Talk to me about Routers please
Discussion
Afternoon all
I'm due to move into a new place in a couple of months and it has got FTTH, so I've been looking at providers and the routers they provide as standard. The speed I've pretty much decided on is 300/30 or very close to.
I wanted some help with Dual and Tri Band (I understand the difference, I mean with deciding if I actually need to go tri band). Is going tri band worth the extra outlay? Or on the flipside is it worth it for a small degree of future proofing? Or should I just go with a quality Dual Band ax (wifi6) compatible?
I'm not a gamer and only need three gigabit ports on the switch so I don't need one of the £400 jobbies - I just need the best wifi performance to the two devices not hard wired (phone and tablet) and good security / web interface.
My Shield Pro will be using one gigabit port and my NAS into the second, and I need a third for my PC ideally as I often copy large 4K mkv files (50-80GB).
This is the router the provider I was thinking of going with specifies: https://www.mercusys.com/en/product/details/mr50g
It's a dual band and I like some of the features such as Beamforming and the Smart Connect function to go with the strongest band etc but it only has two ports and no USB (v. useful) and I really don't want to hang a small 5 port switch off it (even though I have one in the big box of cables etc that I've accumulated
).
Should I spend some more and get a tri band? Or just a good dual band with enough ports/USB? Any other features that I should be looking for?
I should add that the property is a flat with 2 beds and open plan main area so no upstairs or too many walls for the signal to reach to.
Cheers
I'm due to move into a new place in a couple of months and it has got FTTH, so I've been looking at providers and the routers they provide as standard. The speed I've pretty much decided on is 300/30 or very close to.
I wanted some help with Dual and Tri Band (I understand the difference, I mean with deciding if I actually need to go tri band). Is going tri band worth the extra outlay? Or on the flipside is it worth it for a small degree of future proofing? Or should I just go with a quality Dual Band ax (wifi6) compatible?
I'm not a gamer and only need three gigabit ports on the switch so I don't need one of the £400 jobbies - I just need the best wifi performance to the two devices not hard wired (phone and tablet) and good security / web interface.
My Shield Pro will be using one gigabit port and my NAS into the second, and I need a third for my PC ideally as I often copy large 4K mkv files (50-80GB).
This is the router the provider I was thinking of going with specifies: https://www.mercusys.com/en/product/details/mr50g
It's a dual band and I like some of the features such as Beamforming and the Smart Connect function to go with the strongest band etc but it only has two ports and no USB (v. useful) and I really don't want to hang a small 5 port switch off it (even though I have one in the big box of cables etc that I've accumulated
).Should I spend some more and get a tri band? Or just a good dual band with enough ports/USB? Any other features that I should be looking for?
I should add that the property is a flat with 2 beds and open plan main area so no upstairs or too many walls for the signal to reach to.
Cheers
Use whatever router your provider gives you, switch off wifi and buy an access point to run the wifi. This means that if you move provider and they have different requirements on the router it doesn't matter, you just use their provided one, plug in the access point and it all still works.
I've got a Unifi AC-Lite, it'd do a flat no problem.
I've got a Unifi AC-Lite, it'd do a flat no problem.
Buy one soon - https://www.eteknix.com/global-chipset-shortage-no...
How many wifi devices are you using and how heavily?
My understanding is that (pre-wifi 6) you get 2 separate 5GHz channels on a tri band (1x2.4GHz + 2x5GHz), so 2 separate devices can use it at full speed. If you're likely to have multiple wifi devices shoving large files around and would like to be able to do so at GB speeds then tri band might be worth it, but dual band wifi will still be over 3 times the speed of your internet connection.
The latest wifi 6 stuff adds a 6GHz channel, but I'm not sure it'll really make a lot of difference unless you've got a lot of interference from other networks.
I have dual band with 220 Mbps internet and can get full internet speed anywhere in the house even when one of the laptops is backing up to the NAS over wifi.
My understanding is that (pre-wifi 6) you get 2 separate 5GHz channels on a tri band (1x2.4GHz + 2x5GHz), so 2 separate devices can use it at full speed. If you're likely to have multiple wifi devices shoving large files around and would like to be able to do so at GB speeds then tri band might be worth it, but dual band wifi will still be over 3 times the speed of your internet connection.
The latest wifi 6 stuff adds a 6GHz channel, but I'm not sure it'll really make a lot of difference unless you've got a lot of interference from other networks.
I have dual band with 220 Mbps internet and can get full internet speed anywhere in the house even when one of the laptops is backing up to the NAS over wifi.
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