Home Networking [A Noob That Is Going Mad]

[kiicki]

So I had a day from work today and been struggling with home networking for almost two days. I honestly can't even remember when I woke up last time and I'm kinda feeling dizzy especially with all the trouble I have had with home networking. (Excuse me for not knowing exactly what router, modem, access point etc is. I think I have a good idea about it, but it's still bad.

So the new ISP I got a few days ago delivers: home-line, TV and internet. The TV box they gave me is actually a access point kinda thingy too. It has 4 LAN ports? No internet port and it has wifi. So I assume it runs like an access point. I got fiber and the new router they installed which is also the modem I believe is placed on the 2nd floor. My house is 2 floors btw. The big issue bit this ISP is that they don't allow you do to router settings changes. I cannot even change the SSID, wifi password or the wifi channel. probably other good stuff too and only thing I can really change is if I want to enable/disable wifi 2.4 or 5ghz. I don't even have permission to enable/disable bridge mode.

Since I have a spare Dlink 868L, I rather use that on my 2nd floor. At least hook it up to the new router/modem they provided as I think the Dlink is a lot better but best part is that it's a lot more customizable as I can indeed change router settings.People that tend to stay on 2nd floor will connect to the Dlink 868L with wifi. It also has LAN ports if someone would be needed that. 2nd floor seems simple enough but I have no idea if I should make the new router/moden into bridge and the dlink into a access point.

Now to the 1st floor, I want good wifi there too and to have the option to have multiple LAN ports so I can hook up my PS4, TV etc. This is where my TV box will be which also has wifi and 4 LAN ports so it can be used as an access point? Problem is that they kinda only allow the new router they provided to be hooked up with the TV box as that is the only way it will TV signal. weird enough but it's actually true. Connecting from my Dlink to my tv box and I have no TV signal. However if I make the Dlink to an access point and then hook it from there to the TV box, it works. In that way I can use one cable to give tv signal and internet to the tv box. I can potentially hook a cable from the new router to the TV box and i would achieve the same thing but that cable is something I want to remove. I rather have a cable down from the dlink and I only want one cable to go down. because the new router is a bit further away, that cable has been merged with another cable so I could make it longer. Not a great solution but it was something that made sense with my old provider. I do indeed at the moment have two cables running down from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. One cable coming from my dlink which is tiny closer and another cable that comes from the new router. with my old ISP, where the "new router" is now is where my old ISP box was placed and it was the only box I could connect from to my TV to make it work. I even had to merge that cable where the cable from dlink was just long enough to use it in my PS4. At that time I didn't have a router/access point downstairs which I do now, so I do indeed only want one cable from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. It's cleaner and I don't like one of the cables that is merged together with a different cable to make it longer.

Today I chatted with my ISP for a very long time as they are the only one that can makes changed. They even spent a hour to find the ip address for the tv box (Not LAN address) but the address that I can type in the web browser to access the settings. I can actually do some settings on my tv box and I would prefer to use that one downstairs. Not just because of the TV feature but because I can hook LAN ports from it and connect to wifi.

We even had major issues when they enabled "bridge mode" on my new router/modem. I could not even get access to the internet even if I hooked up an Ethernet cable from the modem itself to the PC. now, when they enable bridge mode, 1 port on the router is for internet and the 3 other ports are for TV. when it's not bridged, it honestly doesn't look like it matters.

Sorry for a long post and a confusing one and I know the writing is terrible but I'm extremely tired and actually dizzy looking at the screen. Haven't slept for a while and I couldn't leave the networking as it is.

My current setup is that the modem is NOT in bridge mode. It's connected to my dlink in the Internet port. Yes, the dlink is not access point as I had trouble with that. New router is also connected to the tv box where I now I have TV and internet on the TV box, even with that merged cable. I have a cable from the Dlink down to my PS4 which technically i don't need as I can just use a smaller cable and hook up from the TV box and into the PS4.

Should I do bridge mode? What should me AP? What should I actually do and why am I having such a big trouble? I have had the dlink in AP but the speed was ok and minutes later it drops from 75mbps to .5mbps. Extremely slow and something is wrong. The current setup works fine enough but I know it can be better. I also don't want to use that merged cable as I prefer it coming from the dlink and down to the tv box but for it to give tv signal, it seems like the dlink needs to be AP.