Do I need a tri-band router?

Currently I'm using an Asus AC68 and would like to upgrade because for some things I find it too slow. I have a Linksys wrt3200acm in the closet because the wifi sucks.

I have over 20 devices on wifi, various things like set top boxes, Google assistant devices, ecobee, shield, pc, etc. Usually no more than 2 or 3 actively used at once.

Live in a brick building, apartment is 900sq feet with not great wifi towards the interior.

The asus stuff supports whatever protocol it is that allows you to do a mesh with a 2nd AP. I'd just run a 2nd AP with the same SSID, hard-cabled to it, or a repeater.

If you want the best wifi range/performance for your money, buy the best TP-Link unit in your budget.

Tri-band is so yesterday now that WiFi 6 is out, you need an octo-band.

BoiseTech said:

Tri-band is so yesterday now that WiFi 6 is out, you need an octo-band.

Click to expand...

I know you're being facetious, but I have a serious question about WiFi 6. I was looking at the AX88U because I like the Asus firmware, and that particular router (unlike the other Asus AX routers) runs Merlin. It's only dual-band, but it has a relatively beefy cpu so should run a VPN quite well. Also since it's Asus I'd be able to run AiMesh if I wanted.

I know WiFi 6 is kind of pointless right now, but I figure since that router runs Merlin it might be worth a shot. Does it even matter if AX is dual or tri band? It's too bad the wrt3200acm is such a POS, or I'd use it, the AC68 is an older device and much more stable.

I'm confused about the whole router market right now.

So typical routers are like such:

2.4 ghz - 1st band

5ghz - 2nd band

5ghz - 3rd band

The 3rd band is good if you have a ton of 5ghz devices running OR if you're using mesh, it can have a dedicated backhaul over the 3rd 5 ghz band. The 3rd band may also be good if you have a MIMO device that can take advantage of multiple bands at once.

Do you need tri-band? no, odds are it won't help. Do you need wifi 6? No, majority of devices won't support it for quite a while.

In my experience a good mesh setup is best. I'm running 2x 2nd gen eero's in my house with an ethernet backhaul and have 40+ devices (google hubs, 6 pc's, phones, tablets, light switches, light bulbs, smart switches etc, etc) I have no issues and get my full internet throughput in speed tests - Literally anywhere in the house.

If you want to look at mesh Wifi 6 devices, the TP-link Deco X10 will be out soon. I have a client with a Deco solution and they're reliable and fast.

If you don't care about Wifi 6 then I recommend google wifi, eero (if you dont care that amazon owns them) and tplink. I have no experience with, but have heard good things about Linksys Velop, and Netgear Orbi.

I'll be moving to Deco X10's when they come out because I don't want amazon having all my data usage records now that they've purchased eero.

UBNT and done.