Worth it to buy extra router for better wifi performance?

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joedogg9999

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Is it worth buying an extra wireless router to improve performance if i already have a modem/router from the ISP?

So i have Comcast gigabit with the XB6 modem/router. i get decent mbps over wifi (300-350mbps while in same room and 200-300 elsewhere in house) however i get stutters in online games.

I have no idea how the XB6 stacks up against other routers so i have no idea if its worth it for me to go buy another router to broadcast my wifi. Are there any recommended routers that would substantionally improve my wifi reliability? preferrably under $200
 
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You could ask Comcast what it would cost to add a MoCA circuit (in terms of rental fees for additional equipment). The XB6 is a MoCA network controller when MoCA is enabled (according to the DSLReports postings), but you'd need splitters and other Comcast MoCA-ready devices to actually create a MoCA network that way, since the XB6 alone has just that one coax port.

Or you could buy two MoCA adapters as shown in the earlier link. MoCA adapters from Actiontec or Yitong would work the way Ethernet switches do, creating a collision domain that can support up to 16 total adapters. You can do point-to-point circuits between one end of a cabling run and the other end, or point-to-multipoint and...
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joedogg9999

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what im asking is:

is it worth it for me to go and but a new router with better performance than my modem/router combo and to use the new router to run wifi from.

meaning a new router would plug into the modem/router and i would disable the wifi on the modem/router and connect to wifi through the new router
 
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bill001g

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I am surprised you get transfer rates that fast. When you look at testing sites they are lucky to get 300mbps download rates.

Still the transfer rate is not what is causing issue in games. Game need very little bandwidth. Most need well under 1mbps. Your problem is that the game wants consistent delay between the packets....it used this to calculate timing in the game. WiFi uses data retransmissioin to correct for damaged packets. This takes small amounts of times so it causes the delays to be random.

The really is no way to solve this. The problem generally is interference and most times is coming in from outside your house.

It would be better to spend your money on a pair of av2-1200 powerline adapters. These because these run over the electrical wires they do not have the huge issue of random packet delays
 
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joedogg9999

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thanks for the reply. i actually had the av1200s but returned them because the performance was worse than wifi.

you dont think getting a router with MU-MIMO, improved antennas, or beamforming would be helpfull here?
 
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vmfantom

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Powerline doesn't work for me either, to each his own. As for the XB6 (ARRIS TG3482ER), you're talking about a top of the line chipset (Quantenna with 8x8 MIMO for 802.11ac) that's crippled by weak transmit power (10-260 mW at 2.4 GHz, 60-600 mW at 5 GHz).You could get even a less recent MU-MIMO router that's in the 1 watt range, like the TP-Link C3150, and have 4x4 MIMO plus NitroQAM (if the connected devices support it) plus much better 2.4 GHz coverage. That's a generic answer, though. Can you say any more about the distances and obstructions in between the XB6 and the trouble spots in your house?
 
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joedogg9999

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i also thought about using MOCA. the xb6 says it has moca integrated. does that mean i would only need one of those moca adapters at the game console i wanted to improve connection?
 
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vmfantom

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No, at least not according to the external photos at https://fccid.io/UIDTG3482ER3/External-Photos/External-Photos-3273687. Since there's only one F connector, my guess is you need that to connect to the cable modem feed line, and would need to have 2 MoCA adapters, one to connect via Ethernet cable to the XB6 and on to the cabling run to your game console, and the other adapter parked at the game console. What "integrated" might mean is that the DOCSIS 3.1 XB6 is compatible with the latest MoCA standards in the sense that the frequencies can coexist despite overlapping (DOCSIS 3.1 now at 1,218 MHz and encroaching on MoCA 2.0+ at 1,125-1,675 MHz).

So if you end up using MoCA, you would need need 2 adapters (for example, 2 of the adapters at https://www.coaxifi.com/product-page/yitong-bonded-moca-2-0-gigabit-ethernet-over-coax-adapter). Bonded MoCA 2.0 is the highest commercially available standard right now, and has MAC layer rates of 1 Gbps. Actiontec/TiVo/FiOS and Yitong adapters don't talk to each other in part because Yitong has encryption and Actiontec is unencrypted. (You'd also want a $5 POE filter to keep the MoCA frequencies from leaking out via the Comcast feed line.)

If MoCA is an option for you, then it's definitely better than wifi for throughput and lower latency to the game console.
 
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joedogg9999

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thanks for the response. so when i go into my xb6 settings, the fact that it asks me to enable or disable moca means nothing? it appears it is creating moca network
 
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bill001g

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It might work, I know you can do it on verizon fios but that is a different box. You just hook a remote moca device up and as long as coax from the cable company is hooked to all the other coax it works to just buy a remote unit.

One of the problems with using moca in general is the so called "whole house dvr" and other cable set top boxes use moca to accomplish this. So if you have cable tv the cable company may already be using the moca and not be willing to share. This is one of the reasons you started to see these moca integrated routers because the cable companies wanted them.

Maybe ask the cable company.
 
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joedogg9999

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i had fios originally who already installed the splitters for moca. i have comcast gigabit with no tv, just internet.

in my xb6 settngs it has full moca network data, including a network controller mac address for the xb6. it has beacon frequencies as well as moca nodes listed, one of which is the xb6
 
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vmfantom

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Regarding the "enable"/"disable" settings for MoCA, the forum at http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31170481-Connectivity-MoCA-finally-enabled makes it sound like you can use that only if there isn't any TV service on the same circuit. Most third part MoCA adapters like the earlier link have pass-through for Ethernet as well as TV/cable modem via dual coax ports. You'd have to ask Comcast what it costs to get a device from them that would terminate the MoCA data circuit at your game console. Otherwise, it's not clear what MoCA specs and encryption the XB6 uses, so you can't really mix it with a third party MoCA adapter and be guaranteed that it would work.
 
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vmfantom

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You could ask Comcast what it would cost to add a MoCA circuit (in terms of rental fees for additional equipment). The XB6 is a MoCA network controller when MoCA is enabled (according to the DSLReports postings), but you'd need splitters and other Comcast MoCA-ready devices to actually create a MoCA network that way, since the XB6 alone has just that one coax port.

Or you could buy two MoCA adapters as shown in the earlier link. MoCA adapters from Actiontec or Yitong would work the way Ethernet switches do, creating a collision domain that can support up to 16 total adapters. You can do point-to-point circuits between one end of a cabling run and the other end, or point-to-multipoint and multipoint-to-multipoint with a MoCA splitter.
 
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