In my unscientific test, removing all HA devices ( about 35 at the time) increased stability 100 fold. The 2 shown in screenshot are just the peanuts still showing for easier FW updates. ( not that there have been any Pnut FW updates in almost 2 years )
There are many new products announced at CES 2017 which will lead to prices dropping for current device.
For just routers, take a look at http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/rankers/router/view. Ranking is done based on real tests.
For new product anouncement see http://www.snbforums.com/
We all know technology is fluid. The longer you can keep what you have, the better the replacement will be. There have not been any major updates since AC which I have on A+. So until there is a major update I " need " to get and what I have is working why spend the $$ ?
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Yep. Iāve been pouring over the charts, graphs and reviews for the past 2 weeks.
Exactly. And this is the main reason why I was still on that N600, waiting for AC prices to drop.
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Indeed, thereās no need to replace anything that works an does what you need. The OP asked for advice on new router. I merely pointed him to where the information is.
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Most of these mesh systems deal with handing off a device as it roams from one AP to another much better than the traditional dumb APs. Similar to the managed systems like Ubiquiti, they have a lot more smarts to them. They also share information about spectrum interference and channel hopping, as well as how much load is on each mesh AP.
In the traditional wired AP setup, your device will cling to whatever AP it is connected to until it canāt maintain a connection at all (or something forces it to refresh). This means you can be standing directly next to an AP that would give you a faster connection, but still be connected to a AP across the house.
Thatās corect. But also depends of the device. My router has 2 options built in: Disconnect a device if signal is lower than xx db and Airtime Fairness (this actually is in most routers nowadays). The transfer from router to Ap is not seamless, but not bad either.
Also, my phone will always switch to a stronger wifi if available.
It all depends of the devices used.
Will I switch to one of the new mesh networks? Only if routing portion is better then what I have.
Ultimately, it is an individual decision based what one has vs what one needs.
I think this is the right place to finally ask a question or two Iāve been struggling with for a couple weeks now - go easy on me gents, Iām the most ātechyā person I know, but there are some seemingly basic things Iām just not clear on:
Ok, hard wired devices like my Harmony Hub aside, some devices and bridges seem to prefer or only work on either 2.4 or 5 Ghz - pretty sure for the device Iām contemplating itās the former, though at this point Iāve lost track of the device I was contemplatingā¦ Point is, I need to have my phone on that band if I want to control said device. Pretty sure, in this example its a WeMo switch, but irrespective of the target device, my question is about which band I should use as my āmainā or primary band. Or should I just name them both the same thing (thatās the SSID, right)?
@michaelahess had some great advice up there about this stuff, but Iām still a little lost as to which band I should be using for something as basic as my phone. Throw in the āyourSSID-extā band(s) of the TP Link AC extender I just installed (and which will likely be going back after a brief perusal of the aforementioned smallnetbuilder.com site) and Iām feeling a bit lost trying to get all my devices into one (or two) nice big swaths of radio frequency. And to think I was considering the learning curve of Ubiquiti, Mikrotik, and PoEā¦yikes!
If you live in a densky populated area, you do multimedia (Netflix, etc) or have multiple simultaneously connected devices, go for 5 GHz. Wider bandwith and still less common. If you need to stay connected at a further distance from the router, go for 2.4 GHz.
But you should be able to control a device in a particular band from any other band your phone is connected to, as they both go through the same router. I also have multiple device in both bands and no issue at all. Initial setup though requred my phone to be in the same band.
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Thanks for that clarification. I guess I just assumed that each band was a discrete network, is that incorrect? What about the other piece, that of the Wifi repeater that created a new network? Perhaps this is the wrong thread, but if Iām simply trying to increase WiFi reception in the remote bedroom (well, not that āremote,ā but through enough walls that it seems to be giving my otherwise very well reviewed router fits trying to connect), on the same band that, say, my FireStick is connected on, does it really help to create yet another network/band or is that not whatās actually happening?
Problem with the A+ firmware is theyāre on an orphaned SOC, so no chip-vendor support for improving it. They do seem to have improved the automation, but Iām not using it - Iāve relegated mine to working as a switch, with the screen being useful for trouble-shooting bad Cat5 connections
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So, yeah, this can be a bit tricky. Iām sort of in the same situation. I am currently running 2 separate SSIDs (down from 6, because things were just getting too messy). Devices that can only ātalkā to each other when on the same local network must be on the same SSID.
This creates a problem when going with the default XXXXX (2.4ghz) and XXXXX_5g scheme. If you move all of your streaming devices to the 5ghz, they wonāt be discoverable by your 2.4ghz devices, which will prevent convenience functionality like casting to Chromecast, Roku and Amazon TV. It will also prevent any sort of local WiFi control.
(Edit: Incorrect according to @michaelahess. It appears my issue is caused by some form of access control in the particular Netgear firmware I am using.)
Now, some devices use Bluetooth, RF, etc to connect for control. Others use a cloud controller to be controlled from any network. So, those methods can be used to bypass the need to be on the same WiFi network.
You can actually, as you noted, name both bands the same and your 5ghz devices should be able to connect to 5ghz when in range. But reports have been that devices generally choose based on signal strength, not throughput/speed. 2.4ghz is usually stronger than 5ghz, especially as you get further away from your router or access points.
I really like the idea of their Rules. It doesnāt seem overly complex, and I still wonder why Smartthings hasnāt implemented the same level of control and convenience. Instead, we have to rely upon Smartapps to control the logic instead of having that level of logic available in Routines.
No, all SSIDās are virtual connections to the same network on the AP/Router. You can use VLANās on more advanced devices to segregate them into their own virtual networks but this is very rare in the consumer space.
I have three APās with 3 SSIDās spread/shared between them. ALL are the same network as my wired LAN. I have a seperate VLAN between a few switches for my security cameras. Nothing on my normal LAN or any of the SSIDās/APās can directly talk to the cameraās.
Does that make sense?
Access points and the wifi on routers where itās built in are simply BRIDGED physical media pathways. Segregated networks are either VLANās, routed subnets of IP space, or actual physically diverse hardware.
And, just so Iām clear, giving my key devices static IPās is a band-agnostic activity that happens at the router level, correct? Will this help with my band confusion or am I confusing the issue further?
So, Michael what is causing the communication problem between devices on separate SSIDs?
This is incorrect unless your AP is a router or being routed.
I can have any device on any of my three SSIDās and they will all see each other. If you arenāt running vlanās/aclās, or physically diverse devices, this should not be happening.
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What about the ānewā network created by the extended? Does it do as it advertises and simply āextendā the existing routerās network coverage, without regard to SSID naming?
Most likely an option called layer 2 segregation. There are other names, itās what hotels and public hotspots use to keep everyone separate. Itās a function of the AP itself not allowing mac address to communicate to each other, only to a mac/ip youāve listed as allowed, ie your router gateway.
The new network is simply a new SSID, gotta separate that from network, they are not one and the same.
All an extender does is take an existing SSID, connect to it like any other device, and BRIDGE to the new SSID that may or may not be on a different channel.
By changing the extender to the same SSID you use elsewhere (and optionally changing channel to avoid interference) your devices will roam between them without much if any hit. The way you have it now, youād have to setup all your devices to use both SSIDās to roam, which is a pain.