[coletrain]

I have attached a drawing below of my 3 DD-WRT r6300v2 routers. Both AP's are WIRED. Asking for best configuration advice. My main office and where the internet connection is, was in the cornet of the basement. It didnt get to the TV/living room that well. OK, but not great. And would not reach the patio / garage on the other side of the house. Obviously, where the wife lets you put a router is limited, and of course hiding the wire. So this is where I am at for positioning. Kids computer room currently running wirelessly, and doing ok with one on a USB wireless antenna and other on wifi stick. Just thinking I should wire it. I think I figured out how to get the wire over there. I have a little router laying around, mostly to be used as a switch.

1.So does this above plan sound good with the little spare router?
2. If I bought a better router, what should I buy. Should I buy another r6300v2 to keep it consistant? Or buy that sexy r7000 or r8000 Nighhawk?
3. If I bought a nighthawk, where should I put it? I probably dont need it. But that is my question. Probably the most important central router is the AP by the TV. But wouldnt I want my best router as my main? I could move the modem to under the TV and make that a main and run a eithernet back to my main office computer. I guess I didnt do that for ease of acess to the main router.
4. WDS. That doesnt do any good for wired AP's right? Any advatage I am missing there?

Hope all this makes sence. Thanks in advance.

[ddaniel51]

7000 on main and 6300's to AP's

[coletrain]

[dabanhfreak]

If I remember correctly the 6300 was the first ever AC wifi router. It cost an absolute bomb and was definitely an early adopter device.

R7000 came out later and was a better price/performance device, it's become a really great workhorse for me. I recommend it, but 6300 should be more than sufficient.

I'd keep your setup as it is, just try to have your main router as close to center of the house as possible.

Assuming your kids are still young they don't need another AP. If you really want to, I don't see the use of using a new 6300. You can use your existing router, or use a cheap one, such as TP-link 802N or 841N. These are very good for about 20 bucks and can be loaded dd-wrt.

[dabanhfreak]

I would also give the kids their own unique SSID, on a different subnet. I'd also enable net isolation so they can't mess with your office computers by accident.

[coletrain]

[coletrain]

I am bidding on used r7000's on Ebay, they are consistently going for $100 and I am trying for $60. I plan to hook up the little one this weekend, unless I get lucky.

[Xeon2k8]

If you are tight on the budget then look for a R6400, it's almost the same as the R7000 but a bit less CPU power, and cheaper. So you still get all the better performance and eficiency compared to R6300.

[Malachi]

I believe the r6400 and r6300v2 are basically the same except for the nvram.

[coletrain]

I have two Asus rt-ac68u 's on the way. One from a Forum member, thanks, and the other from ebay.

The darn nighthawks are just coveted gold, aparently, blessed by the virgin Mary herself. I hope these 68's will be better for me. I plan to first get them running, maybe merlin is good enough for my dumb ass, and then review moving the "main" from my office to the house central location. keeping an AP at the current main position. maybe two good routers and 2 AP's will be enough. I will have some r6300v2's available for sale, soon.

I have just been fighting the "main" router by my desktop not being in the central location of the house, all this while. It's time to let go and rerun some cable/eithernet.

I ran the wire to the kids computer room today, plan to put that wrt160nv3 router in there as mostly a switch, I guess.