Router for 500/500, 3 floors/2000 sq. ft

[tsupersonic]

I'm looking for router recommendations to cover as mentioned in the title a fiber 500/500 connection, 3 floors and 2000 sq. ft house. Now, I haven't moved into the house yet (haven't closed), nor do I know how the setup is going to look like. What I do know is that I'll have my office in the basement, while my wife's office will be on the 2nd floor. We'll also need WiFi coverage on the main floor. We typically have 15-20 devices connected via WiFi. Nothing needs to be hard-wired, but many of our PC's/devices do have ethernet ports that we may take advantage of depending on where the router will be located. 

Budget - Up to $400, but obviously the cheaper the better. Any recommendations? I'm leaning towards WiFI 6, but 6E is enticing (though none of our devices are 6E capable currently). Would a mesh system provide better connectivity - particularly if we had a unit in the basement and one on the 2nd floor? Or should we just stick to a single router for simplicity? 

At the moment, I have a router from 2013 (TP-Link Archer C7-AC1750) that's really on its way out. It needs to be reset more often, and it has issues with our 15-20 devices connecting to it. It's struggling to provide connectivity in my current apartment, which is also 3 floors, but only 1200 sq. ft., but there's also quite a bit of neighbors with WiFi. 

[adrynalyne]

Are you opposed to mesh setups?

[tsupersonic]

On 12/11/2022 at 23:49, adrynalyne said:

Are you opposed to mesh setups?

No. I understand the concept, though have never used a mesh setup. Happy to try and use anything to provide the best experience 

[adrynalyne]

On 13/11/2022 at 03:14, tsupersonic said:

No. I understand the concept, though have never used a mesh setup. Happy to try and use anything to provide the best experience 

The 6E setups can get quite expensive, but the 6 setups are pretty reasonable.

I have a 2100 sq ft. home but it is single story. I use three Ubiquiti APs, with an Ethernet backhaul. I've had it for years, and while I do not have wifi 6 APs yet, it has served me very well, allowing me to blanket the home in 5Ghz with 2.4 only being needed for legacy devices. My devices have ~300-450Mbps throughput, depending on device. When we had our home built, I had the builders put ethernet jacks into the ceiling so I could just mount them and power them from the smart panel, where I have a switch supplying PoE to every room.

If you are interested into looking at something like this, take a look here:

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless/products/u6-lr-us

 

They are PoE powered, but you can also buy PoE injectors to use a traditional wall socket. You would also need something like a raspberry pi or even a PC to run the controller software. Unless you need a captive portal for a guest network, you can turn off the controller software when you don't need to configure anything.

 

If you want something more out of the box that just works, I'd look at less of the prosumer space and something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Tri-Band-Whole-System/dp/B08V2ZGBNK/ref=sr_1_24?crid=1YY001N435M5&keywords=wifi+6e+mesh&qid=1668361206&s=electronics&sprefix=wifi+6e+mesh%2Celectronics%2C123&sr=1-24

Then I would connect them via Ethernet, so you have a wired backhaul.

If looking for a single device:

I don't know how well this device works across 3 stories, but my neighbors that have Fiber have been happy with these:

https://amplifi.com/alien

 

Just my opinion. Whatever mesh system you choose, do check that they have wired Ethernet as an option for the backhaul.

 

 

[tsupersonic]

On 13/11/2022 at 12:46, adrynalyne said:

The 6E setups can get quite expensive, but the 6 setups are pretty reasonable.

I have a 2100 sq ft. home but it is single story. I use three Ubiquiti APs, with an Ethernet backhaul. I've had it for years, and while I do not have wifi 6 APs yet, it has served me very well, allowing me to blanket the home in 5Ghz with 2.4 only being needed for legacy devices. My devices have ~300-450Mbps throughput, depending on device. When we had our home built, I had the builders put ethernet jacks into the ceiling so I could just mount them and power them from the smart panel, where I have a switch supplying PoE to every room.

If you are interested into looking at something like this, take a look here:

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-wireless/products/u6-lr-us

 

They are PoE powered, but you can also buy PoE injectors to use a traditional wall socket. You would also need something like a raspberry pi or even a PC to run the controller software. Unless you need a captive portal for a guest network, you can turn off the controller software when you don't need to configure anything.

 

If you want something more out of the box that just works, I'd look at less of the prosumer space and something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-Tri-Band-Whole-System/dp/B08V2ZGBNK/ref=sr_1_24?crid=1YY001N435M5&keywords=wifi+6e+mesh&qid=1668361206&s=electronics&sprefix=wifi+6e+mesh%2Celectronics%2C123&sr=1-24

Then I would connect them via Ethernet, so you have a wired backhaul.

If looking for a single device:

I don't know how well this device works across 3 stories, but my neighbors that have Fiber have been happy with these:

https://amplifi.com/alien

 

Just my opinion. Whatever mesh system you choose, do check that they have wired Ethernet as an option for the backhaul.

 

 

Very informative, thank you for the suggestions!