3 Storey House Networking

[SalmanJunaid]

Hi everyone, my family and I just moved into a new 3 storey house and the networking is a nightmare. The ground floor is where the big living room is along with the kitchen, the second floor is where the majority of the bedrooms are and the third floor is where the guest rooms are. We live in Bahrain, a small middle-eastern nation, with very "average" ISPs. The current wifi setup runs of off a small router in a closet on the second floor. Pictures 1-4 show the back and front of the route, it has 4 Ethernet ports and they aren't enough. Firstly, I intend on using this switch http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017LWQIZA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE to get more ports and provide PoE to these APs http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-AC-PRO-access-point/dp/B016XYQ3WK/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1457980215&sr=1-1&keywords=ubiquiti+ac

I intend to place on AP on every floor to get the most coverage around the house. Also, since I've been away for uni, I've only seen the house when it was incomplete and it is big, the walls are thick to. If you guys can recommend a different or better setup, I'd very much appreciate that. 

 

Regards;

Salman Aljenaid

[Stardar1]

2 minutes ago, SalmanJunaid said:

Hi everyone, my family and I just moved into a new 3 storey house and the networking is a nightmare. The ground floor is where the big living room is along with the kitchen, the second floor is where the majority of the bedrooms are and the third floor is where the guest rooms are. We live in Bahrain, a small middle-eastern nation, with very "average" ISPs. The current wifi setup runs of off a small router in a closet on the second floor. Pictures 1-4 show the back and front of the route, it has 4 Ethernet ports and they aren't enough. Firstly, I intend on using this switch http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017LWQIZA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE to get more ports and provide PoE to these APs http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-AC-PRO-access-point/dp/B016XYQ3WK/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1457980215&sr=1-1&keywords=ubiquiti+ac

I intend to place on AP on every floor to get the most coverage around the house. Also, since I've been away for uni, I've only seen the house when it was incomplete and it is big, the walls are thick to. If you guys can recommend a different or better setup, I'd very much appreciate that. 

 

Regards;

Salman Aljenaid

1. Read title as "3 story horse networking", got very confused. 

 

(assuming you can run cables through walls)

 

put a router and modem on bottom floor, in a central location (preferably on an interior wall that extends to all floors

 

same place on other floors, a router, you can run cable from the modem up the walls. 

 

they can all be configured on one network, the  you have 4 ethernet per floor, and dont need any APs unless you decide one or 2 rooms has too weak a signel

[littlepigboy5]

well, that would work, but it's a lot of work for a smaller problem.  PoE is also not necessary, just might look better.  You don't need a switch, just have your main router passthrough it's ip address to two other routers and connect those directly to the first router.  No need for a switch or PoE

[ElectronicTechnology]

1 hour ago, Stardar1 said:

1. Read title as "3 story horse networking", got very confused. 

 

(assuming you can run cables through walls)

 

put a router and modem on bottom floor, in a central location (preferably on an interior wall that extends to all floors

 

same place on other floors, a router, you can run cable from the modem up the walls. 

 

they can all be configured on one network, the  you have 4 ethernet per floor, and dont need any APs unless you decide one or 2 rooms has too weak a signel

Are you suggesting to run a router on each floor, therefore, having 3 routers in total? That would cause some serious NAT issues in this case. Personally, I would stick with one router no matter the case and use the APs that OP suggested. In my opinion, this will have the connectivity a lot more fluid than conflicting NATs all over the place. If you were to use 3 different routers I suppose you could have the IPs configured in such a way that there are not any NAT problems, but at that point why not use APs.

[Razor512]

If you have 3 routers, then use them, just do a LAN to LAN setup so you do not get a double NAT.

 

PS, for future Ethernet runs (if they will have any kind of stress on them), do not strip the sleeving back so far, when you crimp the cable, it should crimp over the sleeve.

 

If you have not purchased any equipment yet, and do not have any extra routers laying around (including old ISP supplied ones that allow you to disable the DHCP server), then you can go with dedicated APs if you need, but if you need to save with older routers, then you should be fine with them also.

[SalmanJunaid]

To be frank, the second floor is where the majority of the users will be so having both a wired and wireless solution made the most sense to me. I haven't purchased any networking gear but having talked to my family they don't really have a budget, they just want a decent network. Also, I am planning on re purposing an old computer into a NAS, which is why I went for the Gigabit switch. Also, do you guys know if that one switch will provide enough power to 3 of those APs?

 

Cheers

[Razor512]

As long as each AP has an Ethernet port, then they will be fine. An AC1300 AP under ideal conditions  may top out at about 700Mbps throughput if you are very close to it (3-5 feet), thus 2 APs can share an Ethernet port on the switch, e.g., an additional one connected onto the secondary port with little to no impact in a real world setting.