New House: Best Modem/router combo?

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jojomexi

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Sep 17, 2012
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Looking to balance out price with quality. We are moving into a split foyer with a lot size of 10,528 sqft, and would like to have the wifi reach well anywhere on our lot. I am looking at possibly the Arris SB6190 DOCSIS 3.0 for the modem, and the Ubiquiti Amplifi or Amplifi HD for the router. Granted, I know the SB6190 appears to have a built in router, which is why I'm looking to get some opinions. With the SB6190 offering up to 1.4 Gbps, I'm not sure what the difference between this and a DOCSIS 3.1 would be in terms of speed. I've been told by our cable company for speeds of 500Mbps or higher, we would need DOCSIS 3.1, and though I'm uncertain if we will even go with those speeds off the bat, I would like to at least futureproof my setup somewhat. As far as the Amplifi or Amplifi HD setups, I've heard nothing but good reviews of these, though would like to get more personalized opinions based off our house type and lot size. I would still be aiming to wire in directly for gaming, but would like to do our networking correctly and well established the first time.

Let me know your thoughts, all! :)
 
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You only need Docsis 3.1 at gigabit levels.
You need to look at the number of bonded channels on the modem, 16x4 is "rated" for 646mbps but real world performance would put it around 400. For real world 500mbps speed you should be looking at either a 24 or 32 channel modem.

"Mesh" has morphed to be a fairly ambiguous term meaning any setup with more then 1 wifi source device. If this mesh uses wifi as its communication backhaul (mesh device to mesh device communication) then this comes with large drawbacks and should only be used when the distance is too great for a wired network.

If you want ALL the property to have 500mbps speed then two AC1900 (or better) router/access points is fine. If you can handle having one portion a...
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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For up to 500mbps any 24x4 or better Docsis 3.0 modem will be sufficient.

Bottom line, even if you dropped $1000 on comercial grade router, a single router will not provide wifi on a 10,000 sq ft lot.
Remember that wifi is two directional, think of it like this: sure you can have a guy A with a microphone and PA speaker (your router) and then guy B 2 blocks away (your laptop) will hear him, but guy A is not going to hear guy B yelling 2 blocks away.

You need one good router and an access point (you can configure any router into an access point).
I would get an AC1900 or AC2600 level router (tri band is pointless for your applicaiton), I have an ASUS AC68P (an AC1900 level router) and is the best router I have owned.
Then find yourself an AP (or second router) with similar speeds and connect them with ethernet.
 
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jojomexi

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Sep 17, 2012
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Thank you for your input!

So although the modem sited above says up to 1.4Gbps, I would be limited regardless, and would need to go 3.1 at speeds 500+, correct?

Also, in response to the router suggestion, would that not be what the Ubiquiti mesh setup is supposed to help solve? With the main unit being the access point with wifi access of up to AC, and each mesh point with access of 802.11N at long range, would this not suffice? For what it's worth, we already do have a Netgear AC1200, though obviously becoming a bit outdated at this point.

Thanks again!
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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You only need Docsis 3.1 at gigabit levels.
You need to look at the number of bonded channels on the modem, 16x4 is "rated" for 646mbps but real world performance would put it around 400. For real world 500mbps speed you should be looking at either a 24 or 32 channel modem.

"Mesh" has morphed to be a fairly ambiguous term meaning any setup with more then 1 wifi source device. If this mesh uses wifi as its communication backhaul (mesh device to mesh device communication) then this comes with large drawbacks and should only be used when the distance is too great for a wired network.

If you want ALL the property to have 500mbps speed then two AC1900 (or better) router/access points is fine. If you can handle having one portion a little slower then one good router and configure that netgear as an access point will be just fine.
You just need to have hard wired ethernet connecting them.

If you want to go all ubiquiti then that is fine, they are great products, but you will still need a good router (ubiquiti's edgelite router is really good for the price, but this is business grade and you need a very good grasp on networking to be able to set it up). For your purposes though a couple ASUS routers will cost less and have very very close to the same performance level.
 
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jojomexi

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Sep 17, 2012
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Good read, thank you!

I may just look at a 24 or 32 channel 3.0 modem then for the time being. I feel by the time I would utilize 3.1, the products will have matured much more. Also, being a first time customer I believe I will be able to get a deal of some sort on a lower tier speed. It's funny that you mention the Ubiquiti Edge Router, as I purchased one of these about a year ago. You're not kidding as far as the networking knowledge, I'll have to study back up on this. I also have an Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Pro hard wired in, but I feel I never was getting the proper speeds out of it. Probably my lack of setting up the network efficiently.

I will agree finding good ways to hardwire one or two AC1900 seems to be the best benefit. Would I just want to pick up another Ubiquiti Unifi AP AC Pro? The downside I would immediately see is that I would want to hard wire my pc into the network, so I would need to check how to drop lines throughout the house and possibly create some Ethernet ports on the walls.
 
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boosted1g

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Very good viewpoint on waiting for 3.1 to mature.
If you think gigabit in the next year is a high probability in your area (and something you would pay for) then get gigabit capable today, otherwise though you are paying more for immature product that you wont need until your next equipment refresh anyways.

By now there should be an improved firmware for the edgelite with better GUI tools (they were working on 1.7 almost a year ago).

So you already have an edgelite and a single AC-PRO. Hmm you could either get one additonal AC-PRO and have all ubiquiti hardware, or could just get an asus ac1900 and couple that with the ac-pro. Both are very good options.
ASUS router will provide marginally (not by much) less features, faster CPU, and much easier management, not to metnion free DDNS service.
Ubiquiti is better caliber of hardware and has more features, but is more difficult to setup.

Tell me about the house.
Single story or multi story? Is house/lot a square, rectanlge, long/narrow rectangle, or odd shape like horse-shoe? Is wiring/plumbing in attic, crawlspace or basement (and finished ceiling or exposed if basement)
 
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jojomexi

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Sep 17, 2012
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It's a rectangle/corner lot. Have not had the inspection/appraisal done yet to know about the wiring/plumbing situation as of yet. Basement is finished (finished ceiling). I'm not sure if you would call a split foyer a multi story, but theres basically the top main floor and the basement. As we are coming from a brick house, the wifi signal will definitely be much better than where we are now, so I have high hopes for the networking. I will honestly probably end up getting another AC-PRO unit to accompany my current one, and just figure out a way to hardwire the AC1200 from wherever we place the modem to where my PC will be. Oh, also, we already do have gigabit speed access via Mediacom cable, though with us just moving in, I'm not sure if they will offer any promotions on the gigabit speeds!
 
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boosted1g

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Will come down to what your attic situation is like then. If you had an unifinished basement (or removable sub-ceiling) then it would be easy enough to get wires accross the house and just go up to the main story.
Going up the wall from the basement wont be too bad, even more so if you can make a couple access holes in wall and either patch them or put covers on it.

Worst case scenario you can exit at the main story or even attic and then use external condiut under the eves to get to other side of house.
 
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jojomexi

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Sep 17, 2012
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If only we had someone who was good at dropping lines and wiring a house like you! Will have to see if there's anyone local that knows how to do all that. I would just be winging it if I were to try to run wires regardless of where I install them, thanks for the pointers!
 
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