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Buying advice for Gigabit WiFi in small, long, narrow condo

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bradleysmith

New Around Here
Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some buying advice for my home setup. I recently upgraded from 150Mbps internet to 1 Gigabit internet and am trying to maximize performance and coverage as part of this upgrade.

ISP Current Plan (in Canada):
TELUS PureFibre
Gigabit plan
(listed as 950Mbps down, 750Mbps up)
Previous plan: 150Mbps down/up

General usage/situation:
  • I work from home and work in tech, so I'm generally on lots of video conferences and transfer large files
  • Occasionally have visitors on the network (mostly for work related things)
  • Have a single television connected to an IPTV Box (TELUS Optik TV service). I will likely upgrade this to 4K in the future
  • Do lots of video streaming on the TV, iPads, laptop, etc. — sometimes simultaneously
  • Condo is in a 3-story apartment complex, so potential for interference

Wireless devices that must get on the network: (just the devices I own that are constantly in use)
  • MacBook Pro
  • iPad Pro 2018
  • Samsung tablet
  • iPhone XS
  • Sometimes an additional iPhone or two for testing
  • 2x Apple Watch 4
  • 4x Apple HomePods
  • AppleTV 4K
  • Thermostat
  • Media remote
  • Nintendo Wii
  • Visitors phones

Apartment layout

  • 580 sq. ft. single floor, ground floor unit
  • 13ft. high ceilings
  • long and narrow (around 38' from one end to other and 12.5' wide)
  • small outdoor patios on front and back (another 5-6' in length each)
  • communal condo courtyard beyond patio on one side
I've attached a diagram of the current state and layout of the unit. (Full resolution available here.)

Apartment wiring
  • Fibre terminates directly in the unit in a small wiring box in the closet/laundry room in the middle of the unit
  • Cat 5e (I think) is wired from that closet to one port in a wall of both the bedroom and the living room.
  • Power is available at all of those points, plus many others throughout the unit

Current setup
  • Wiring closet
    • Alcatel-Lucent 240G ONT for the fibre connection, directly into...
    • Actiontec T3200M modem/wifi router.
      • Router's wireless capabilities are disabled
      • Router is set to bridge mode for port 1.
    • Apple Time Capsule 802.11ac (circa 2013 — the small, tall one)
      • Connected to port 1 of the Actiontec
      • Handles all wireless clients in the unit
    • Port 2 of the Actiontec is wired to the living room (see below).
    • Port 3 of the Actiontec is wired to the bedroom (see below).
  • Living room (from port 2 of Actiontec)
    • Some cheap switch that TELUS gave me when they installed.
      • TELUS Optik TV box (Cisco)
      • Sony HDTV (mostly for software updates)
      • Apple TV 4K (this is disconnected normally, as the Apple TV is used on WiFi currently so that it's on the same "network" as the rest of my devices)
      • Potential future device: new AV Receiver
  • Bedroom (from port 3 of Actiontec)
    • Nothing in use here at the moment.

Current performance
  • When wired directly into the Apple Time Capsule, I get around 950Mbps-1.2Gbps down and 530Mbps up. Not sure why the upload is so slow, but TELUS is coming out to swap my Actiontec for some reason next week as part of completing the upgrade. I suppose they might pull the ONT in favor of SFP?
  • On wireless connected to the Time Capsule, I get around 350-500Mbps down from most spots in my apartment and 250-300Mbps up.
  • I get ok performance on the patios, as that extra distance and wall seems to really hurt things
  • I get spotty or no performance in the courtyard.

Goals
  • Maximize speeds on WiFi as much as possible for the Gigabit service I have. I know that I won't reasonably get close to actual 1Gpbs speed, but I'd like to do better than the 350-500Mbps I am seeing now.
  • Reach all areas in the apartment. Ideally I'd have satisfactory signal on the patios and better-than-nothing signal in the courtyard.
  • Connect devices wired where possible/practical for best speed/performance.
  • Support TELUS Optik TV.
    • Ideally I'd like to take the Actiontec out of the mix, but I failed at doing that with the Time Capsule because I didn't have enough configuration options to make it work without destroying the network or keeping TV from working.
    • If the above is not possible, continue using Optik TV driven by the Actiontec if required.
  • Relatively easy to manage. I'm tech savvy, but not a networking geek. I'm willing to tinker and deal with setup, etc, but I also don't want it to be a full time job.
  • Future proof. For needs for at least the next few years.
Budget
  • I plan to spend at minimum CDN $250, but could go up to $1000 for the right setup. I'd like to have a solid, reliable, higher-end setup (whatever that means).

Things I've looked at
  • A single, powerful router (like the Synology RT2600ac). Simple, single device. Could be a drop-in replacement for the Time Capsule keeping everything else the same. Might not fulfill all the goals and I've seen some mixed reviews.
  • Mesh networks. Generally these seem to be slower for max throughput than the Synology, but I'm not sure.
  • Prosumer/entry level enterprise (like Ubiquity). Mixing and matching routers, switches, and access points.

Any recommendations/tips for what I should pursue?

Thanks!
 

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Wow, quite the detailed post. I would say it's mostly positive news, as you're starting with a good wired backbone and 2 drops where you'd ideally want 2 APs for full wireless coverage. As a general rule, I would approach your setup in piecemeal fashion via discrete components.

Method #1 - You start with an AC Wave-2 all-in-one (AIO) and see if that delivers on its own. If it falls short, you could re-purpose it as just an AP, then drop in a wired router/switch in the closet, move the AIO to one of the ethernet drops, then add another AP to the other drop. If this method appeals, you might consider Asus gear for its AiMesh functionality. The downside here is more tinkering over time and you may be left with components that may perform less well in unison.

Method #2 (my general preference) - Start straight away with a wired "core" in the closet (wired router, optionally a switch) and an AC Wave-2 mesh wifi product with 2 APs, both on wired backhaul (powered optionally by PoE). IMHO, this will be noticeably superior to a single all-in-one in the closet (weak wifi at the edges and potential for flaky firmware) and even 2 standalone APs at the drops (lack of shared intelligence for better client connections, seamless roaming, and a slew of other things).

For your situation, I'm assuming no VPN or anything that must run in-software at line-rate. That would require a really beefy CPU, basically x86, and would need a $400+ box to accommodate. If we can rule that out, then you could get away with even a $50 Ubiquiti ER-X (maybe an ER-X-SFP if you anticipate SFP for an upstream connection straight to your ONT/modem), with hw-nat enabled. And don't be scared by the EdgeRouter suggestion. There are so many YouTube setup videos and web guides available at this point, that it shouldn't be that huge of a deal to get setup. From there, I would just wire 2 ports on the ER-X's built-in switch to 2 patch panel ports in the closet, which then lead to your bedroom and living room ethernet jacks. From there, you can setup 2 mesh APs, say 2 Eero Pro units running *in bridge mode* (important), via the wired backhaul, and plug-power them at the drops. Then run through the wireless system setup, and you're done.

If you wanted to do PoE for powering your APs, the simplest way would be with 2 single port injectors or a single multi-port, sitting between the ER-X and the patch panel. Next level would an actual PoE switch -- I would go web-managed, 8-port gigabit -- but that would involve a bit more setup work on your part and be an additional cost consideration, to ensure you get a good quality switch.

So that's what I would do. It should get your wired clients line-rate performance, give wifi clients hundreds of Mb/s of speed, plus seamless roaming, and do so for likely well under $1,000 all-in.
 
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Wow, quite the detailed post. I would say it's mostly positive news, as you're starting with a good wired backbone and 2 drops where you'd ideally want 2 APs for full wireless coverage. As a general rule, I would approach your setup in piecemeal fashion via discrete components.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply — and with such detail as well! I definitely am leaning towards discrete components as well, as it gives me the opportunity to make gradual changes if need be and make upgrades easier in the future.

Method #1 - You start with an AC Wave-2 all-in-one (AIO) and see if that delivers on its own. If it falls short, you could re-purpose it as just an AP, then drop in a wired router/switch in the closet, move the AIO to one of the ethernet drops, then add another AP to the other drop. If this method appeals, you might consider Asus gear for its AiMesh functionality. The downside here is more tinkering over time and you may be left with components that may perform less well in unison.

This method seems like basically just buying a replacement to my existing AirPort and trying it out. A good first step. But I think I agree with you that Method 2 is what I'd like to explore further...

Method #2 (my general preference) - Start straight away with a wired "core" in the closet (wired router, optionally a switch) and an AC Wave-2 mesh wifi product with 2 APs, both on wired backhaul (powered optionally by PoE). IMHO, this will be noticeably superior to a single all-in-one in the closet (weak wifi at the edges and potential for flaky firmware) and even 2 standalone APs at the drops (lack of shared intelligence for better client connections, seamless roaming, and a slew of other things).

For your situation, I'm assuming no VPN or anything that must run in-software at line-rate. That would require a really beefy CPU, basically x86, and would need a $400+ box to accommodate. If we can rule that out, then you could get away with even a $50 Ubiquiti ER-X (maybe an ER-X-SFP if you anticipate SFP for an upstream connection straight to your ONT/modem), with hw-nat enabled. And don't be scared by the EdgeRouter suggestion. There are so many YouTube setup videos and web guides available at this point, that it shouldn't be that huge of a deal to get setup. From there, I would just wire 2 ports on the ER-X's built-in switch to 2 patch panel ports in the closet, which then lead to your bedroom and living room ethernet jacks. From there, you can setup 2 mesh APs, say 2 Eero Pro units running *in bridge mode* (important), via the wired backhaul, and plug-power them at the drops. Then run through the wireless system setup, and you're done.

If you wanted to do PoE for powering your APs, the simplest way would be with 2 single port injectors or a single multi-port, sitting between the ER-X and the patch panel. Next level would an actual PoE switch -- I would go web-managed, 8-port gigabit -- but that would involve a bit more setup work on your part and be an additional cost consideration, to ensure you get a good quality switch.

So that's what I would do. It should get your wired clients line-rate performance, give wifi clients hundreds of Mb/s of speed, plus seamless roaming, and do so for likely well under $1,000 all-in.

I definitely like the idea of two access points in the living room and the bedroom. My biggest concerns, though, with going to two wireless APs wired at each of the drops is getting my wired devices on the same network (for things like AirPlay, etc.) and ensuring that my TELUS Optik TV box (Cisco 7150, IPTV PVR) still functions.

Right now with my current setup, my main "wireless" network is the Time Capsule, getting it's connection from a bridged port 1 on the Actiontec (which is connected directly to the ONT). Ports 2 and 3 of the Actiontec are wired in the patch panel to the two rooms. This put my Optik TV box on essentially its own walled off network, but enabled the TV to continue working properly. This also meant that my Sony TV is on that network as well, as it only has a wired connection (which isn't the end of the world — I just use it for software updates). The Apple TV, on the other hand, I had to abandon using the wired connection because of this, as AirPlay and other inter-device communication would not work. The other devices that could potentially be wired (AV Receiver, game consoles, etc.) would ideally be on my main network, too, but obviously could not be in this situation.

Now with your suggestion to moving to an ER-X (which I'll probably do regardless of where I end up with the rest of the setup), it might open up an opportunity to address one or both of my above concerns. But I'm not 100% sure there.
  1. On the TELUS Optik TV front, if I could configure the ER-X or similar properly (which wasn't possible with the Time Capsule), would I be able to drive the Optik TV box directly without the Actiontec in the mix?
  2. Would I need an additional router in the mix because of the presence of the Optik TV box in the room with multiple other wired devices? Or would a switch work?
  3. If I did need the Actiontec to make the Optik box work, would there be a place I'd have to put it in the network? Would it need to be upstream of the ER-X? Or between the ER-X and the patch to the living room? Or could I put it after a switch in the living room so it goes just to the Optik box.
I've attached a draft diagram of what I was thinking if I could — in theory — remove the Actiontec from the mix. Ideally I'd like for everything to be on the same network, with the possible exception of the Optik box on its own VLAN (as I imagine that's what has to be done to get IPTV playing nicely with the network). Is this even possible?
 

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Thanks for the diagram and additional info. I'll start at the internet drop and move downstream from there.

With the ONT and Actiontec, you should probably leave the Actiontec as-is to handle ISP connection negotiation, for two main reasons: 1) authentication can sometimes be tough or impossible to replicate and replace with your own gear and 2) having it in-place could be the only way to get support for service issues on-premise. That's a very brief substantiation, but trust me, it's probably best to leave the Actiontec in-play.

For routing and firewall, the ER-X is likely fine, and is still one of the better choices for simple NAT and non-CPU intensive routing.

For switching, yes, you will want VLAN management capability, at least along the entire network path to your IPTV box, if not the entirety of your LAN. For your core switch, the simplest option would be the one built into the ER-X. You could do a separate physical switch, but your LAN traffic load is likely so light that I doubt you'd realize any actual real benefit. For access switching, you'll need 8-16 L2 managed ports in the living room (enough ports for all devices and VLAN management capability for the IPTV). In the bedroom, you could just go with the single jack to the AP, or do a small switch, depending on if you need to wire-in anything else. A note on PoE: I excluded it for now, as without a pressing need established, it just brings in extra cost and complexity, but if you did want it, I'm happy to get into how best to do it, based on how you want it delivered.

For wifi, you'll likely want a product whose VLAN settings are configurable. That probably rules out most whole-home and SOHO products, but I would still double-check that perhaps Eero or something similar do or don't offer that level of configurability. I can see, though, that you're already thinking UniFi, which is a decent choice, more so when going with an all-UniFi stack for routing (USG), switching (UniFi Switch) and wifi, but it's still decent on its own and tends to serve lighter-weight topologies very well. It does have some controller limitations, the concessional stability issue/bug and performance oddities in certain RF environments, but nothing is perfect, especially for how cheap they are. If you wanted to really setup it up, I would look into Ruckus or Aruba. IMHO, they blow UniFi out of the water in certain areas (Ruckus for radio performance, Aruba for software stack) but they're likely overkill, which I completely admonish and understand.
 
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With the ONT and Actiontec, you should probably leave the Actiontec as-is to handle ISP connection negotiation, for two main reasons: 1) authentication can sometimes be tough or impossible to replicate and replace with your own gear and 2) having it in-place could be the only way to get support for service issues on-premise. That's a very brief substantiation, but trust me, it's probably best to leave the Actiontec in-play.

That's good to know. I know I originally tried to run the ONT straight to the Time Capsule when I originally got fibre, and either the TV didn't work or the internet stopped working (depending on what setting I chose in the limited Time Capsule admin).

Just to clarify your suggestion from above, you are saying...
Fibre connection --> ONT --> Actiontec --(via port 1 in bridge mode)--> ER-X --> both rooms

Essentially the difference would be that I wouldn't use Port 2 of the Actiontec to go to the living room like I'm doing today, instead relying on the ER-X to do the routing and VLAN work (along with the switch)?

For routing and firewall, the ER-X is likely fine, and is still one of the better choices for simple NAT and non-CPU intensive routing.

For switching, yes, you will want VLAN management capability, at least along the entire network path to your IPTV box, if not the entirety of your LAN. For your core switch, the simplest option would be the one built into the ER-X. You could do a separate physical switch, but your LAN traffic load is likely so light that I doubt you'd realize any actual real benefit. For access switching, you'll need 8-16 L2 managed ports in the living room (enough ports for all devices and VLAN management capability for the IPTV). In the bedroom, you could just go with the single jack to the AP, or do a small switch, depending on if you need to wire-in anything else. A note on PoE: I excluded it for now, as without a pressing need established, it just brings in extra cost and complexity, but if you did want it, I'm happy to get into how best to do it, based on how you want it delivered.

Agreed that my LAN traffic load is probably light enough to not need an extra physical switch in the wiring closet.

And for the moment I don't really see the need for PoE, as I have power drops where each of the ethernet drops are. I suppose it could make positioning an AP a little easier without needing to run the extra cable, but for my needs it's not really necessary or worth the expense.

In the bedroom I'll likely keep it to the AP just directly plugged into the wall jack and only look at adding a switch if I end up adding devices in there beyond that.

For wifi, you'll likely want a product whose VLAN settings are configurable. That probably rules out most whole-home and SOHO products, but I would still double-check that perhaps Eero or something similar do or don't offer that level of configurability. I can see, though, that you're already thinking UniFi, which is a decent choice, more so when going with an all-UniFi stack for routing (USG), switching (UniFi Switch) and wifi, but it's still decent on its own and tends to serve lighter-weight topologies very well. It does have some controller limitations, the concessional stability issue/bug and performance oddities in certain RF environments, but nothing is perfect, especially for how cheap they are. If you wanted to really setup it up, I would look into Ruckus or Aruba. IMHO, they blow UniFi out of the water in certain areas (Ruckus for radio performance, Aruba for software stack) but they're likely overkill, which I completely admonish and understand.

Good to know that it's better to go all-UniFi if I'm going down that path rather than mixing and matching across brands. Definitely haven't decided that UniFi is the right thing just yet, so I've removed that label and instead just marked them as "Access Points" for now as I continue to plan it out. I'll look into some Access Points solutions, including the Ruckus and Aruba you suggested!

Attached is the current diagram with my current understanding of things.

Thanks so much for all your help!!!
 

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You're very welcome. And yes, you've got the right general concept and diagram.

As far as how VLAN management will work, in short, yes, the access switch you use in the living room and the ER-X will have to be configured for whatever VLAN will be used for the IPTV (and any other desired VLANs). Very basically described, on the living room switch, you'll "tag" the traffic on the port connected to the IPTV with with the desired VLAN ID (number), then also add that VLAN ID to the uplink port of the same switch (often called "trunk" or "access" port, depending on vendor) that goes from the switch to the ethernet jack leading back to the ER-X. On the ER-X's port where that line is coming in, you'll add a port-based VLAN of the same number and subnet, to allow that VLAN's traffic to ingress into the ER-X and egress out to the internet, and vice-versa. Additionally, if you want to isolate the IPTV network, you'll have to do some firewall work on the ER-X to drop traffic between that VLAN and other local subnets. Guides for all of this are readily available on the vendor site(s), forums and on numerous personal/professional blogs through careful Googling. It's also *great* knowledge to acquire, as it will serve you well in designing out any further network upgrades, for you or your colleagues.

Re- wifi, I do lean towards higher level stuff in cases where the budget is there and I'm inclined to think it would make a noticeable difference. For example, if you were hell-bent on seamless roaming and solid performance in dirty RF space, I'm pointing you to Ruckus. Plain and simple. That said, much of a product like that may be complete overkill for your priorities, and UniFi may indeed be a better fit. Either way, the beauty of having discrete components is you can always try and substitute to get exactly what you want. No shame in starting off basic and moving up the gamut, which would go roughly in this order: standalone SOHO AIO/AP, whole-house wifi (Eero, Orbi, etc.), SMB wifi (Omada, UniFi), finally enterprise (Ruckus, Aruba, Cisco Aironet).

Good luck with your setup!
 
Thanks so much, Trip! I'll report back with my decisions, progress, and experience as I go — just in case it's helpful in the future for anyone else!
 
Thanks so much, Trip! I'll report back with my decisions, progress, and experience as I go — just in case it's helpful in the future for anyone else!

Indeed, thanks to all for a great discussion!

OE
 
@bradleysmith - Certainly welcome! One item I neglected to get specific on is a switch for the living room (layer 2/2+, web-managed, 8+ ports). I prefer Cisco SG (200 or 300 series) or HPE (1820, 1920S). If you do UniFi for wifi, you could go UniFi Switch; I'd avoid EdgeSwitch, though, as its firmware needs more time in the oven, IMHO. If you end up not doing Ubiquiti wifi, then Cisco and HPE do great in mixed vendor stacks. A good fit then might be a Cisco SG350-10, which at current street price is an insane deal (it actually has layer 3 capability, but you don't have to use it that way), and it has dedicated uplink ports (9 and 10), which I like, versus having to burn one of the access ports (1-8) for backhaul.

@OzarkEdge - Indeed, we've certainly run the gear gauntlet. Maybe it gave you some ideas? :)
 
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@OzarkEdge - Indeed, we've certainly run the gear gauntlet. Maybe it gave you some ideas? :)

The user case detail and your input both help to paint the picture. I'm a standalone SOHO AIO user dabbling in consumer whole-house wifi like many homeowners (AiMesh)... the additional information here helps to keep it all in perspective. I don't anticipate any Cisco class hardware in my future... but I do own a bunch of their stock since the 90s! :)

OE
 

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