Wireless router - 50+ clients - devices

[mudmanc4]

Currently using an AC-3100 which has worked fine up until now. I should say has been getting beat up the more that is added to the network.

Added 4 x Sonos Play:5 devices several days ago, I suspect this in combination is chewing through processor time and slowing everything to a crawl.

 

Everything you can think of is attached to this network, a dozen iPhones and or iPads, half dozen TV's, cameras, the pool, pool/ garage outdoor-lights, Alexa, Slingbox, Chromebooks, on and on, and on.

 

Instead of chewing through walls to wire access points, which would be optimal the AC-3100 has enough range for this 3200+ sqft home, I'll add a second device, and segregate into subnets and wireless networks to be organized via a Netgate AC-3100 appliance.

 

Therefore I need you all to help me by your experience, as to what wireless router would be good to add to this network.

Thank you!

[Sirwriter]

I had a similar experience a few years back. At the time I was using Charter internet and nothing else. It was Doc sis 3.0 And I used a Motorola modem and a Netgear router, both set up for Doc sis 3.0 . I was experimenting with several Insteon products, including a handheld remote whereby I could establish several "scenes" with my stereo set up. That included dimming lights, setting up a  on the amp, choosing background (pop, rock, concert hall, outdoor stage, etc. At the time there were 4 channels download that could be linked together to give me a pretty powerful signal one the amp with built in equalizer, and two preamps  throughout the house, which was a sprawling ranch style.  At the time I had a test bed desktop which was where I loaded the software for all the Insteon products. I tried Wi-Fi extenders without much success. I was pretty much top of the line with my modem/router set up, and an engineer suggested a Net gear 5 port Gigabit Desktop powered switch. The idea was to lower the power consumption by better than half. I did that, changing the location of several control spots, including the Inspiron software control center. The difference was incredible. I was running 3 lines of  1 gig internet to TWO  inexpensive test beds, and dropped my overall consumption to a point where I had more power that I actually needed. It took a little experimentation. The Wi-Fi on the motherboards was insufficient to carry a strong enough signal from one end of the house to the other. I threw together another test bed, and split the load. I bought two PCIe Wi-Fi transmitters and the entire set up was the best thing I ever built. With Docis mating together, I often had download speeds

in excess  of 80 t0 90 Mbps. One thing: The house was 27 years old at the time and had had Dish, DirecTV, and just plain internet. The 

cables from the box outside looked to be about the same age. I replaced all the cable from beginning to end. There were no less than 18 splitters and plugged in antenna amps throughout the attic. Not one of them had a terminator cap on it, and before I cleaned it out my noise to signal ratio was 59%.After replacing the cable it dropped to less than 25.

 

I wish you the best of luck.

Edited June 28, 2018 by Sirwriter
Misspelling-

[Pgoodwin1]

Here’s a really good site for network hardware:  https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/

 

They have a lot of info, comparison charts, forums, reviews...

[JohnyWalter]

The router can route many more than 50 devices if it is decent. The issue is the radio in consumer quality routers cannot effectively handle more than a limited number of devices if they consume any significant bandwidth.

If you go to any commercial facility with a lot of users they all rely upon a series of well positioned APs to provide sufficient radios to support the needed connection load.

Your biggest problem would be using only 2.4 GHz in a confined area would limit you to three channels (1, 6, and 11) or you would have interference issues that would adversely impact overall performance for users.

Perhaps if you share more information on exactly what you are doing it would help. Why only use 2.4GHz? Almost all modern devices also support 5GHz and at the short range you describe that would work well with the many users in a confined area as there are more channels to use