Home network setup

[USExpat]

Hi All,

Has anyone come across a good guideline for setting up a home network considering todays highly connected world?  

 

Normally I see all devices connected to one logical network either by wired, wireless 2.5 or 5 networks.  When you think about the categories of devices that we typically now have in our homes, I am wondering if there would be a better way to setup the network.  Maybe by making some VLAN's and segregating the traffic and setting some bandwidth limits for the various different categories of devices.

 

Normal categories that should be considered:

1. Computers
2. Televisions/HTPC/set top box
3. Gaming consoles
4. tablets
5. phones
6. guests
7. Home automation products
8. NAS
9. Plex servers
10. Others?

 

I first ran into a problem when my brother inlaw came with his large family and everyone connected to my wifi and my Asus RT-N56U froze up and stopped streaming.  

 

Any ideas or guidelines would be welcome.

 

Thanks

[techguru]

Hi All,

Has anyone come across a good guideline for setting up a home network considering todays highly connected world?  

 

Normally I see all devices connected to one logical network either by wired, wireless 2.5 or 5 networks.  When you think about the categories of devices that we typically now have in our homes, I am wondering if there would be a better way to setup the network.  Maybe by making some VLAN's and segregating the traffic and setting some bandwidth limits for the various different categories of devices.

 

Normal categories that should be considered:

1. Computers
2. Televisions/HTPC/set top box
3. Gaming consoles
4. tablets
5. phones
6. guests
7. Home automation products
8. Others?

 

I first ran into a problem when my brother inlaw came with his large family and everyone connected to my wifi and my Asus RT-N56U froze up and stopped streaming.  

 

Any ideas or guidelines would be welcome.

 

Thanks

first..upgrade your n56u....I would first try new firmware..if its still not enough..then need a new router

[skywake]

VLANs and QoS rules? Well they can help. They help manage a slow internet connection. But that's only an issue if it is the internet that's the problem. Basically the best solution is to have each device only doing one thing. Spread the load. Think about it, your router is quite literally a little computer. The cheaper ones tend to have lower end processors beacuse they expect that people aren't going to hammer them as much. When you have a whole bunch of things all connected to it at once? Devices asking for IP addresses, authenticating, sharing traffic? It puts a bit of a strain on it. So if functions of your router are turned off to the point where it's just a router? It's far less likely to overheat and crash.

 

Same with WiFi. Why have only one access point? Even ignoring the fact that you'll get pretty average coverage with just one think about how the traffic flows. If everything is going through one access point? You'll be limited to the available bandwidth of that one access point. This is why dual-band access points became a thing and more recently triple band. If you go out and buy two dual band access points and put them at other ends of your house? Well you've got "quad-band" wireless. And it'll not perform better if you have a lot of devices but it'll also be cheaper than some of the higher end devices.

 

My current setup is something along the lines of:

 

Internet -> router -> Switch ->

-> AC1200 AP1 -> phones tablets etc

-> AC1200 AP2 -> phones tablets etc

-> TV/Media etc 1

-> TV/Media etc 2

-> PC1

-> PC2

-> powerline -> Games room TV etc