Upgrading wireless network

The short issue is my DGL-4300 is not doing it for me. There hasnt been a firmware update in years so I know the issues wont get fixed if they are software and with wireless N I might as well get up to speed.

So here are the things I am looking to do now I realize not all will be possible. But I gotta start somewhere.


Qr code scan to access

Wireless N minimum, AC maybe depending on stability.

Stable ( I am really sick of instable routers that need to be rebooted all the time) My desktop can run for months without a shutdown why cant a simple router run for a year without a reboot?

Multiple connections. I would like at least 8 maybe 12 simultaneous connections. The question is, can I do this all with one network, like 1 SSID? Can the access points pass off a connection to each other? Is the best option for me to try to get 1 access point that can handle all the connections and be powerful enough to handle the whole house and go outside, or to have multiple access point strategically located?

Will it be possible to control or limit bandwidth to the internet?

I would like to have decently powerful wifi, I have a 2 story house, and a back yard and detached garage. I have seen these 600mW systems are they they kind of thing I need to look into?

Will it be possible to tell QoS to give priority to certain devices the best situation I could think of is a ranked list where the most bandwidth is allocated to the top mac addresses and it goes down in a linear fashion from there.

I would say right now by budget is around $300 if the features justify it I could hit $500 and if the features don’t seem to be worth it I could drop lower than $300.

Right now I am just running into a brick wall of problems, we have 5 devices in the household with no ethernet options. Kindle fire, epic 4g without cell phone plan, 2 cell phones, and a harmony link. Then a couple people come over and and we suddenly have a bunch more connections. I have a hunch this is when the wireless network goes down and I need to reboot the router to get it up and running. I dont want to put up with this with a new system.

I can run ethernet to any access points.

Asus RT-N66
or
ASUS RT-AC66U

Check out the Mikrotik units.

If all you need is an AP and not a router, check out a Unifi from Ubiquiti.

At least one will need to be a router but others could be an APs.

Honestly any router should be able to handle 12 devices. If you want a little more stability, any router that you can get Tomato or DD-WRT on is usually fairly decent, those firmwares are much more stable.

I also would recommend the Unifi units for wireless APs (no router).

To be clear I need to handle 12 wireless devices. By that I mean most routers only do 4, so they dont do 12. Does that means my only option is to drop in 3 access points?

What do you mean by that most routers only do 4?

Just because it only have 4 LAN interfaces doesnt mean it cannot handle more clients.

No I mean AFAIK, and I could very well be wrong I thought almost all wirelss routers only allowed 4 simultaneous wifi connections. Then you would have however many ethernet ports for LAN, which you could extend with a switch.

So far the unifi systems really intrigue me, are their routers as reccommended as their APs? Or is there a good non wireless router I should look at?

I suppose I could just disable the wireless on my DGL-4300 and use it as the router but I suspect this thing has hardware issues.

Some wireless routers do a better job then others at handling multiple clients but there's no hard rule that says they can't have more then four clients.

The Ubiquiti UniFis are not routers, they are just APs so they'll need to connect to the router. You have a large property so I'd look at spreading out multiple access points which are all wired into your router. I'd look at Ubiquiti, Engenius or some people like Mikrotik.

I'd be hard pressed to suggest Asus or dd-wrt. I've had 3 devices I bought go ape shit in the last few weeks, even with firmware upgrades same thing.

By their routers I was speaking of these http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Ultr...=UTF8&qid=1346089201&sr=8-5&keywords=ubiquiti

According to one comment the unifi APs only have 100mb is this true?

Also they have a pro version of the unifi which appears to be the only simultaneous dual band product. Right now all I use these things for are mostly low bandwidth, but I can imagine in the near future streaming higher bandwidth data between phones and computers / displays might start becoming common. Just wondering if I should do the pro version of unifi to future proof.

I might be able to get away with 1 router and 1 pro unifi. But I would rather the router work seamlessly with the unifi.

rudy said:

According to one comment the unifi APs only have 100mb is this true?.

Click to expand...

yes that is true but the pro model cost WAY too much right now.
I have the long range model and it works great, I can stream 1080p without any issue.

In addition I dont really understand PoE, but they seem to say that the PoE in the unifi APs is not going to work with a typical PoE switch. I would like to grab a router I think that the routerboard ones might have one that is hard wires only but also has PoE that can power these, and perhaps a few other PoE devices, so ideally an 8 port Gigabit + PoE router.

The unifi APs are kinda messy but this is what I think I am going to do.

Grab a RB750GL as the router for $56
Get a unifi AP PRO dual band for $219
Also grabbed a Unifi AP long range $89
A little more than I wanted to spend at $377 with shipping but hopefully this will give me a real good coverage stable network as wireless devices expand.


The AP pro will hopefully go in the basement right under the living room and the AP long range will go up to the 2nd floor in the attick toward the back to cover the backyard.