Recommendations for a single centrally-located WiFi router/access point for a 2BHK flat/apartment?

[rsaeon]

Won't your uncle be willing to install the TPLink Deco app just for one time setup to AP mode then uninstall it and forget about it?

Something like the TPLink Deco X60 might be good.

To him, it's one extra thing to worry about if something needs to be reconfigured or reset. Is everyone really using mesh these days though? The small pools of wifi approach is significantly less expensive and only requires a difficult one-time setup. Four basic 300mbps routers and 100m wire shouldn't cost more than 5k or 6k. The labour is your own, everyone needs a good workout anyway.

https://www.amazon.in/Mercusys-Halo-H50G-Wireless-Seamless/dp/B09LVH5TDD/

Why not this, little over budget , these mesh are even easier in setting up . First one little effort , second is just connecting power and adding to app

I did not realize that Mercusys was a TP-Link brand, that's useful to know.

The major problem over here is signal strength and it could be over come by High gain antennae.

You can build them

or you can purchase hi gain dipole omnidirectional antennae from indiamart or some local sites.

Andreas Spiess is always a fun watch! Love his outlook on life, "I'm expecting to die soon so I'll make Youtube videos on electronics projects until that happens."

This is a fascinating video! Some people say RF/highspeed design is a completely different reality.

My knowledge about electronics principles and circuit design peaked around 9th or 10th grade with TTL and CMOS. That's when my parents caught me reading B Tech books while ignoring actual studies so they confiscated all my hobby stuff and spent the next two years steering me towards biology in preparation for medicine. I ended up scoring 12% for Botany and Zoology combined in the state's entrance test. I remember my teachers remarking that if I had blind answered all of the questions with the same option down the entire answer key (all either A/B/C/D/E) I would have scored higher, haha. I was pretty happy with 94% in Physics and 84% in Chemistry though.

I remembered this traumatic backstory because back then, this uncle on my father side was one of two relatives who encouraged my interest in electronics/technology. The other was another uncle but on my mother's side. Uncles can be pretty awesome.

Anyway, I now want to do this for my own wifi devices. Thanks for the idea and video, it's exciting!

First of all you haven't mentioned which router your relative is using /its capabilities. The major problem over here is signal strength and it could be over come by High gain antennae.

The internet is coming in through a standard ethernet cable. On the other end is me, I'm the ISP. The 'uplink' is through Airtel Fiber. This uncle is visiting for a few months and he'll be staying nearby. I've set up a wireless point-to-point connection from my parent's home to his place with a couple of older Unifi's Nanostations that link together with something called airMAX. So all we need is a simple but high powered wifi router or access point that can be reset/reconfigured if necessary by my uncle without my intervention.

This AX50 might be suitable?

FS: Networking - Archer AX50 and Omada OC200 and EAP225

For sale is a like new unused Archer AX50 router. Recieved this in a RMA exchange with some other router, which was just nearing end of warranty. So this is not in warranty, have recieved this in July this year and never ever put to use. Just checked it for 1 hour or so. Price : 5200/= Also...

techenclave.com

Only AX50 remains, priced at 4000 pickup, 4150 shipped.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the price and no warranty kind of makes it a terrible deal. I was able to purchase the AX53 for under 4k.

Bring one access point from your home to your relative's place, and then test it with the transmitting power set to high. It will give you an idea of the Wi-Fi penetration levels for each room.

Excellent advice, I did this with the AX53 without setting it up, just powered it on and opened up the Wi-Fi Analyzer app.

This is the lowest signal strength I was able to observe, out in the balcony (two walls away from the router):



The two bedrooms are each one wall away from the router and are much better:



I read somewhere that -60dB is a stable connection so it looks like the AX53 will work fine here.

Thanks everyone, I'll report back with actual usage results with the AX53 in a couple of days.

 

[Ramadhir Singh]

https://www.amazon.in/Mercusys-Halo-H50G-Wireless-Seamless/dp/B09LVH5TDD/

Why not this, little over budget , these mesh are even easier in setting up . First one little effort , second is just connecting power and adding to app

I did not realize that Mercusys was a TP-Link brand, that's useful to know.

Mercusys - i also came to know about this brand when @ibose listed his H50's.
There are not much info available about these online, but those are seems to be good hardware.

I was in dire need of a wifi ax access point in the lowest possible budget and as impulse/frustrated purchase, got myself H80x, as whatever alternate i was considering was either not available or out of budget.

Using it as a AP for last 12hours now. The one thing blown me away is their range and stability, it has twice the coverage of archer c7 (in 5ghz, 2.4 is turned off/not tested) and some asus router i have used.
I don't have a recent experiences with nighthawk to compare but, i think, this should surpass them in range as well.
Using just one node, it covers my entire home. the end point can see over 60% signal (90-100mbps in speedtest), where c7 was out of range. i'm sure it will definitely cover 5000+sft home with two nodes.

the one thing to note is it doesn't have any web-based interface to configure, it need app, which us ultra-pro-max noob friendly.
But this f**ing app!! which is very restrictive is not acceptable to me for multiple reasons.
Also this thing phone-home every 5 minute, as well as ping some 5-10 websites (like facebook, linkedin, baidu, bing, live.com, reddit, etc ) every 4-5 minutes interval.

I actually clicked picture to sell it off the moment i realised its app business which need internet even for open..
I might list it soon here for sale, just want to use it for few more days to complete my test drive.. ( if anyone is interested can DM me about this).

 

[kuduku]

Mercusys - i also came to know about this brand when @ibose listed his H50's.
There are not much info available about these online, but those are seems to be good hardware.

I was in dire need of a wifi ax access point in the lowest possible budget and as impulse/frustrated purchase, got myself H80x, as whatever alternate i was considering was either not available or out of budget.

Using it as a AP for last 12hours now. The one thing blown me away is their range and stability, it has twice the coverage of archer c7 (in 5ghz, 2.4 is turned off/not tested) and some asus router i have used.
I don't have a recent experiences with nighthawk to compare but, i think, this should surpass them in range as well.
Using just one node, it covers my entire home. the end point can see over 60% signal (90-100mbps in speedtest), where c7 was out of range. i'm sure it will definitely cover 5000+sft home with two nodes.

the one thing to note is it doesn't have any web-based interface to configure, it need app, which us ultra-pro-max noob friendly.
But this f**ing app!! which is very restrictive is not acceptable to me for multiple reasons.
Also this thing phone-home every 5 minute, as well as ping some 5-10 websites (like facebook, linkedin, baidu, bing, live.com, reddit, etc ) every 4-5 minutes interval.

I actually clicked picture to sell it off the moment i realised its app business which need internet even for open..
I might list it soon here for sale, just want to use it for few more days to complete my test drive.. ( if anyone is interested can DM me about this).

It should be also calling taobao.com and qq.com , You can check that also

 

[rockyo27]

I don't know exactly the layout of house where it will be. But i would say putting the router nearby to the rooms in drawing room so the bedrooms can have better signals.

 

[Ramadhir Singh]

It should be also calling taobao.com and qq.com

was trailing the log for last hours, not paging these. i guess it only hitting top social media to check internet connectivity?
Here is top 10 hits for last 1hour.

Website	Total Hits
facebook.com	291
live.com	290
youtube.com	283
linkedin.com	279
reddit.com	277
bing.com	276
n-devs-gw.mercusyscloud.com	228
n-deventry-gw.mercusyscloud.com	138
googleads.g.doubleclick.net	138

I just put a regex filter in pihole to block any online activity for this macaddress of this router.

I don't know exactly the layout of house where it will be. But i would say putting the router nearby to the rooms in drawing room so the bedrooms can have better signals.

not sure if this comment is directed to me. if so, regardless, my measurement and observation was from the same location.

Its always good to have the AP placed in central location, but it not possible to put a lan cable that easily in those areas.
Thats where mesh came into picture, as its almost impossible to do new wiring paths in apartments.

mine is placed in extreme-end (almost corner). there is nothing behind that wall.

Budget is around 3k to 4k, unless if there's a compelling reason to go higher. No mesh, no multiple devices. Just a good old fashioned high power wireless device.

back to topic, some was selling ubiquity LR earlier, that would have been a good choice.
if you dont need wi-fi 6, definitely check this out - https://www.multilinkonline.com/MikroTik-cAP_p_893.html

you have to get your hands dirty once for sure. avoid, Chinese rebrands.

 

[rockyo27]

not sure if this comment is directed to me. if so, regardless, my measurement and observation was from the same location.

It was for @rsaeon also it is to be done if possible otherwise mesh configuration is the one to go or a wifi6 repeater as stop gap

 

[Ramadhir Singh]

It was for @rsaeon also it is to be done if possible otherwise mesh configuration is the one to go or a wifi6 repeater as stop gap

got it.
seen his req again. i guess he has tech limitation and cant do complicated setup. He has to put time and to the hard thing one time, mesh or no mesh.

 

[vishalrao]

I don't get it... Your uncle is averse to using the Deco app for a one time setup but is ok with the effort to go non mesh route?

 

[rsaeon]

This is so strange, I must be growing old or people just aren't seeing what I'm saying.

Am I being pranked/trolled/punked here?

Is no one else seeing this?

No mesh, no multiple devices.

these mesh are even easier in setting up

they're looking for a single device

get a mesh

it needs to be a single device

mesh doesnt need config

Mesh = multiple devices = do not want.

I don't get it... Your uncle is averse to using the Deco app for a one time setup but is ok with the effort to go non mesh route?

It's like mesh has a cult following! Ahh!

Anyway, I assume apps are needed for firmware updates on these devices and any kind of reset or configuration changes. So even if you install it once, you need to reinstall it to keep up to date or make any changes. That's entirely unnecessary when a browser can do the exact same thing.

The non-mesh alternative is this single device that I purchased, the AX53. I just did iperf between two wireless devices placed as far as possible from the router, and I got >200mbps so that's excellent.

If you're referring to my pools of wifi comment, that's my own set up from five years ago, it's unrelated to my uncle's requirements.

But! The effort is not that much if anyone wants to do that kind of setup in a flat, most bedrooms have windows, so you just drill a hole to the outside near a window and pass a wire from the rooftop to the window. Go around to each room that you want WiFi in and lower down ethernet cables to each of them and have them all go to a single room from the rooftop. All you need is a bunch of long cables and zip ties, most roof tops are littered with other ISP or DTH cables anyway and there's no public access to worry about other people messing up your cables. Just make sure to get outdoor rated cables.

But yes, to conclude, the AX53 works brilliantly, thanks everyone.

 

[vishalrao]

The TPLink Deco X60 works great as a single unit in AP mode too... doesn't have to be used as part of a mesh. But anyways, good to see you've got your answers.

 

[burntwingzZz]

This is so strange, I must be growing old or people just aren't seeing what I'm saying.

Am I being pranked/trolled/punked here?

Is no one else seeing this?

















It's like mesh has a cult following! Ahh!

Anyway, I assume apps are needed for firmware updates on these devices and any kind of reset or configuration changes. So even if you install it once, you need to reinstall it to keep up to date or make any changes. That's entirely unnecessary when a browser can do the exact same thing.

The non-mesh alternative is this single device that I purchased, the AX53. I just did iperf between two wireless devices placed as far as possible from the router, and I got >200mbps so that's excellent.

If you're referring to my pools of wifi comment, that's my own set up from five years ago, it's unrelated to my uncle's requirements.

But! The effort is not that much if anyone wants to do that kind of setup in a flat, most bedrooms have windows, so you just drill a hole to the outside near a window and pass a wire from the rooftop to the window. Go around to each room that you want WiFi in and lower down ethernet cables to each of them and have them all go to a single room from the rooftop. All you need is a bunch of long cables and zip ties, most roof tops are littered with other ISP or DTH cables anyway and there's no public access to worry about other people messing up your cables. Just make sure to get outdoor rated cables.

But yes, to conclude, the AX53 works brilliantly, thanks everyone.

nice to hear that AX53 works , yes -67db cutoff beyond that its not considered to be a good signal

 

[rsaeon]

Actual speedtest:

The wireless link with the unifi nanostations is limited to 100mbit/s so this is about as good as it gets for now.