Any recommends on a wireless setup for the new house?

[Frank]

Pete, your router is only 100 Mb/s, and the microcontroller tops out at 140 Mb/s. So you won't reach full n speed on WiFi (which requires 300 Mb/s). In the best case, it does ~90 Mb/s on the LAN or WAN-LAN, and ~70 Mb/s (divide by 2 for the encryption) for WLAN/WiFi. The test you linked supports that.

That test also shows that the signal strength and reach is quite good, but because it doesn't have external antenna's (I expect 2 internal ones), it will probably suffer from reflection, and definitely from interference (the phone). Try putting it on top of something, with the wide side to the laptop(s), and turn off the phone.

Quite good for a 100 Mb router, actually.

 

[Pete]

Feel free to /facepalm on my WAN/WLAN mixup.

I'll try unplugging the phone and reorienting the router (I've got the thin side facing the room) just to see if I can get closer to 70Mb/s, but I've got no complaints with the router's performance (especially considering the price). Well, Youtube still sucks, but I'm going to blame the internet on that.

 

[Frank]

No problem, I'm happy I can help


Btw, for potential future router buyers: the amount of antennas doesn't only allow the router to use multiple channels, but it also helps with reflection and interference.

While the routers with three or four antennas could use three or four channels, many only use two channels, as there generally isn't enough bandwidth available to use more, and the clients only support two channels anyway. The other antennas are used for g reception and/or reducing the interference and reflection.

It's like a phased array transmitter: instead of only using each antenna for a single channel, they continuously shift the timebase and frequency of two neighbouring antennas a bit, so they create a stronger output together that "absorbs" the interference.

Only the good and/or expensive models with at least three antennas tend to do that, but it's just what you need if you have very bad WiFi reception because of your neighbours, for example, or if there are many clients.

And if they have a fast microprocessor, they can simultaneously serve more independent channels as well. So that's great for something like a hotspot, or an apartment filled with students.