Hi guys, I am looking to upgrade from my current router as I am receiving weak signal in my room which is quite far away from the router. Usually around 50-60% of full speed I get. Therefore I am looking for a router with high gain and must be stable also because my current router on and off need restart which is very frustrating. Preferably with good QOS which limits user by MAC instead of by application.

PS: My current router is a ASUS RT-N14U.

This post has been edited by berrycoo~: Mar 7 2018, 10:49 PM

ASUS RT-AC1300UHP

Can get below RM500 at lazada with vouchers
price range is RM500++

Do you use this router? Because I would like to know the following regarding this router:

1. Does its QOS support rules for MAC?
2. The antennas are 5dBi each right? Will 4x5dBi or say 3x9dBi provide better coverage for the house?
3. Does it provide up to 1267mbps by using both bands?
4. Is the router firmware stable? Do I need to restart often? As I leave my router on 24x7

u need to describe "the house"...

how many storeys... how long, low wide...
where will router be placed.
what devices... how many... posiiton... ethernet or wifi...
what speed u use now...

there is no one big universal power router to serve all houses, all purposes...
give details, poepl can comment, suggest.

Please ensure your room is on the same floor as the router before buying one with high-gain antennas.

no I'm not using this router.

check the specs here:
https://www.asus.com/my/Networking/RT-AC130...specifications/

1. yes

2. AFAIK the high gain omni directional antennas will make the coverage further but narrower but I'm not sure if it's the same with the AC1300UHP... there's some pics on the net showing this but I couldn't find them now

3. yes

4. from my experience with asus routers yes they are stable. no you don't need to restart often... unless there are 50 people in your house and 30 of them torrent 24/7 and 10 of them run xunlei and god knows what the rest are doing and there's no bandwidth control applied or something crazy like that


you may also consider improving the wifi on the receiving side, i.e your pc or laptop. which one is it btw? you can either buy a powerful usb wifi receiver (like Tp-Link Archer T4UHP) or buy a wireless access point that can be used in client mode - one of the advantages of this second option is you can connect a long ethernet cable (one end to your pc) and place the access point at a spot with stronger signal. For example if your pc is in your room, you can use say a 8m flat ethernet cable (so that it can easily run under your door, hide under the carpet, etc) and place the wireless AP outside your room.


plus like AVFAN said, you need to describe 'the house' in detail

1. 2 storey house, approx 30x60 build up
2. Router will be placed in the front end of the house on ground floor, which is in the living room
3. Currently facing problem on my desktop, as wifi adapter is weak as well. My room is at the back end of the house on second floor. So basically is from 1 end to the other. I think the total number of devices will be around 10.
4. Using Unifi 50mbps

My room is on different floor. If thats the case what kind of antenna should I be looking for?

For point 4, yea someone in my house is torrenting chinese show most of the time but not as hardcore as you said

At first I thought of changing my adapter but then again might as well change the router so I wont the problem for other devices. I have tried wireless AP with a TP-Link AP before. But for me seems like not very stable as my device cant connect to the AP most of the time and will revert back to the original router but not sure if its my TP-Link AP problem or not.

This post has been edited by berrycoo~: Mar 8 2018, 11:18 AM

your problem is a typical "i hv bad wifi in my house".
countless threads, countless users struggle with it, with no obvious WIFI solutions.
factors are yr internet speed, distance, barriers, router, and device n application use.

fortunately, i have a lesser problem of such albeit similar.
.. your house is wide but not tall... i dun think it is worse than mine in terms of wifi reach.
.. 50mbps is fine but will help if u can upgrade to 100mbps.
.. becos of losses, base 100mbps can still give u decent net speed at the furthest corner.
.. better router will help, so will the pc wifi adaptor.
.. front lower right (left) to back upper left (right) will be the most challenging.
.. theoretically, the "balloon" coverage can be reshaped by tilting the antennae backwards to reach higher, but... i find it rather useless.

i am using asus rtac1300uhp; pc with asus usb-ac55 adaptor; 100mbps.
couldn't get good results with original 2.4ghz pc, but the 5ghz adaptor changes everything

router front lower left, pc back lower left, 55ft, 2 walls, wifi... this test is with 2 other devices doing heavy stuff:


with router at front lower level, all devices at same level are fine, great speed.
upper level, 5ghz devices can get 70-80% of the speed, except for the worst blind spots - these, u must avoid... move yr pc, table, bed, etc.
2.4ghz devices will get about 50% of the speed, which is good enough for most purposes.

i do not know if a router double or triple the price will do a much better wifi job or it will be a point of diminishing returns.

my router been on for 2.5 months... 24/7, latest firmware, no reboot.

This post has been edited by AVFAN: Mar 8 2018, 03:48 PM

from what you described, that is not using a wireless ap in client mode
sounds like repeater (wifi extender) mode?
client mode is when you plug an ethernet cable to the AP, and the other end of the cable directly to your pc/laptop. basically it becomes like your usb wifi receiver. when doing this it is best to disable your built in or external wifi receiver.
which tplink AP did you use btw?

Bro, your problem is very common. Most of the people are complaining that they are having bad WiFi in their house but if you really want the best wifi system, you have to invest a lot. By buying those so called, "high gain router" doesn't really help much in most of the circumstances, there will still have slow wifi problems due to interference from your neighbor's wifi. In terms of stability, most of the Asus router will do a very good job, but ofc not those cheap ones.

Second, never ever put your router in the front of your house, put it at the center point of your house in order to get equal signal strength from your router to every corners of your house. If you can't change the setup, then get yourself a few APs around your house. Connect to the AP whichever is close to you so that you can get good speed.

Lastly, I would recommend you to get TP-Link Archer C3150 or Asus AC1300UHP if you want a cheaper option. Both routers perform quite well.

This post has been edited by mztang52: Mar 8 2018, 01:42 PM

So does this mean that using 5ghz bandwidth i can achieve higher speed when i am upstairs as compared to 2.4ghz? And I guess upgrading my router will improve the situation? As my current one doesnt even have external antenna

I am thinking of getting the ac1200g+ as that doesnt cost that much and is similar to the ac1300uhp. What do you think?

Ah my bad indeed that was repeater mode. So for client mode must connect ethernet to pc?

That time is was my parents who setup the fibre cable and they chose the living room as it is nearer and dont need to pull the fibre so far as there will be extra charges and I was still small that time dint know anything

Set up a few AP in repeater mode?

As for router, I am thinking of getting the ac1200g+ as that doesnt cost that much and is similar to the ac1300uhp. What do you think?

I will tell you now that the AC1200G+ is definitely not similar to the AC1300UHP. You are making the mistake of looking at the numbers only and not the router itself. The AC1300UHP is much better than the AC1200G+, in every aspect. 5GHz will be better than 2.4GHz as it will be less congested and not exposed to that much interference, but its coverage is less than 2.4GHz, so keep that in mind.

The router must be connected to the AP via Ethernet for the client mode. You must set up a few AP in client mode, NOT repeater mode.

2.4ghz has farther reach but losses are severe too.
for yr distance, 5ghz will get u more than 2.4.
but further than that, it will go to zero very quickly.

i dunno ac1200, but i suggest u do not save small money if buying new.
better spend a bit more so that u are covered now, as well as when u go 100mbps.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/4524140
Check out this router, should be able to do a good job for your case.
If you don't mind having a router without 5Ghz, you can consider TP-Link WR941HP. However if there are a lot of 2.4Ghz network surrounding around your house, I would really not recommend you to buy this router as it will only cause more interference and eventually degrade your network speed.

yes. imagine it like your usb wifi adapter, instead of using USB you use the ethernet cable, you don't have to install any drivers but you have to configure the AP first. like I said earlier, you could position the client mode AP outside of your room with a long ethernet cable.

Forget about using 5Ghz it's only good for small apartment.

To get stable wireless internet while making it simple and cost effective, just add a wireless AP. Some cheap router such as tenda F3 and Fh456 have the wireless AP feature built-in and It will allow you to play with the QOS limiting bandwidth by MAC. I have a 1 month used tenda Fh456 to let go cheap if you are interested.

The drawback with wireless AP is that you won't be able to utilize the 50mbps at 1 client when sharing. Anyway, investing in so called high gain router will not ensure you to utilize the 50 mbps as well when your room is at another end of second floor.

Consider having an access point running in bridge mode for those devices at the back end. Even a high gain router may not mean better connection at the back as each client needs its own high gain adapter which is costly. There are a number of options (WDS or wireless bridge) if you do not run cable from your primary router. WDS allows 'roaming' between the stronger signal router however at a cost of half the bandwidth. With 50Mbps you will not notice this.

Are there any options other than client mode? As I dont want to route cables here and there.

Add a wireless AP in what mode?

What do you mean by that I wont be able to utilize the 50mbps at 1 client?

Whats the difference between WDS or wireless bridge and client mode?

the longer u keep this issue open, the more confusion and "bright ideas" u will get.

i am glad i did not get exotic, do just something v simple.

really, my experience, just one good router, forget all the rest, yr house wifi will be fine.

it's not like it is a 3 storey 80x150ft footprint bungalow with 15 rooms.

all the best.

Honestly bro, just get one good router and it will be more than enough.