Is It Worth Switching to a TP-Link Home Deco M5 from a TP-Link Archer C8? or Buying a Wi-Fi Extender?

Hey!

We are currently running a TP-Link Archer C8, and our connection is 100/20 NBN connection. The reason for looking to mesh systems is because we seem to have dropouts in specific rooms. I was looking to buy into a TP-Link Home Deco M5 to leave one unit downstairs, a node on the staircase, and another for when our extension is complete. But I found that the router we have is AC1750 whilst the Home Deco M5 is AC1300. We have 4 people in the house, maybe 10-12 devices connected to the router (wirelessly) with maybe 3 of them being heavily used simultaneously (e.g. watching Netflix at the same time, work, etc).

Would I run into bandwidth issues between AC1750 and AC1300? I'm not sure if going to the M5 would be a downgrade or an upgrade. Or should I invest in a newer Wifi Mesh System like the TP-Link Home Deco M9 or the Google Nest, which cost upwards of $500! Which is crazy pricey, but if its a necessity, I'll have to. Or would it be advisable to get a WiFi range extender for upstairs?

Thanks for reading through this and if you can help I'd appreciate it! I am not well-versed with networking at all!

P.S - Here's an idea of the layout in our house.

At the moment, WiFi drops out in two rooms upstairs which are next to the staircase. At the bottom of this staircase is the office room, the only room we can have the router. Our house is double bricked, and the office room only has two doors to bounce the signal out of. I personally don't have an issue with the WiFi because of my wireless adapter being dope, but the rest of the family do.

Comments

  • +2

    Or would it be advisable to get a WiFi range extender for upstairs?

    Mesh routers, even a basic unit like M5 or M3 are much better than Wifi Repeaters, due to the way a Wifi repeater works it essentially cuts all available bandwidth in half. See Wifi Repeater drawbacks

    Would I run into bandwidth issues between AC1750 and AC1300?

    This is not likely to happen in real world scenarios. Your NBN is limited to 100 megabit, even with 3 people watching streams it's unlikely the bottleneck would be with your Wifi, it's most likely your WAN connection speeds.

    • Thank you for that. I will give that link a read and learn some more about it! :)

      I didn't particularly understand what you meant by the WAN connection part.

      • +1

        WAN is just a technical way of referring to your internet
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network

        on the other hand, LAN is Local Area Network, which refers to the network that you yourself set up.

        (note this is just a super simplified explanation)

        • Thank you! That makes sense now.

  • Since you’ve said you have an Archer C8 which IMO is better than a satellite solution, have you looked into running OpenWRT? I have a similar setup with Linksys devices and WiFi roaming works flawlessly. Also, you can mix and match any brand and model of devices that are on OpenWRT’s website. I just feel you have a really solid base router and all you need is some extensions. Just my 2c.

    • I have never heard of OpenWRT, but I'll take a look into it. I do think the Archer C8 is really dope, and I really wouldn't like to depart from it. Thank you for that.

      Do you have any particular extension devices you'd recommend to run alongside the Archer C8?

  • +1

    Wi-Fi Extender is useless.

    Tenda MW3 or 6?

  • Check out this video, I think wifi Mesh is the best alternative to any extender or hotspot.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfBiR-mtvSM&t=5s

    the Tendas on Amazon are good value.. IMO

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