Best WiFi solution for fiber internet?

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Level 1

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Best WiFi solution for fiber internet?

We are switching internet providers from Charter, which is slow and unreliable, to a 1 gig fiber connection from TDS. Currently we are using the Charter-provided modem (which we will return), combined with a very old AirPort Extreme from probably around 2007, and an equally old AirPort Express to extend the network, though I don't know if it is doing that. We use a 2010 iMac connected to the internet, but most of our use is on our iPads and iPhones, along with video streaming (Netflix, Plex, etc.). Due to the age and configuration of our house it would not be very easy to hard-wire to the TV, thought that is something we would look at doing in the future when we are ready for some remodeling.

The fiber will be installed and connected directly to the iMac, but for the iPads and TV streaming I'd like to try to set up the fastest WiFi network I can. What would you recommend for this? Would a new AirPort Extreme be the fastest option to work with the new fiber? Or are there non-Apple WiFi routers that would work better and are not too difficult to get set up?

Posted on Jul 26, 2016 11:32 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,902 points

Jul 26, 2016 2:20 PM in response to danbmich

The fiber will be installed and connected directly to the iMac, but for the iPads and TV streaming I'd like to try to set up the fastest WiFi network I can. What would you recommend for this? Would a new AirPort Extreme be the fastest option to work with the new fiber? Or are there non-Apple WiFi routers that would work better and are not too difficult to get set up?

As far as network performance what it will come down to will be the following:

For streaming from the Internet, you will want a router that has excellent WAN-LAN data throughput capability.
You will want a wireless system that provides the best overall bandwidth & throughput possible for your home.

For the first item, I would suggest that you review various models to see which offer the best WAN-LAN throughput. An easy way to do so, is to check out the following SmallNetBuilder website's Router Charts and Router Chooser links.

For Router Charts, I suggest that you choose the "WAN to LAN Throughput" for the benchmark, and then, select FILTER to get a list of routers from best performance to worst. When I just did it, it rated the Netgear Nighthawk with a WAN to LAN value of 931.4 Mbps. No consumer router today will provide 1 Gbps, but 931.4 is very close. Incidentally, the latest (over 2 year old design) 802.11ac AirPort Extreme comes out with only 325.5 Mbps.

On the second item, you will want to look at a few benchmarks:

2.4 GHz UpDown Throughput
5 GHz UpDown Throughput

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