Improving wifi throughout home with digital voice

Hi my switchover to Zen has started today and i've never used anything other than a isp router.so I have found myself confused

I bought an asus rog ax11000 from cex beforehand because i wanted to use it as an access point with the router as its more important to have fast wireless upstairs for my laptops and an ethernet line running to my computer as it has gigabit ethernet, but the motherboards built in wifi is not great..

With vodafone they had to supply boosters for me as the load on the isp router was causing it to fail. After I got the 2 boosters i stopped having issues, but the wireless performance around the house was 1/3 of what I was paying for.

I then decided it would be better to use the ax11000 upstairs as the main router with the fritzbox as the access point running downstairs, however i've just realised that we have our number running through digital voice which i signed up to with them and i cant run the phone lead upstairs.to the ax11000.

I havent setup the ax11000 yet as im waiting for some long ethernet cables to arrive today.

The fibre and phone lines are downstairs going into the lounge.

The fritzbox gives good wireless performance up close is i got 880mb in a speed test but stepping a few metres away out the room with a thick wall it dropped to 300mb, upstairs i am getting 300-500 depending on where i am.

Do I just leave the fritzbox running downstairs and setup the ax11000 in ap mode upstairs. connected by one of the fritzbox lan ports?

If i have the ax1100 in ap mode, can i connect the ax11000 to my computer by ethernet? Would the ax11000 get the same wireless performance upstairs as an AP as it would as a main router?

I do still have the option of returning the ax11000 and plugging in some tp link omada access points as suggested by someone to me as they said i could just set them up as with software, but this would be a lot more expensive as i used store credit to buy the ax11000. It would take a few months for me to save the funds for some access points..

Any direction/guidance would be appreciated.

Edited by bazpantsphil (Thu 04-Jan-24 03:15:51)

An ASUS router in Access Point (AP) mode will give you the same WiFi performance as in Router mode. You've discovered that buying a voice service from the ISP means you have to use the ISP provided box, in your case a Fritzbox.

An Ethernet connection from the Fritzbox to the Asus is required, and you may want to turn off the WiFi on the Fritzbox whilst you determine what coverage the Asus provides around your home. The AX11000 is quite a monster.

In AP Mode the Asus will lose one LAN port as this will be connected to the Fritz. The other LAN port will be available for use in the upstairs location. The Wifi will also be available.
Personally I would use the same SSID's and passwords on the Asus and Fritz to simplify roaming around the house.

Thank you

Thank you.

Just two things to add:

Given the Fritzbox supports band steering, I would ensure it's enabled on the new device, and stick to a single network name (SSID) for all bands 2.4GHz, 5GHz and/or 6GHz (as applicable) on both the Fritzbox and the AX11000, allowing the AP / Fritzbox to steer clients to the best band. You will ideally only see a single wifi network name and devices will just seamlessly roam between the Fritzbox / AX11000 without you manually switching the network.

Also ensure the security settings are the same on both devices e.g. do not have one device set to WPA2-PSK and the other set to WPA3/WPA2 Mixed Mode.

Personally I would sell the Asus and you could easily fund a few 2nd hand Unifi APs and a PoE switch.
If you do not want to run cat5/6 cables to all of them they can be powered and connect as a mesh albeit a little slower throughput should be expected.

Cheers I actually did return the asus on thursday evening and am looking at cheap used routers.that can do over 800mb wireless.

I'll run a few ethernet cables for them. The most I can run is 3 without buying a poe switch which would add more cost.

The Unifi U6 lite is a bit expensive even used.

So far the cheapest one i've been looking at is the ZTE Miracle Wi-Fi 6 Router T3000/AX3000.

I'm just seeing now if there are any others that can do a similar speed with stronger range.

Thanks ill look at renaming them.

I returned the asus and am looking at buying 3 cheaper routers instead.att the moment its looking likely that ill go for the ZTE Miracle Wi-Fi 6 Router T3000/AX3000

I will be splitting the 2.4 and 5ghz bands though.

The fritzbox kept getting my devices stuf on 2.4ghz until I split them. But if I can rename all of the 5ghz bands and 2.4ghz band so the same name and keep the bands split then i'll give it a go.