Need an AC based router with high coverage

Hi folks,

My folks are in need to upgrade their wireless network. They currently run two Linksys WRT54GL's running Tomato in WDS; this works 'ok' especially since they have a 6 mbit DSL line and had, up to this point, dinky computers.

Now, however, they've upgraded to modern laptops (Thinkpads, MacBook Air), have a decent HTPC that is wifi based, a plethora of other wireless devices. They've also decided to upgrade to a cable connection and will be getting a 25 mbit subscription... a couple of 54g routers in WDS would be a severe bottleneck.


There's a reason why I set things up with WDS... please refer to the (crude) map below:





If I was to go with a single router upstairs, the wireless signal would only be contained to the upstairs area; downstairs would get very poor signal, or none at all. The culprit is the 'firewall' in the garage as I suspect it has wiremesh which weakens the signal. To mitigate the problem, upstairs router has a 7dbi antenna pointed at where the 2nd router is located. The distance between the two is maybe 30 feet. Running cables in the walls is not an option, unfortunately.


So - I'd like to consolidate into a single router that will be able to provide decent coverage for the entire house. It'd be upstairs as that is the office area and it cannot be a ubiquiti since I do not want to run cables along the wall.

I've been eyeing the Linksys WRT AC series... but perhaps someone has a better suggestion? Maybe the Apple Airport Extreme?


Thanks in advance

I have a Asus RT-AC66U in my home. My house is single story with about 1100 ft/sq and I have good coverage all throughout the inside and outside of my home. It's a similar shape as your diagram and the location would be about far right center of your diagram. As I only have one floor, I have no idea how well the vertical coverage is, but it seems to be about right for the horizontal coverage.

I will say that based off experience (I work for a MSO), routers do not project well downwards, so not being able to move the router to the 1st floor may become an issue. It would all become dependent on overall footage, and there will probably bee some form of dead spot directly below the router. The upside to my ASUS is it has 3 adjustable antennas so it may alleviate this.

What about upwards? Do routers, generally, have better projection upwards?

Based off the way that the built in antennas in routers are designed they generally propagate upwards well. We see it all the time where the whole reason a person is having issues is the router is on the 2nd floor at the far edge and when we move it to ground floor and centralize it the customer thinks we worked some kind of magic on the router.

Also remember that appliances (TV's, microwave, refrigerator, dryer, ect) can cause dead spots when running due to the EM field they can create. Other common problem makers included cordless phones which tend to use the same frequencies (though different channels) as wireless routers, fish tanks (RF has a hard time passing through water so they can make large dead shadows on the far side), and the age of the electrical wiring of the building (old wiring is poorly shielded, letting lots of electromagnetic radiation out and that causes wireless signals to become degraded even though there is good "signal strength").

I would recommend an r7000. I used to have an e3000 and it covered my whole basement but just barely. It took a dump so I got a r7000, I now get internet in my driveway which is a good 40-60 feet from the basement wall, before I couldn't even get wifi in my garage which touches the basement wall with the e3000.

Most any wireless N MIMO 2x2 or better enabled router is going to be an improvement. This is assuming the clients are not as old as those old Linksys routers you were using.

RT-AC66 or 68 with the merlin firmware is always a good option.

What you have is so old that most everything being suggested in this thread is a major upgrade. Expect a 15% increase in signal if both ends are wireless N MIMO enabled.

Dell and some phones are wireless N single stream devices, those are easy to pick out because they will never connect to a wireless N network higher than 72Mbps. If you do need to add a second AP, consider linking the two routers using 600Mbps powerline ethernet. Just don't expect to see anything over 120Mbps with it, but it is full duplex and will work significantly better/faster than using a repeater. Also 1000Mbps powerline is coming out in June.

Stay aware from the earlier spec powerline equipment at 200Mbps and 500Mbps speeds, they do not have a ground prong and are significantly less likely to actually work reliably.

Mackintire said:

Most any wireless N MIMO 2x2 or better enabled router is going to be an improvement. This is assuming the clients are not as old as those old Linksys routers you were using.

RT-AC66 or 68 with the merlin firmware is always a good option.

What you have is so old that most everything being suggested in this thread is a major upgrade. Expect a 15% increase in signal if both ends are wireless N MIMO enabled.

Dell and some phones are wireless N single stream devices, those are easy to pick out because they will never connect to a wireless N network higher than 72Mbps. If you do need to add a second AP, consider linking the two routers using 600Mbps powerline ethernet. Just don't expect to see anything over 120Mbps with it, but it is full duplex and will work significantly better/faster than using a repeater. Also 1000Mbps powerline is coming out in June.

Stay aware from the earlier spec powerline equipment at 200Mbps and 500Mbps speeds, they do not have a ground prong and are significantly less likely to actually work reliably.

Click to expand...

Great suggestion! I'll keep it in mind.