full image - Repost: Amplifi HDs (read: NOT Alien) are dying; looking for replacement suggestions (from Reddit.com, Amplifi HDs (read: NOT Alien) are dying; looking for replacement suggestions)
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I have a older 2000 sqft home in an urban area with a disconnected unit (~300 sqft, about 40 ft from the main home) for my home office. I currently have an Amplifi HD on our main floor, a paired AP on the second floor, and an ethernet backhaul (cat6) running out to my office to another HD.I have Verizon FiOS gigabit. I'm bypassing their router, using the AmpliFi only. I also use all of the ethernet ports on both HDs (home HD: AppleTV, LinkTap Gateway, Hubitat Hub, ethernet backhaul; office HD: Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, Synology NAS, PS5 or Nintendo Switch).Over the last few weeks, service speed has been sub-par. Plugging my laptop directly into the line from VZ shows 900-960mbps down, which is expected, but ethernet-connected devices get maybe 200-400mbps.Last night, my HDs both had issues. The one in my office completely died, refusing to receive a signal, and the HD in my home refused to send out signals over ethernet (no IP address assigned, basically). Funny enough, in the app, it was showing my ethernet-connected devices on the office HD as connected to the ethernet of the home HD, but you couldn't connect to them.I performed a hard reset on the office HD and re-added it, as well as power-cycling the HD inside. That seemed to fix the problem, and ethernet in my office was getting the expected range. FWIW, I tested all ethernet cables with a cable tester.Less than 12 hours later, wifi speeds have dropped to around 50-70mbps across the board, regardless of endpoint. Ethernet is at about 200mbps. Disconnecting the main line from VZ and plugging directly into my laptop still yields proper speeds.I work in IT, so I've done my due diligence. I've tried all the typical troubleshooting steps. Hardware NAT is enabled. Bypassing DNS doesn't seem to make a difference (I don't have a PiHole or anything connected). Other advanced settings are working as expected. So I think my 6 year old routers are reaching their EoL. As such, I'm looking to replace them soon, and I'm looking for suggestions and opinions.I could simply replace one or both of the HDs (which provide more than enough for what we do - we only have one device that would take advantage of the 6ghz range). That would be the cheapest way to handle things. But I feel like, in 2022, that's not the smartest choice in mesh networking, especially not to keep things future-proofed, and I'd likely be spending more money in the long run to replace them in a couple years anyway. Additionally, the AP upstairs (which is required, otherwise devices don't stay connected) is hardware-paired to the HD downstairs, so... that's a problem.I'd love to go Alien, but I dunno if I can justify the price for two units. And, yes, I would need two units simply because of the disconnected office and needing that to be reliable. I'm also pretty confident that you cannot use an HD as a backhaul to an Alien, but... please correct me if I'm wrong. If I am wrong, I could probably swing one now and do one later, and skip the AP upstairs.I'd opt for Ubiquiti APs, but, if I'm going to upgrade, I'd like to have 6ghz capacity for future-proofing. Their only 6ghz-capable AP is almost as expensive as an Alien, and I'm not looking to have a networking shelf either. I want to keep things simple.I've heard good things about the TP Link Decos, but the lack of ethernet ports means I'm going to have to spend more money on switches. Not the worst problem in the world, but we're getting into more complexity that I'd like to avoid.I get it. Mesh with solid speeds and reliability in 2022 isn't cheap. But I don't have a grand to throw at routers right now either.So what suggestions do you all have?
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