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Best optimal coverage setup using R6700 with existing AT&T Arris 5268AC fiber gateway
Hello Everyone,
This is my first post, so please forgive me if I do any protocol mangling - it is not intentional. My wife & I have had AT&T fiber service for several months now, & have been less than satisfied with our level of reliability & signal quality. Don't misunderstand me; I know the internet is inherently unreliable, which is why you won't see any mission critical life support systems depending on it. We were given the standard Arris 5268AC telephony modem as the "heart" of our system. We were told there is a finite nimber of devices that can utilize it's signal at any given time. I do not recall what that number is, but we currently have a minimum of 20 or so devices that rely on it for internet service. My main concern is our camera (Wyze) system. Some of our cameras are on the fringe of our WiFi signal (max 150~200ft), and I use the 5GHz band exclusively for downloading videos (2 Firesticks). My question is: Is there a particular setup we can use for best overall performance whilst maintaining our current level of stansard VOIP service ?. I am a retired electronics tech who shamefully has no idea whether we should use our Nighthawk in "bridged", AP mode, or some other mode I've never heard of. I'm a fairly quick study, but this is all new to me. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have not yet to taken our new Nighthawk out of the box.
We were given the standard Arris 5268AC telephony modem as the "heart" of our system.
To add to what @plemans says, that is a modem/router. Which immediately lands you in worrisome territory.
Two routers on your network can cause headaches. For example, you can end up with local address problems. Among other things, the other router can misdirect addresses that the Netgear router usually handles, such as routerlogin.net or the usual IP address for a router, 192.168.1.1.
It may be possible to put the modem/router into modem only (bridge) mode and then to use the second device as the router. There may be ways to get the modem/router to cooperate, but sometimes it is easier to put the second router into AP mode. But that has its own drawbacks:
In your case, the telephony bit is important. You don't want to discover that putting the modem/router into bridge mode kills the phone.
As @plemans suggests, separating the modem/router and router could help you to spread the wifi. An alternative to running an Ethernet cable all over the place – doesn't always go down well with the family – is to use Powerline Ethernet to connect the R6700 to the fiber gateway.
Put the R6700 a bit nearer to the remote cameras and you might see an improvement.
Re: Best optimal coverage setup using R6700 with existing AT&T Arris 5268AC fiber gateway
What I'd recommend for the easiest setup for you? AP mode with it hardwired in to where you want to extend your coverage if possible.
It (nighthawk) should have better wifi coverage so you could try it right next to the ATT box if you wanted to see how well it covers everything.
With that said, most consumer router are going to have a limited number of wireless devices that can connect to a given radio at a time. this is going to be for your att box and your netgear box. Potential option is to run the att box's wifi and run the nighthhawks. Make sure they're on seperate wifi channels so there isn't interference. Ideally, you run a cable to the best location for the nighthawk and have it hardwired in, running in ap mode. this would allow ideal placement and you could set one or more of the radios to be dedicated for your cameras.
We were given the standard Arris 5268AC telephony modem as the "heart" of our system.
To add to what @plemans says, that is a modem/router. Which immediately lands you in worrisome territory.
Two routers on your network can cause headaches. For example, you can end up with local address problems. Among other things, the other router can misdirect addresses that the Netgear router usually handles, such as routerlogin.net or the usual IP address for a router, 192.168.1.1.
It may be possible to put the modem/router into modem only (bridge) mode and then to use the second device as the router. There may be ways to get the modem/router to cooperate, but sometimes it is easier to put the second router into AP mode. But that has its own drawbacks:
In your case, the telephony bit is important. You don't want to discover that putting the modem/router into bridge mode kills the phone.
As @plemans suggests, separating the modem/router and router could help you to spread the wifi. An alternative to running an Ethernet cable all over the place – doesn't always go down well with the family – is to use Powerline Ethernet to connect the R6700 to the fiber gateway.
Put the R6700 a bit nearer to the remote cameras and you might see an improvement.
Re: Best optimal coverage setup using Netgear R6700v3 with existing AT&T Arris 5268AC fiber gateway
Micheal,
I'm with you relative to buying trouble using two routers in tandem on separate channels - been there/done that. I ended up disabiling my Arris gateway's wi-fi, & using the Netgear router as an AP. I also hardwired the output of the Netgear router to a TP-Link TL-PA7010 pwr line extender which is paired to a TL-WA855RE xmitter which is on one end of my home (closest to the most distant camera). I have a second TL-PA7010 that gives me a direct ethernet connection to my computer, & is paired with a 2nd TL-WA855RE that supplies the distant camera on the opposite end of my home w/wi-fi. All of my cameras now show a minimum of 80% signal, and are far more stable. My 5GHz speeds are (per fast.com) in exccess of 180Mbps dwnld & 130Mbps upload (as checked w/my Fire10 2017 edition) - not bad at all. FYI, The folks at TP-Link support also recommended using the same channel & SSID for all extenders. I'm a happy camper !.
