Wifi Router Suggestions For 3,700 sqft house (1 Viewer)

[JayMS]

I have a friend who currently has a Netgear WNDR3400v2 for his 3,700 sqft house. This router was in use at an apartment and worked well with streaming services. Currently Amazon streaming through the FireTV (Wireless version) buffers often and when it does stream video the quality is reduced very noticeable. ISP is Viasat. Download speed seems to be pretty good connected directly to router. I think the issue is distance from the location of the WiFi router to the living room where the FireTV is located so I am looking for options to replace the Netgear router.

Also it seems the DLink switch may have gone bad (any recommendations on a replacement?). I have the switch on port 1 plugged directly to the Netgear and the light for that port is Amber. I swapped the cable with a new Cat5 and same result. All of the other connections coming into the switch are Green.

 

[Brennan77]

Is that speedtest from a wired connection? If so I'd say that's pretty slow for most HD content and any degradation of wifi signal would certainly make it worse. That said, that's a ton of square footage for any single router to cover. You might want to check out the mesh wifi thread posted recently here. It seems to be the way to go for the future of full home coverage. Google is selling a mesh setup up with holiday discounts that is reviewed very well and is supposedly very easy to set up. A friend of mine recently installed it at his house and raves about it.

 

[JayMS]

Thanks Brennan. I'll check out that thread. That speedtest is "wired" from the satellite (Viasat) to modem to the wifi router. Landline AT&T ends about a half-mile to a mile away. Fiber is on the other side of the highway going to a VZ tower.

 

[Westbank4Life]

My set up is nighthawk R7800 wireless router with a netgear extender. Arris Surfboard 1.4Gbps 32 channel modem. I use comcast here in orlando.

my home 4100Sqft 2 story. Iv'e hosted events/family visits where I put it under heavy stress HD via Roku, Comcast HD, Netflix , Xbox with no lag on different televisions simultaneously with no problems and also serve smartphones, tablets and laptops.....no problems at all.

as far a a gig switch.....just get a netgear 5 or 8 port gigbabit non manageable switch. the 5 port should run about 20-30 bucks.

 

[Beast]

Look into the Netgear Orbi system. I have a 2900 sq ft 2-story house and can get a decent signal on opposite corners (downstairs to upstairs) with just the base station. Adding in the mesh satellite would only improve things.

 

[Bayouboy]

Subtle brag