Network/router advice needed

I currently have an ASUS RT-BE7200 router that has my PC direct wired to it and using the wifi for the whole house (single story, 2000 sq ft). I am wanting to add a mesh router in the living room where I can expand my wifi signal, but also hard wire my xbox and my apple TV box to the mesh node in there, and still have it broadcast a wifi signal for other devices.

Im not sure if I want to just buy another asus rt-be7200 router to use as the mesh node, or, just go with something like the eero 7 pro with a 3 node system, one as my main router in the PC room, one in the living room for wifi and direct wire to the apple tv and the xbox, and then i can put the 3rd one somewhere else, for just more wifi coverage. The eero 7 pro is a wifi 7 tri band router and the asus rt-be7200 is a wifi 7 dual band router. I dont think tri band would give me any benefits as there are not many devices connected to my network.

The PC is my main gaming device so it will always be direct wired to the router.

Im curious if adding a mesh system will cause more latency on my wired PC connection or will it not make a difference? (not sure if adding more nodes will induce any kind of latency in the system as a whole or not). The hard wired PC is the main concern.

im just using an at&t 1Gbps fiber internet (didnt see the need to go to 5Gbps). So for best overall speed and lowest latency in games, do either work the same? or is there any advantage to the eero system vs the asus router system?

just curious what you all think.

thanks

do you have the ability to hard wire a second node in a mesh network to the main node/router? Or would you be relying on the second node to be connected via WiFi itself?

the second node would receive it’s signal via wifi, i would then connect the xbox and the apple tv to that node using ethernet cables, but the node itself would receive its signal through wifi.

I assume connecting those devices via ethernet cable is a better option even if the node itself receives its signal from wifi, because it would just grab the signal out of the air and funnel it into the device through ethernet connection. Or, does it not matter?

Are you having issues right now with the Xbox and Apple TV accessing the WiFi network via the one access point?

the xbox, for some reason, wants to try and drop connection from time to time when playing some games. not sure why, AT&T guy said I had good wifi signal throughout the house from the AT&T gateway/router that came with my internet package.

My plan is to disable routing capabilities of that device and use my out router with a mesh node (i would use theirs but they wont sell you a mesh node, they want to rent it to you each month, which im not going to pay for a node rental when i can just buy my own system)

so the latency on the WiFi is going to most likely be negligible.

A WiFi based node may help, but you may end up having better luck putting the node not near the devices, but in a location that limits the total number of walls. For me, for example, if a router was in my office, it’d be better to put the node in my dining room (to my wife’s dismay) because it’d only go though the floor and 1ish wall to get to my Xbox. Whereas if I put the node near my Xbox, it’d have to go through a lot of floor/wall to get there. It’d be worth experimenting.

definitely get a mesh node that can be hardwired too though, and see if you can possibly get that working as that would definitely be the best plan.

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thanks. I decided to go with another ASUS router and use the AImesh feature. ill put that node on my TV credenza next to my XBOX and Apple TV box, and then just run network cable from the router to each of those devices. im not sure if hard wiring the xbox and apple TV will make any difference, since the node itself is receiving its signal via wifi, but who knows, maybe having the router pick up the signal somehow enhances it and then porting it down the wire to the devices will give it sort of the same performance as if they were wired directly to the main router.

anyway, here goes..wish me luck! :smiley:

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Sounds similar to my set-up. I have a Netgear USB Wifi adapter hooked up to my PC with a Ethernet cable connected to my PC to my XBOX 1X. Works pretty well and gives Ethernet-like connections to my XB. Only downside is sometimes I have to reset the connection from my PC to the XB for various reasons, but it only takes a few minutes.

Good luck! :nerd_face: :+1:

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