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By range, do you mean higher transfer rate or the distance away from router? If distance, then 2.4 ghz has longer range. If transfer rate, then it is 5 ghz.

All routers can transmit signals on n as well as ac, in parallel. So you can connect older as well as new devices.

I meant distance from router.


So you are saying that my older router will transmit more distance than this AC router?


Don't understand - are you saying I will need to connect 2 routers to get both ac and n?

I agree with all of your points. Just one clarification - I haven't made a mistake in converting from bits to bytes. My connection is supposed to be 25 Mbps. It reaches that speed (25 Mbps/3.x MBps) very rarely. I do get a consistent 2 MBps. My verification is downloading a 5 GB torrent in approx 1.5 hrs.

You mean you get 2 MB/s (Mbps) on your 25 Mbps link? Sounds about par. But 5 GB in 1.5 hours is actually only about 7.5 Mbps.

Also refer to the numbered points in my quoted post.

Lastly, torrents can be used to measure real download speeds only if you have sufficient seeders; and even then, the result wouldn't be comparable. For purpose of comparison, it is best to use a service like speedtest.net. This number has to match what you are paying for or you need to take them to task.

All the routers have backward compatibility. So the AC router has previous standard N as well. But whether the new router transmits farther that the old one would depend on the transmission power of the antenna. Again I am assuming both are transmitting on standard N on 2.4 ghz band.

Regarding parallel transmission on 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz, the routers have dedicated antennas for two bands. So same new router would transmit signals on both bands. Not required to buy 2 routers.

About six months back, I upgraded from an old Digisol N300 router to Archer C20 (AC750) router due to similar requirements as yourself.

My 2 cents:

1. I do not see any benefit of having an AC router over N router. I am still using all my devices on 2.4ghz because it gives you better range around the house.

2. The range is definitely more than my old router (2 antennae) as this has 3 antennae but the difference would be about 10-15%.

Given a choice today, I would either go for this - https://www.amazon.in/TP-LINK-TL-WR9...9801_330486821

or spend a good chunk of money on those 6-10k Netgears/Asus/D-link with 5-6 antennae, if money is not the criteria.

So this would have better range than my current one because of the 3rd antenna? 10-15% extra is all I want. Almost 90% of my home is covered by the existing one - just a few corners aren't.

I don't think N is "previous" to AC in the evolution sense. Wifi evolved along two parallel tracks:

5 GHz: 802.11a -> 802.11ac track, and
2.4 GHz: 802.11b -> 802.11g -> 802.11n track.

Of these, 802.11n supports 5 GHz as well.

The number of antennae don't affect range directly, as far as I can tell. In 3-antennae configurations, one would dedicated for trasmission and the other two would be for reception.

Edit: Came across this article: https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2011/0...tennas-matter/

Have you considered a repeater?

From TP Link's website, your current router:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/...specifications

The router I suggested:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/...specifications


Check - Reception Sensitivity for both and you should get some answers. The difference is worth at 54m. At other distances, its your call. If you think this is not worth then AC750 would be the same in terms of range.

I got a new Dell Inspiron 5370 3 months back. It's good in every way, but I think the Qualcomm Wifi Adaptor in it is not that good as that of my earlier laptop. In the room where my router is setup, the laptop's wifi works fine, but if I go to the other room, the connection breaks all the time. I originally thought it's a problem with the router but now I think it's because of the new laptop.

I was thinking of buying an extender to solve the problem - is this is a good one - https://www.amazon.in/Netgear-WN3000...dp/B004XACSV2/

Is there anything cheaper I can try which is as good?

It looks like I can directly plug it into an electrical point, right?

The extender works well in my cousins home. Yes it is just plug into a power socket. The extender is a quick and easy solution.
If you want to try cheaper you can use an older router at home and use it as an access point by wiring it to your main router and this router would provide a different ssid in the distant portions of your house.
This is how I have wired my house. Earlier I was using wireless connectivity between routers but this would drop occasionally due to the beam rotations and hence moved to wired connections between my routers.

I am using a TP Link Range extender since a year now. Definitely happy with it to say the least. It is a viable solution for weak signal issues in a large house.

I am on 100 Mbps connection. While I get the promised speeds in the Hall when connected to the main router, The same connection would earlier drop when I walked to my room where I my working desk was located.

With the extender, I connect to the SSID related to it and get speeds around 40-60 Mbps but with 100% signal strength.

All in all, the extender is doing a great job and its simple plug and play, compact and easy to configure. I have also configured it to stop emitting the LEDs on it between 20:00 and 06:00 as they are quite bright and an irritant when faced directly at night.

When a laptop or a phone has access to two SSIDs (the main router & the extender) would it automatically connected to the stronger one - i.e. depending on the room, I want it connect to either the main one or the extended.

Typically the device upon sensing very weak signal and finding another stronger one would automatically disconnect from the current SSID and connect to the one linked to the extender.

I have configured the extender with a different SSID. I mostly do my office work and stream online on TV using this extended network only. So all the devices in this room automatically connect to the extended Network.

However, when I walk into the main room where the router is, the extender shows good signals that I rarely have to connect to the parent SSID. But let us way that I enter my home through the main door, it connects to the Router's SSID than the extenders.

You can always have same SSIDs for both the main and the extended network but the drop out and connection would not be seamless from what I have learnt because the device still has to disconnect from one and connect to the other.

Is the extender's signal stronger than the main one in the main room or equivalent? That's the scenario, I am asking about?



In my other room, the signal is not always weak enough to not work. It would work 90% of the time, but if I can my position mildly it will drop.