Dream Machine Series

Mesh will only degrade your system. As a gamer you need max bandwidth. Stay with Ethernet and if you want to replace your router, get a small dream machine and a 8 port Poe switch and 2 or more ubiquiti access points. Run two cat 6 (or cat6a) cables to your garage, and any location with a high use smart tv, so your streaming comes over wire too. Your wifi should only support laptops and phones. If you have an attic run your cable through the attic or via closets to go vertical between floors. The other option is most coax and fiber starts in the garage, consider putting your router and first access CB point there , cat 6 yo the interior of your house. We do houses and hotels. We are seeing more houses using cat6a and getting 2.5-10gig UBNT switches, which is really good for gaming. AS YOU GET NEW TVS, you won’t want to stream over wifi. Too much bandwidth and forget about Mesh, I have many takeouts in my garage and won’t even consider reselling them. If you’ve seen Spinning on Netflix, it’s due to lack of bandwidth and especially Mesh. Never see a spin in cat6!

Rule of thumb in buildings, don’t run wifi through more than one wall. Mesh will lose 10-15 db per wall. That’s how you turn a gig internet connection into a 50mb, unreliable, spinning connection; too much mesh! Basic physics original signal -35db @point blank add 2 walls your signal is now -60 to -70db. If you’re going through a garage or bathroom wall the way, more blockage (attenuation,) now you have virtually no signal. This is where most people go out and add another mesh node, this pushes your already bad signal out further but you’ll still get a strong -70db signal. Industry standard is -60db or better if you want good wifi, -50db for great wifi. Wifi measured in neg numbers, -33db standing in front of your wifi router with nothing blocking. Download tools mostly Android for checking signal in your house, than run Fast or Ookla to see your bandwidth and throughput. For max carrier speed plug your pc into Ethernet on your router. Run same on wifi throughout your house to see where you get good bad signal to fix. Signal strength means nothing if it’s been degraded by too much mesh!