AX or just go Ethernet?

Good Morning Ladies and Gents,

I currently have 3 laptops.

Alienware 17 R1
Alienware 13 R3
Lenovo T440p

Over time I have determined that I use the 17 R1 and t440p significantly more than my 13 R3, in fact I almost dont use it sadly lol.

I have my main desk which most of my machine lay, but I also have a exercise bike with a small desktop in place of handlebars you may see on most. I have installed the AX1650 in my 13 R3 and 17 R1 but before going forward please consider this.

If I can eliminate the need for the 13 R3 I would like to do so, I play Monster Hunter: World while riding the bicycle for an hour or two each night. Steam streaming works but with my current Archer C50 router which is on the other side of the house it works rather poorly.

So I was considering getting an AX / Wifi 6 router, but they are quite expensive for me. I was looking at the AX50 router but the listing seems to have been removed from Amazon.

The other option I had been considering was an AC travel router, with Gigabit ports so I can connect the two machines, they be would less than a meter apart in total, and just get an AX router when more options are made available in the market later.

Also, this router would be installed in my bedroom where the machines are present, and bridging the network wirelessly. I only get 6MB/s down and 1/MB up, so changing the main router for speed wouldnt make much sense for me, but I do stream Plex to my local devices and would like to make use of Steam streaming so I can sell my 13 R3, a nice machine and I dont want to sell it but I dont use it and cant justify having it lol.

I can probably get the AX1650 installed into the T440p after having found a modded sBIOS first to remove the WLAN whitelist so it can use the better WLAN card as well.

Do you guys have any insights / thoughts?

Thanks!

 

AX won’t really help improve your situation that much, at beat it will give you anywhere from 5 to at most 20%, closer to like 10%-15% greater throughput on 5Ghz but signal edge will be similar as AC, maybe a little better. To top it off current AC routers are half baked with missing features and have still have stability issues, it will be a while before kinks are worked out, and you will be getting ripped off price wise for basically a glorified AC+ router. Even if some features can be added in updates there’s no garuntee they will be added as promised or perform as expected, kinda like how Broadcom based Asus and Netgear routers got MU-MIMO in an update for Wave 2 AC devices and it was so bad it caused at times heavy performance loss. It took a new chipset to fix it. If you are really a big tech enthusiast and don’t mind the cost and issues go ahead with current gen AX routers.

Wait for more mature AX routers, by then prices will also be a little more sane, if you want to be more practical. That’s my two cents as an actual beta tester for networking gear.

 

So then, do you think just getting another router for my bedroom would be ideal? I dont mind going the AC route, just trying to reduce the noise and improve steam streaming.

Not trying to increase the devices throughput outside of my room, just my room and the devices that are held there. I dont even mind using ethernet for the machines in there, but if I am doing that I would like to have wireless AP there bridged to the Router that brings in the internet.

 

Yeah you could get an extender or a wired AP. Not sure you need a full fledged second router unless the prices are low.

If looking for a secondary router, an Asus AC68U or the same hardware and performance in a cheaper package the AC66UB1 are good choices or an R7000 for the Netgear equivalent. I’d go for the AC66UB1

 

It would just make things a bit easier as I do have issues with signal strength which does prop its head up during Plex streaming, I always had issue with powerline solutions

My budget is around 150 for a decent router.

 

Then go for the AC66UB1 it’s just a repackaged AC68U but cheaper and both of those are known for their excellent range beating even some newer gen units in that aspect. The R7800 is a slight step up range wise but would/may be just at the edge of your budget.

The AC66UB1 is the best bang for the buck of the ones I mentioned but MAKE SURE it’s the B1 Stepping! The older AC66U is not as good that’s why.

 

Im not really concerned with range as my room is quite small, but it only need enough to be able to bridge to my Archer C50

More concerned with realistic throughput speeds from machine to machine for streaming.

The AC66UB1 doesnt look half bad though

 

It’s definitely better than the C50 for sure, and throughout is pretty good actually, despite being a three stream unit, it’s competitive with some higher end four stream routers . Also it has Merlin firmware support so it’s a great pick.

 

The C50 doesnt limit the internet at all so as long as I can bridge the networks Ill keep the faster one for myself, which router would be good for trying to get a bit more out of my AX cards? I know its just like an AC9260 without a the proper AX router but it would be nice for uhm, science.

AC66UB1 still your recommendation?

 

Yep.

If you really want an HT160 capable ac router then the Qualcomm chipset based, Netgear R7800 or the Synology equivalent with same hardware, the RT2600ac, but they cost like 60-70% more.

Newer AX routers won’t be out till around CES2020 or after, if you want full featured AX routers. And for AX I would definitely pick a Qualcomm based router.

 

Im assuming I will need it, but my only other router is a USB powered Wireless-N 150 router, not a good baseline tester.

 

Would be a decent choice?

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-AC19...07GZ8CRWY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Thanks!

 

Yeah that (AC1900P) is pretty much a newer revision of the AC68U, just with a faster clocked version of the ARM Cortex A9 CPU, I think 1.4 GHz vs 1 GHz and 800 MHz on older AC68U versions, everything else is the same so it’s good.

 

I just read some reviews and it looks rather poor? I need more throughput, thinking I might just settle for it and use ethernet as well, the machines are all within a meter of each other.

 

Ethernet definitely. Or, if thats not possible. get a powerline ethernet, new router, etc

 

Not getting powerline, thats been established. Already have a router that functions fine for the home, this is for my personal room where all the devices are utilized.

I grabbed an RT-AC1900 for 90 USD off of Amazon, will attempt to use wireless functions first if that doesnt work I may just return it for a simple network switch or simply just sell the AW 13 R3 and just deal with not having a secondary machine.

 

Update.

The RT-AC68P is not capable of wirelessly bridging while maintaining actual routing capabilities.

Something I was able to do on a 25 USD USB WirelessN300 Router.

Back to amazon it goes I guess.

 

I'm not sure what your trying to do, if using the AC68 as the primary you don't need to do anything on it. If using it as a secondary to repeat a wireless signal just put it in repeater mode, routing would be handled by the primary device.

RMerlin firmware add some extra functionality so take a look at that. Or try Tomato or DDWRT firmware on it for more fine tuning functionality that may have been available on your previous unit.

Here's a DD-WRT simulation for an older sample single band router, look at the wireless settings, with a dual band obviously it will show one more radio. You get options like Repeater Bridge, Client Bridge, in addition to normal Repeater mode etc.
http://www.informatione.gmxhome.de/DDWRT/Standard/V24BetaVPN/index.html


You definitely won't be getting any extra options on stock firmware with Netgear, D-Link or Linksys, especially with newer routers where less options are available in UI, as things are moving more towards "simplicity". I know Netgear for one doesn't have repeater mode in most of their newer models. The R7000/R8000 had it.

Also FYI, I forgot to mention earlier, repeating a signal halves available bandwidth as the same radio both receives and relays the signal, in your case it shouldn't be a big deal though.

 

You really need to clean up the OP, or try and state what you're doing in a way that actually makes sense.

From what I'm understanding, you want to stream games to the desktop on the exercise bike through wifi?
But your router is too slow?
And you're wondering if you should get a new router?
This is correct, right?

Assuming you can't use ethernet, or powerline for some odd reason, then you could create a hotspot off your 17 R1 or whatever machine you're using to host, and connect the desktop to that.

 

I am not trying to allow others to gain access to my personal network, the main network is used by the rest of the family.

So, as I had done before, I want to merely use the router to bridge the networks for the purpose of getting internet access, but retaining the routing capability on my own router. I know any changes I made would only work on my local WLAN, and that is fine, if its gaming or anything that needs outside network i.e. WAN, I can handle that through the home network.

When I set up this router in Repeater or bridge or anything besides router, it loses everything beyond basic options. Merlin does not resolve that either (already tried)

I reflashed the latest from Asus, same thing. So no actual functions seems to be added.

House uses the C50, I wanted a router to bridge wirelessly so I could retain my own WLAN in my office or local streaming and steam streaming.

Of which when in Repeater mode, works wonders. Steam streaming was perfect, and Plex streaming obnoxiously high bit rate media was great as well.

Really not sure how to clean that up. I want a router for my personal room, to be bridged wireless while retaining its own WLAN (not mesh) and retaining the advanced functions. Ive done it before but I guess that function is only for travel routers.

Home router is on the other side of the house, packet loss becomes an issue with heavier loads.

 

Then you need DD-WRT, OpenWRT or Tomato on the AC-68U as mentioned above it should be possible with any of them... play around with the simulation in the link and see if that's the stuff you want. That sim is for an older router, yours will show two radios so don't worry about that. I think I understand what you want now.

 

Im thinking I will just get a 4 port switch and attach a travel router on top.