?Best WiFi Solution Medium Household $300 Budget?

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beattyryan

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Oct 16, 2017
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Hello, thank you for taking a look.

I'm looking for advice on a router + extension or other solution to create a reliable and fast network, which I assume will be over 5ghz AC.

My budget is $300 or so, and my current setup is acceptable but not ideal:

One story 2,500 SQ FT Concrete walls w/ 100mb Comcast cable > Arris Surfboard SB6141 Modem > 1 Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N (DD-WRT) as an Access point over WiFi (2.4ghz Mixed(max N)) to an identical Client bridge.

I appreciate any help.
 
Solution
RealBeast
You need to put the switch on the internal network side of the router, so attached via cable to one of the router LAN ports unless you have multiple ISP static addresses (only done usually in business connections).

So put the router in the entertainment room, and use an excellent N router ASUS N66, which is cheapest in white but works great for routing and gives you an excellent 2.4GHz and 5GHz N radios in that area.

You can save some on the PL adapters, the TP-Link AV2-1200 pair like THIS 8010 gives you essentially the same speed and latency but at a lower price.

The R7000 Nighthawk is a perfect choice for your access point with its great radios, best AC1900 class router. So the Nighthawk goes in the...
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RealBeast

RealBeast

Titan
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Sep 13, 2010
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Your budget is good for a reasonable solution.

I would look at a good AC1900 router if you want AC (otherwise a good N router like an ASUS RT-N56U), a pair of AV2-1200 powerline adapters for about $60 (unless you can run Ethernet, which can be tough without a good attic -- but if you can run a cable up the wall, across the attic, and then down the wall at the other end area you can get a great connection for the cost of some cable), and a cheap N or perhaps even AC router (like a TP-Link) configured as an AP at the far end.

That will cover 2500 sq ft very well and is quite easy to set up, other than the time up in the attic -- although now beats the summer. :)

Using wireless bridges will not give you a very good result unless you use a pair of more expensive AC1900 units in media bridge mode, and that is still more expensive and quite a bit slower than just running a cable (or good pair of AV2-1200 PL adapters) to an AP.
 
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beattyryan

Prominent
Oct 16, 2017
2
0
510
Map of area: https://i.imgur.com/B0fekbq.png

I have an entertainment room that requires 5~ ethernet connections, but no WiFi, and rather than spend money on a router for that side of the house, I was hoping to use some kind of switch. However, it's my understanding that a switch cannot be used between a modem and a router.

If that were to work, then I would set it up for Modem > Switch (Splits to Several Devices) > Powerline Adapter > Powerline Adapter > Router. But I assume I'd have to use a router rather than switch.

What are my options for this kind of setup?

This is the hardware I'm looking at ($260), my budget is $300~:
http://a.co/7WA22lJ
http://a.co/0q1SyX9

Thank you for your help!
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

Titan
Moderator
Sep 13, 2010
17,109
474
104,790
You need to put the switch on the internal network side of the router, so attached via cable to one of the router LAN ports unless you have multiple ISP static addresses (only done usually in business connections).

So put the router in the entertainment room, and use an excellent N router ASUS N66, which is cheapest in white but works great for routing and gives you an excellent 2.4GHz and 5GHz N radios in that area.

You can save some on the PL adapters, the TP-Link AV2-1200 pair like THIS 8010 gives you essentially the same speed and latency but at a lower price.

The R7000 Nighthawk is a perfect choice for your access point with its great radios, best AC1900 class router. So the Nighthawk goes in the kitchen/dining area. That gives you both a 2.4GHz N radio and 5GHz AC radio in the rest of the house and you can "assign" uses/users to each radio to maximize bandwidth.

That should fit within your budget, although just barely. You coordinate the two 2.4GHz radios in the two areas using a different non-overlapping channel for each selecting from 1, 6, and 11.

 
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