Home Network Question

[iNeedNetworkingHelp]

Due to getting new hardwood floors throughout the house I had to drop the coaxial through the floor and into the basement. Obviously this presents some challenges now to get WiFi up on the first and especially the second floor. I’ve been looking at range extenders and access points to help improve the situation. Would it be necessary to get 2 and have one on each floor? Or could I just put one on the second floor and have it trickle down to the first? I also am looking to get a new router because now that I have 1gig speeds a 2011 apple router isn’t going to cut it. Another issue that I’ve ran into was with some of our smart home devices (Alexa, Phillips Hue, Ring, WeMo) I tried to cut the router out of the mix and just use the Arris modem for WiFi but it had 2 separate networks and which you had to change between manually (2.4, 5.2) This was a problem because some devices would connect to one network and others would connect to another which was a complete mess and I ended up just plugging the old router back in. I’ve heard that there are some devices that merge like 3 different bands into one network so that looks interesting. Essentially I came to ask what I should do and any recommendations of what to get (Good routers, good range extenders/access points-and what the difference is between the two) As well as the fact that I’m supposed to be getting 1 gig speeds but instead I’m only getting about 60mbs over WiFi-I think that the router is the bottleneck. I also have power line going from the modem to my desktop on the second floor and I’m only getting like 15mbs which I find really strange. Eventually the plan is to run Ethernet up there but any solutions in the meantime would be helpful. Thanks.

[phoenixflower]

Networking is a rabbit  hole.  The first thing you asked about which is range extenders.  They are a waste of time and money due to how they work.  If you would like a fully explanation of how they work I can either provide a short explanation or find a youtube video.

 

The best thing you can do is have a centralized router with different access points.  In most cases the products that you're looking up from netgear, asus and the like are combination units.  Meaning that they provide the routing and the wireless access point.

 

Getting a router to actually do 1 Gbps outside of a simple speed test is not a trivial task you'll probably want to look into pfsense/sophos and look at some decent hardware.  You're looking a $500-$800 bill just for the router when you go in this direction.  You would also need a couple access points depending on how big your living arrangements are.  You'll find that raw speed isn't necessarily the deterministic factor but also the available software stack.  Quality of Service (QoS) is a huge part of how to delivery stuff to multiple clients at the same time without network degregation.

 

I personally use Pfsense alongside Ubitiquiti access points.  Before I had my house rigged with Cat 7 ethernet I used MOCA to solve all of my room to room problems to connect my pfsense router to the other access points.

 

 

https://www.ui.com/products/#unifi are all the Ubiquiti access points

 

I also use a Ryzen 2600 for my router because it's a 65W TDP part, but you can certainly use something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Kingdel-Generation-Broadwell-Graphics-4xUSB3-0/dp/B01BEOWZYE/ref=sr_1_25?keywords=mini+computer+dual+nic&qid=1564778847&s=electronics&sr=1-25

 

If you want to go shopping for better parts.  The basic idea is you want a x86 processor and at least 2 NICs

 

If you're willing to give up some of the finer control of your network and want a more consumer friendly approach.  You can buy into the  Asus mesh networking setup.  In which you have one one of the products become your router/access point/mesh mediator and you have the second one simply act as an access point.

 

https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-RT-AC5300-AiProtection-Compatible-Accelerator/dp/B0167HG1V6/ref=asc_df_B0167HG1V6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309743296044&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5062168658787977666&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011869&hvtargid=pla-525794386221&psc=1

 

Is a solid recommendation

 

I recommend you connect them over Ethernet.  Since you have coax in the house it may be easier to connect them over MOCA

 

https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Adapter-Ethernet-2-Pack-MM1002/dp/B078HMDDVS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=motorola+moca+adapter&qid=1564778405&s=electronics&sr=1-3

 

This will leave the airways free for clients and cause the cross AP traffic.

 

To be clear when you have them in wireless mesh mode (which is a feature) then when you access your Network from the satellite nodes it will do client -> satellite node -> WIFI -> mesh coordinator.  This stops being functional after a set of clients or so.  It's probably 10/15 clients (don't quote me on this).  When you have all of  your mesh points connected by ethernet (in your cause it would MOCA) then you simply have client -> satellite node -> MOCA -> mesh coordinator

 

 

Also powerline adapters don't work that well if you have to go through the breaker.  They're great if you trying to connect a few rooms together that are on the same line, but if each of the rooms you're targetting has their own line, it means that in order for them to communicate with each other over a powerline adapter, they will have to go through the breaker.

 

 

Also most modems are really good at being modems but really bad at being routers/access points.  It seems like a crazy request to ask a box to be a router, an access point for the entire house, and the modem.  You'll find you'll get better performance by having a third party router and putting your modem in bridge mode/IP Passthrough mode.  The name changes based on who your Internet Service Provider is.

 

I hope it helps