Bright House Networks - Legacy → [Tampa] Motorola SBG6580 with Asus RT-N66u as extender

Hello all, I have a home networking question I'd appreciate some help with. Before upgrading to Roadrunner lightning, I purchased an Asus RT-N66u wireless router and absolutely love its performance. Upon upgrading to Lightning, the tech installed the aforementioned Motorola modem/router and at my request put it in bridge mode so that wifi is running off of the Asus router. I'm getting consistently good speeds and very good coverage.

However, I am interested in seeing if I can reconfigure the set up to get even better coverage to other parts of the house that are nearing the limits of my current coverage. I assume it is possible to change the configuration of the modem to act as a wireless router and move the Asus router to another part of the house and put it in bridge or extender mode to increase my coverage? Would I still get maximum speeds when connected to the Asus router (currently 43 - 45 mbps)? I've seen mention that my speeds may be cut in half when doing it this way, but I figured someone here would know for sure.

Beyond that, are there any other issues or tips that I should be aware of in attempting to set it up this way?

Thanks in advance for the help.

You bought that awesomeness of a router to do just that...don't change a thing there. If you need additional coverage throughout the house buy yourself an inexpensive pair of homeplugs and an Engenius Technologies Access Point and be done with it OR get the same homeplugs and if you have an older router laying around turn off DHCP and use it as an Access Point instead.

Thanks for the quick reply. Let me clarify one thing and see if that changes anything. Currently, both the modem and the router sit in my office, which isn't the best location for maximum coverage for the rest of the house (bottom floor and on a corner). The Asus router currently kind of makes up for this given the range it has. My thought behind changing the configuration was that I could move the Asus router to a more ideal position in the house (upstairs and more central) and connect to it the vast majority of the time. I was hoping it would be able to serve in the same capacity it does now by bridging it from the modem, but doing so from a better location thus giving me max speeds throughout the house.

Would I lose speed or other capabilities by doing it this way?

If you enable the modem wifi thus unbridging the modem your routing will then be the responsibility of the modem which defeats the purpose of you buying that router to begin with. There is no way around that and I don't think thats what you want to do. The best option is the one or two that I suggested honestly.

Another option is to add a signal booster i have one of these and it helps boost the signal a great deal
»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· ntOnly=1
I also have the Asus RT-N66u love this beast of a router, you have the option of asus firmware or Merlin Firmware , and Tomato firmware by shibby I prefer Shibbys tomato firmware

That MIGHT work only if he bought 3 of them which would be expensive..note the router he has and how many antennas.

Gary,

Great advice on extended coverage for bigger homes, etc. I may look into that.

Semi-threadjack...might you comment on the advantages/improvements of the RT-N66U vs. its predecessor the RT-N56U? If one owned the latter would it be a fairly simple plug and play to replace with the N66U? Do you recommend the third-party firmware for it as well?-- I'm assuming you are still a user of such...and I understand the N66U can use DD-WRT and Tomato--(is the Russian group working on this one as well)?

Thanks.

I don't have personal experience with the 66 yet. I'm tossed between the 66 and the 66AC which is a considerable cost jump and right now everything is working so well I'm having a hard time justifying the expense. So that said I'll let you few with the 66 keep us updated on your experience for now. As for the alternate firmware I blv there are two tomato being one of them. Full disclosure I am not fan of Tomato but thats because of a very bad experience or two a while back. The Russians haven't peeped much about the 66 yet. Probably because they are pushing out 56/65 updates at about every two weeks...crazy. Their red bull bill must be insane because they can't be sleeping....