I have a ton of connected devices at home, move huge amounts of data across a lot of them (streaming HD, voice/video for work, multiple PCs doing all manner of things). I have a Cisco small business wireless/vpn router at up front with a 50MB down / 10MB up connection provided through a cable company modem. Directly off that is a Sprint Airave (femtocell), wired network printer and a gig switch in my office. Cat6 run to the switch, then out to a few bluray players for netflix/amazon/etc streaming. I also tend to run 3 of the PCs in the office wired to the switch. I have no issues with the wired connections. I get decent transfer rates between machines, gig connection speed and smooth streaming to wired devices.
The issue I'm faced with is the wireless performance. I turned off a ton of the services on the Cisco SB router since they were absolutely KILLING my throughput speeds for everything. Even with 3 directional antennas I found the range/coverage was horrible at the opposite end of the house. I run 2 vlan's, one secured and one unsecured for guests. I had a few other wifi routers, 802.11n spec, so I turned off the dhcp/routing functions, dedicated/different channels and run them as authorized access points connected on the wires from the gig switch. That dramatically increased range but it seems I still have performance issues.
We have multiple ipads, ipods, iphones, android phones, tablets, wireless surveillance cameras (HD), wireless multi-function printer and the stupid Wii (
) in addition to two laptops that are basically full time wifi connections.
The Airave does an awesome job with handling our cell phone service, I did find putting it behind the main router vs directly behind the modem as recommended by the fine folks at Sprint dramatically increased network speeds and didn't hurt the cellular performance one bit. I've eliminated most everything I can that could be slowing things down as best I can tell. Unfortunately my wife tends to find more of the performance glitches but she also has a higher wireless use through the day than I do. The issues really are connection/access problems. Devices lose internet access. Sometimes changing between vlan's will find one working and the other not. The "outage" is often temporary and I find download speeds are lacking at times. I think I need to just ditch the router and replace it but if I don't have to invest another $150-300 that would be ok too. I like the features but could probably find alternate VPN solutions and DDNS services if a new/better router didn't have those features. If I dont have to run additional access points but get the range, eh that would be cool too.
I recently upgraded my parents to a Netgear AC1200 dual band router and it seems pretty impressive. It was very quick, great throughput and in the week I was there, not one single drop/connection/brain fart from it. I assume its been doing great since because I have not received any "tech support" type calls from them
I have though about getting the same one for me, perhaps the AC1750 for the extra USB port but am curious what anyone else is using. I heard good things about the Asus RT N66 and AC66 but they really are about the same $$ and seem to get constant updates to the firmware. A good and perhaps bad thing in my eyes. I need something that works great, fast and will provide constant/consistent performance. The last thing I need is to replace it and constantly hear from the wife how the new one sucks as bad as the old one.
So with that, sorry for the lengthy write up but as you can tell I'm running a little more than your average home and need something that can handle all these devices. Any suggestions you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The issue I'm faced with is the wireless performance. I turned off a ton of the services on the Cisco SB router since they were absolutely KILLING my throughput speeds for everything. Even with 3 directional antennas I found the range/coverage was horrible at the opposite end of the house. I run 2 vlan's, one secured and one unsecured for guests. I had a few other wifi routers, 802.11n spec, so I turned off the dhcp/routing functions, dedicated/different channels and run them as authorized access points connected on the wires from the gig switch. That dramatically increased range but it seems I still have performance issues.
We have multiple ipads, ipods, iphones, android phones, tablets, wireless surveillance cameras (HD), wireless multi-function printer and the stupid Wii (
) in addition to two laptops that are basically full time wifi connections. The Airave does an awesome job with handling our cell phone service, I did find putting it behind the main router vs directly behind the modem as recommended by the fine folks at Sprint dramatically increased network speeds and didn't hurt the cellular performance one bit. I've eliminated most everything I can that could be slowing things down as best I can tell. Unfortunately my wife tends to find more of the performance glitches but she also has a higher wireless use through the day than I do. The issues really are connection/access problems. Devices lose internet access. Sometimes changing between vlan's will find one working and the other not. The "outage" is often temporary and I find download speeds are lacking at times. I think I need to just ditch the router and replace it but if I don't have to invest another $150-300 that would be ok too. I like the features but could probably find alternate VPN solutions and DDNS services if a new/better router didn't have those features. If I dont have to run additional access points but get the range, eh that would be cool too.
I recently upgraded my parents to a Netgear AC1200 dual band router and it seems pretty impressive. It was very quick, great throughput and in the week I was there, not one single drop/connection/brain fart from it. I assume its been doing great since because I have not received any "tech support" type calls from them
I have though about getting the same one for me, perhaps the AC1750 for the extra USB port but am curious what anyone else is using. I heard good things about the Asus RT N66 and AC66 but they really are about the same $$ and seem to get constant updates to the firmware. A good and perhaps bad thing in my eyes. I need something that works great, fast and will provide constant/consistent performance. The last thing I need is to replace it and constantly hear from the wife how the new one sucks as bad as the old one.
So with that, sorry for the lengthy write up but as you can tell I'm running a little more than your average home and need something that can handle all these devices. Any suggestions you guys have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
