Best modem and WiFi router?

I've reached the point that my old combo unit is barely getting the job done. 

I'd like to have a separate WiFi router (possibly with a repeater) to help WiFi coverage in the house and outside. My house isn't particularly large at 1800+ sq feet, but it's on a corner lot and kind of shaped like a boomerang. Imagine a rectable style ranch house, but with the spare bedrooms side of the house and the garage side of the house angled toward the corner.

And the router/modem sit at one end of the house in the bedroom that is my "office." So the signal isn't great on the other side of the house or on the patio.

Smart move on the separate wifi router. The best repeater is another wifi router (ideally wired up, but having one in repeater mode is better than nothing).

I'd recommend a TP-Link Archer C7 reflashed to run OpenWRT. Or if money is no object, a Turris Omnia.

Yeah, another router wired up won't happen because of the way the cable lines are setup.

I've seen a few WiFi routers that have a specific repeater (wireless) that takes advantage of the dual channel to keep speeds up. That's very important since when I'm at home not on the docking station and using the VPN I need things to be as fast as possible so operations don't time out.

z31maniac said:

I've seen a few WiFi routers that have a specific repeater (wireless) that takes advantage of the dual channel to keep speeds up. That's very important since when I'm at home not on the docking station and using the VPN I need things to be as fast as possible so operations don't time out.

That's just marketing speak for a common feature...an OpenWRT router configured as a repeater will be just as fast.

In reply to z31maniac :

I just started using a Netgear Nighthawk R6700 which is the middle of the Nighthawk range. The range is better than double the Linksys EA6200 it replaced. They also sell an "range extender" if you need to extend the to cover some deadspots.

For your situation you might want to consider one of those mesh network setups from Google or Netgear or Linksys which are supposedly the best available at the moment.

There should be an option to turn off the router in your current modem. I'm sort of assuming it's a Motorola Surfboard since they're exceptionally E36 M3ty combo units.

I've been fooling with an Asus AC3100 lately that has been excellent.

I'm with Gameboy re: the repeater.  Find a way to run some RJ-45 through your attic, basement, outside of the house, etc. to another point and plug in a cheaper router to use as an access point.  You can get a linksys that works great for this for ~$20 off Amazon.  It is a little more tedious, but it is the fastest and most reliable.

The0retical said:

In reply to z31maniac :

I just started using a Netgear Nighthawk R6700 which is the middle of the Nighthawk range. The range is better than double the Linksys EA6200 it replaced. They also sell an "range extender" if you need to extend the to cover some deadspots.

For your situation you might want to consider one of those mesh network setups from Google or Netgear or Linksys which are supposedly the best available at the moment.

There should be an option to turn off the router in your current modem. I'm sort of assuming it's a Motorola Surfboard since they're exceptionally E36 M3ty combo units.

Yeah, I was just looking at the AmpliFi setup. Pricey buy has great reviews. And you are correct on the current combo unit or possibly a cheap ARRIS I picked up at Best Buy years ago.

ProDarwin said:

I've been fooling with an Asus AC3100 lately that has been excellent.

I'm with Gameboy re: the repeater.  Find a way to run some RJ-45 through your attic, basement, outside of the house, etc. to another point and plug in a cheaper router to use as an access point.  You can get a linksys that works great for this for ~$20 off Amazon.  It is a little more tedious, but it is the fastest and most reliable.

 

 

Unfortunately for me, my house is a very strange setup with attic over the garage and master bath, then raised ceilings that go to the roof line, then no way to access (that I've been able to find) the space above the spare bedrooms and bathroom. 

In reply to ProDarwin :

I picked an Asus AC3100 up a month or two ago, too. I'm in the process of relocating everything to the center of my house so that I can get a signal in the  garage but keep good coverage of the house.

In reply to z31maniac :

You can't go under?  A crawl space or basement works just as well.

Also, you can get outdoor rated cable and run it along the outside where the foundation and the siding meets.  Paint it to match and no one would be the wiser.

Here's a previous discussion on the subject:

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/learn-me-wi-fi-repeatersrange-extenders/129611/page1/

I run network cables outside the house in the white square conduit with a panel that peels off/snaps on for access. The house is white so it's not too visible.

Stefan said:

In reply to z31maniac :

You can't go under?  A crawl space or basement works just as well.

Also, you can get outdoor rated cable and run it along the outside where the foundation and the siding meets.  Paint it to match and no one would be the wiser.

The vast majority of homes built in OK since the 50-60s are all slab foundation. The water table here is very high so it's hard to keep basements from being moldy/damp. In this last 30 or so years, about the only thing below the surface is a small storm shelter.

I'm not sure I want to run to cable on the outside and drill through the brick facade.

z31maniac said:

ProDarwin said:

I've been fooling with an Asus AC3100 lately that has been excellent.

I'm with Gameboy re: the repeater.  Find a way to run some RJ-45 through your attic, basement, outside of the house, etc. to another point and plug in a cheaper router to use as an access point.  You can get a linksys that works great for this for ~$20 off Amazon.  It is a little more tedious, but it is the fastest and most reliable.

 

 

Unfortunately for me, my house is a very strange setup with attic over the garage and master bath, then raised ceilings that go to the roof line, then no way to access (that I've been able to find) the space above the spare bedrooms and bathroom. 

My house has what would appear to be like this, but if you actually go up into the attic, there is still enough space between the raised ceilings and the roof-line to pass through.  I honestly didn't realize it was like this until I had lived there for several years.  Have you been up in the attic to verify?

I have not, I need to check. 

But if the WiFi stuff like NetGear and AmpliFi can provide faster connection speeds than you can even get from the cable company.....meh?

The only place I care about a wired connection is in the "office" for when I get another Racing Sim setup.

z31maniac said:

I'm not sure I want to run to cable on the outside and drill through the brick facade.

I run my cables the corners of jalousie windows, but you need to live in certain areas of the planet to get away with that kind of window

z31maniac said:

I have not, I need to check. 

But if the WiFi stuff like NetGear and AmpliFi can provide faster connection speeds than you can even get from the cable company.....meh?

The only place I care about a wired connection is in the "office" for when I get another Racing Sim setup.

Got it.  Yeah, if you aren't doing transfer to other machines on the same network, your bandwidth requirements are still fairly low.  I've used the powerline ethernet adapters with reasonable success in the past as well. 

ProDarwin said:

z31maniac said:

I have not, I need to check. 

But if the WiFi stuff like NetGear and AmpliFi can provide faster connection speeds than you can even get from the cable company.....meh?

The only place I care about a wired connection is in the "office" for when I get another Racing Sim setup.

Got it.  Yeah, if you aren't doing transfer to other machines on the same network, your bandwidth requirements are still fairly low.  I've used the powerline ethernet adapters with reasonable success in the past as well. 

That's not always true these days, with people now having Internet connection speeds in the 3 or even 4 digit megabits per second, wifi speeds could be the bottleneck in their Internet connection speed.

Yes, but the point is as long as his wifi speed is > his connection speed, he doesn't care.  If he were transfering to a local hard drive on another machine or a server of some sort, then it would matter.

So I'm 99.99% sure as far as the WiFi router, I'm going to go with AmpliFi.

Any suggestions on just the modem side of it?

For your setup, just stick with the modem you have unless something's terribly wrong with it. If you had Internet speeds over 100Mbit/s and the modem only had 100Mbit ethernet, that could be a good reason to upgrade.

I think the current setup is a combo unit, correct?  So OP would be needing both if he's replacing the combo unit.  There was an ARRIS model in the other thread, I think this is it

Not necessarily.  If the modem part of the combo unit performs ok, he can just turn off the router functions and connect it to his new router.

If you have vents in your soffits you may be able to run cable through the eaves. That should allow the cable to enter the house above the brick work.

I switched to Amplifi a few months back. It might be in the the other thread that was linked above. It is easy to set up, works well and if you don't like being your own IT guy and messing with WRT and the like, just spend the money and get Amplifi. The mesh points work. I can get wifi out on my dock now because the mesh point in the garage I have pointed that direction.

I work from home and require a reliable internet connection and don't particularly like futzing around acting as the IT department.