Please recommend me a new device, my NBG6716's 2.4GHz issues are driving me nuts

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hey there.
Need a new AP. Hope you can help :slight_smile:

What I want is:

  • Rock stable. I've lost enough hairs already to my current device. Initial installation via tftp/telnet/ssh or easier, ie nothing that involves UART.
  • (Not sure if that's the default anyway) Can be managed via LuCI.
  • 802.11ax would be nice but I can live with ac.
  • The faster the wifi the better. Inet is 100/100 fiber and actually thinking about upgrading. With working from home and school holidays quite some stuff is going on, often all at the same time: streaming Steam from a PC to a Chromebook, streaming video to a tablet, working in a Citrix desktop on the company laptop, someone watching Netflix, probably half a dozen things trying to update themselves/backing up stuff to the cloud...
  • Gbit Ethernet. Ideally "the usual" 4+1 ports or more, but I can live with getting the switch separately, so everything with at least one port is in the running.
  • Don't really care about USB ports or running services, but never hurts to be future proof. If it's EUR50 extra to get there, sure.
  • At least one 2.4 and one 5.0Ghz radio. If it has one 2.4 and multiple 5.0Ghz radios that'd be great (see below).
  • Fanless, cause I want to put it up on a cabinet and forget about it without worrying about it eating cat hairs.
  • If it's less than EUR200 it's definitely in the running. If it's below 300 it should justify that price compared to EUR200 devices (eg 802.11ax and USB ports vs 802.11ac without or a well-loved by the OS community radio).

Background:
Been running a Zyxel NBG6716 I bought in 2015 and had no issues until I moved:
Now I need to use one radio to connect to my provider's modem halfway across the apartment (5GHz works great.), the other one is then for the tablets/phones/laptops/..., and the desktop and some other stuff is connected to the Zyxel's ethernet ports. No way to run cable between the modem and the AP.
You may have heard about the ath9 issues that eg the Archer C7 has when the 2.4 GHz wifi is heavily loaded. Same thing with the NBG6716. Hence using the 5Ghz for the link to the modem, so when the 2.4 decides to die at least anything connected via Eth is still fine. But for anything that's on the 2.4Ghz radio, those devices (and hence user) will be unhappy. So a new device is needed.
So I'll need one radio to act as that link in the new device again, and ideally still serve both 2.4Ghz and 5.0Ghz devices as an AP. May just keep the Zyxel to be that link and hook the new thing up to its Eth to act as a pure AP, but if there's a device so full of radios I can eliminate one of the two that's be great.

2

Why not use powerline adapter for the link?
I have also an ath9k device exhibit the same problem on repeater mode.
Currently testing a work around.

Here's a workaround for your scenario

3

Find a r7800. I've gone through a bunch of routers and this is the best right now. It only supports 32 devices without tweeking a text file, but now I'm running 50 devices for seven people. All the 4k HDR streaming, competitive gaming, and video calling is working great from one single AP.

1 Like
4

Essentially cause I have too little confidence a powerline network will work well enough. The building my apartment is in is old, the electrical installation definitely outdated. The modem is in the meter cabinet that is actually outside of my front door, in the hallway. I have no clue which power outlet is on which phase. Some of them don't have a PE contact, no idea if that is important for powerline LAN. Inside the apartment the AP is also quite some distance from the nearest outlet, with a bunch of other stuff plugged into the extension cord as well.
Ultimately it boils down to "I don't know anything about powerline LAN, have never used it, and just want to throw money at the problem to make it go away".

@dana44 Thanks, I'll look into the R7800.