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New router and large coverage wireless advice

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Kupermanp

New Around Here
Hi,

Been doing the usual reading etc. I currently have R7500v2 which I hate. The stock firmware sucks and I have had endless problems with wireless dropout. I have been working with customer service for netgear since april without any improvement. This router has got to go.

My goals
1) fast seamless wireless coverage to a 5000 sq/ft house and ideally coverage of the surrounding 1/2 acre.
2) Maintain current high speed wired network . I do a ton of media streaming from a central NAS. I also transfer large 10-20GB files all the time. I am currently basically topping out the wired network
3) Assign static IP to the 60+ devices connected to the network (I like everything organised by device type. I'm OCD and I'm OK with that)
4) Basic DDNS and port forwarding for a couple of devices
5) Something either empirically aesthetic or I can hide from the wife (this is more of a dream)
6) Stable

Advantages
1) I have CAT6 running to everywhere in the house and a single wired connection outside
2) I don't mind open source firmware for routers
3) I have a pretty flexible budget, but I am cheap by nature

My previous suboptimal setups were WNR 3500 running tomato with an outdoor access point. This worked well and I loved Tomato but I have multiple AC devices so I upgraded to a R7000 which worked fine as router but did not have full wireless coverage. I set this up up for my dad who has been tickled.

Looking into it it seems the best way to do it would be
A) get some wired access points (I'm guessing 1-3) use them as a wireless network .
B) Get a router for the non wireless.

Does this seem correct and what do you recommend for a router and AP? I really liked the Tomato firmware, but honestly anything with easy to manage static IP tables will do. Parental controls and firewall stuff would be nice but are not necessary

I was originally looking into the mesh network devices (my wife liked the look of the Amplifi), but it doesn't look like those are going to pan out

K
 
I was originally looking into the mesh network devices (my wife liked the look of the Amplifi), but it doesn't look like those are going to pan out
What makes you say that?
 
1) fast seamless wireless coverage to a 5000 sq/ft house and ideally coverage of the surrounding 1/2 acre.

ok this answer is simple , no single unit no matter the manufacturer or model will give you that coverage indoors never mind outdoors , so your going to need to look at multiple access points to achieve what you want , your also not going to get "seamless " roaming with domestic gear

2) Maintain current high speed wired network . I do a ton of media streaming from a central NAS. I also transfer large 10-20GB files all the time. I am currently basically topping out the wired network

almost any router these days should be able to transfer at 117MB/s over giga ethernet

3) Assign static IP to the 60+ devices connected to the network (I like everything organised by device type. I'm OCD and I'm OK with that)

this is also not something generally seen in domestic routers

4) Basic DDNS and port forwarding for a couple of devices
no issue there

1) I have CAT6 running to everywhere in the house and a single wired connection outside

then run a gateway computer acting as the router and hang wireless access points of the ends of those ethernet points

Looking into it it seems the best way to do it would be
A) get some wired access points (I'm guessing 1-3) use them as a wireless network .
B) Get a router for the non wireless.

yepp your going in the right direction

I was originally looking into the mesh network devices

you dont need mesh if you have ethernet run through the house

imho you should look at ether a comp with some form of gateway software installed

or

ubiquiti edge router


and

ubiquiti unifi wireless AC access points for inside ( as many as you need to ensure full coverage ) and perhaps a ubiquiti outdoor access point to cover the grounds

pete
 
ok this answer is simple , no single unit no matter the manufacturer or model will give you that coverage indoors never mind outdoors , so your going to need to look at multiple access points to achieve what you want , your also not going to get "seamless " roaming with domestic gear



almost any router these days should be able to transfer at 117MB/s over giga ethernet



this is also not something generally seen in domestic routers


no issue there



then run a gateway computer acting as the router and hang wireless access points of the ends of those ethernet points



yepp your going in the right direction



you dont need mesh if you have ethernet run through the house

imho you should look at ether a comp with some form of gateway software installed

or

ubiquiti edge router


and

ubiquiti unifi wireless AC access points for inside ( as many as you need to ensure full coverage ) and perhaps a ubiquiti outdoor access point to cover the grounds

pete
thanks. I'd prefer to not keep a separate computer running. I'll look into the ubiquiti router. Will I need anything else to setup the AP

K
 
the ap's should come with poe injectors or there may be a possibility your switch already has poe but etherway you power the ap's via the ethernet as well

pete
 
Thanks Pete. I like the Poe as its a single cable

Does the edge have a firewall or will I have to figure out that as well.? I'm just trying to think of all the things my current router is doing.

Also I'm no expert (this is just a hobby) but it looks like it's pretty easy to get basic functionality ( Internet and wireless) up and running using the wizard but allows for a lot of tweaking as needed. Just want to make sure I'm not spending days on initial setup

K
 
Looking through all the options im having a hard time differentiating the various ubiquiti router options. Quick questions

1) POE built into the router is more for convenience. Also the ac pro uses different voltage than the ac so POE may not work with the pro correct
2) from a practical standpoint will I notice a performance difference between router models in the home environment
3) if I get a ubiquiti router would I need the cloudkey other than for remote access
4) just want to confirm the router has firewall functions

Thanks
K
 
1) POE built into the router is more for convenience. Also the ac pro uses different voltage than the ac so POE may not work with the pro correct

i believe the poe on the edge router can drive the ac pro as well as the no pro voltage wise

2) from a practical standpoint will I notice a performance difference between router models in the home environment

prob not

3) if I get a ubiquiti router would I need the cloudkey other than for remote access

dont think so

4) just want to confirm the router has firewall functions

yep , prob better than you have ever had b4

see

https://help.ubnt.com/hc/en-us/articles/205197660-EdgeMAX-SOHO-Example
 
Quick follow up. I bought 2 Ubquiti Unifi AC-Pro access points. Despite the warnings about involved setup it was very easy to setup and coverage was excellent. One AP was able to cover almost the entire house. Interestingly adding in the second AP lead to some reduced coverage which I suspect is due to slight differences in the position of the first AP.

The webUI is very nice and I like the way you can see the signal strength of all the attached devices. I plan to tweak AP positioning by setting up a few devices in locations I want coverage and move the AP to get the best coverage. This is way superior to wandering around with a signal meter.

I am currently using my old netgear R7500 as the router but I should be getting my edgerouter in a couple of days (I got the 5 port POE version just to keep things neat). Is there anything special I need to be aware of in terms of setting it up? I plan to just exchange it for my current router and put it on the same IP range and subnet so I don't have to change anything. Do I need to do anything special to get the firewall up and running?

Thanks again for all the help
K
 
Thanks to everyone for all the advice and help. I got the edgerouter and set it up without any significant difficulty. Only thing I noticed is it runs pretty hot so I'll have to figure out a place that has good airflow.

K
 
Thanks to everyone for all the advice and help. I got the edgerouter and set it up without any significant difficulty. Only thing I noticed is it runs pretty hot so I'll have to figure out a place that has good airflow.

K

Yes, the PoE5 runs hot. You can purchase a couple (or one larger) USB fan, and point at router. I'm using one on my PoE5 now, and very cool to the touch. The AC Infinty's work well.
 

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