Need a new WIFI router solution

Currently running 3x ASUS RT-AC58U for the rooms and lounge and an RT-AX55 as the primary, it's not to bad though on occassion it does just seem to forget one of the nodes. Looking at maybe swapping the RT-AX55 out with something beefier and putting it in the lounge and moving the RT-AC58u to the study, as I think it could be the cheapy in there causing the issue.
 
konfab said:
Was in the same situation in December. I also have a two story house and had major wifi issues with the Afrihost router.

Got a TP link Deco M4 with two units. Works like an absolute charm. I have a lot of devices in my house and the two stations eat them up. Pretty much get my fibre line speed in every single room of my house.

https://www.takealot.com/tp-link-decom4-2-pack-ac1200-whole-home-wifi-system/PLID54517085

Once you get it, just use it and turn off your old wifi network to reduce interference.
Click to expand...
Can you replace your old router with these or does it still require another router to connect to?
 
ijacobs3 said:
Mesh wins hands down! I've got the el'cheapo tp-link deco's 5 nodes throughout my house , its an older house with double walls, and pretty much have 200+Mbps through out the house

The other upside is no switching between 2.4/5Ghz, its all handled automatically on a single SSID
Click to expand...

I've got two AP's with seemless handover over a single SSID 2.4/5Ghz) and I get 690 over wifi (this is an ISP+hardware limitation)

1674042309104.png

Wired gets me close to the 1 Gbps limitation of the router.

I ran mesh (deco 4 something?) once and returned it for regular old routers again. Guess it depends on your use case and the quality of the mesh systems. Those old decos were useless.

Also, you can manage them on the app if you wanted to (not sure who this is directed to) and it's not complicated to setup (plug, switch mode, play?) and OP already has a cable going.

1674042652965.png
 
Hamster said:
I've got two AP's with seemless handover over a single SSID 2.4/5Ghz) and I get 690 over wifi

View attachment 1459739

Wired gets me close to the 1 Gbps limitation of the router.

I ran mesh (deco 4 something?) once and returned it for regular old routers again. Guess it depends on your use case and the quality of the mesh systems. Those old decos were useless.

Also, you can manage them on the app if you wanted to (not sure who this is directed to) and it's not complicated to setup (plug, switch mode, play?) and OP already has a cable going.

View attachment 1459741
Click to expand...
That's half decent :P

The problem with old school APs is they wait for connection to one AP to become unusable before switching to a better AP. Are yours the same, or do they immediately handover to the better AP as you move around?
 
Speedster said:
Are yours the same, or do they immediately handover to the better AP as you move around?
Click to expand...
I never notice the switch over, but to be fair when the handover happens I'm probably on the very steep stairs concentrating not to die in a fall.

These are routers running in AP mode so not dedicated APs if that makes a difference and they are fairly modern (AX5400).
 
konfab said:
Obviously existing wired backhaul is going to be the best, but them acting as wireless repeaters works well too.
Click to expand...
Update on this. If you set your network up correctly with Decos, they will use ethernet as a backhaul.

In my house it was complete overkill, but now I have done it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Yuu
konfab said:
I tried, but the Decos don't support my ISP.
Click to expand...

Tim_vb said:
For some reason the Deco's don't allow the Afrihost redirect page to show (where you enter in your OTP). It can be done manually via AH support and you only do it once. Otherwise Deco mesh systems are the way forward IMHO
Click to expand...

It's probably not important, but I'm curious as to why it doesn't work.

What happens when you enter the OTP, is the line being activated, is the router's MAC address bound to your account etc?
Surely if your fibre is already activated you can swap your router, perhaps you need to clone the authenticated MAC address if it's bound to the account?
 
Ϲhristopher said:
Surely if your fibre is already activated you can swap your router, perhaps you need to clone the authenticated MAC address if it's bound to the account?
Click to expand...

Some routers from ISPs are preconfigured with their settings and some have well known profiles. My main router is void of any preconfigured stuff so to get it to work on my ISP (fibre) (where their router just worked) I had to specifically enabled vlan and set it to 300 on the WAN.

In SA we had tons of issues with Afrihost which they couldn't solve either (granted, a new fibre installation). At one point I told them to cancel and take their stupid router back, phoned the ISP dept. of the fibre provider, guy helped me over the phone and I was up and running in like 10 minutes.

So not always straight forward even though it should be.
 
konfab said:
Was in the same situation in December. I also have a two story house and had major wifi issues with the Afrihost router.

Got a TP link Deco M4 with two units. Works like an absolute charm. I have a lot of devices in my house and the two stations eat them up. Pretty much get my fibre line speed in every single room of my house.

https://www.takealot.com/tp-link-decom4-2-pack-ac1200-whole-home-wifi-system/PLID54517085

Once you get it, just use it and turn off your old wifi network to reduce interference.
Click to expand...
All said, the best kit i've installed thus far was the ubiquiti amplifi , NOT cheap though
 
konfab said:
I don't disagree. They are k@k expensive though.
Click to expand...
what i found with it though, was where i would use 3-4 asus nodes, 1 amplifi would do the same job, the amplifi units look neater as well :cool:
 
Ϲhristopher said:
It's probably not important, but I'm curious as to why it doesn't work.

What happens when you enter the OTP, is the line being activated, is the router's MAC address bound to your account etc?
Surely if your fibre is already activated you can swap your router, perhaps you need to clone the authenticated MAC address if it's bound to the account?
Click to expand...
You assumed correctly on both. I got it work eventually with AH manually updating the new MAC

In the end I added microtik hEX router because as techie I should have a dedicated router you can customize, has its own myBB thread etc, while the Deco handles all WiFi AP duties
 
konfab said:
Was in the same situation in December. I also have a two story house and had major wifi issues with the Afrihost router.

Got a TP link Deco M4 with two units. Works like an absolute charm. I have a lot of devices in my house and the two stations eat them up. Pretty much get my fibre line speed in every single room of my house.

https://www.takealot.com/tp-link-decom4-2-pack-ac1200-whole-home-wifi-system/PLID54517085

Once you get it, just use it and turn off your old wifi network to reduce interference.
Click to expand...
+1 to this.
 
Hamster said:
Are these mesh systems really better than running access points and creating your own "mesh".

Unless the mesh you are going with has a wired back haul and available Ethernet ports I doubt it.
Click to expand...
Yes, because multiple access points are not aware of each other and leave it up to the client to "handover" which pretty much means the client will hold on for dear life until switching.

With a mesh, even if wireless this is all handled by the network itself and you always get the best connection possible to each client.

Pointless you have a wired backhaul between ancient AP's but the client is connecting at 11mbps.
 
Greg_M said:
Recently tried that, but (for some reason) the Deco just wouldn't authenticate with the ISP... :(
Click to expand...
Deco does not have this ability. I can't understand why but was also a frustration for me.

Its fine though, you just disable the wifi on the router and plug one of the Deco's in
 
@Cius a one trick pony single router device simply isn't going to cut it and never ever actually was.

You can put the biggest antenna on the planet there and it will be utterly useless because the client device is your restriction. So cool it can receive a 1.2gbps connection from you ultra router....but it can only send back 1mbps with 1000ms in latency....somewhat pointless.

Ideally you want an access point in every other room, but of course we live in reality so this isn't an option.

At the very least you want a wireless device centrally situated on the ground floor and then another on the second floor, preferably cabled to the first if at all possible.

If the Router you have from Afrihost is an Huawei AX3 then something is very wrong with the configuration and I would recommend upgrading the firmware and resetting it to start with. Then buy another AX3 and mesh the two and job done.

If you don't have an AX3 and one of the older D-Link options they used to sell then throw it in the bin and start over with as suggest one of the TP-Link Deco setups mentioned above. Just be very careful NOT to buy the cheap ones that only have 100MBit ethernet ports.

Your inverter is likely using 2.4Ghz so you can likely get away with setting that to the highest power possible and reducing it to 20Mhz band and then use your other devices on 5Ghz full taps.

A floor plan may be useful to guide you somewhat. It may make sense to have two Deco's on the ground floor and one upstairs depending where inverter is as opposed to ONT etc.

Since you have a Mi Box already maybe you'd like to try the Xiaomi kit which is also very good.

 
Last edited:
+1 deco m4 full speed with 250mbps line, thinking off going but might have to pull a cable then.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X