Wifi router for several devices

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RickyGC

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Hi guys,

I've got 20mb fibre through fredd/ttconnect and the router they supplied me with is a TP-Link TL-WR940N. I'm just not sure if it can handle the traffic I want. The reason I say this is, some of the devices simply don't want to connect at times or struggle to keep a connection and worst of all would just be slow.

At the moment I've got 12 wireless devices connected and I probably use 5-6 at the same time with more coming soon.
I mostly stream Netflix / Dstv now / Youtube / Twitch, play games online and have my laptop and phones connected for work / social media use, so nothing out of the ordinary I think.
I also live in an apartment building with several other wifi ap's around.

The only solution I can think of is getting a really expensive router with all the bells and whistles that can handle the traffic I want and take care of the heavy interference.

Is this the right way to go? And if so, which routers should I be looking at?
The two I've looked at are the Netgear Nighthawk Pro Ac4000 XR500 Gaming Router & TP-Link AC5400 Tri-Band Wi-Fi Router

Any other help or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Have you tried setting the channel to e.g. 1 instead of auto?
That router is a quite cheap R450 one, but it shouldn't drop.
The older version: https://forum.tp-link.com/showthrea...v2-Dropping-Connection-Needs-to-restart-after seems to have your problem as well though.

Personally running an Archer D5 on a 100Mbps line, not having any issues with about (checks router page) 3 ethernet + 9 wireless devices currently connected and 2 are currently wireless streaming YouTube 1080p (phone and TV).
Half those wireless devices are on the 5GHz band though, just a lot more stable/faster throughput.

Post your budget and area you need to cover, if possible a quick floor map. If one device can cover everything, then a one-device solution could be fine, but I really don't see the point in a R5k router when you could probably get yourself 2 ubiquiti routers instead and get better coverage.
falcrum said:
I use these in my house, and we have the same in our office as well:
https://scoop.co.za/ubiquiti-unifi-dual-band-ac-lite-ap.html

These APs are really good if:
* You use multiple in your house (although one in a central place also works well).
* You want to ceiling mount it.

So if you are only going it have one AP and place it on a cabinet, Ubiquiti may not be the best. In my case I only have one, but the ceiling mount meant I could place it in a very central area (above a staircase), with good coverage over the entire house.

Another thing to consider is that you need to run control software somewhere - either on a home server if you already have one, or
using one of these: https://scoop.co.za/ubiquiti-unifi-controller-cloud-key.html
Technically you only need this when configuring the AP, but it's better if the control server is running all the time.
Click to expand...
From: https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/which-ubiquiti-unifi-ap.926966/
And they're substantially cheaper than that R5k.
If the area isn't large, maybe a MikroTik: https://scoop.co.za/mikrotik-hap-ac2-dual-band-wifi-router-5xge-rbd52g-5hacd2hnd-tc.html is pretty good for its price point. EDIT: slightly cheaper at Takealot: https://www.takealot.com/mikrotik-hap-ac-lite-dual-band-wifi-router-black/PLID44670409 (Mikrotik's best and worst selling point is that its interface/controlling options are great, but can be complex for those that are inexperienced in network set-up)

If you don't want to bother with that/is too complex, look at going: https://www.wootware.co.za/asus-rt-ac68u-wireless-ac1900-dual-band-gigabit-router.html , again, substantially cheaper and should deliver more than adequate performance. (Reviews: https://www.techspot.com/products/routers/asus-rt-ac68u-ac1900-80211ac-router.94935/ )

There are others on this forum who should be able to give better recommendations.
 
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Get the Tenda AC something mean looking thing, should be perfect for this.

If you want to dabble a bit and go through a massive learning curve then get a Mikrotik (would work better, but required you to waste hours of your life debugging)
 
Thanks for the recommendations, the two things that I really like about the other routers other than dual/tri bands is MU-MIMO and beam forming on the tp-link. Does any of the other cheaper options have MU-MIMO?
 
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