NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Is it time to upgrade our router
Real World use and performance in my home network set up and ideas for an upgrade. First Here is My current home set up Router is a : Netgear Nighthawk x4 AC2350 Smart Wifi Router R7500 v1 ...
As for Fiber.... we will have to see if they really can run it to our house... United Communications has partnered with Middle Tennessee Electric and they are running the fiber lines on the MTE poles and then from the pole they run it to the back of your house where the Electric line is run ... the problem is where they run our power and where I need the Fiber to end up may be a problem getting to, we will see. My guess I am thinking by summer, they first said 1st quarter 2023 but It looks like they are running behind so I'm not holding my breath.
The reason I have not thought about the Mesh systems is that to better my wifi upstairs I ran a trend net access point that is hooked up for wifi only with private and guest access.. all other devices in that area are hardwire home run. As for our studio that is in another building it has a ethernet line run to the studio and in the studio I have a router - access point and my studio computes are connected via hardwire and I have a private and wifi settings for folks that come to the studio right now I am getting full speed in the studio with this set up.
You mentioned dual band mesh and I took a look at what I could find on that...I'm not sure it it would be much different than what we already have with the exception of Wifi 6 and at that point I'd change out our wifi cards to the AX200 modules.
Any large downloads and uploads are done hardwired on a desktop or notebook plugged in, fiber would be nice as our upload speed is max 20 Mbps so the faster fiber would open another door for me.
I have been experimenting with the Eufy wireless camera's, they are pretty neat where the cameras talk to a hub to store footage and it talks on a separate encrypted 2.4gz wifi channel so far I am really impressed at what I am seeing but I've just started to set things up but saying that it is a separate situation to my Network needs.
Finally in looking at the mesh stuff the difference between dual and tri channel isn't that much and I'd probably step up to the tri channel to future proof my set up... but until actually get them to bring me fiber it does not make sense to do anything at all... at 500Mbps I seem to be doing just fine.
Probably not.
Truth is even with WIFI 6 or whatever you can't get 1000mbps wirelessly, even if you actually get that in your little wireless status popup, remember WIFI is half-duplex, that means best senario you get 500 mpbs.
It seems you have done everything right, the hard wire, the switch, so you definitely not a noob, it's actually quite a suprise that a pro like you came up with this question.
Your hard wired APs are actually a better "mesh", so don't get tricked by those fancy words. Since you are connected by wire, you don't need any wireless "backhaul" which is the major sale point in the WIFI6 mesh system. So you are as good as now.
Plus I bet you already know even if it's plex streaming, there's not that much bps going on out there. Even if it's a 40GB bluray ISO, without any transcoding, let's assume it's 2hr long, that's just (40*1000*8)/(2*60*60)=44.4 Mbps. Let's say you have a 80GB 4k bluray ISO, that's just 90 Mbps.
I stream similar but in a much simpler way, I just mark the folder as shared in my iMac (acting as my central "server", better than any NAS or small gadgets, much much easier to use, hassle free), and using Kodi, VLC or whatever to open via SMB protocal (Windows no different), I have no problem even on a 802.11n network. That's why I didn't even setup a Plex because I find that there's absolutely no need to do any transcoding if you watch just locally.
Actually it's pretty hard to fully load a 1Gbps fiber optics, that's why ISPs are willing to sell you such fast network in a reasonable price. Most people believed UHD is very bandwidth hungry but truth is thanks to h265, it's not. Online streaming only need 25mbps at most. Best 4k webrips are just 20-25GB or so. So even if you have your TV open at every room 24*7, that's probably just max out at 100mbps.
Since what you do is almost the same no matter it's a 100mbps network or a 1000mbps network, there's very little extra cost for ISP to provide you with these "fast" speed. So why not, instead of drop the price as technology evolves and everything eventually becomes cheaper, ISPs just "UP" the network once in a while for the same or a slightly raised price, with no extra cost.
Current optic fiber network infrastructure is based on EPON or GPON spec, which has a max bitrate of 1.3Gbps or so, that means for ISP, once the fiber optics infrastructure is laid, they already have everything they need to providing a 1Gbps network. Little extra cost is needed. They just slowly raise the bandwidth to maximize their profit. That's also understandable but we have to know better.
So I guess you have already know the answer.
Once in a while the technology "advancement" tends to makes us believe everything we have right now is outdated, but truth is, not exactly. Your setup is good, I don't think you have to even think about it unless you are noticing some real-world limitations/issues.
But if you really is techy-itchy and really have some extra money to spend, all you need to look is some good AP, as WIFI 6 is reported (cnet has some test, other sources too) that COULD provide you with some real-world speed bump "up to" 50%, if you have all your devices complying with the newer standard.
That means if you are now getting 200mbps real-world speed, you COULD get up to 300mbps if you upgrade all the wireless parts (client and AP) to WIFI 6. That could be a lot or not much difference to you. If it were me I just won't bother.
Enjoy what you have.