A New Wireless AP or Wireless Router

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Augmentum

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Apr 3, 2014
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Hello everyone!

I am in need of a new wireless router or wireless AP because the one provided by my ISP (Xfinity by Comcast) they said it was the latest one that they had but the wifi signals are just unreliable. With a wired connection I'm getting 95Mbps down and 11 up. But while on the 2.4 channel it's going around 3-4 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up and the 5 GHz channel is only doing 20 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up.
Does anyone have any suggestions that worked for you? It would be preferred if the price is sub $100 the cheaper the better but of course quality is a must.

Thank you Again!
 
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The placement upstairs will likely make more difference than the unit itself. Floors/ceiling tend to be a larger problem for wireless because the are more dense and most wireless devices are designed to put out most the radio power horizontally rather than vertical.

So the ubiquiti upstairs would likely work better....not so much because it is ubiquiti but more because it is upstairs.

After that the ubiquiti has a lot of the feature high end enterprise AP do. I really like these because you can get the management software for free where large companies like HP or Cisco charge a fortune for that. It does not matter as much when you only have a single AP but it is nice.

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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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For $100 would get TP-Link Archer C7, otherwise I would get TP-Link WDR-3600 which is a little older but tried and true router, especially if you install dd-wrt firmware.

At bare minimum turn off the wifi on your xfinity modem, if it has the setting then set it to modem only (could also be called bridge mode) so that way it wont waste resources acting as a router before it sends the data to your new router.
 
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das_stig

das_stig

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Jul 24, 2009
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I'm bias as an Asus RT-AC66U user using Merlin's custom firmware and it handles my 156Mbps with ease. I stream multiple HD channels from my Plex home server and never stutters. Plan to upgrade to a AC1900 model and use the AC66 as a media access point.
 
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Augmentum

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How's the range on the archer C7?
 
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boosted1g

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The only experience I had was setting it up in a small office that as it turns out had fully insulated walls inside all internal walls; this made the signal strength low and the 5ghz band was unusable 2 rooms away.

In a normal environment the c7 should be marginally better then the 3600 in coverage. Of course wireless AC is only usefull if you have devices with wireless AC cards. Only premium laptops and flagship phones currently have AC. In another year or 2 though it will be the norm.
 
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bill001g

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You are not going to see huge difference in the range on most better routers. The vast majority of routers transmit near the legal maximum power levels and it is the signal levels that dictate the range. Most times issues with range are due to the nics in the end devices, those many times do not transmit at the maximum power mostly to try to cut battery drain on certain devices.

Still your problem is likely not a range/signal level issue. You likely have a signal quality issue. Most times this is caused by interference from neighbors also using wireless. You really need to try to find some radio bandwidth to yourself. It may actually run faster using 802.11n on a 20mhz.

By default routers that try to use 300m will use 40mhz which uses 2/3 of the available 2.4g bandwidth. Only 1 person can do this without interference so if 2 try neither will get good signals. 5g 802.11ac is just as bad. It uses 80mhz of bandwidth and there is only 180mhz total so only 2 people can run 802.ac as soon as the third try they stomp on each other.
 
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boosted1g

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With 2.4ghz the limited channel selection is a major issue, it is a downright a nightmare in places like apartment complexes.

The 5ghz band saturation is not nearly as bad though because higher frequency can not travel as far. Thus while your neighbors 2.4 ghz signal can easily come into your home at -60 to -70 (if houses are 30-50 ft away), but the 5ghz band will be almost non-exsisting going through 2 outdoor walls.

Now if home design and installation technicians put any thought into wifi coverage this would be less of a problem. Many housing developments are made with the infrastructure of 2 houses facing each other, thus the electrical/phone/cable is on the R side of one house and Left side of the house next to it (hence right across from each other). Then you get the Telco companies who add the coax/phone/fiber line to the room right off the junction box instead of even attempting to do anything to help put the internet modem/router in the center of the house.
 
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boosted1g

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What is even more sad is when I go to someone's newer home with a structured wiring panel (all of the coax/phone/Ethernet cable into a box inside the house), and the internet technician just creates his own wiring and/or is completely clueless on how to wire their equipment into the box.
 
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Anna Dagum

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Aug 7, 2015
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The following routers are Cloudcheck compatible, meaning that you can download the app to to automatically monitor and continuously improve Wi-Fi performance across the home network. Also, you can manage your connected devices via your own smartphone and prioritize accordingly. This drastically improves Wi-Fi speed for gaming and streaming. Any of the following routers are Cloudcheck enabled, check them out! ASUS: 1. RT-N66U 2. RT-AC66R 3. RT-N66R 4. RT-N66W 5. RT-AC66U 6. RT-AC68U 7. RT-AC68R 8. RT-AC3200 Airties: Air5650TT ZYXEL: VMG3312-B10B HUAWEI: HG639a
 
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boosted1g

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Or for any other half decent router this is called QoS (or Quality of Service), it is just less simpleton friendly and requires a slight better understanding of things.
 
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Augmentum

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Apr 3, 2014
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Ok so I was looking at a Ubiquiti Unfi Acess Point and am on the fence now. Which would be better in my case with quality and reliability the Ubiquiti, the TP-Link archer c7, or the newer C9? The ubiquiti unifi could be placed upstairs because it has POE but the other two would have to stay downstairs, near the center of the house. Please, those are the three that I have chosen. It would be wonderful if one of these would suffice since I've done my research on them, but if there is a better wireless router or access point out there within the price range of these three, I wouldn't mind it either.

Thank You
 
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bill001g

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The placement upstairs will likely make more difference than the unit itself. Floors/ceiling tend to be a larger problem for wireless because the are more dense and most wireless devices are designed to put out most the radio power horizontally rather than vertical.

So the ubiquiti upstairs would likely work better....not so much because it is ubiquiti but more because it is upstairs.

After that the ubiquiti has a lot of the feature high end enterprise AP do. I really like these because you can get the management software for free where large companies like HP or Cisco charge a fortune for that. It does not matter as much when you only have a single AP but it is nice.

 
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