New Wifi time :(

[PaulCa]

So about 2 years ago I bought a TP-Link Archer VR900. At first it seemed solid, but it's started to degrade, dropping devices offline randomly. Locking up on Wifi completely every month or so.

I have smart home sensors broadcasting every 5 seconds and frequently I find one or two of them only showing one update a minute. Stuff like that.

The other thing I don't like about the Archer is it gets hot, like 47*C and pulls 11 Watts of power. So it's not at all efficient.

I don't think I want to go fully Ubituiti or anything that expensive.

Are netgear VDSL / Wifi routers any good?

Just looking for something AC, 4 port gigaswitch for around £100-150.

 

[Avalon]

No reasonable person spends £100-150 and uses 47c and 11w as being ‘not at all efficient’ as justification. Even if you half it (unlikely), you’re going to need 10-15 years of usage to ‘save’ anything. If your issue is WiFi, you would likely be much better off buying an AP and installing it in a central location rather than buying another compromised AIO.

 

[PaulCa]

Well, it being 47*C suggests it's pumping out heat. I don't want heat, I want Wifi. So it's inefficient. Knowing a little about electronics, the chances are if the top cover is 47*C the insides are probably 10 or 20 degrees hotter. Most electronics starts to go bad over 60*C. Things like electrolytic capacitors et. al. Which would explain the degredation.

I'm thinking about a slightly older netgear nighthawk at the moment. Need support for 30-50 devices.

 

[RockLobster]

Buy a Ubiquiti AC Lite and plug it in your router. Turn off wireless on your router and let the AC Lite give out the WiFi.

 

[WJA96]

Well, it being 47*C suggests it's pumping out heat. I don't want heat, I want Wifi. So it's inefficient. Knowing a little about electronics, the chances are if the top cover is 47*C the insides are probably 10 or 20 degrees hotter. Most electronics starts to go bad over 60*C. Things like electrolytic capacitors et. al. Which would explain the degredation.

I'm thinking about a slightly older netgear nighthawk at the moment. Need support for 30-50 devices.

I’ve never read so much nonsense in my life. Knowing a little is clearly a dangerous thing in your case. If you think electronics go south over 60C then you’re obviously not the owner of any modern CPU or graphics card. You can’t have WiFi without power and power when changing state is never 100% efficient so you’re going to have live with some heat dissipation somewhere. The fact that the CPU or SoC is running hot and having to shed the heat through a heat sink doesn’t mean a single capacitor in there is running at anything over room temperature.

Please do buy a Netgear Nighthawk.

 

[PaulCa]

If you think electronics go south over 60C then you’re obviously not the owner of any modern CPU or graphics card.

Really? It's hardly the same thing. I think that's a strawman argument. Would you be happy to run your system with no fans and with the ambient case temp over 60*C and leave it running 24/7?

I'm not saying this things CPU is over 60*C, I'm saying the surface of the case is between 40*C and 47*C everywhere. Hotter on top, but still hot underneath. So hot when I propped it up on books to give it airflow underneath, the hall table it's sitting on was hot to the touch. That's a lot of heat for such a small device. It's baking itself inside.

You can’t have WiFi without power and power when changing state is never 100% efficient so you’re going to have live with some heat dissipation somewhere. The fact that the CPU or SoC is running hot and having to shed the heat through a heat sink doesn’t mean a single capacitor in there is running at anything over room temperature.

Domestic Wifi maximum transmit power is 100mW in the UK, unless they have upped that.

So even if that part is 50% efficient, that's 10.8W of power being used either by it's CPU doing some basic networking (or mining for TP-Link) or it's PSU/regulators... which is unlikely as it's got a 12V wall wart.

10.8W is a bit extreme for a basic networking device. It just makes an 11W heater.

Please do buy a Netgear Nighthawk.

Still mulling it over. I'm defanately thinking I need something that can handle 50+ devices, there are a few less "FOR GAMERS!" looking Net Gear access points cheaper.

 

[neil_g]

If you don't want heat then ubiquiti probably isn't for you then. My edgeswitch and router throughout the summer were scorching