I came to post my experience with the new G3100 router vs the G1100 'quantum gateway' on my fios gigabit connection:
a) for those considering the same switch
b) maybe someone knows something to help me
I have about a 3,000sqft 2 story house and currently have the G1100 in the basement where I work. Everything is hardwired in the basement and wireless on the 2 floors above. We have one extender in a room upstairs furthest from the router and one small 'slow zone' on the first floor under the same general area.
I ran some before and after speed tests from the crucial areas I was hoping to resolve with the G3100's increased range and speed. All tests below were done on the 5ghz band.
Samsung Note 8 performing wireless speed tests (down/up)
Aorus Z390 pro motherboard performing hardwire tests (down/up)
G1100:
HARDWIRE
Basement: 880/920
WIRELESS
Basement: 350/420
First Floor Central Location: 180/210
First Floor 'Slow Zone': 60/70
Upstairs Central Location: 100/120
Upstairs 'Slow Zone' (w/ extender) 240/320
Upstairs 'Slow Zone' (no extender) 15/20
G3100:
HARDWIRE
Basement: 480/590 (**bleep**?)
WIRELESS
Basement: 250/250
First Floor Central Location: 210/180
First Floor 'Slow Zone': 60/50
Upstairs Central Location: 50/50
Upstairs 'Slow Zone' (old extender doesn't work w/ G3100) No 5ghz Signal
As you can see the G3100 seems to be much worse in generally every aspect except for the first floor central. The hardwire speeds are somehow even significantly slower. I am hoping someone thinking of switching will read this and help their decision or someone else will know something i might have done wrong? My overall experience with the G3100 had really been very poor. I am thinking about just returning the G3100 and adding another extender for the first floor for the G1100 and calling it a day, or researching some 3rd party router and moca adapter setups...
Solved! Go to Correct Answer
G3100 and G1100 all have their deficits and advantages.
I would not recommend to upgrade a functioning G1100 to G3100 for two reasons. First, as you can see, G3100 does not necessary offer faster wired speed and wireless speed on 802.11ac 5GHz. Second, if you do not have 802.11ax capable devices, G3100 does not give your WLAN an upgrade.
One thing G3100 is better than G1100 is the MoCA 2.5 capabilities. G1100's MoCA 2.0 caps all extenders to 500Mbps wired.
G3100 and G1100 all have their deficits and advantages.
I would not recommend to upgrade a functioning G1100 to G3100 for two reasons. First, as you can see, G3100 does not necessary offer faster wired speed and wireless speed on 802.11ac 5GHz. Second, if you do not have 802.11ax capable devices, G3100 does not give your WLAN an upgrade.
One thing G3100 is better than G1100 is the MoCA 2.5 capabilities. G1100's MoCA 2.0 caps all extenders to 500Mbps wired.
Can you recommend, based on my household situation above, any good upgrades?
I guess maybe just adding an additional extender could be a solid fix. One for the first floor and one for the second floor?
What are the best (range/speed wise) routers these days?
I need more information from you then. What is your house's wiring? Do you have ethernet cables all over the house or coax only?
How feasible is it for you to pull new ethernet wires?
it's coax to the 1st and 2nd floors, ethernet in the basement.
I COULD pull new ethernet wires, but if i could throw some money at nicer equipment id rather just do wireless. All options theoretically are on the table however
You could buy extenders, for instance WCB6200Q, sold for $120 by Verizon.
But with your G1100, all MoCA extenders' throughput will be capped at 500Mbps.
If you want speed higher than 500Mbps, I suggest you to either pull some ethernet cables or buy ECB5240M ($55) from Verizon to overcome G1100's MoCA limitation.
Cost consideration for 800+Mbps wired and 400+Mbps wireless around the house
1. No new cabling: 1 WCB6200Q + 1 ECB5240M < 1 G3100, $175 < $300
2. New cabling: cabling cost (? wire (~$30) + time + tools) + 1 Aruba AP11 ($90) < 1 G3100, ~$120 < $300
Cost consideration for 500+Mbps wired and 400Mbps+ wireless around the house
1 WCB6200Q < 1 G3100, $120 < $300
ECB5240M is a Bonded MoCA 2.0 ethernet adapter and 4 ports switch sold by Verizon. Aruba AP11 is a third party access point offering 802.11ac 400+Mbps (same as G1100 and WCB6200Q wireless standards).
The above are your options per my recommendation.
Honestly, thank you so much for taking the time to post this!
I am going to research the MoCA adapter this evening and see if maybe that fits the bill for upgrading a bit upstairs.
Again i really appreciate the time you took to assist me with these options to research. I will be carefully considering all of them.
Thank you!
May I recommend an EERO system.
I was having issues with everyone being home and on virtual meetings at the same time and this fixed my issues.
No where in my house do I get less then 300mbps wifi...
Ethernet is better than Coax MoCA. MoCA, given it is wired, should be better than no wires (i.e. wireless).
Always wire as much as you can before resorting to wireless.
A new EERO system may cost more than buying 5 used G1100 from Ebay ($37). G1100 can deliver over 500Mbps+ on 802.11ac when it is in sight.
@Cang_Household wrote:
One thing G3100 is better than G1100 is the MoCA 2.5 capabilities. G1100's MoCA 2.0 caps all extenders to 500Mbps wired.
Wait, I'm confused.
The router connect to coax moca too. But if the extender connects to coax moca it is limited to 500Mbps? What if the router is plugged in, is it limited too?
Not sure what is the full context of your question.
If you only have a G1100 and Fios Network Extenders Gen 2 or Fios Extender, G1100 would cap all extenders to 500Mbps when accessing the Internet. Extenders to extenders should remain at 1000Mbps or 2500Mbps for E3200s.
You can think the G1100 as a bottleneck in a water pipe. Any traffic passing the G1100's MoCA interface would be capped at 500Mbps. If you only use G1100's Ethernet interface, the cap would be increased to 1000Mbps gigabit Ethernet.
@Cang_Household wrote:Not sure what is the full context of your question.
If you only have a G1100 and Fios Network Extenders Gen 2 or Fios Extender, G1100 would cap all extenders to 500Mbps when accessing the Internet. Extenders to extenders should remain at 1000Mbps or 2500Mbps for E3200s.
You can think the G1100 as a bottleneck in a water pipe. Any traffic passing the G1100's MoCA interface would be capped at 500Mbps. If you only use G1100's Ethernet interface, the cap would be increased to 1000Mbps gigabit Ethernet.
Okay that makes sense, thank you!
We recently had to have our ONT, G1100, and Extender replaced. The technician didn't have a G1100 on the truck so installed the G3100 and Extender. It works but we are not seeing an increase in speed on any device even those newer devices with AC Wi-Fi. Also, the G3100 is supposed to have significantly more Wi-Fi range than the G1100 but we are not seeing it. The SON on the G3100 works better than the G1100 but it is still finicky and many devices still only connect to the slower, weaker, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network so we had to turn off SON and setup different SSIDs for the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz network so make devices connect to the faster Wi-Fi manually! The G3100 does have a tr-band system so you will have two 5 GHz SSIDs. The G3100 and Extender are costing us another $25 a month to rent and are not worth it based on no increase in Wi-Fi speed. Additionally the G3100 and Extender are bigger than the G1100 and Extender so factor that in as well. One other item the power cord for the extender is shorter than the G1100 Extender power cord and does fit our dresser properly now. Thanks for your post.
Newer devices should have 802.11ax WiFi, not 802.11ac. Devices with 802.11ac is not newer. On a WiFi 6 capable device, you can pull over 900Mbps down and 700Mbps up on G3100 and E3200.
As I learn more deficits about WCB6200Q and G1100, I would now recommend every one to upgrade to G3100 and E3200.
I meant AX. Thanks. The WiFi 6 Icon shows but the speeds are not there and they are often throttled down! As an example, I turned off SON and set up individual SSIDs. I turn on one of the 5 GHz Wi-Fi and get 1.1 Gb speed! Do not move and check it again a few minutes later and I have 144 Mbps speed? This is happening on all bands and I am well within the range of the Router and Extender.
As this thread is now old, it will be locked in order to keep discussions current. If you have the same or a similar question/issue we invite you to start a new thread on the topic.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
