-UAP-AC-LITE/dp/B017MD6CHM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483827173&sr=8-1&keywords=UAP-AC-LITE

 

Those are both Amazon Choice picks. 

could you give me a run down on how they work? do you plug the acess point into the MoCA and it runs like a router and broadcasts wifi? I thought you needed to have a modem to technically have internet in the household. 

[Remix]

Just now, LaboonTheWhale said:

could you give me a run down on how they work? do you plug the acess point into the MoCA and it runs like a router and broadcasts wifi? I thought you needed to have a modem to technically have internet in the household. 

 

Absolutely. It's actually not that complicated. You do need a modem, and you do need a router.

The best way to explain this would be to give you an example.

 

 

In my basement, I have a modem and a router. The modem is connected via coax. I have a coaxial splitter on the line in the basement. I connect one end to the modem, and the other to my first MoCA adapter. I connect an ethernet cable from the router to the MoCA adapter. Upstairs I have a coaxial cable in my room. I have another splitter installed which runs to both the set top box and another to the MoCA adapter. From the second MoCA adapter, I run an ethernet cable to my computer. The reason this works is because MoCA operates on a different frequency than TV/Cable Internet would.

[LaboonTheWhale]

4 minutes ago, Remix said:

Absolutely. It's actually not that complicated. You do need a modem, and you do need a router.

The best way to explain this would be to give you an example.

 

 

In my basement, I have a modem and a router. The modem is connected via coax. I have a coaxial splitter on the line in the basement. I connect one end to the modem, and the other to my first MoCA adapter. I connect an ethernet cable from the router to the MoCA adapter. Upstairs I have a coaxial cable in my room. I have another splitter installed which runs to both the set top box and another to the MoCA adapter. From the second MoCA adapter, I run an ethernet cable to my computer. The reason this works is because MoCA operates on a different frequency than TV/Cable Internet would.

Does the Access point act in a way like a router then and broadcasts wifi? 

[Remix]

1 hour ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

Does the Access point act in a way like a router then and broadcasts wifi? 

Yes. 

[skywake]

3 hours ago, Remix said:

You can use MoCA paired with an Access Point. MoCA converts coax into ethernet at both points and is fairly good. It's much more reliable than powerline.

To be fair the higher end powerline adaptors can do around 150Mbps real world throughput across a house. Well short of the 1Gbps those higher end adaptors show on the box and even short of the 400Mbps or so you can get from the adjacent outlet. But workable. And certainly better than the sort of throughput you'd get from a range extender. where you're going to end up at <50Mbps or so.

 

To add to my original post with numbers:

Current Setup: <10Mbps

New Router: <10Mbps

Range Extender: <50Mbps (likely less)

Powerline AV1: 30-70Mbps

Powerline AV2: 90-150Mbps

MoCA 1.0: ~100Mbps

MoCA 2.0: 200-500Mbps

Ethernet: 1Gbps, more bandwidth than any WiFi you can get off the shelf today

[Remix]

2 hours ago, skywake said:

To be fair the higher end powerline adaptors can do around 150Mbps real world throughput across a house. Well short of the 1Gbps those higher end adaptors show on the box and even short of the 400Mbps or so you can get from the adjacent outlet. But workable. And certainly better than the sort of throughput you'd get from a range extender. where you're going to end up at <50Mbps or so.

 

To add to my original post with numbers:

Current Setup: <10Mbps

New Router: <10Mbps

Range Extender: <50Mbps (likely less)

Powerline AV1: 30-70Mbps

Powerline AV2: 90-150Mbps

MoCA 1.0: ~100Mbps

MoCA 2.0: 200-500Mbps

Ethernet: 1Gbps, more bandwidth than any WiFi you can get off the shelf today

 

Powerline is hit or miss. It either works, or it doesn't work very well (or at all). MoCA is very solid in comparison and can produce faster speeds because the Coax is designed to transmit this type of signal. Power cables operate at 50/60 Hz, giving us some room... but it wasn't designed for speeds this high. 

[skywake]

43 minutes ago, Remix said:

Powerline is hit or miss. It either works, or it doesn't work very well (or at all). MoCA is very solid in comparison and can produce faster speeds because the Coax is designed to transmit this type of signal. Power cables operate at 50/60 Hz, giving us some room... but it wasn't designed for speeds this high. 

Fair point, I was just trying to quantify it rather than just saying one was better than the other. For this problem MoCA + WiFi is probably the most suitable option. But for the lurkers that's not necessarily their best option. Which option is the best will vary depending on what gear/cabling is already done, what the speed requirements are and what the budget is. 

[LaboonTheWhale]

17 hours ago, Remix said:

Powerline is hit or miss. It either works, or it doesn't work very well (or at all). MoCA is very solid in comparison and can produce faster speeds because the Coax is designed to transmit this type of signal. Power cables operate at 50/60 Hz, giving us some room... but it wasn't designed for speeds this high. 

Apologies for bugging you again. So if I directly plug my PC into the MoCA adapter, I would essentially be able to keep the router upstairs for my father's needs but I will still get wired speeds? 

[Remix]

4 hours ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

Apologies for bugging you again. So if I directly plug my PC into the MoCA adapter, I would essentially be able to keep the router upstairs for my father's needs but I will still get wired speeds? 

 

Depends on the integrity of the coax, but you should expect 200-400+ Mbps.

[LaboonTheWhale]

1 hour ago, Remix said:

Depends on the integrity of the coax, but you should expect 200-400+ Mbps.

Alright. also one thing I thought of. If i used the MoCA adapter, and plugged it into my old router that was next to my PC (a floor below the modem) could I basically use my router as a switch and still maintain hardwired speeds? 

[Remix]

20 hours ago, LaboonTheWhale said:

Alright. also one thing I thought of. If i used the MoCA adapter, and plugged it into my old router that was next to my PC (a floor below the modem) could I basically use my router as a switch and still maintain hardwired speeds? 

 

Yes, you could do this. Just make sure the router has gigabit ports on it, and that you disable the Router functionality on it. You can turn it into an Access Point, but you don't want 2 DHCP servers.