This is my response from a different thread but this applies:
A sample size of one but I wanted to give you my perspective. I used to have RBR50 with 1 satellite with wireless back haul. I get 1.2GBPS at from my ISP. I used to get really good speeds (5-600) everywhere, but about 2 months ago it started getting worse and eventually died. I’ve had these for 5-6 years so I got my money worth.
I bought Deco BE11000 and had it for a week. I hated it, it was unstable and the internet speeds were all over the place. Compared to my Orbi, I got higher speeds (800 deco vs 500/600 Orbi) when I was close to the router, but worse speeds (80/90 deco vs 200 Orbi) when I was far away from the router. Some of my smart devices didn’t even connect at all. My work computer kept on dropping connection constantly even at 15 feet!
Then tried the 770. The firmware was a mess. Constant dropping connections with several drops. My TV which is about 20ft away kept on losing WiFi and it drove me crazy. Specially at the price of 770.
I finally went back to RBK752P and it’s been a dream. I get 800+ pretty much everywhere in the house and connection has been rock solid.
Take that for what at worth!
Tp link deco or Orbi 770, wired back haul - I have the same situation and got the 770, now I get a full 1.5gbps on all floors every room - put one mesh point on each floor (wired).
You probably want a mesh router. This means that there are two or three routers in a pack that all connect to one another automatically to keep your signal boosted. Go with TP Link Deco or Netgear Orbi 770.
Nice. I thought about the 970 but I’m the only real high usage person in my household, so I went with the 770. It covers an entire 2 acres of my property and I can get a 100mbps signal 1/4 mile down the street (probably a fringe case because I live at the highest point in the neighborhood lol) People like to crap on the 770 but it’s a real nice mid tier solution.
You are required to keep your ATT gateway. There is a technical way to bypass this involving by cloning your ATT modem onto a piece of hardware that "tricks" ATT into thinking you are using their modem.
The 2 much easier solutions are either 1) put your ATT gateway into ip passthrough mode, or 2) setup your mesh network as Access Points instead of routers (AP mode)
I have the same ATT gateway on 300mbps as you. I went with 2 Orbi XE75 mesh units which give me great speed throughout my house and yard. I did realize that I probably could've moved my modem to the center of the house with an $11 ethernet cable and gotten OK results instead. But I do like having the full 300mbps that I pay for all the way in the detached garage.
Apple compatibility should be nothing to be concerned with. All this WiFi crap has to meet standards or nothing would talk.
Your biggest issue with mesh is getting good WiFi paths back to the router. With mesh, you have two WiFi problems -- Client to mesh node and mesh node to router. Most people will recommend that you eliminate the mesh part and wire the connection from node to router for best coverage if you're able to. It's also generally cheaper to do this since you can get a simple AP setup.
If you can't eliminate mesh then you should get something that's WiFi 7 and uses both the 5Ghz and 6Ghz bands (the Orbi 770 is tri-band so it does).
Before going with any mesh setup, it is important to check on a few details first. Is the house a rental unit where running Ethernet cables to other rooms in the home, as that will have a large impact on the overall cost.
With your mention of 750Mbps WAN connection, with a wireless mesh setup, you are looking at something along the lines an Orbi 770 (mainly because it will alternate between using the 6GHz band and 5GHz band as a backhaul when servicing client to minimize how often a WiFi radio is pulling double duty in a system that lacks a separate dedicated backhaul radio) if you want to ensure that WiFi clients that are connected to one of the mesh satellites which in turn will use a wireless backhaul, will not have a risk of bottlenecking a 750Mbps WAN connection, which basically means spending about $400.
The reason why is because when the backhaul is sharing a single radio, there is a massive performance overhead, especially if the AP is providing mixed service, such as a blend of 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, etc., devices., though when you heavily overprovision, then the drop from the wireless backhaul while servicing other devices can avoid bottleneckig the WAN connection.
Overall, think pf it as spending a lot more to avoid bottlenecking your WAN connection.
On the other hand, running a cheap Ethernet cable from the main WiFi router on the first floor, to a location on the second floor to provide better coverage there, then you can essentially spend around $90 for an AP, and get around 1.9 Gbps of real world throughput to devices near the AP (assuming the main WiFi router has at least one 2.5GbE LAN port.
Wit that in mind, with your $200 limit, there are wireless mesh options such as the tp-link Deco 7 BE25, but expect speeds more in the 400-500Mbps range for client devices connected to and close by one of the satellite units which in turn will be using a wireless backhaul to the main router.
With that in mind, that mesh system can be connected via Ethernet for a wired backhaul, which will then get you in the 1.6-1.8Gbps range.
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OpenWrt enthusiast's choice; good value, but lacks 6GHz.
Cautious_Boat_999
