I'm currently using a Nighthawk R7000 router for my home network and have noticed some dead zones on the third floor.
The house, fortunately, has hard-wired internet in every room, so I'm wondering what you all think about the best solution for providing signal to the entire house. Ideally, I'd like to have a single network across the entire home, but I know that some extenders create their own, second network. Would a specific access point be a better solution for the addition, since I have live ethernet ports throughout the house?
I'm hoping for something to add to my existing network that can take advantage of the Ethernet port availability. I'm sure the orbi system is good, but a true mesh network is less of a priority for me than filling the dead zones.
You can use a router or extender and use it in access point mode. It won't be a full mesh as when ran in AP mode, it disables the smart roaming features of a mesh. So devices will tend to be "sticky" in that they won't roam as quickly/efficiently as a full mesh system like the Orbi or MK nighthawk. The benefit to having the hardwired lines ran is that you can buy a cheaper dual band mesh system and, with the backhaul, it'll perform pretty close to the same as the tribands (except for the flagship tribands).
If it was me, I'd invest the little extra to buy a dual band mesh and hard wire it in versus trying to use a router or extender wired in. It'll be less headache and stability will be better
