- Feb 14, 2004
- 49,992
- 6,299
- 136
Currently staying in an upright 2-story townhouse with a basement & was running into 3 problems:
1. Wireless kept disconnecting
2. Wasn't getting the wireless coverage I wanted
3. Didn't want to run any Ethernet at all
I had an Asus 66, which over time has developed so many problems with the wireless disconnecting that I would have to manually reboot it twice a day. Tried messing with the firmware, location, etc., no luck. In addition to that, I wasn't getting the wireless reach i wanted. The rental design is basically 3 levels, which are skinny & vertical, so that meant the wireless has to cut through two floor's worth of building material to get to my bedroom. For this location, I've opted to go 100% wireless as I don't want to cut any holes to run Ethernet since I'm only staying here for a year. Poked around, looked at D-link's stuff, Netgear's batwing model, etc. and ultimately settled on an underdog, the TP-Link Archer C3200: ($224)
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Tri-Band-Wireless-Archer-C3200/dp/B00YY3XSSA/
Plus the RE450 range extender: ($100)
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-AC1750-Wi-Fi-Extender-RE450/dp/B010S6SG3S/
I've had really good luck with TP-Link in the past, which is typically a budget brand I use for installing cheap wireless routers for people or else for portable hotspots for traveling for business people, so this was a bit of a leap of faith. One of the main reasons I got it was because of the WPS AC1750 range extender...I've never, ever had good luck with wireless range extenders; the only way I've successfully made them work without either hiccups or a massive decrease in bandwidth is by running an Ethernet cable and using a second wireless router as a hardwired hotspot with DHCP disabled, which worked great in the past. But after much research, I settled on this pair to try out.
This is pretty much the most money I have ever spent on my home network ($324 total, ouch!), but after reading reviews & comparing routers, I opted to go with the TP-Link 5ghz combo. The RE450 wireless extender has over 100 reviews with an average 4.5-star rating, which is pretty unusual for any wireless device, particularly a range extender. Setup was simple...done in under 10 minutes. Swapped out my Asus with the TP-Link, did setup on the router, press the WPS buttons to pair the RE450, then moved it upstairs & started testing:
Ethernet: (Windows 7 PC)
Wireless: (5ghz next to router)
Wireless: (5ghz upstairs from router, 1/2 bars)
Wireless: (5ghz range extender upstairs, full bars)
Summary:
Ethernet: 59.68/6.66
Wireless router: 57.96/6.82
Wireless router upstairs: 51.87/6.92
Range extender upstairs: 48.11/6.50
I used my Chromebook for all of the wireless testing. Turned off the first two channels in the router (2.4ghz & 5ghz) & just used the third 5ghz channel. When placed next to the router, the wireless connection is just as fast as the wired is, which is awesome. Moving upstairs where the signal gets cut in half, I lost about 6 MB/s. For whatever reason, the wireless quality comes & goes upstairs, at least it did on my previous Asus router - the SSID list here is crowded where I'm living right now, which I suspect has something to do with it. So rather than relying on that, I stuck the range extender in the upper landing so it would get a stronger signal to bounce upstairs. Doing so only took 4 MB/s off the half-signal from the router in the basement, which isn't a bad tradeoff for getting full bars everywhere upstairs (less than a 10 Mb/s loss going from standing next to the wireless router to using the range extender upstairs). I haven't used an extender in awhile, but when I have in the past (wireless to wireless), it usually cut the speed in half rather than just notching it down by 1/6th, which is livable.
So far I am very pleased with both the performance & easy setup. I felt the cost was excessive, but I also wanted to get the faster CPU (1GHz dual-core CPU & three co-processors) as I have house guests in the near-term & we have a ton of devices (wireless count is around 20 between laptops, tablets, smartphones, media players, and consoles, plus extra when we have friends or family over) & all do streaming; I suspect the N66 was overheating, which was causing the dropouts (maybe...could never prove anything through the logs). So, I'll see how it does long-term, but so far it was super easy to program & has been working really really well so far, so I've definitely gotten what I've paid for :thumbsup:
1. Wireless kept disconnecting
2. Wasn't getting the wireless coverage I wanted
3. Didn't want to run any Ethernet at all
I had an Asus 66, which over time has developed so many problems with the wireless disconnecting that I would have to manually reboot it twice a day. Tried messing with the firmware, location, etc., no luck. In addition to that, I wasn't getting the wireless reach i wanted. The rental design is basically 3 levels, which are skinny & vertical, so that meant the wireless has to cut through two floor's worth of building material to get to my bedroom. For this location, I've opted to go 100% wireless as I don't want to cut any holes to run Ethernet since I'm only staying here for a year. Poked around, looked at D-link's stuff, Netgear's batwing model, etc. and ultimately settled on an underdog, the TP-Link Archer C3200: ($224)
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-Tri-Band-Wireless-Archer-C3200/dp/B00YY3XSSA/
Plus the RE450 range extender: ($100)
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-AC1750-Wi-Fi-Extender-RE450/dp/B010S6SG3S/
I've had really good luck with TP-Link in the past, which is typically a budget brand I use for installing cheap wireless routers for people or else for portable hotspots for traveling for business people, so this was a bit of a leap of faith. One of the main reasons I got it was because of the WPS AC1750 range extender...I've never, ever had good luck with wireless range extenders; the only way I've successfully made them work without either hiccups or a massive decrease in bandwidth is by running an Ethernet cable and using a second wireless router as a hardwired hotspot with DHCP disabled, which worked great in the past. But after much research, I settled on this pair to try out.
This is pretty much the most money I have ever spent on my home network ($324 total, ouch!), but after reading reviews & comparing routers, I opted to go with the TP-Link 5ghz combo. The RE450 wireless extender has over 100 reviews with an average 4.5-star rating, which is pretty unusual for any wireless device, particularly a range extender. Setup was simple...done in under 10 minutes. Swapped out my Asus with the TP-Link, did setup on the router, press the WPS buttons to pair the RE450, then moved it upstairs & started testing:
Ethernet: (Windows 7 PC)
Wireless: (5ghz next to router)
Wireless: (5ghz upstairs from router, 1/2 bars)
Wireless: (5ghz range extender upstairs, full bars)
Summary:
Ethernet: 59.68/6.66
Wireless router: 57.96/6.82
Wireless router upstairs: 51.87/6.92
Range extender upstairs: 48.11/6.50
I used my Chromebook for all of the wireless testing. Turned off the first two channels in the router (2.4ghz & 5ghz) & just used the third 5ghz channel. When placed next to the router, the wireless connection is just as fast as the wired is, which is awesome. Moving upstairs where the signal gets cut in half, I lost about 6 MB/s. For whatever reason, the wireless quality comes & goes upstairs, at least it did on my previous Asus router - the SSID list here is crowded where I'm living right now, which I suspect has something to do with it. So rather than relying on that, I stuck the range extender in the upper landing so it would get a stronger signal to bounce upstairs. Doing so only took 4 MB/s off the half-signal from the router in the basement, which isn't a bad tradeoff for getting full bars everywhere upstairs (less than a 10 Mb/s loss going from standing next to the wireless router to using the range extender upstairs). I haven't used an extender in awhile, but when I have in the past (wireless to wireless), it usually cut the speed in half rather than just notching it down by 1/6th, which is livable.
So far I am very pleased with both the performance & easy setup. I felt the cost was excessive, but I also wanted to get the faster CPU (1GHz dual-core CPU & three co-processors) as I have house guests in the near-term & we have a ton of devices (wireless count is around 20 between laptops, tablets, smartphones, media players, and consoles, plus extra when we have friends or family over) & all do streaming; I suspect the N66 was overheating, which was causing the dropouts (maybe...could never prove anything through the logs). So, I'll see how it does long-term, but so far it was super easy to program & has been working really really well so far, so I've definitely gotten what I've paid for :thumbsup:
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