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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Brad Johnson on November 27, 2020, 01:05:43 AM

Title: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on November 27, 2020, 01:05:43 AM
My parents wifi router is getting glitchy. Age and accumulated dust have taken their toll. I want to get a replacment and install it over the Christmas break. Appealing to the Hive Mind for input.

The biggest requirement is durability. Their power isn't the cleanest or most reliable and the unit lives on the floor. (Don't ask. I've tried. Where it is now is where it's going to stay.) It doesn't need fancy feature sets as they will go completely unused. No sophisticated security protocols necessary, either. Their nearest neighbor is several miles away so I turn off password protection, mostly for my own sanity. No set budget. I'll pay what's necessary to get something that works reliably and will take the conditions.

Suggestions?

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: zxcvbob on November 27, 2020, 01:14:52 AM
I have an Asus TM-AC1900 that I got because someone here recommended them (Calumus?)  It has worked flawlessly for several years, sitting on top of the freezer in my basement.  With the right service provider, I think it can even be used as a micro cell tower.  One thing I like about it is it has a guest network; I set up a second SSID, and when Mrs Z has students over (she's a tutor) they can use it to access the Internet but cannot see my systems or network printers.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on November 27, 2020, 10:07:02 AM
I have an Asus TM-AC1900 that I got because someone here recommended them (Calumus?)  It has worked flawlessly for several years, sitting on top of the freezer in my basement.  With the right service provider, I think it can even be used as a micro cell tower.  One thing I like about it is it has a guest network; I set up a second SSID, and when Mrs Z has students over (she's a tutor) they can use it to access the Internet but cannot see my systems or network printers.

I have the same Asus AC1900 as zxcvbob except my nomenclature is actually RT-AC1900P.  I think it's the same router, his is perhaps a big box store version.  Works well.  Lots of decent features should your parents situation change and they are needed.  It does have beam steering so that might overcome its placement on the floor to some extent.

edited with exact model number.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: zahc on November 27, 2020, 10:56:17 AM
I have an Orbi. I like it.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: lee n. field on November 27, 2020, 11:02:54 AM
Something from the Mikrotik home and office routers, like maybe this (https://mikrotik.com/product/RB951G-2HnD).

If the ISP's equipment feeding this is in bridge mode (the WAN port on this is directly reachable on the Internet), you'll want to keep up on the firmware.  
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Ben on November 27, 2020, 11:09:08 AM
I don't know if all routers these days allow remote admin, but it sounds like you might want that feature.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on November 27, 2020, 02:26:21 PM
My Asus RT-AC1900P allows remote admin access if desired.  I disabled that feature on mine as it's not needed for my application.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on November 28, 2020, 08:34:14 PM
AC-1900 ordered. Didn't think about it being Black Friday but lucked out and found it on sale.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 12, 2020, 10:23:51 AM
A quick update to say Thanks. Installed it this morning. Night and day difference. At it's best their old router wasn't this fast or stable. It has me thinking about getting one for the house and bypassing the POS Uverse-supplied unit.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Ben on December 12, 2020, 10:53:57 AM
A quick update to say Thanks. Installed it this morning. Night and day difference. At it's best their old router wasn't this fast or stable. It has me thinking about getting one for the house and bypassing the POS Uverse-supplied unit.

Brad

If Frontier hadn't already had "run away fast" reviews, I would have still skipped them because they forced you to use and lease their router, no exceptions. My fixed wireless provider is way more lenient. In fact when it was installed, the tech had never installed with an Orbi net, so stuck around and worked on it with me just so he could learn about it for future installs (their normal policy is, "Use whatever router you want, but you're responsible for getting it to work).

Most of these ISPs use horrendous routers, often because they are the easiest for them to remotely monitor.

Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: MillCreek on December 12, 2020, 11:10:15 AM
After years of using the combined modem/router/wifi units from Motorola, I will never go back after switching to a separate Netgear modem and Asus AC-1900 router/wifi.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 12, 2020, 11:18:14 AM
I'll probably take the easy way out and set up the supplied modem/router in bridge mode, leaving everything else be. No sense in making it more complicated than necessary.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 21, 2020, 04:46:44 PM
New router arrived today but I won't have time to mess with it until we get back from Christmas.

One quirk when setting up Mom & Dad's new unit... when I logged into the IP it threw me directly into some kind of setup routine rather than simply going to the router menu. It ended up causing me to set up a redundant network. Any way around this or is it an eccentricity of ASUS?

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on December 21, 2020, 06:39:10 PM
You should be able to access the main router page from ip 192.268.1.1.  I just configured one today that was 192.168.50.1 for some reason. Don't know if Asus made a change recently, or if it was just this particular model. It was an AC1200 unit from Asus.
They also come default to http, not https, so make sure your browser is not appending the 's'.  That can be changed in the router admin if necessary.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 21, 2020, 09:50:21 PM
192.268.1.1 is where I went but it popped up an initial-config utility the first time I hit it. Never happened after that but it still caused me an extra bit of time getting the redundancy removed. If I can avoid that it would be nice.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on December 25, 2020, 01:43:32 PM
Installed the router on my home network this morning. Uverse has some quirks but it went relatively smoothly with the exception of the UVerse TV connectivity. Turns out even though you may have set the gateway (modem) to bridge mode, the UVTV equipment must still be connected to the gateway and not the new router. None of the documentation I could find, which is surprisingly lacking, mentioned that fact. Fought it for almost an hour before I found an out-of-the-way mention of it. Reconnected the UVTV equipment to the gateway and all is well.

No increase in speed, nor was any expected. Main benefit is wifi stability and general responsiveness. Unlike the AT&T gateway's peak-n-valley waveform, the SpeedTest graph of the new router is dead flat. Uverse equipment was bad about significant speed inconsistencies, I'm guessing due to the gateway/modem's lack of processing power for the multi-function aspect. The Asus seems to do a much, much better job in those regards.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: zxcvbob on December 25, 2020, 02:44:15 PM
I've got a general question not worth starting a new tread. ;)  Do static IP addresses have to be on same the subnet as everybody else to be reached?  For instance, could I put a local device at 10.10.10.10 when everything else is at 192.168.1.x?  What about 192.168.2.something?  My subnet mask, which I can change, is 255.255.255.0 (I just barely know what that means)  10.whatever is non-routable.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on January 11, 2021, 05:30:18 PM
Update...

Ended up having to run a second drop to the basement to feed the switch I installed earlier this year. The UVERSE box has to be plugged into the supplied UVERSE router but I want the switch plugged into the new ASUS router. Everything is up and running and tests fine in normal use, but now I'm getting "Double NAT" messages on the XBox. I have a feeling I missed something when changing settings on the UVERSE gateway and new router.

There is amazingly little specific information on setting the UVERSE box into IP Passthrough. Rather, there is little in the way of a comprehensive set of step-by-step instructions. Most of what I find is either overly generic or piecemeal. Culling through everything I could find, I developed the instructions below as a more complete instruction set.

Before I start punching buttons, could you more network-savvy types to give them a glance and see if I'm going to totally FUBAR something?

Thanks,
Brad

__________________________________________________________________________

IP Passthrough setup for AT&T UVERSE service which includes UVERSE TV and uses an NVG510/589 modem/gateway.
 
NVG510/NVG589:
Unplug all ethernet cables. This includes cables for any UVERSE TV and WAP equipment.

Plug the computer being used for programming into LAN port 1.

Login to the NVG5xx (192.168.1.254)

Go to 'Home Network' then 'Subnets & DHCP'.

Leave the Device IPv4 address as 192.168.1.254.

Leave the Subnet Mask as 255.255.255.0.

Change 'DHCPv4 Start Address' to 192.168.1.1 (or whatever your above Device IPv4 address is but with a 1 at the end instead of .254)

Change 'DHCPv4 End Address' to 192.168.1.253.

Click 'SAVE' at the bottom, if available.

Under 'Home Network' go to 'Wireless'. Turn off wireless.

Click 'SAVE' at the bottom, if available..

Under 'Firewall' go to 'Packet Filter'. Disable Packet Filters.

Click 'SAVE' at the bottom, if available.

In NAT/Gaming, delete any personal settings or entries.

Click 'SAVE' at the bottom, if available.

Under 'Firewall' go to 'IP Passthrough'. For 'Default Server Internal Address', enter 192.168.1.1.

Click 'SAVE' at the bottom, if available.

For 'Allocation Mode' select 'Default Server'.

For 'Passthrough Mode', select 'DHCPS-Fixed'

Enter the MAC address for your personal router

Click SAVE. Do not reboot if prompted.

Go to 'Firewall Advanced' at the top and turn everything OFF.

Click SAVE.

Reboot the router.

PERSONAL ROUTER (in this case, text below includes values and menu locations for my ASUS application -Brad)
Unplug all ethernet cables. Plug the computer being used for programming into LAN port 1.

Log into your router using the router’s IP address. (192.168.1.1).

Under ADVANCED settings, go to LAN and change the address from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1

Under ADVANCED settings, go to WAN and make sure the WAN connection type is set to AUTOMATIC IP.

SAVE if the option is available.

Turn off or power down your router.

Disconnect the programming computer.

Connect your router to the NVG5xx. The cable should run from the LAN port 1 connection on the NVG to the blue WAN port on your router.

Reboot the NVG5xx by unplugging the power cord for ten seconds, then reconnecting.

When the NVG5xx is fully rebooted, power up your router.

Once your router is fully booted, check network and wifi connectivity. If satisfactory, plug your cabled devices into your router. Log on wireless devices using the wifi password for your new router.

Reconnect all UVERSE TV equipment to the NVG5xx router’s LAN ports.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Jim147 on January 11, 2021, 05:42:31 PM
Now see if you can flash it with tomato and see what happens.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on January 16, 2021, 12:34:38 PM
Had a chance to make the config changes this morning and can confirm the above instructions are viable. Everything works, is stable, and no error or incompatibility notices. Total actual time involved was maybe fifteen minutes, including chasing wires and waiting for reboots. My ham-fingered session? Most of an hour due to sloppy handwriting (darn MAC addresses).

Also, if your XBox is complaining about Double NAT issues with this config (ISP-provided gateway/router set for passthrough to an ASUS router) the solution proved deceptively simple. In the ASUS router menu go into the LAN settings, select the DCHP tab, scroll down to the Manually Assigned IP section, select your XBox from the drop-down list, and click ADD. It's that simple.

With that, I'm off to park my butt on the couch with a hop cuppa Joe and spend some quality time being blissfully useless. Y'all have a good weekend now, y'hear?

Edit to add: I found out the hard way that you you must open up DHCPv4 a bit or UVerse TV will puke. With the start and end addresses set the same (both at xx.xx.1.1) the ASUS router did fine but UVerse TV steadfastly refused to operate (hard-wired or WAP-connected). Opening the DHCPv4 end address to xx.xx.1.253 fixed the problem. With that change, a quick restart of the UVerse boxes had everything going again.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on January 16, 2021, 01:37:59 PM
The manually assigned IP setting on Asus routers is very similar to address reservation on other routers.  It's a very handy feature if you don't want IP addresses on some devices in your network to change over time.  That setting also reserves addresses on the wireless side of the router.
I use it for that purpose so several devices on my network always have the same IP address.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on January 19, 2021, 09:51:06 AM
Quick update...

After three days with the revisions, everything appears in order. Once I figured out the UVerse TV / DHCP thing, we've experience zero issues. As hoped, overall responsiveness is much improved.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on January 19, 2021, 10:25:08 AM
Also, a quick revisit to my parents' service, which started this whole show. Prior to the new router their service was fluctuating all over the place with signal drops every few minutes. Now? Rock steady. We were there over New Years and I ran a test with three computers streaming from three services each, four phones and a tablet streaming on either YouTube or Netflix, and both their Dish receivers streaming from Netflix. Speedtest results attached. Note the blue line at the top. That's not a graphic element in the menu background, that's the signal graph. Dead flat. Ping is actually a little slow for them. It normally tests at 3-4. Keep in mind they live in the boonies. Just past the boonies, actually... last dirt road on the left and keep going until it dead ends. Five miles west of a town of 800 in a county of less than 1500, total. Calling their locale "rural" is a laughable understatement, yet they have data service that's the envy of most city folks.

(http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=63392.0;attach=3829;image)

Here at home with the new router and setup we're getting 26-28mb consistently and graphs show it to be noticeably more stable. Ping usually hovers in the 35-40ms range and jitter is negligible. Much better than what we were getting (18-22mb with severe fluctuations and consistent latency issues) but still a far cry from what the Parental Units are seeing out in BFE.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Phantom Warrior on January 19, 2021, 09:16:27 PM
Calling their locale "rural" is a laughable understatement, yet they have data service that's the envy of most city folks.

Are they getting service from a rural telephone cooperative?
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on January 19, 2021, 09:32:17 PM
Are they getting service from a rural telephone cooperative?

Affirmative. Santa Rosa Telephone Co-op. Same co-op that's been serving the area for longer than I've been alive. We were on a party line system until I was almost ten. After that, three-digit dial to anyone on the system until it converted to tone service in the early 80's. Far cry from that now.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on January 22, 2021, 05:13:03 PM
Update...

It's been a week and all is well. No issues of any kind and wifi continues to be dead stable. No follow-up issues with other equipment, either.

I took the opportunity to edit the instruction set into something more generic, to more closely align instructions to the setup menus, and to break things down to the most simplistic possible steps. Makes it longer but ultimately much easier to follow.

One quick request for the more network-savvy types... could you look at the NVG config and make sure I'm not creating a DHCP conflict? Steps 01-08 and 01-20 have the info in question. Should I set the DHCPv4 start address to xx.xx.1.2 rather than 1.1 so it doesn't conflict with the Default Internal Address, or can I leave it as is?

Brad

_____________________________________________________________________________

Instructions for setting up IP Passthrough on an NVG589 modem/gateway for use with an ASUS AC1900 router (RT-AC68U) on UVERSE service which includes both data and TV, though they will also work acceptably for packages which do not include the UVERSE TV component. These instructions also address potential Xbox Double NAT issues from the revised gateway/router configuration.

These instructions are specific to the ASUS AC1900 menus. For passthrough set up with non-ASUS routers, PART 1 instructions remain the same, but consult your equipment’s setup instructions for how to most closely mimic steps in PART 2.

If you have an Xbox and are experiencing Double NAT warnings after making the changes below, skip to PART 3 for the resolution.

Before beginning PART 1 it is strongly recommended you do a full factory reset of your NVG589 to erase any custom settings and restore all defaults. This can be accomplished by pressing and holding the RESET button until the front panel lights cycle through Red and the power lights goes back to Green (appx 15-20 seconds). Leave the router undisturbed for at least ten minutes for the router to completely reset and reboot before proceeding. Be aware this step will reset all device login and WiFi security parameters to those printed on the device label. Any custom settings will be deleted.
 
PART 1: NVG589 IP Passthrough Configuration

01-01) Locate and write down the DEVICE CODE printed on the NVG589 ID label. You will need this code at least once. Pay careful attention as the code is case sensitive.

01-02) Unplug all ethernet cables. This includes cables for WAP and UVERSE TV boxes. The only cables connected to the gateway should be power and the incoming service cable to the gateway’s DSL/Broadband port.

01-03) Plug the computer being used for programming into LAN port 1.

01-04) Login to the NVG589 (192.168.1.254)

01-05) Go to 'Home Network' then 'Subnets & DHCP'.

01-06) Leave the Device IPv4 address as 192.168.1.254 (or the default value listed).

01-07) Leave the Subnet Mask as 255.255.255.0 (or the default value listed).

01-08) Change 'DHCPv4 Start Address' to 192.168.1.1 (or the above default Device IPv4 address, but with a .1 at the end rather than .254)

01-09) Change 'DHCPv4 End Address' 192.168.1.253 (or the DHCPv4 Start Address above, but with a .253 at the end rather than .1).

01-10) Click 'SAVE' at the bottom.

01-11) Under 'Home Network' go to 'Wireless'.

01-12) Turn off wireless.

01-13) Click 'SAVE' at the bottom.

01-14) Under 'Firewall' go to 'Packet Filter'.

01-15) Click DISABLE PACKET FILTERS. Delete or disable any remaining Packet Filter Rules. There will be no SAVE button on this page.

01-16) Under ‘Firewall’ go to ‘NAT/Gaming’.

01-17) Delete any entries. There will be no SAVE button on this page.

01-18) Under 'Firewall' go to 'IP Passthrough'.

01-19) Set the ‘Allocation Mode’ to ‘Passthrough’.

01-20) For 'Default Server Internal Address', enter 192.168.1.1 (or the value used for ‘DHCPv4 Start Address’ above).

01-21) For 'Passthrough Mode', select 'DHCPS-Fixed'.

01-22) For ‘Passthrough Fixed MAC Address’ enter the MAC address for your ASUS AC1900 router using the standard xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx format. On some ASUS router labels the address is printed without fields separated by colons, merely a sixteen-digit alphanumeric string. Simply split characters into two-digit groups and insert colons when entering the string.

01-23) Click SAVE. Do not reboot if prompted.

01-24) Under ‘Firewall’ Go to 'Firewall Advanced'.

01-25) Set all items to OFF.

01-26) Click SAVE.

01-27) Close your browser window and unplug your computer from the NVG589.

01-28) Reboot the router by disconnecting power for ten seconds.


PART 2: ASUS AC1900 Downstream Router Configuration

Please Note – These instructions presume your router’s preliminary set up has been done (network names, SSID, wifi login info, etc.). If not, please do so before continuing.

02-01) Ensure no cables except power are plugged into the device.

02-02) Plug the computer being used for programming into LAN port 1.

02-03) Login to the router (192.168.1.1).

02-04) Under ADVANCED SETTINGS select LAN

02-05) In the LAN IP tab, change the IP address from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1

02-06) Click APPLY (In some instances your router may reboot. The process can take several minutes. When done, log back into the router using the new IP address)

02-07) Under ADVANCED settings, select WAN.

02-08) In the INTERNET CONNECTION tab, set WAN Connection Type to ‘Automatic IP”.

02-09) Click APPLY.

02-10) Turn off or power down your router.

02-11) Disconnect the programming computer.

02-12) Connect your router to the NVG5xx by running a cable from LAN port 1 on the NVG to the blue WAN port on your router.

02-13) Power up the ASUS router at let it finish booting. This can take 5-10 minutes and the panel indicators may cycle several times.

02-14) Once your router is fully booted, check network connectivity by plugging a computer into one of the ASUS router’s LAN ports. If satisfactory, finish connecting cabled devices other than the UVerse TV boxes/WAP to the ASUS router. Check WiFi connectivity at this time by connecting to wifi using the login parameters set during the router's initial setup. If satisfactory, log remaining wireless devices onto the ASUS router.

02-15) Reconnect all UVERSE TV equipment to the NVG5xx router’s LAN ports. Allow 5-10 minute for everything to reconnect and stabilize, then reset each UVerse TV box (either power-out reset or use the Reset button). Test for connectivity immediately after reconnection, then again approximately one hour later to allow for any DHCP cycling.

If all seems well, congratulations. You are done.

PLEASE NOTE - From this point forward, UVERSE TV devices (tuner boxes or WAP) will be the only network items physically connected to the NVG589. All other cabled network connections should be to the ASUS router.


PART 3: XBox Double NAT Resolution

03-01) Ensure your XBox is on and connected to the network. If it is not connected the steps below will not work.

03-02) From the ASUS Home Screen (Network Map), look in the Client Status box to ensure the XBox is connected and showing. Jot down the XBox’s MAC address for reference.

03-03) In ADVANCED SETTINGS select LAN

03-04) Select the DHCP Server tab.

03-05) In “Enable Manual Assignment’ select Yes.

03-06) In the ‘Manually Assigned IP…’ section, click the drop-down arrow and allow the list to populate. Select the XBox (if not listed by title, look for the MAC address you jotted down).

03-07) You can type a pre-determined IP address into the IP Address field or simply leave the default value in place.

03-08) Click ADD and allow the router to finish reconfiguring. A progress indicator will appear on screen. This can take up to a minute.

03-09) Click APPLY.

03-10) In your Xbox's Network Settings menu, check to see if the Double NAT error has been corrected.

Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on February 24, 2021, 02:42:18 PM
A month on and all is well. Very well, actually. Bordering on superb. No more intermittent wifi funkiness, wild transfer rate oscillations, or random and unexplained buffering. Signal, both wired and wireless, tests dead stable every time. Noticeable latency reduction, almost no jitter, and graphs are usually a nice, flat line rather than the ragged, inconsistent silliness I got with the gateway-only setup. Wish I'd done this a long time ago.

Went ahead and posted similar instructions to the AT&T forum. Maybe it will help someone else. Also makes for a better place than APS to link if you know someone who could use the help.

https://forums.att.com/conversations/att-internet-equipment/ip-passthrough-instructions-add-asus-1900-router-to-uverse-internettv-service-on-an-nvg589-gateway-also-xbox-double-nat-resolution/602c456ced9dc017691df830

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Phantom Warrior on February 25, 2021, 08:20:44 PM
I've never heard of anyone replacing the company provided equipment and not being much, much happier with their own equipment.  Sounds like you've had the same experience.  Glad everything worked out.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on May 13, 2021, 12:31:47 PM
Four months on and I couldn't be happier. I've not had to reboot the router or the gateway so much as once. Prior I was having to reboot the gateway once or twice a week. If I didn't, wifi would slow to almost nothing and start dropping connection every few minutes (heat-related issues, probably). Service has remained rock-stable the entire time.

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on May 13, 2021, 11:51:31 PM
Good to hear, Brad.  Glad it's working out for you.
We've been having trouble here occasionally, but it has been the provider each time.  The Asus router continues to be flawless.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Brad Johnson on September 26, 2023, 03:24:43 PM
Thread necro because I forgot to update here when I added a second router and configured for AI Mesh (briefly mentioned here https://armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=66839.0 ). Figured I might as well document in more detail on this thread in case others could benefit.

First, the original router and basement switch continue to work beautifully. I've done a couple of reboots over the last two years because I wanted to keep things "fresh", but only once was it required for an actual problem. Thank you guys and gals again for the recommendations. In the interim, I've added a second router and paired the two using ASUS's simple, yet impressively effective AI Mesh.

Addition of the second router was born of extremely poor basement wifi coverage. The original router is in a central room and works great for everything above grade, including stable 2.4G service to the garage and back porch. Unfortunately, the basement ceiling is steel trusses covered in sheet metal and topped with six inches of steel-reinforced concrete. No cell signal at all and wifi was marginal at best even with the router less than 25 feet away. Just getting a text out was problematic. Picked up another AC1900 and paired via AI Mesh. Setup was dead simple and very quick, essentially it's just putting the routers next to each other and clicking the "AI Mesh Setup" option. Takes less time than unboxing and assembling the router.

After configuring, it was simple as plugging the second router into the basement switch. Connected immediately with no fuss. Now we have seamless 5G wifi coverage everywhere in the house. With backhaul via cabled connection there are no worries about wireless-related bottlenecking. Everything is stable and speeds are solid.

I also took the opportunity to set up a firewalled guest wifi network. Super easy on the ASUS even though it was a first time for me. In addition to guest convenience, I also use it for for devices susceptible to hacking exploits (looking at you, Ring Doorbell).

Brad
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on September 26, 2023, 07:36:13 PM
I started the process of isolating all my home automation stuff on a guest network today, coincidentally.  Like you mentioned, it's a snap on the AC1900 router.  I am going to give some thought to another AC1900 to set up an AiMesh myself.  The wifi signal can be marginal in the basement, especially on 5GHz.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: Ben on September 26, 2023, 07:48:57 PM
At this point, everything at my house is on the guest network except for two computers, a tablet, and a network printer, and the main computer and printer are CAT6, not wireless.
Title: Re: Wifi router suggestions?
Post by: RocketMan on September 27, 2023, 09:38:55 AM
All of our laptops and phones are wireless.  All of my desktop computers are wired LAN.  We have two identical large format Brother printers, one of which is downstairs in the man cave.  One is wireless, the man cave one is wired.  The plan is to make another wired drop into my office and convert the laptop at that location to a wired connection.
I've got three more things to move over to my home automation guest network.  The rest of the HA stuff is wired LAN.
I've got a FlightAware setup using a Raspberry Pi.  It's wireless but could be converted to wired LAN without much of a problem.  I'll likely do that at some point.
I really prefer wired over wireless for security reasons, but converting everything to wired really isn't practical and/or possible.