[ottocycle]

Originally Posted by mxx

If I am not mistaken this particular problem is specific to routers running on some Broadcom chipset - netgear or any other manufacturer. isnt it?

R7000P is using broadcom chipset. I am not sure if all routers using broadcom chipset are affected because of this issue. My feedback was especially about R7000P that MU-MIMO is broken in this even in latest firmware.

[deathwalkr]

Guys, what's the consensus on getting a powerful router versus a wifi range extender or a mesh?

[suku_patel_22]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Guys, what's the consensus on getting a powerful router versus a wifi range extender or a mesh?

Range extender : Least preferred option.

Powerful router: If you don't have dead spots and can place router centrally.

Mesh: If you have dead spots and can't place router at central location.

I have two routers hooked up together in bridge mode, connected over LAN.

[deathwalkr]

hmm, i can't place the router centrally. It's going to be on the 1st floor and while i do get coverage in the TV room downstairs, the speed drops drastically. From 75Mbps to 10Mbps.

So a two device Mesh would be ideal i guess.

Any reason as to why the Mesh is better than a range extender?

[suku_patel_22]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

hmm, i can't place the router centrally. It's going to be on the 1st floor and while i do get coverage in the TV room downstairs, the speed drops drastically. From 75Mbps to 10Mbps.

So a two device Mesh would be ideal i guess.

Any reason as to why the Mesh is better than a range extender?

A mesh router has dedicated bandwidth to connect the nodes with each other. The range extender uses the same bandwidth to connect to main router and also to give data, hence the speed gets halved!


If the network strength at the destination is poor, you might need one more node in between.

[deathwalkr]

Thanks. Shall get a three unit mesh and try.

[maven]

First question is how much speed do you require for the TV. 10MPBS for TV is good enough. money saved!

If there are many dead spots that are causing irritation, then...

i have been leaning toward Netgear Orbi RBK 50 AC 3000. This is tri-band. A pack of 3 is about 36 grand. If incoming broadband claimed speed is <2GBPS then a AC 2200 Orbi is a better option.
The Orbi is not exactly a "true mesh" system! There is the main unit + 2 satellites in a 3 pack, but almost every mesh system review has heaped eloquent praise on its throughput. Probably due to the dedicated backhaul and apparently Netgear has done some jugglery in the firmware.

Another option is one in the Linksys Velop series. i think it has no "satellites", any unit can do duty as the main unit.

if you can source from the US, then Eero's wifi mesh is best bang for the buck.

Don't waste money on a WiFi 6 model yet. those are way too expensive and the yield needs to have other things in place before it can deliver any perceptible difference.

On a two floor house don't place second unit exactly above or below the main unit on another floor. try a sort of diagonal up or down placement over two floors. it is not necessary that devices on one floor would latch on to the wifi unit only on that floor. They could jolly well be served by a unit on a lower floor! The mesh will decide what's best.

PS: i am not a hardware expert. its more of hobby/research.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by maven

The Orbi is not exactly a "true mesh" system! There is the main unit + 2 satellites in a 3 pack, but almost every mesh system review has heaped eloquent praise on its throughput. Probably due to the dedicated backhaul and apparently Netgear has done some jugglery in the firmware.

Can you elaborate a little on why the Orbi is not a true mesh system?

What exactly is a true mesh system?

[maven]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Can you elaborate a little on why the Orbi is not a true mesh system?

What exactly is a true mesh system?

Let me attempt to explain based on my understanding:
for starters hardware wise in a pack of 2/3 or more, each node or unit is exactly the same. So during setup, any of the nodes/unit that came in the box can be picked up and wired through ethernet into the modem that's been provided by the broadband provider.
In case of the Orbis, one predesignated of the units is the router and is to be wired with the provider's modem to act as the hub of the mesh system. The rest of the units/nodes are predesignated satellites.

firmware wise, in a mesh, one satellite can communicate or draw from another satellite depending on where the devices using the wifi are. So if one device located in Bedroom-A requires more juice because it is live streaming, for e.g., then the node to which this device is connected to, becomes a sort of hub of the network for that instant/period by drawing from other satellites or even the node that's wired into the modem. At that moment even the node that's actually wired into the broadband suppliers modem takes a backseat. In other words one node/satellite can let data pass to another satellite to give the best possible connectivity also ensuring that none of the other devices using broadband feel shortchanged.
In case of the Orbis currently, each satellite will communicate only with the router and not with another satellite.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by maven

Let me attempt to explain based on my understanding:
for starters hardware wise in a pack of 2/3 or more, each node or unit is exactly the same. So during setup, any of the nodes/unit that came in the box can be picked up and wired through ethernet into the modem that's been provided by the broadband provider.
In case of the Orbis, one predesignated of the units is the router and is to be wired with the provider's modem to act as the hub of the mesh system. The rest of the units/nodes are predesignated satellites.

In case of the Orbis currently, each satellite will communicate only with the router and not with another satellite.

Not entirely true. I have an Orbi so can explain a bit.

The Orbi has one router which connects to the modem. For other brands all 2/3 units maybe same. However the one connected to modem will be the main router by default as this the gateway.

In the Orbi you can select between star network where each satellite is connected to main router or you can change to daisy chain topology.

If you daisy chain then the 3rd satellite doesnt need to be near the router and can be further away.

However anything other than star will have a drop in speed. Since data has to "hop".

The biggest advantage of the Orbi is the dedicated 5GHz backhaul network between all devices. This ensures best network speeds.

[maven]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Not entirely true. I have an Orbi so can explain a bit.

The Orbi has one router which connects to the modem. For other brands all 2/3 units maybe same. However the one connected to modem will be the main router by default as this the gateway.

In the Orbi you can select between star network where each satellite is connected to main router or you can change to daisy chain topology.

If you daisy chain then the 3rd satellite doesnt need to be near the router and can be further away.

However anything other than star will have a drop in speed. Since data has to "hop".

The biggest advantage of the Orbi is the dedicated 5GHz backhaul network between all devices. This ensures best network speeds.

I think that’s what I was saying as well earlier. The actual speeds delivered are good in ORBI because of the backhaul. The daisy chain method is like WiFi range extenders. They are suboptimal and not a mesh setup.

It seems Netgear is working on a firmware update where one satellite will be able to talk to another satellite in a mesh setup to have optimum data pass through.

[earthian]

Originally Posted by maven

First question is how much speed do you require for the TV. 10MPBS for TV is good enough. money saved!

I have an isue and hope i get a solution.
I have a 50mbps connection. I have a 3 floor house with the main router (Linksys EA 4500) on the second floor and a Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 EX 7000 as an extender on the ground floor.
I have a home theatre on the third floor and while there is a hard wire ethernet from the EA 4500, available there; i use an Amazon Firestick for watching US content (through a VPN )there, through a Denon AVR. ( so the hardwire is not used)
The problem is that while Amazon Prime Video quality is okay, the Netflix quality is very bad (Through the firestick). Do i need to:

• Add an extender on the third floor?
• Or is it the VPN?
• Or is it the competition (Amazon) trying to edge out Netflix?

[roamer012]

Originally Posted by earthian

The problem is that while Amazon Prime Video quality is okay, the Netflix quality is very bad (Through the firestick). Do i need to:

• Add an extender on the third floor?
• Or is it the VPN?
• Or is it the competition (Amazon) trying to edge out Netflix?

I think it is a combination of two factors

1. VPN - The major culprit
2. Wifi

While the first one might be a necessary evil for your use case scenario however for the second one i would rather hardwire the firestick (Amazon does provide a dongle for that) using the LAN cable to eliminate any drop in speed from the base router. Before buying the adapter though i would try using the firsestick on second floor with wifi connection from your main linksys router.
In my particular use case with router being within 1.5 meter of apple TV i saw a jump of 10Mbps between wired and wifi connection with wired being faster and this made a world of difference. (PS - My router is some ancient sub 1000 bucks router from digisol)

[ElonSkum]

Originally Posted by earthian

I have an isue and hope i get a solution.
....

For such a high throughput application, as HD video streaming, I would always try to get my set-up correct. That would be hard-wired any given day. You can check at the router and client end for latency with specific tools and apps. First thing I would try, Netflix on laptop or mobile, on VPN on WIFI and Ethernet.

The VPN certainly would be an issue as well as roamer012 rightly pointed out.

[binand]

Originally Posted by earthian

Or is it the competition (Amazon) trying to edge out Netflix?

Very unlikely.

Netflix has its own bandwidth measurement tool called Fast. It is rather more accurate than the usual Speedtest.net because it measures from your home to Netflix's servers. Give it a try with and without VPN and see if you can identify the issue.

Site: www.fast.com

Android App: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...flix.Speedtest