Upgrading network with 2.5gb LAN

[ChewyD]

Hi all.

 

I am looking to upgrade my house network with a couple of goals in minds.

• Improve WiFi
• Move media server the 1st floor (3 storeys)
• Not running cables all through the house.

And I thought I may aswell put in 2.5gb LAN.

 

My current setup is using a ASUS RT-AC86U which is at the very front right corner on the ground floor (Lounge). With the media server plugged directly in. Powerline adapter is being used for a works laptop on the 1st floor at the back left corner of the house (has to be wired for company VPN to work). Because of the location of the router the WiFi signal in part of the house can be a bit weak. This setup 'works' just can have a poor experience in some parts of the house

 

My idea is to use a router like ASUS RT-AX86U Pro in the lounge, run a wire externally to the back room on the first 1st floor. Put in an 2.5gb 8 port switch. Have 2 wired 2.5gb device, 3 wired 1gb devices and use the old router as an Access Point. And at any point all the devices could be being used for work, gaming and media streaming.

 

What I am asking is, would this be a an improvement or would i experience other problems/bottlenecks.

Do anyone else have any better ideas without running cables through the house. I can get away with running 1 cable externally. Got to stick to a wife approval factor

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 hours ago, ChewyD said:

That's fine, you only need a single cable back to the router that can handle at least the speed of your broadband connection.

 

If your broadband is Gigabit or less you don't even need it to be 2.5Gbit right now, just make sure the cable is CAT6a so it can support faster speeds in the future if/when you need it.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I forgot to mention, the only caveat to this is if a machine on the routers WiFi is accessing the media server, that will be taking up bandwidth on that link too.  If all your WiFi devices that might access the media server are on the "old router as AP", then of course this is not an issue.

[ChewyD]

9 hours ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I forgot to mention, the only caveat to this is if a machine on the routers WiFi is accessing the media server, that will be taking up bandwidth on that link too.  If all your WiFi devices that might access the media server are on the "old router as AP", then of course this is not an issue.

Thanks for your responses

 

Are you talking about solely WiFi devices or wired aswell.

 

The Xbox connected to the main router will be wired and used for media content. Also the Plex server is shared with a couple of friends.

[Alex Atkin UK]

4 hours ago, ChewyD said:

Thanks for your responses

 

Are you talking about solely WiFi devices or wired aswell.

 

The Xbox connected to the main router will be wired and used for media content. Also the Plex server is shared with a couple of friends.

Yes the Xbox will use some bandwidth between the router and switch, but as its just a single device its unlikely to be an issue, especially as this would mostly be taking away from your upload bandwidth between the two. (Xbox is downloading from the media box so its effectively uploading to the router)

 

Your friends accessing Plex would be over the Internet anyway I presume?  So that would already be impacting your available bandwidth anyway.

You just have to think about how much traffic and which direction its going.  Even if you had Bluray rips on the Plex that's going to be around 30Mbit maximum?