Best AP for home use - Dual Band 2.4ghz b/g & 5ghz N

RouterOS Wireless Networking
1

I have a RB450G as my main home router and have been more than happy with it now that it is up and running right. Super stable and reliable. Much better than anything that I’ve ran in the past.

I also have an ok Netgear 5ghz N access point, but I’ve been needing to restart it more and more lately despite nothing changing in the environment. Given the quality of these devices, I wouldn’t be suprised if it was about to go. In addition to that, I’m running an older Cisco/Linksys router as my b/g access point. This device has always sucked and needs to be restarted daily sometimes.

Looking to upgrade and get some reliable access points and looking at Mikrotik.

Ideally, I’d like a single unit with dual band 2.4/5ghz. I’m in an apartment complex and I can see at least 20 other access points so it is congested to say the least.

What are my good options from Mikrotik for this? Most of the ones that I see on the products page are just single band.

Or is it best to get two? one for N and one for b/g?

Thanks!

2

if you want to have 2.4 & 5 together you must by a routerboard which supports at least 2 wireless cards like 433,435,… and set 2.4 on one of them and 5 on the other.

3

Ah ok. So if it has slots for mini-pci cards, I can add additional cards for additional wireless channels?

What about the RB411AR (built in 802.11 b/g) + the R52Hn card? Will that do what I want with b/g + 5ghz n?

http://routerboard.com/RB411AR
http://routerboard.com/R52Hn


Thanks!

4

I’m considering the purchase of a simultaneous dual-band device myself. Preferably MikroTik, if there’s a feasible solution. Have you decided on your solution? I’m curious.

5

you can use it but it supports only one wireless card with 2.4 OR 5.8.

6

I use an RB411AR w/R52n for my AP.

The integrated card for B/G w/WEP for backwards compatibility and R52n for 300Mb @ 5GHz.

Works fine, though occasionally I max out the CPU with large transfers, still near 100Mb wire speed most of the time.

7

Sorry for the possibly dumb question, I have no experience (yet) with wifi APs from MT. Do the 2.4 and 5 GHz radios run at the same time? So I can connect a 5 GHz TV set and a 2.4 GHz laptop at the same time for a simple example?

8

Yes, they both work at the same time.

This is a very modular system. You can get a 411 with one slot and one card, a 411ar with a built in card and one additional, a 433 with three slots, a 800 with 4 slots or add an additional 4 slots.

My RB411AR with built in 2.4GHz and a R52n dual band card running 5GHz works nicely. I would prefer to have both running 802.11n, but this was paid for, spare parts in a box.