Help with networking layout and access points

[Mithril1991]

Hello,

 

First very TL;DR version:

I need help create stable home network in a big brick & concrete house (with basically no wood floors).

I need advice about:

 - If the structure of the network makes sense

 - If three access points will be enough with the whole house coverage

 - If APs of my choosing are okay for the purpose of: Home Office for Data Analyst, Online teacher and one permanent gamer (my brother).

The long version:

Current status: (For this part, consult picture Ground_floor and Ground_floor_2D in attachments)

Wife and I will be moving to my parents house where we will build floor for us and the current network is weak and shitty. The cable to modem/router goes under the floor from kitchen (around the biggy biggy hole) and that modem (provided by ISP) has to send signal across room full of furniture, and hallway towards living room, where is the extender, which already receives quite bad signal. That extended network is used by my dad in his Mancave, mainly for WhatsApp calls and sometimes by other members in the garden.

So basically current status was okay(ish) for the past as brother was connected to modem directly by Ethernet and for some time fine with the Extender, but since whole house is made from Porotherm 30 bricks (mainly outside walls, inside they are different, but still pretty hefty) and a lot of concrete, for future purposes of working from home and especially in the first floor, it just cannot be used anymore.

Even in the living room where is Smart TV and Kitchen, the WiFi quality just sucks. The whole range of the house is almost 20 * 16 metres.

 

My plan: (For this part, consult picture First_floor and First_floor_2D and Network_structure in attachments)

1. There is still cable phone in the kitchen, so I would start with moving the modem in the kitchen, or most probably into the attic with cabling via the biggy biggy hole. Biggy biggy hole is essentialy non-metallic tubing leading inside the walls into the attic, where is TV antenna so there should be still additional place for some phone/ethernet cables. 

 

2. From the modem I would lead ethernet cable to unmanaged switch (8 ports should be enough) and from switch into the 3x Access points and (in the future) NAS. 

Here I would stop by and ask, if the approximate location mentioned in the 2D plan would be enough, to cover whole 1st floor and the floor beneath. 

I will list the APs I was thinking about further below.

I would put the APs into the ceiling of the first floor from the attic (needs to have PoE). The goal is to have covered full house as much as possible, except the "modem room" of brothers, where I could just get the ethernet cable directly as he doesn't have WiFi on desktop PC. The location of AP #1 will be used as an office so there has to be great coverage and couls be used also for my father, as he is not using too much of the data. 

Does this seems logical/okay for you?  

I've put the icons in green/yellowish color to see what is in plan, in comparison with pure black (which is current situation) - just to have the visual difference.

 

3. The APs that I was mainly looking for were Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-LR (here I am not sure if the long range version is really needed). I need AP with Power over Ethernet as there is not many sockets in the attic. What else I would need for this?

My guess is some kind of PSU for the ethernet cables? What should I be looking for? UniFi seems quite rabbit hole (in terms of money mainly, lol).

I was looking into UniFi ecosystem because it seems user-friendly, although I don't have many issues playing with tech/scripting/settings (i like to do it I just need some push into specific direction). And my future plan also consists of having my small home media server.

 

I appreciate any constructive feedback as I am doing this on my own and in near future. Because of the reconstruction we are also kind of limited with the money, that's why I've chosen only threee access points, but in case, I am fine with going up to 5 of them. I am not willing to sacrifice the middle of the house in terms of coverage since it's where people mostly will be. But the outer parts are really, really nice to have stable as well. The number of average clients connected to the network will be around 10 - 15 on average, 20 max. I also have 2 old routers-only which can be used in the outter parts, but I am not sure about their ability being an AP and if that would even work. WiFi5 is fine as most of the clients actually cannot connect to WiFi 6 (at least I think so). Old TV, old phones, mainly 2,4GHz. Only work laptops support 5GHz (which is fine for me.)

 

Software used: SweetHome3D, Visio, Photoshop (for painting, lol).

 

As I am self-learner in this field, please be nice to me, I am willing to learn but I need some guidance. This was written based on my experience and research I've done in the past week and LTT forum is first one I've registered for thanks to Linus team.

Thank you in advance!

[Quickstrike]

What's your budget here?
Is the house's electricity on a single box?
Are the wall studs made from wood or aluminum?
Are the exterior walls covered in aluminum clapboard?
Will the WIFI be integrated for both floors?
 

[Quickstrike]

And how many and what type of users?
Also, how much streaming and at what resolution

[Mithril1991]

Hello, sorry for late reply, had no time during weekend.

On 5/21/2021 at 3:45 PM, Quickstrike said:

What's your budget here?
Is the house's electricity on a single box?
Are the wall studs made from wood or aluminum?
Are the exterior walls covered in aluminum clapboard?
Will the WIFI be integrated for both floors?
 

1. Let's say the budget is set in terms of best value per $. As I have no experience, according to my research, I was thinking about 1000$ at max, but I don't have a clue, if it's fitting or not.

2. Why this matters? There is single box in the house.

3. There are no wall studs. It's just plain brick and cement building. Whole house is build like a fortress, every inch of electrical wiring has to be drilled into the walls directly. 

4. Also there are no clapboards. The outside walls are made from 30cm thick brick (just google Porotherm 30) and on the outside part there is approx 15cm-20cm thick polystyrene and on it the facade paint. 

For point 3 and 4 I am actually quite unsure about my answers as I am not builder, so I am using a lot of googling as I hit the language barrier in this field. 

5. Wifi needs to be integrated and strong for both floors, yes. 

 

On 5/21/2021 at 3:46 PM, Quickstrike said:

And how many and what type of users?
Also, how much streaming and at what resolution

6. Not sure how to understand this question. Wife and I will be working from home usually whole week so 2 laptops, my personal PC (which will be most probably connected by ethernet cable) and a lot of phones (each household member have at least one phone - so 6x phones for sure). Then other additional devices, e.g. android box, wireless printer, smart TV of parents. During normal day (from 7am to 16:00), most of the network needs will have to be prioritized for me and wife (let's say 80% for us).

7. Not too much streaming, most of the devices are FullHD, TV will be in 1year+ switched to 4K, mainly used for Netflix.

 

Hopefully these are correct answers you are looking for. In any case, feel free to challenge me or my answers and I will try to reply as soon as possible.

 

Thanks mate!

 

[Quickstrike]

On 5/23/2021 at 3:49 PM, Mithril1991 said:

Hello, sorry for late reply, had no time during weekend.

1. Let's say the budget is set in terms of best value per $. As I have no experience, according to my research, I was thinking about 1000$ at max, but I don't have a clue, if it's fitting or not.

2. Why this matters? There is single box in the house.

3. There are no wall studs. It's just plain brick and cement building. Whole house is build like a fortress, every inch of electrical wiring has to be drilled into the walls directly. 

4. Also there are no clapboards. The outside walls are made from 30cm thick brick (just google Porotherm 30) and on the outside part there is approx 15cm-20cm thick polystyrene and on it the facade paint. 

For point 3 and 4 I am actually quite unsure about my answers as I am not builder, so I am using a lot of googling as I hit the language barrier in this field. 

5. Wifi needs to be integrated and strong for both floors, yes. 

 

6. Not sure how to understand this question. Wife and I will be working from home usually whole week so 2 laptops, my personal PC (which will be most probably connected by ethernet cable) and a lot of phones (each household member have at least one phone - so 6x phones for sure). Then other additional devices, e.g. android box, wireless printer, smart TV of parents. During normal day (from 7am to 16:00), most of the network needs will have to be prioritized for me and wife (let's say 80% for us).

7. Not too much streaming, most of the devices are FullHD, TV will be in 1year+ switched to 4K, mainly used for Netflix.

 

Hopefully these are correct answers you are looking for. In any case, feel free to challenge me or my answers and I will try to reply as soon as possible.

 

Thanks mate!

 

I had a crazy week so sorry for taking so long to reply

2: Because Of your integration with the 2 households
3: Concrete means rebar and that means interference caused by each walls.

 

With your answers I think your best bet is to setup a powerline network. The concrete and metal rods in your wall are going to play havoc on any type of mesh signal you might want to setup and you would get disappointing result for the money.

Powerline is an older tehc but it has it's advantages in your case. The biggest one is you can use existing electric wires to do it, no new holes needed.

Basically you will plug a powerline adapter near your router and an adapter/wifi repeater in each room where you want wifi or wired network. The electic box will act as your network hub.

 I suggest your get a gigabyte kit, I use the TP-Link AV1000Mbps kit in my home (metal studs in the floor blocks signal between floors). Each repeater will cost you about 40$ US you can plug computers, consoles and TVs with wires. Install a dumb switch in your media room for connectivity. That should work and you could start slow and built on the network if signal is weak in some rooms.

 

[Mithril1991]

Thanks mate, I will investigate the possibilities of your solution.

For now I take it as solved and we will see how it will end.

Cheers!