Hi Geniuses! I need help in the bedroom. 
Right now I have a WiFi setup with two older routers (8-10 years old) with one setup as an access point to cover a long half of a duplex about 1800 sq feet. With 200 MPs from Spectrum, i can barely get 20 in the bedroom. I haven’t kept up with hardware the past 5 years. Is there a robust one out there that can do that area and not cost a fortune? (I have Costco and Sam’s Club.) Share your knowledge please. 
Got some money? Ubiquiti mesh
Lower cost: mikrotik
Professional grade router / wifi at off the shelf prices. Plus one can set this up with hotspot systems and secure it way better than anything else off the shelf.
When VPNFilter was spreading last year this guy was on my network and never had any issues.
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thanks i was tied up, this is the model I deployed at dozens of customers (prior model RB2011 was deployed personally at hundreds, and this ac^2 is superior in every single way except MAYBE for not having a SFP)
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not having SFP
Yeah but what average person who doesn’t have a home lab is going to care about SFP? Otherwise your right solid choice all around.
I second the Ubiquity mesh. I installed one this year and it rocks! I now have much better bandwidth through out the house. Maybe 5-10 times the bandwidth.
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@coloneldan how crowded is your airspace?
This is the info from Ubiquity. There are currently 38 separate wireless nets within my routers view.
| SSID | Channel | SECURITY | MANUFACTURER | SIGNAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WIFID8550B | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | HonHaiPr | 5.0% (-88 dBm) |
| WIFIC2DC57_EXT | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Netgear | 5.0% (-88 dBm) |
| WIFIC2DC57 | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | HonHaiPr | 7.4% (-87 dBm) |
| WiFi Hotspot 9256 | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (TKIP/AES/CCMP) | MitsumiE | 12% (-85 dBm) |
| TotiNet | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Cisco | 7.4% (-87 dBm) |
| TC8717TA1 | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Technico | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| our-guest | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 7.4% (-87 dBm) | |
| ORBI78 | 9 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | ||
| nyssa2_2GEXT1_EXT | 1 (ng) | WPA/WPA2 (TKIP/AES/CCMP) | Tp-LinkT | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| nyssa2_2GEXT1 | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Netgear | 15% (-84 dBm) |
| nyssa2-5_5GEXT1 | 36 (na) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 0% (-90 dBm) | |
| nyssa2 | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Greenwav | 12% (-85 dBm) |
| ngHub_319434NL01EE5 | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Netgear | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| N7LL3 | 6 (ng) | WPA/WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Actionte | 99% (-42 dBm) |
| MySpectrumWiFif8-2G | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Sagemcom | 20% (-82 dBm) |
| MySpectrumWiFi80-2G | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Sagemcom | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| MySpectrumWiFi70-2G | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Sagemcom | 25% (-80 dBm) |
| MySpectrumWiFi6F-2G | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | ArrisGro | 7.4% (-87 dBm) |
| MySpectrumWiFi5c-2G | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Sagemcom | 7.4% (-87 dBm) |
| MySpectrumWiFi50-5G | 36 (na) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | AskeyCom | 5.0% (-88 dBm) |
| kuhlmangunn-guest | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 17% (-83 dBm) | |
| kuhlmangunn-guest | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 15% (-84 dBm) | |
| kuhlmangunn | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 20% (-82 dBm) | |
| kuhlmangunn | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 12% (-85 dBm) | |
| kt7621 | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Tp-LinkT | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| iHub_0060350663a1 | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Sercomm | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| Frontier6192 | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | ArrisGro | 7.4% (-87 dBm) |
| Fleximus | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | VerizonB | 5.0% (-88 dBm) |
| FiOS-RFPGY | 1 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Verizon | 7.4% (-87 dBm) |
| FiOS-HSDML-5G | 132 (na) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Greenwav | 5.0% (-88 dBm) |
| FiOS-HSDML | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Greenwav | 32% (-77 dBm) |
| Eddie | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | ArrisGro | 9.9% (-86 dBm) |
| DIRECTV_WVB_09630E77 | 108 (na) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | WistronN | 99% (-39 dBm) |
| DIRECT-Pe-myChevrolet | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | 17% (-83 dBm) | |
| blizzard | 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Cisco | 12% (-85 dBm) |
| 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Cisco | 12% (-85 dBm) | |
| 11 (ng) | WPA2 (AES/CCMP) | Cisco | 12% (-85 dBm) |
Yeah looks like a lot of them our out of range and only three to five neighbours all with enough space in between on the spectrum to get decent signal.
Kind of was hoping there was a similar situation to compare with since some of us have 24 to 50 signals all across the spectrum at 35-99% signal. Which can really make things worse without any real reprieve.
I’ve had to taken to setting up some powerline plugs to create a 1Gb backbone through out the site.
Cool thing is there’s some Powerline with Poe devices out there that go about the same as a good Mikrotik router but can carrier a 1Gb transmission and most get one a solid 100-125Mb/s. I’ve yet to see a wifi router that could pull that off in the field with more than one device and no neighbors.
Protip - Security
One may want to scrub that of AP names. While less common these days one can find your router just by google dorking for a few of those. From there is not much of a stretch to fox hunt with a small portable yagi.
@MizGeek I guess from the thread here you did get a good answer. So may I suggest the following plan:
-
replace the two older routers with either Microtik hAP ac2 or ubiquiti mesh
-
get a powerline kit and use this as a backbone between the two (e.g. port 2 ethernet cable into the powerline plug from your router with isp uplink, powerline plug to port 1 on the routers around the house)
-
Going with Microtik here since its what I know the most… Either a) setup VRRP or b) turn off dhcp on routers not connected to your ISP.
At about $20/yr. one just future proofed and upgraded their home network for the next 8+ years.
Of course go with what one thinks is best.
The Mikrotik is budget friendly. I had never heard of that. (This is what happens when you drop off the planet for a few years.) It is the front runner right now.
There was a cat5 run from the front room to the master bedroom. I’m half wondering if I should stick a Mikrotik in the bedroom and all the desktops in the front room can be wired from the cable modem.
eek cat5, that should be cat6 or 7. but either would work and since there’s a run that would work great for the backbone.
Personally I’d never trust the modem; mine on its own vlan; then bridged into the network. This way it has
- its own metrics
- quick kill switch
- hard segmentation from my main user, guest, and management networks (seperate vlans)
- has its own firewall table
-shrug- I didn’t wire it. And we probably won’t be there a year so I’m not rewiring.
If we do move, it could be to a rural property (that has fiber) with two buildings so the router would still be useful.
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