New Modem and Router

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Just spent over $500 on a new set up at Best Buy that is still in the box (bought last weekend):

Netgear AC 1750 Modem
Netgear Nighthawk AC2300 Router
Eero wifi system

Need patio access, as wifi does not extend out there. Home office is in front corner, where the router/modem will be located.

Xfinity service. I did have some ethernet ports installed in some rooms 5 years ago when we built - will have to figure out if adding one of these eero pods to that makes it more efficient.

Open to thoughts - as I'm super close to having a professional come out to make this house smarter. At this point, all we have is a Ring doorbell and Alexa.

See my above comment--one quality router, then quality access points.

For what it's worth, I have a 3400 sq ft home and everything (including the outside) covered by one single Ubiquiti Unifi AP-AC-LR access point. I have a second access point in the basement.

Wired is always better than wireless. My router and Cisco switch are in the basement, and I run ethernet to my office, the attic where my server is, my wife's office, etc.

I'm just starting to go smart. Everything will be integrated to HomeAssistant. I don't think it requires too much planning--just get a zigbee/z-wave hub and you should be good to go with whatever smart stuff you want to add. For me the most thought goes into finding smart things that can run locally. I don't want to pay subscriptions, or have my device become useless if the company goes out of business.

 

[Wrathe]

Bump!

I’m looking for a new router setup for them home. I currently have a Apple Time Capsule/Router. It’s about 10 years old, but the connection isn’t strong throughout the house and drops connection a lot.
I have a small house, 1 story, about 1800 feet total.
I was looking at getting the Google Nest and maybe one additional access point. Anyone have any advice?
We have a TON of devices. 4 TVs, 3 cell phones, 3 iPads, XBOX X and all sorts of shit.

ASUS RT-AX88U

For that home size, unless you live in a faraday cage, you don't need mesh or multiple access points.

I live in a 5 level multi-story home ~2700 sq feet and that router will reach 5Ghz to every location in the home.

Tons of features, great UI, amazing performance. Also I assume you have a lot of Apple devices if you were using a time capsule. You can hook up external storage to the router and use it's Time Machine feature if you want that centralized backup point still. Also, iPhone 11 and beyond supports WIFI6, and the speeds you can get w/ beamforming is amazing.

We have 1G down and 50 Up via our Internet provider and this router is amazing.

I'd stay away from Netgear. Their "warranty scam" puts them in garbage tier.

What scam? Here's a reddit post that describes it:
I ran into this first hand back in 2012, after arguing for HOURS w/ them, they finally relented and admitted I could just return it to a Best Buy, as they had an agreement w/ them. If you HAVE to go w/ Netgear, I would totally do an extended warranty replacement that doesn't require you to actually interface w/ Netgear. However, why do that? Just buy a better router up front that doesn't deal w/ their B.S.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

^ See, that kinda shit I'm naive about (being mid-40s likely without experience, I'm hella good at slicing together speaker wire tho). Similar sized house (3600), and have a 5 yr old Arris modem with a Nighthawk Router when internet first went in. Have 1 robot looking extender in hallway on opposite side of house, but its a separate internet signal. Wife works up there a few days a week and signal sucks (could be her VPN or her brick of a laptop). Just need the best way to encapsulate the house for a solid signal throughout (Sonos, devices, tv's, etc - no gaming here, and have 2 daughters so doubt that will ever be a necessity).

Re smart house - dad has one in Vermilion that was built in 95. I believe the company was called Smart House - out of business now. He had been going thru a suit w insurance cuz he claims a storm blew some things out a few years ago, and wanted them to cover the $20K to retrofit a Control 4 system....and they just cleared it last week. Retro in process.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

^ See, that kinda shit I'm naive about (being mid-40s likely without experience, I'm hella good at slicing together speaker wire tho). Similar sized house (3600), and have a 5 yr old Arris modem with a Nighthawk Router when internet first went in. Have 1 robot looking extender in hallway on opposite side of house, but its a separate internet signal. Wife works up there a few days a week and signal sucks (could be her VPN or her brick of a laptop). Just need the best way to encapsulate the house for a solid signal throughout (Sonos, devices, tv's, etc - no gaming here, and have 2 daughters so doubt that will ever be a necessity).

Re smart house - dad has one in Vermilion that was built in 95. I believe the company was called Smart House - out of business now. He had been going thru a suit w insurance cuz he claims a storm blew some things out a few years ago, and wanted them to cover the $20K to retrofit a Control 4 system....and they just cleared it last week. Retro in process.

I'll say that, if you're using primary devices on wifi (like laptops, gaming systems, streaming devices like roku's, etc) then a single AP-AC-LR likely isn't going to do it for an entire family. Depending on the size of your house, you might want to look at going with two Unifi access points that have better throughput (I think they have a Pro label slapped on the end of them? Been a couple years since I dug into their products).

I still recommend running ethernet to a room, then having a switch in that room split it to your devices. In my office, one ethernet cable hits a 4-port switch that then connects to my desktop, laptop dock, and Webex board.

I hate Control4.. but I am also incredibly biased, because the fact that I can't program it myself is a complete non-starter for me. But, it's what I have in my movie theater (came with the house) and it is probably an incredible option for someone who doesn't like to tinker (have a professional set it up once and then forget about it) and has too much money (or insurance money) to spend.

@Wrathe is on-point with Netgear having a bad reputation right now. I think their quality has gone down. I used to love them back when the WNDR3700 was the king of the market. Now I would stay away from them.

 

[JDailey23]

ASUS RT-AX88U

For that home size, unless you live in a faraday cage, you don't need mesh or multiple access points.

I live in a 5 level multi-story home ~2700 sq feet and that router will reach 5Ghz to every location in the home.

Tons of features, great UI, amazing performance. Also I assume you have a lot of Apple devices if you were using a time capsule. You can hook up external storage to the router and use it's Time Machine feature if you want that centralized backup point still. Also, iPhone 11 and beyond supports WIFI6, and the speeds you can get w/ beamforming is amazing.

We have 1G down and 50 Up via our Internet provider and this router is amazing.

I'd stay away from Netgear. Their "warranty scam" puts them in garbage tier.

What scam? Here's a reddit post that describes it:
I ran into this first hand back in 2012, after arguing for HOURS w/ them, they finally relented and admitted I could just return it to a Best Buy, as they had an agreement w/ them. If you HAVE to go w/ Netgear, I would totally do an extended warranty replacement that doesn't require you to actually interface w/ Netgear. However, why do that? Just buy a better router up front that doesn't deal w/ their B.S.

Thank you. I’ll give this a shot!!

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

And shit, looks like I'm rolling back to Best Buy to return some items (opened em already). What a pisser. Hook me up with a store credit and I'll buy a tv.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

And shit, looks like I'm rolling back to Best Buy to return some items (opened em already). What a pisser. Hook me up with a store credit and I'll buy a tv.

Don't make decisions based on my feedback alone. I'm a stickler for doing things a certain way. I'll never buy consumer level stuff when there are better options available. I know that's outside the norm. For lots, the consumer stuff is preferred.

 

[Wrathe]

And shit, looks like I'm rolling back to Best Buy to return some items (opened em already). What a pisser. Hook me up with a store credit and I'll buy a tv.

You can return items you bought to Best Buy, even if opened, for like 30 days last I knew.

 

[Wrathe]

Thank you. I’ll give this a shot!!

Sweet, hope you love it. I do. If you get it and want some config tips or help, just post here and tag me. I'll watch for it!

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Don't make decisions based on my feedback alone. I'm a stickler for doing things a certain way. I'll never buy consumer level stuff when there are better options available. I know that's outside the norm. For lots, the consumer stuff is preferred.

On point, as you can tell, I'm naive as hell with this shit. And believe it or not I sell software. (no IT knowledge necessary)

 

[Wrathe]

On point, as you can tell, I'm naive as hell with this shit. And believe it or not I sell software. (no IT knowledge necessary)

Ya, there's a lot of cool things you can do if you're technically savvy and inclined. If that's not you, I'd stick w/ a commercial solution.

 

[JDailey23]

Sweet, hope you love it. I do. If you get it and want some config tips or help, just post here and tag me. I'll watch for it!

Seems to be a hard item to find nowadays.

 

[Wrathe]

Seems to be a hard item to find nowadays.

Try here? 2 Left.

 

[Wrathe]

I'll say that, if you're using primary devices on wifi (like laptops, gaming systems, streaming devices like roku's, etc) then a single AP-AC-LR likely isn't going to do it for an entire family.

Just curious as to your experience. Why do you feel a single router wouldn't be ideal in this scenario?

I have 20 devices in my home (the router counts for me thank God) that connect to the Internet.

I constantly am streaming 1080p HD video almost all day long on my device (my PC is my TV too since I'm disabled).
Wife is constantly streaming 1080p via Chromecast, my youngest is a huge Youtube fan, etc.

Anyways, I just mean to say I have a LOT of crap going on and the CPU usage at peak w/ all router security options on basically never exceeds 10-20%.

If there's a better / smarter way of doing things, I'm all about learning.
I was real happy that the QOS on this router doesn't gimp your throughput at all. It did on the old Netgear I had, it was awful.

All the security features if you use them are Trend Micro, which isn't my favorite, but they're decent (I'd prefer Kaspersky, which is what I use on endpoints).

When I used to run a Time Capsule network, I had to use the Airport Express WAP points to extend. The radio power just wasn't that hot on it.
I switched to a Netgear after that (R8500) and it was great range wise, but EVERY change you made required a reboot, WAN speeds were very inconsistent, etc.

Totally w/ you on the suggestions made here being just those, suggestions. I've been running the ASUS for a few months and have been THRILLED; thus my pimpage of it.

 

[Out of the Rafters at the Q]

Just curious as to your experience. Why do you feel a single router wouldn't be ideal in this scenario?


Anyways, I just mean to say I have a LOT of crap going on and the CPU usage at peak w/ all router security options on basically never exceeds 10-20%.

If there's a better / smarter way of doing things, I'm all about learning.
I was real happy that the QOS on this router doesn't gimp your throughput at all. It did on the old Netgear I had, it was awful.

All the security features if you use them are Trend Micro, which isn't my favorite, but they're decent (I'd prefer Kaspersky, which is what I use on endpoints).

When I used to run a Time Capsule network, I had to use the Airport Express WAP points to extend. The radio power just wasn't that hot on it.
I switched to a Netgear after that (R8500) and it was great range wise, but EVERY change you made required a reboot, WAN speeds were very inconsistent, etc.

Totally w/ you on the suggestions made here being just those, suggestions. I've been running the ASUS for a few months and have been THRILLED; thus my pimpage of it.

Nothing CPU-dependent. I'm talking about antenna usage. Remember, decoupled infrastructure--access points aren't doing any routing.

The long-range access point I previously recommended to cover a larger house, plus outdoor space, has fewer antennae than Ubiquiti's other products. If someone is concerned with wifi congestion, their models with more antennae would be my recommendation instead of the one that is optimized for range.