Home network with large coverage - advice

[Jakob]

Hi,

I am in the situation that I am going to move to the countryside i.e. we do not expect any interference from neighbours. We do have a fiber to the house with a 70/70 Mb connection.

To begin with are we going to live three adults and so far two children. We will all be using wireless devices and we do have a NAS (DS213) which are wired only.

Since it is a small farm there are multiple buildings where I would like to have wireless coverage. Streaming of TV (Netflix), music and also gaming should be possible at all places.

Today I have and old D-Link DIR655 router which I have been really satisfied with. But I would like to have faster wireless speed for Ipad's, smart phone's and wireless PC's so that I can completely cut the RJ45 cable. Therefore I have started to look into what I should upgrade into.

First thing is that my priorities is reliability, speed and coverage - price is not important since I plan to have this setup for the next many years, 5 or more.

Due to the size of the house I would need at least one extender. The options I have looked into are:

AC3200 options:
D-link DIR-890L together with a DAP-1665
or
Netgear X6 AC3200 together with EX7000

Another route could be to go for a AC1900 solutions which are recommend from SNB; such a solution could be:
Netgear R7000 together with EX6150

My question is if it makes any sense to take one of the AC3200 solutions or is the AC1900 solution more than enough? Here I think both about today but also in the foreseeable future.

Any inputs are highly appreciated!

Thx
Jakob

 

[netwrks]

I would look at the AC3200, or R7000, with an EX7000, but not as an extender, as an Access Point. Any additional wireless reach you may need in your property should be done with wired Access Points. Depending on the distance form router to potential AP, I would bury outdoor CAT6, if you need to coverage in out buildings.. You lose at least 50% throughput with extenders, and, are typically a pain..

 

[Jakob]

Ok - I have also revised a little bit after doing more research. Now I am leaning toward keeping my old dlink DIR 655 router and then buy the EX7000 and use that as access point. We do have a separate apartment (60ft/20m away from access point) where there are going to placed a desktop pc without wireless. Here I think buying the EX6150 and then use a cord from the PC to the EX6150 - I think this is better option than using a USB adapter which sits on the back of the PC and are more or less shielded due to casing. I hope the EX6150 can reach the EX7000 without issues.

 

[Jakob]

Just an update.
I bought 100 m of cable which should be sufficient then I would only use one wireless access point I will probably go for the ex7000. Then if needed I would buy a second one then I can use the same model and then use the same ssid and password.

 

[coxhaus]

What kind of cable did you buy? Are trying to bring online the out buildings or are you trying to extend your wireless in your large house?

If you are trying to do it all then I would look at APs with software to run multiple units. I run older Cisco wireless APs which allow 4 units running as one wireless unit. The newer Cisco APs support 8 APs. There are other brands out there which will do the same thing. I would just buy the units as you need them. It is very easy to add one. You just add the wireless cluster name and password and you are done. The software does the rest when adding an additional AP.

 

[Jakob]

I bought a cat6 cable. I still have my old DIR655 router which I am general satisfied with except the wireless speed.

I bought the cable to make sure that we will have a stable connection in the other apartment. But I think I will do as suggested and then just buy AP and place them strategic around to make sure to get an got good wireless coverage with high speed. I will then wire each AP since I now understand that extenders might not be as suitable as I first believed.

Maybe I have misunderstand but I first understood that you could by several AP and just use same SSID and password and then everything should be ok? As I read your message then that is a feature if several AP's need same SSID and password.

 

[coxhaus]

Using CAT6 to back haul your wireless units to a switch or switches will be your best solution.

I think using multiple APs with the same SSID and password will work well if the wireless units are setup with the same security and level of wireless access. Other wise you may find it better to run separate SSIDs. I bought all the same model of Cisco wireless units so they would work together.

Something I did in my younger days at a different house was to connect my neighbor to my switch. I ran CAT5e in black plastic water pipe and buried the pipe in the ground with a shovel over to my neighbors house. I sealed the ends where they went into each house real well so the cable would not get wet. This setup lasted for over five years until we both moved. This is not code but worked fine for me. It would probably work for a temp fix to connect out buildings if you do not want to buy direct burial cable. Even if you had to replace the cable after while you may be able to pull better cable through if don't make too many turns. Do this at your own risk.

 

[Jakob]

ok - it is not possible to dig down a cable. At least the effort is too big at the moment. I have to connect two houses which are only a few feets away. Instead of cable I will place an access point very close to the router (10 feets or so) and then use a cable to wire up the second house.

Any comment?

 

[coxhaus]

It is going to be slow compared to wire.