I thought you said the powerline adapters always capped at 2.4 GHz speeds and that's why it came into discussion. Also, the RAM is the only difference between EA8300 vs MR8300 (apart from being a Mesh), I thought it helps to choose one over the other.
I meant dual band routers, not the power line adapters.
You said those were a no go, so I dropped it.
Well, obviously, 2.4 GHz band always will be capped at 300 or 450 or 600 (depending on the router) but that's NOT my question. When I use powerline adapter, I get a max of 200 Mbps where as on 5 GHz, if I go close to the router, I get 480+ Mbps. I thought of buying a different router to see whether there is any improvement with the powerline adapter. That's my question in a nutshell!
EDIT: Also, have a better wifi coverage as R7800 leaves some spotty areas in the house.
The power lan adapter isn't retransmitting the wifi signal, is it?
I have looked at the specs. It is a tri-band N400 + AC867 + AC867 router. I.e., it has three 2x2 radios. While R7800 is a dual-band N800 + AC1733 router, with two 4x4 radios sharing the same antennas.
Therefore I am not 100% sure which router will work better as a repeater.
R7800 has a 2x better radio, which could, theoretically, achieve 2x throughput for the inter-AP link. Linksys MR8300, due to having separate radios, has the advantage that client-to-repeater traffic does not interfere with inter-AP traffic in the air.
Given the dual-partition setup featured on Linksys MR8300 (which complicates upgrades), my vote would still be for an extra R7800, even if it is slower.
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No, it isn't. lol
Anyways, I thought the discussion veered off and maybe, I didn't understand what you were saying and that's okay. Let's get back to the discussion. Would MR8300 or EA8300 improve the wifi coverage compared to R7800, theoretically speaking of couse? I can buy and try it and always return it if it doesn't work. lol
Even with the dual partition setup, whenever you install, it goes to the other slot. Just like the Android phones and that's okay as long it doesn't complicate it further than this. Also, MR8300 is ONLY $44 (renewed) vs R7800 is in the $100+. So, no brainer to try a tri-band. Do you agree?
It should, yes.
Not really a no-brainer. Maybe there exists a tri-band router that is cheaper than R7800 but which has radios better than 2x2. If it exists, then there is no need to compromise, because it would be definitely better than both.
Indeed, it is true. But, I couldn't find anything in this price range and MR8300 is ONLY $44, super duper cheap running OpenWrt. Now, I have to find the forums for support on MR8300 to see whether there any issues with this router.
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I think there is a lot missing from this discussion.
- What is the general layout of your house (ie length x width, # floors)?
- Where is the ONT
- What are your clients (specifically for each, what do they have for wireless)?
- Are all your clients wireless?
- Do you have IOT or other 2.4 only devices?
- How many concurrent users?
I have and use Powerline Adapters (TP-Link TL-PA9020 AV2000) and get about 200Mbps. Speed depends on what electrical circuit(s) you put them on and the level of PL tech (AV-500, AV-1000 or AV-2000). Best performance is on the same line, then same side of the electrical panel. Worst performance is on opposite sides of the panel. Mine are on the same side. I do not think you will get better than 200 even though they claim faster (just like wireless router claims). The router does NOT impact your powerline speeds (ie a faster router will NOT improve the speed of these).
As they say in Real Estate, location, location, location. Your "study" means nothing (at this point). Can you place a wired AP ANYWHERE that is closer to the middle of the house, even 10 feet? In the dozens of places I have installed this stuff in (mostly factory stock FW) I find that 25 feet is the golden rule. In general, if you can space devices at this distance, you will get through most wood\plaster walls with what I consider reasonable speed (BTW that's about 200Mbps). Concrete is another story as is anything with metal lath (stucco).
Age of your router does not really play into this IMHO, nor does moving to AX. AX will not get you better distance, all else being equal. It's mostly about traffic optimization, so if you have a family of 4 all streaming at the same time, then it's probably helpful. If it's just you and a dozen IOT things, AX will probably not fix anything.
For APs more ram\faster CPU will not really help you. Ram and CPU are more relevant for a router to do that traffic management thing (BTW, I have R7800 on factory FW running OpenVPN at about 30Mbps). If you have an ASUS RT-68U (I love these things), upload the latest Merlin FW and set it up as a wireless bridge. Easy Peasy (reset it twice after flashing and bfr configuring, read the SNB threads). The point is to see how it works. Try it as a wireless bridge and AP (see below). Its a simple setup.
If you have an IOS device download the Airport Utility. It has a tool for measuring wireless signal strength. For and Android device get Wifi Analyzer. Look to place your APs at about -50db or less from the R7800. (larger negative number is worse, it's only a relative measure as it relies on the testing devices wifi)
FWIW, you should only need about 25Mbps to stream 4K, so powerlines at 200 should be lots of TVs. If your goal is to max your connection, open your wallet and build out a triband (mesh?) system spaced at about 25 feet between nodes.
I agree with @takimata. Reconfigure the RT-68u as a "wired" AP on your Powerline(s) with the R7800 as the router. You will be able to use both bands of the router for clients and have a much more stable and hassle free experience. FWIW, i replaced an Open-WRT wireless bridge with the powerlines for stability. I felt like a traitor for about 15 minutes.
Yes, this is the Open-WRT forum and I realize am speaking foul. I humbly apologize.
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Duhh, why did I not ever think of this. A wall wart AP, how cool. It solves so many problems.
Is the Ethernet set to LAN?
So, your ONT probably comes in a one corner of the house and that's where the router is. Worst place (location, location, location) for wireless (AP part of your router so to speak) is in the corner.
You can get a good cheap x86 wired router as suggested here and use the R7800 as the AP.
Use the PL adapters and put the R7800 dead center in the house OR...
While it may be a long shot, if the house is new enough, it may be using cat 5 for telcom OR...
If you have coax you can use MoCa adapters (Ethernet over COAX) which are much faster than the Power Lines. Latest MoCa is up to 2.5G. See the DSl-Reports Verizon pages.
Not just any wall wart AP, the choice was quite deliberate: The RE650 is one of the few compact-ish devices with 4x4 MIMO AC wifi. It singlehandedly doubled my wireless speeds. (Also they are rather cheap second-hand.)
Yes, of course. It's configured as a dumb AP. I've tagged two VLANs for the guest and an IOT network (which are served on the 2.4 GHz wifi), and an untagged un-VLAN for regular devices (served on 5 GHz).
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Thank you for an extensive discussion of the setup and appreciate it. Currently, the ONT (FIOS) is in the garage and the internet connection comes into the house via the telephone/ethernet jack in the bed room and is hooked to R7800 and setup as a Router. My ISP speeds are provisioned at 500/500.
Most of the house gets good internet connection where as the study, which is the farthest from the Router, gets about 80 - 100 Mbps. Once I hooked up the Zyxel AV2000 powerline adapter, I get about 170 - 200 Mbps, which is much better than before.
I thought if I get a tri-band router, it may be even better and will find out once MR8300 comes t'row.
Are you suggesting that I hard wire AC68U (I have tomato on it as it's much better than Merlin, imho) in my bedroom (where the internet comes in via the ethernet jack) and connect the powerline to it and the other end of the powerline to R7800 (move it somewhere in the middle of the house) and setup as an AP and provide wireless to the clients?
Second option would be to keep R7800 as the Router (current setup) and configure AC68U as a wireless ethernet bridge in the study?
As it is, with the powerline adapter, it occasionally buffers as I have the stock trading platform on my PC with 3 monitors + CNBC running on the TV in the study via FireTV stick. That's probably why I see occasional buffers and PLA definitely helped compared to without it.
Let's see how Linksys MR8300 works and not sure whether it's going to improve or not (R7800 is a beast as well) but at $44, it's a great deal to try out a tri-band router, imho.
@RainGater I spent a fair amount of time writing my reply. Please read it again and answer all the questions asked. You will find 2 suggested configurations, but in summary
- R7800 Router =>RT-68u Wireless Bridge Mode,
- R7800 Router =>PLA=AC=>PLA=>RT-68u AP Mode
- X-86 Router =>PLA=AC=>PLA=>R7800 Router AP Mode
Tomato is fine
Hardware alone will NOT fix your problem. Placement is key. A sketch would be good.
Do you have COAX in the house?
Really! Patience can probably get one for about $20 US.
Probably would make a good travel router, though I have a half dozen already.
Thanks again for the detailed analysis and much appreciate it that you took the time to write up a nice solution.
Yes, I have coax but the internet connection from ONT is through the RJ45 jack. Also, I don't have a coax port in the study to use a Moca adapter.
I read about Moca adapter as it provides a better connection than the Powerline adapter but the internet connection from ONT doesn't come through Moca. If I go for cable internet, then I guess I can try the Moca adapter but still I don't have a moca connection in the study.
Currently, the Zyxel PLA has two Ethernet ports and they are hard wired to my PC and FireTV. In this case, why do I even need to setup an additional AP as the buffering issue ONLY happens in the study and the two devices in my study (PC and FireTV) are already hard wired?
Unfortunately I am still running blind, so ....
Figure out the distance between the R7800 and your equipment in the Study. Divide by 2. Place your new MR8300 (or ASUS RT-68u) wireless bridge as close to that as possible. Error closer to the R7800. I expect this is NOT the study. A wireless site survey will help. See first post. I do not think this will be better than your PLA at a stability level. Your not fixing anything by placing your wireless bridge in the study. Like your other wireless devices, it will struggle to reach the R7800. Location, location, location.
I would (indeed I did) use the PLA and a switch for your hardwired devices in the Study and leave them that way. You want low latency for your stock app and FireTV Stick.
Do you have the FireTV Stick Ethernet adapter? You imply so.
Does not matter. Think of the coax as a wire. Your just converting your Ethernet to and from this intermediate medium. Like the PLA, you would connect one MoCa convertor with a Cat5\6 to the R7800 and the other same but in reverse at one or MORE locations. You do not need to have this in use for CATV. All the coax lines in your house should terminate at a single splitter someplace, with one connection for each coax in the house. Make sure all the connections on the splitter are terminated or if only using 2 connections\MoCa adapters, find the 2 lines and connect them directly with a coax female to female connector
It may also be worth going back to your telcom lines. Is there one in the study? You seem to imply they are Cat5. Maybe you can hijack a telcom line more central in th house an move the r7800 to that location. You do not indicate an Cat 5 connections direct to this.
You don't, other than you do not appear to be happy with wireless and seem to want your full 500\500.
I think your best solution is to take the ASUS and connected it to one of the power-lines connections in the study. Use it's witch for additional Ethernet connections. That would get you good quality wireless on both bands, in your study, albeit limited to your 180-200 PLA max. If you use default channel widths you will probably only get 160 or so on wireless anyhow (again, do a site survey to see how crowded the air waves are and what channels you can use). For phones and IOT it should be plenty, but as your closer to the AP, more stable.
TBH, I do not think a 500\500 package over say a 250\250 package gets you much but a smaller bank account unless your doing lots of large file transfers to\from the internet.
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There are no teleco ports in the study. Unfortunately, there are only 2 places (which has telco ports) where I can hook up the Router, one in the Kitchen and the other in the bedroom (current setup). Not sure why they put a jack in the kitchen but the builder is something else!
For now, I am going to leave the setup as it is as setting up an AP in the study is not going to help me much as I already hard wired both my PC and Fire TV to the PLA. I don't use other devices in the study other than the phone, which seems to be okay with whatever wifi signal comes through!
In the future, if I have more devices, then I will use your suggestion and setup an AP in the study.
Thank you again for your help and much appreciate it.