MikroTik - Chateau PRO ax

I’d consider a Chateau pro ax for the office and the cAP ax for whatever the Chateau won’t cover adequately. It’ll work better than you expect, OP, unless you’ve a multi-gigabit connection that you consistently saturate.

No AP will cover 120 sqm adequately.  Far ends will be degraded.  If your ok with furtherest points being slower.  It could work.  But if you want same speed in all spots, 1 AP won’t do it.   I know you claim the dream router does.  But it’s definitely not giving you same speed everywhere. 850 Mbps over wifi is not easily achieved.  Connection rate maybe.  Throughput, your going to need AX, 4x4 and perfect signal levels.   Which goes back to range.  No way 1 AP will give you 850 Mbps at its furthest reach.  Next to it maybe.  Not at it’s max distance.    Do you even need 850 Mbps?  IoT devices need less than 1 Mbps.  Cameras 3-5 Mbps.  Streaming video 10-40 Mbps.   Where did 850 come from? DD-WRT and Tomato was probably not software causing the needs for reboot.  It was probably the Linksys/Belkin/Dlink hardware you put it on that was junk.  No matter how good the software is.  You put it on junk hardware, it’s still gonna perform like crap.  So don’t knock them.  Blame whatever brand device you put it on.  I mean, it was probably giving you issues with factory software to being with to even look into replacing the OS.   Why does the router need USB?  Anything a router can do with USB (except adding network interface).  A low power Atom/Celeron/Pi can do 100x better.   MikroTiks are some of the most stable on the market.  Also most flexible powering options.  And take surges better than any other brand.   MikroTik doesn’t need reboots other than upgrades.   Wifi speed, Wifi7, 4x4, or 160 wide channels is only way you get 850 or close. Most MikroTiks are 2x2 80 MHz.   That will give 1200 connection rate, with about 600 Mbps usable throughput.   wAP AX could do 850 if you can maintain 160 MHz channels, but I wouldn’t count on it.   Audience could do 850, if your client device is 4x4 and supports the frequency of the second 5 GHz radio.   But I doubt the CPU in the audience would handle it.   So MikroTik only has two APs that possibly could do 850 throughput.  And it’s under specific scenarios. Covering 120 sqm, with MikroTik; best bet is to do two APs.   No fuss, some people say MikroTik’s are difficult.  Myself, I’ve been doing networking for over 18 years.   MikroTik isn’t about learning the interface like other brands.  It’s knowing actual networking.  Lots of brands you can fumble your way through getting it to work without having any networking knowledge.  MikroTik, your going to need to know how subnetting, IPs, DHCP, NAT, and filter rules work at minimal.   Not just definition of those terms.  But what they actually do and relate to each other.   AX3 would be my recommendation.  But it’s not going to fully cover 120 sqm.  Or deliver 850 Mbps over wifi.  Even with perfect signal standing next to it.   I think you need to be more realistic.  600 Mbps from wifi is more than double anyone actually needs.  It will be fine.  And 2 APs to cover 120 sqm will give much better result than trying to force 1 to cover it.  You could do AX3 as router.  And wAP AX as second AP.

Thanks, I thought there was a better Chateau, but I missed the **Pro** AX. That's a really good one. Routing and Wifi wise. It's definetly bottlenecked by the 1G interfaces.

I didn't assume it was in the corner. Signal wise, 1 AP can cover 120 sqm. Speed wise, it depends on what you can live with. 90 sqm is a safer ballpark, where speeds won't be reduced by much. It's more about maintaining full performance than having signal bars. You can test this with your UDR right now. Do a test next to it. And at your furthest points, with the most walls/obstacles. You'll probably get 2/3 to 1/2 the speed than your best results next to it. To give a general recommendation, especially when they want insanely fast speeds throughout. I can't guarentee you'd achieve 850 Mbps out of 1 AP for the entire 120 sqm. I was basing it off what your expectations for the new system is. You said you wanted 850 Mbps everywhere. That's about max you'd get out of an AP, on the more common 2x2, standing next to it. So from the furthest point, you won't get 850 Mbps. Especially for MikroTik APs, where they are mostly 2x2. I'm not sure if your client devices are 4x4 or not. But the Dream router is 4x4. If you got 4x4 clients, you can get really good speeds out the UDR. Most devices are going to be 2x2, so I mainly base it off 2x2 results. I did miss one. The Chateau PRO ax, this one is 4x4. This one will probably match what your UDR does. But being they are both wifi6 (ax), it's not going to be best it wifi wise. Chateau has a better CPU, so it would outpreform it routing wise.

Go for chateau pro ax which is latest model and can handle your requirement very easily. Hap ax3 also is reasonable but since new model is available, you might consider pro ax for future proof your requirement. Regarding wifi speed, I saw your edit so it should be good

I did this with two Chateau Pro AX's, a CRS354-48P, and a CCR2004. The 2004 runs CAPsMAN to manage the wifi. It's complete overkill and I love it. Great reception throughout the house and basement, Wifi 6, lots of customizability: guest VLANs, multiple internet connections (fibre + bonded DSL), etc.. You can probably do this with a lot smaller devices. The CRS354-48P could be an 8-port, but for the wifi/routing hardware it's not a lot of money to jump to their fancy wifi routers. Plus you'll have extra ports on the Chateau's for switched traffic to your office devices. Only consideration here is it's not technically wifi roaming/mesh. I do separate named upstairs/basement SSIDs for fixed devices (cameras, light switches, etc) plus a common virtual one overtop for devices that move around. If I go into the basement I'll eventually be kicked to the basement Chateau, but the transition is near instant. Since moving to this I've had zero outages, barring Google's cloud issue last week.

Yeah, it is but bang for buck Mikrotik can't be beat. From home gear to their cloud core gear, unbelievable value for money.