Pondering... Home Network Setup...

[ChristopherP]

So our home network setup is this...

Virgin Media Superhub 2AC which is currently running in modem mode. Sat in the family room/kitchen area.

Cat 6 cable goes back out the house and into the back of my AV cupboard in the living room, straight into a TP Link Archer 3200 router.

That then feeds out to a Netgear 8 port POE switch which feeds:
- Internet service back out the of the house underground down the garden to a detached self contained granny annexe
(This feeds into another POE switch in the loft that connects two network sockets behind the TV unit, a POE IP camera and a Ubiquii Unifi LR AC WiFi access point to provide wifi in the annexe)
- POE IP camera outside the house
- Netgear Arlo camera system
- WiFi powerline adaptor
- Ethernet power line adaptor
- Sky Q box
- Denon AVR

And some other bits.

WiFi coverage is patchy, and I'm wondering if it's possible not to run the Virgin Media router in Modem Mode and make use of it's WiFi capabilities. Obviously this would mean I have a router connected to a router (can you do this?) rather than a modem connected to a router as it is now.

I don't really know a whole bunch about this stuff - but what I have so far seems to work OK but the WiFi could be better. The Powerline WiFi adaptors work - just - but the speeds drop down to about 10meg (which isn't great for a 200 meg connection!)

If I could enable WiFi on the superhub then I could run all of the 2GHz IOT devices (smoke alarms, heating system) from that and disable 2GHz on the TP Link Router.

Or is how I have it the best way?

 

[Ian]

I think the only sure answer is to try it out and see what happens - I've not used the Superhub much, so I don't know how powerful the WiFi is. At a guess, I'd have thought that the AC3200 router would be better though - but there's no harm in trying (especially as you could do it all via the admin interface without any hardware changes).

The AC3000 version of Netgear Orbi has come down to just under £300, so it's very expensive but would give you very fast internet throughout your house. Since switching over to that, we've almost eliminated homeplugs (I've still got one pair for a non-wifi device). Just a thought, as I've been very happy with mine.

 

[ChristopherP]

I think the only sure answer is to try it out and see what happens - I've not used the Superhub much, so I don't know how powerful the WiFi is. At a guess, I'd have thought that the AC3200 router would be better though - but there's no harm in trying (especially as you could do it all via the admin interface without any hardware changes).

The AC3000 version of Netgear Orbi has come down to just under £300, so it's very expensive but would give you very fast internet throughout your house. Since switching over to that, we've almost eliminated homeplugs (I've still got one pair for a non-wifi device). Just a thought, as I've been very happy with mine.

Hmm. Interesting. I did have my eye on the Google WiFi kit, I think mesh is probably the future... and I read good things about it. I think its essentially the same thing?

 

[Ian]

Yes, it's similar - although the Google WiFi kit is more smaller nodes, the Orbi is two or three very high power ones. They'll both do the job, but in different ways. I went for Orbi as it's got a dedicated backhaul and is extremely fast (we use it instead of a wired network for large transfers).

 

[MediaMonkey]

So our home network setup is this...

Christopher, you already have one of the best components out there, the Ubiquiti AP. Disable all other wifi capability (i.e. shut off all other wifi), get another AP for your main home and you should be fine.

Don't fall for marketing and that "mesh" buzzword. It's all fake news... if you have one or more Ubiquiti AP's in place, you've had a "mesh" since they were put into use. All this new hoopla over "mesh" is... combining smaller, less powerful units (i.e. they want to sell you many of these things) so they can "mesh" the wifi signal like it's some new thing... radio waves have "meshed" since they first existed.

I've got 1 outdoor Ubiquiti AP, and one indoor. My home is 4500 sq ft, and it's on 2 acres with moderate trees. I get complete wifi coverage everywhere on the property, and I've turned DOWN the broadcast strength to 25%... so forget about any of these other crappy devices. Go with your Ubiquiti equipment every time.

If I get interference from neighbors... I can power up my AP's and completely overwhelm their signals. So not a problem there.

And by the way, with Ubiquiti's products, you can broadcast your wifi up to 100km away from your house (if you had a need for that).

Do any of these "mesh" products do that? Of course not, because they are low-powered junk.

 

[Abarbarian]

And by the way, with Ubiquiti's products, you can broadcast your wifi up to 100km away from your house (if you had a need for that).

100km wow that is some kit.

 

[ChristopherP]

Christopher, you already have one of the best components out there, the Ubiquiti AP. Disable all other wifi capability (i.e. shut off all other wifi), get another AP for your main home and you should be fine.

Don't fall for marketing and that "mesh" buzzword. It's all fake news... if you have one or more Ubiquiti AP's in place, you've had a "mesh" since they were put into use. All this new hoopla over "mesh" is... combining smaller, less powerful units (i.e. they want to sell you many of these things) so they can "mesh" the wifi signal like it's some new thing... radio waves have "meshed" since they first existed.

I've got 1 outdoor Ubiquiti AP, and one indoor. My home is 4500 sq ft, and it's on 2 acres with moderate trees. I get complete wifi coverage everywhere on the property, and I've turned DOWN the broadcast strength to 25%... so forget about any of these other crappy devices. Go with your Ubiquiti equipment every time.

If I get interference from neighbors... I can power up my AP's and completely overwhelm their signals. So not a problem there.

And by the way, with Ubiquiti's products, you can broadcast your wifi up to 100km away from your house (if you had a need for that).

Do any of these "mesh" products do that? Of course not, because they are low-powered junk.

Thanks. I actually did just this before I saw your reply.

The WiFi performance in the house despite being on max isn't really any better than the Archer C3200 router, but I need to locate the Ubiquiti AP central in the house. I need to get my loft boarded before I can run the cabling. so a bit of a project. I'm confident that once this is done I'll get coverage.

I went for this solution as the AP was £90 whereas the decent mesh solutions were more with more "stuff" to plug in around the house.