2nd network with limited bandwidth? Oh & Mesh too?

[bastage]

I currently have a TM1900 (Tmobile version of the Asus AC68u) and I find myself needing a couple things this doesn't give me..

Coverage: I need to cover 2 houses total. The Router & modem are in my office at one edge of my house & the signal is weak & constantly lags/drops at the far end of my house. The Neighbors house (we have a deal worked out where I let them leach off my WiFi & he mows my yard) has a cheap repeater as it is to get decent enough coverage outside of his garage which borders my house. This is why I am thinking Mesh.

Bandwidth: I would like a way to control what is using the max bandwidth. Its not normally an issue, but on occasion its a royal PITA when someone's device updates or downloads something while I am gaming. I am not concerned about anything hard wired, as whenever this happens its a WiFi device (most likely something in the neighbors house, but they arent computer smart enough to know whats going on). Ideally I would like Dual SSID's where my high priority devices (namely the security camera's) will get access to the full pipe & everything else will get a fraction of whats available to share.

Monitoring: I want to be able to see what device is hitting the network hard. I dont necessarily need long term logging, but I want to be able to open the router interface page & see real time whats using what so when I notice a problem I can address that specific device.

I am not afraid to throw decent money at this project (couple few hundreds).

TLDR: Needs more coverage and control, School Me.

 

[FNtastic]

I'd say try out a ubiquiti AP and ubiquiti edgerouter X before doing anything else. It should give you improved coverage, given similar physical placement as the TM1900.

The combo above will give you QoS (limit their speed and/or prioritize your traffic to be higher priority). In the ubiquiti AP, create a guest network with lower priority and/or lower bandwidth than whatever your network will be called.

Depending on how much you trust this person's competence, you might want to consider VLANs as well. Completely separate the ability for your networks/devices to find and talk to each other. This way, if they accidentally click on a malware email, and that malware goes rogue on the network, your network is isolated, and likely unaffected.

This isn't really a matter of trust of the person, but a safeguard you may want to put in place for you and your family. Another thing to consider is without VLANs, the neighbor can get nosey and start poking around at different devices on your network, trying to gain access, etc. I know you said they aren't really tech savvy, but keep these things in mind. They call up a scammer for help with PC issues, and now your network is compromised. They have someone over who connects to wifi with an infected device, and your network is compromised. And, the list goes on. Just food for thought.

A side note, your current router is capable of a guest network SSID, but it doesn't truly isolate your networks. With the current hardware, it doesn't distinguish between which network. And, even guest devices can traverse over to the non-guest side. It's a poor implementation, and seemingly pointless to use. Actually, I think the manufacturer has misrepresented the capability of their device to the point where even seasoned network professionals can interpret that feature as a secure feature. This could leave the user with an insecure (easy/short password) for the guest network, not knowing they are exposing their whole network and all of their devices by doing so.

Anyway, good luck. Happy to help with anymore questions.

I haven't updated it in a while, but this might help you out as well. https://hardforum.com/threads/guide-what-router-should-i-get.1965547/