Airport Extreme replacement?

[nyc2pdx]

I have two of the latest gen of Airport Extremes (one is an extension of the other), and they have worked okay, but with all the streaming I do now from Plex, it just isn't fast enough, nor is the coverage strong enough. I have a small house, but need a wifi signal to go through a wall or two.

The big thing is streaming media, which frequently buffers now using the airport extreme AC band.

Any recommendations on good quality routers? My modem is bridged, so I handle PPPoE (and everything else) on my airport.

 

[krazirob]

Interested in this myself

 

[Brientim]

1. The first thing is determining why the buffering is occurring as if the buffering just changing the AP may not deliver the results.

2. Understand that AC 5 GHz has a shorter range than 2.4 GHz band.

The link below articulates the distinction between the two bands and the affects of each.

http://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=134478

3. Wireless bridging the two AP effectively impacts on the available bandwidth as it is sharing the first AP capabilities and then the range steps in.

I have multiple Airports which are wired, in a large environment with up to 5 devices streaming concurrently and the Airport Extremes do a very good job; however, I am in the process of changing them out for Ubiquiti AC Pro and AC LR to provide wider range to outside the four walls of the house. The Ubiquiti AP are single propose AP and that is all they do.

 

[nyc2pdx]

My current set up is and airport next to the modem and hard wired to my iMac and mac mini server. Then, in my den I have another AP and that is hard wired to my media devices. Vis-a-vis I am using the APs as a wireless connection between my office and the den. My media devices in the den are all hard wired to the den AP, set up as an extender for my network. Buffering is not usually an issue on the Den devices-I mean, they buffer a tiny bit, but nothing I cannot deal with.

However, in my bedroom, my media devices in there are horrible. Buffering all the time. My bedroom shares a wall with the office (the location of the main AP), and I see that those devices are in fact connecting through wifi to the office AP.

I am wondering how I could resolve some of the issues with the bedroom media devices. I would get another (a third) AP Extreme (to take advantage of the AC) but if I am going to spend $175 on one, maybe that could be better spent on improving my wifi bandwidth.

 

[Brientim]

My current set up is and airport next to the modem and hard wired to my iMac and mac mini server. Then, in my den I have another AP and that is hard wired to my media devices. Vis-a-vis I am using the APs as a wireless connection between my office and the den. My media devices in the den are all hard wired to the den AP, set up as an extender for my network. Buffering is not usually an issue on the Den devices-I mean, they buffer a tiny bit, but nothing I cannot deal with.

However, in my bedroom, my media devices in there are horrible. Buffering all the time. My bedroom shares a wall with the office (the location of the main AP), and I see that those devices are in fact connecting through wifi to the office AP.

I am wondering how I could resolve some of the issues with the bedroom media devices. I would get another (a third) AP Extreme (to take advantage of the AC) but if I am going to spend $175 on one, maybe that could be better spent on improving my wifi bandwidth.

 

[nyc2pdx]

1. The first thing is determining why the buffering is occurring as if the buffering just changing the AP may not deliver the results.

2. Understand that AC 5 GHz has a shorter range than 2.4 GHz band.

The link below articulates the distinction between the two bands and the affects of each.

http://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=134478

3. Wireless bridging the two AP effectively impacts on the available bandwidth as it is sharing the first AP capabilities and then the range steps in.

I have multiple Airports which are wired, in a large environment with up to 5 devices streaming concurrently and the Airport Extremes do a very good job; however, I am in the process of changing them out for Ubiquiti AC Pro and AC LR to provide wider range to outside the four walls of the house. The Ubiquiti AP are single propose AP and that is all they do.

and thanks for the info...I don't know too much about wifi, so the reference was informative!

 

[Brientim]

Hello,

I would conduct the following two tests to establish some perform baselines.
1. Turn off the second AP. In the Den and reconnect the media devices in your bedroom and see the difference.
2. Turn off the 5 GHz and then in the Den and reconnect the media devices in your bedroom and see the difference.
3. Keeping the 5 GHz off, reconnect the second AP and only use 2.4 GHz

The Apple AP are design as set up and let Apple manage this as this is what they do very good; however, there is no fine turning and there is a significant difference between wired and wireless perform with multiple AP. if you could wire in the two AP, that is ideal but not always feasible. I do know of people that have used ethernet-over-power to enable the network connection rather than the wireless mesh due to performance degredation and ethernet-over-power is now provide gigabit connectivity

 

[eRondeau]

I had a similar problem with long buffering times until I simply unplugged my repeater/booster Airport Express and everything in the house jumped back onto the main Airport Extreme signal. Lightning fast everywhere now. Don't worry if your signal strength to outlying devices is reduced, in my case that was more than compensated by a much, much faster overall network speed.

 

[nyc2pdx]

Unfortunately, wiring the two APs isn't really feasible. I know, that would be ideal!

I'll run these tests this evening.
[doublepost=1484334674][/doublepost]

I had a similar problem with long buffering times until I simply unplugged my repeater/booster Airport Express and everything in the house jumped back onto the main Airport Extreme signal. Lightning fast everywhere now. Don't worry if your signal strength to outlying devices is reduced, in my case that was more than compensated by a much, much faster overall network speed.

I'll give that a shot too.