So lately, my ASUS AC-5300 router has been giving a load of problems, and I am looking to upgrade. Right now, I am looking between the RAX120 and the RAX200. However, I cannot find enough information to justify either.
1) Does the RAX200 have a further range than the AC-5300? Currently, I am living in an apartment, so range is not too much of an issue, however I am going to move into a 5,000+ sq. ft house, which has always struggled with signal strength with the AC-5300. From what I've read, this router does not seem to be enough to handle the entire distance.
2) How does the RAX200 handle overlapping channels, especially in an apartment building? Right now, my current router cannot extend to my room with a consistent signal (its about 50ft away, through partial concrete), and my internet is incredibly slow (<50mbps on a gigabit connection, with heavy ping spiking and spotty connection). Could I just use the router, or would I need an extender?
3) I read that the RAX200 can handle 12 consecutive streams at once. Does that mean it can only handle 12 clients running at once, or does it mean something else?
Please forgive my inexperience with all this networking stuff, as it is something I'm not too familiar with.
1. Range- the broadcast power of routers is set by the fcc. And routers maxed it out long ago. So distance is fairly similar for most decent routers. Because they're all already hitting max power on broadcast. So you *might* get slighly more range but it isn't going to be significant
2. concrete. in apartments concrete kills wifi. it is literally one of the best blockers of wifi. nothings going to penetrate it well.
3. apartment living. tends to have many more wifi signals which cause interference. Maybe the RAXE500 might help with the move to 6E to reduce congestion but if you're having congestion issues in 5ghz, you'll continue with most devices.
4. A move to a bigger home. 5000sq ft is huge. I don't know of a single router solution that'll fully hit that range. If you're looking at upgrading, I'd do your best to stick it out with the router you have and upgrade to a mesh solution (triband for that size) when you move. Or buy the mesh solution now and only use the router part of it. But you'd be better to wait as prices always drop with networking gear.
With what you have going on, I'd wait on purchasing a new router until you move. A router that's going to work great for an apartment, isn't the same router that'd work best in that size home you plan on moving to.
So the reason that we are upgrading is that our current router is not functioning correctly. We used to live in the 5000ft house, and managed to use the AC-5300. If the RAX200 has about the same broadcasting power, then it should be fine (we are most likely getting access points put in). That being said, does the RAX120 have the same range as the 200, or no?
the RAX120 is dual band the RAX200 is triband. (plus some other differences)
If you're planning on adding access points, I'd push you even harder towards an orbi setup.
Reason why is you won't have seamless roaming with access points. orbi supports seamless roaming (single ssid) and you can add satellites as needed in both wired and wireless mode.
