Best Network Setup (Please help isolate an issue)

[elliott35]

I have been having issues with my home internet for a while now and I have just had to deal with it because I can't figure it out... I have Gigabit Fiber to the home, but I am getting about 5-20/mbps over wifi and 10-70/mbps over some ethernet connections and 500+ over others. It's all extremely inconsistent.... Should I have all my networks set to a single SSID? Can the setup I have auto negotiate handing off devices between 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz Properly? Do I need Better AP's? Is there something misconfigured in the router (had the same issue before the Edgerouter while I was using the EA7500 as a router)?

 

I would pay someone if they could figure this out... It's been years of struggling with this....

 

My Network (Basic):

Router - UBNT Edgerouter Lite

AP - TEW818DRU

AP - EA7500

 

Devices connected to the network (Tried to remember everything):

~4 Mobile phones (2x Pixel xl & 2x Iphone)

3 Wired Desktops

3 wireless windows laptops ( Surface Book 2, Macbook Air, HP Something)

2 Nest  Thermostats 

2 Nest Cams (Separate Hidden 2.4ghz network that nothing else is connected to)

1 Nest Protect

2 Sonos Connect Amps (ethernet)

1 Sonos Play 5 (Sonos Bridge via Ethernet)

7 Hue Bulbs (Via Bridge)

2 Amazon Echo's

1 Nvidia Shield TV

1 Chromecast Gen2

1 Chromecast Gen1

1 Wemo Smart Dimmer Switch

1 Wemo Smart outlet

1 Harmony Ultimate Home Remote (Via Ethernet)

1 Sony 940D

1 Slingbox (ethernet)

1 Epson Printer (Wifi)

1 WD My Cloud (Ethernet)

1 Custom Server running Freenas for plex (ethernet)

 

Network Map:

 

 

 

At this point i've tried everything I can think of. If someone has any other ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

[Mdgtman91]

Start troubleshooting by isolating equipment. Do tests with 1 device from each ap, then each switch, see if the problem is one of the network devices. If you get the same results then the issue might be at the individual device level. Take a problem device and test it from different APs and switches. Process of elimination is the start of solving any network issue.

[2FA]

The first step would be to determine if your EdgeRouter itself is able to get gigabit speed, then work your way down your topology from there.

[kirashi]

2 hours ago, elliott35 said:

I have been having issues with my home internet for a while now and I have just had to deal with it because I can't figure it out... I have Gigabit Fiber to the home, but I am getting about 5-20/mbps over wifi and 10-70/mbps over some ethernet connections and 500+ over others. It's all extremely inconsistent.... Should I have all my networks set to a single SSID? Can the setup I have auto negotiate handing off devices between 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz Properly? Do I need Better AP's? Is there something misconfigured in the router (had the same issue before the Edgerouter while I was using the EA7500 as a router)?

 

At this point i've tried everything I can think of. If someone has any other ideas I would greatly appreciate it.

31 minutes ago, Mdgtman91 said:

Start troubleshooting by isolating equipment. Do tests with 1 device from each ap, then each switch, see if the problem is one of the network devices. If you get the same results then the issue might be at the individual device level. Take a problem device and test it from different APs and switches. Process of elimination is the start of solving any network issue.

6 minutes ago, 2FA said:

The first step would be to determine if your EdgeRouter itself is able to get gigabit speed, then work your way down your topology from there.

This and this(this.above); are what you want to work on for your troubleshooting. Basically get the best computer in your house that has a wired network jack, and connect it directly to the ethernet port on the ONT, test speeds / connectivity. Then connect the Edgerouter Lite to the ONT, then the same computer to the Edgerouter, repeat tests.

 

Continue adding devices, testing after each addition, including testing multiple points as you add each switch. For instance, once you add the 6 port gigabit switch for the TV room AND the potato TEW818 router, test wired connections from BOTH of them. Effectively you're just adding devices and testing speeds until you see poor results - then you know where the issue is.

[elliott35]

So, I've been busy and here is the update. 

 

It appears that i had two separate issues on the network. The first was that the UBNT Edge-router Lite was only capable of ~250mbps maximum -- so it was causing a bottleneck. To solve this I created a Pf-sense Router with a I5 3570K, 8Gb of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. When Directly connected to this router or through my wired network I can pull the full bandwidth of ~850mbps. 

 

The second issue (that I haven't completely solved) is that the EA7500 appears to be capping out at ~20mbps. I switched the EA7500 with the TEW818 and the slow speeds followed the Linksys router. The EA7500 is setup as an AP and the default firmware is very limiting -- I may try installing DDWRT or some other firmware and see if that helps. I am not sure why that router/AP would be having issues, its clearly the nicer of the two AP's in the house. So more research is needed.

 

On another note, I am excited about the web caching capabilities of PFSense.

[Falconevo]

10 hours ago, elliott35 said:

So, I've been busy and here is the update. 

 

It appears that i had two separate issues on the network. The first was that the UBNT Edge-router Lite was only capable of ~250mbps maximum -- so it was causing a bottleneck. To solve this I created a Pf-sense Router with a I5 3570K, 8Gb of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. When Directly connected to this router or through my wired network I can pull the full bandwidth of ~850mbps. 

 

The second issue (that I haven't completely solved) is that the EA7500 appears to be capping out at ~20mbps. I switched the EA7500 with the TEW818 and the slow speeds followed the Linksys router. The EA7500 is setup as an AP and the default firmware is very limiting -- I may try installing DDWRT or some other firmware and see if that helps. I am not sure why that router/AP would be having issues, its clearly the nicer of the two AP's in the house. So more research is needed.

 

On another note, I am excited about the web caching capabilities of PFSense.

Glad you got that sorted with pfSense, the EdgeRouterLite has very low WAN<>LAN throughput which is a shame.  The EdgeRouter-X can do 'near' 1G speeds with minimal rules in the device.  You made the right choice by moving to pfSense on a physical box as you now have more features available.

 

Regarding the wireless AP's, personally I would look at keeping the same AP manufacturer and going for 1200AC+ models.  A personal recommendation would be to look at the AC Pro from Ubiquiti, you may need 2 depending on the size of your property but you can mesh any configured SSID(s).

[elliott35]

23 minutes ago, Falconevo said:

Glad you got that sorted with pfSense, the EdgeRouterLite has very low WAN<>LAN throughput which is a shame.  The EdgeRouter-X can do 'near' 1G speeds with minimal rules in the device.  You made the right choice by moving to pfSense on a physical box as you now have more features available.

 

Regarding the wireless AP's, personally I would look at keeping the same AP manufacturer and going for 1200AC+ models.  A personal recommendation would be to look at the AC Pro from Ubiquiti, you may need 2 depending on the size of your property but you can mesh any configured SSID(s).

Thanks. Yea, there is definitely something wrong with the Linksys but I think with a different firmware it should work better. It's a full triband AC wave 2 AP. 

 

I setup squid on the router and its amazing. I actually use a decent amount of that CPU horsepower. Fun new project. 

[Falconevo]

22 minutes ago, elliott35 said:

Thanks. Yea, there is definitely something wrong with the Linksys but I think with a different firmware it should work better. It's a full triband AC wave 2 AP. 

 

I setup squid on the router and its amazing. I actually use a decent amount of that CPU horsepower. Fun new project. 

Have a look at Snort or Suricata if you want to learn about intrusion detection/prevention systems plenty of additional packages for pfSense that help with learning new tech.