Is Apple holding me back?

[Poindaxter]

Here's your opportunity Apple haters

I switched from the more complex Netgear/Linksys-ish home networking to Apple years ago and have the opportunity to start fresh again. We're about a day away from completing a full Cat6 wiring job throughout the house, so I can ditch the wifi extending network I have currently.

With the 24 port patch panel and 24 port switch sending the network all around I am married to a Cisco DPC3939 from Xfinity under the Comcast Blast 150 package.... best option I have in rural Vermont. I know Comcast has a new version of this Cisco device, but I doubt it would really be much of a noticeable upgrade.

I'm using the current generation Airport Extreme to connect to Xfinity and then extending the network with the previous gen Time Capsule (Wireless N), 2x current gen Airport Express, and an old Airport Express. With the new ethernet setup I'll have taken care of some bandwidth issues we're currently experiencing in some areas of the house. But now I'm wondering if it makes sense to buy another router and wireless access points.

This is a home environment with kids playing games, streaming stuff, and I like to have the fastest stuff within reason. Is my Apple hardware holding me back? Does it make sense to switch to something like Ubiquiti? Worth the hassle?

 

[coxhaus]

If you are running out of ports the best thing to do is to add a big switch and plug all the house Ethernet ports into the big switch and then plug the big switch into the Airport Extreme or any router..

 

[Poindaxter]

I'm more than good on ports. I'm only utilizing 17 of the 24. I'm wondering if switching from the Apple router and access points to something non-Apple will help speed anything up? It is already doing a decent job on range so no need there.

 

[sfx2000]

Running the Airports as AP's only isn't a bad approach, putting the heavy lifting for routing purposes onto the Cisco gateway...

You might actually have more AP's than you need with 4 AP's in an average size house...

Being that you have a fair amount of experience with Airports (strengths and weaknesses), makes sense to stay with them...

Maybe consider picking up a couple of Extreme AC's on Apple's refurb store (they typically go for around $129 there), repurpose the TimeCapsule (11n) as a TimeMachine backup only (turning off the WiFi on it), and repurpose the expresses as backfill...

Depending on how old the old Express is, if it's the G model, time to let it go... as a B/G only AP, it will impact your other AP's.

 

[Poindaxter]

Running the Airports as AP's only isn't a bad approach, putting the heavy lifting for routing purposes onto the Cisco gateway...

You might actually have more AP's than you need with 4 AP's in an average size house...

Being that you have a fair amount of experience with Airports (strengths and weaknesses), makes sense to stay with them...

Maybe consider picking up a couple of Extreme AC's on Apple's refurb store (they typically go for around $129 there), repurpose the TimeCapsule (11n) as a TimeMachine backup only (turning off the WiFi on it), and repurpose the expresses as backfill...

Depending on how old the old Express is, if it's the G model, time to let it go... as a B/G only AP, it will impact your other AP's.

Yeah, it is definitely time to give the old Express an Enron pension plan.

Does it make sense to throw the Cisco router into bridge mode and use the Time Capsule as the router? Then using the Extreme in the highest wifi-used part of the house?

Love the suggestion of getting refurb'd Extremes if the need for more access points comes up. Thanks!

 

[sfx2000]

I would let the cisco do the heavy lifting for routing purposes... and the TimeCapsule some of your WiFi (as AP) and TimeMachine backups..

 

[L&LD]

Here's your opportunity Apple haters

It doesn't matter how well you think your setup is working. If it is based on apple products, it is always holding you back.

 

[System Error Message]

im surprised you actually get a cisco device from your ISP. I know in sweden you get mikrotik but many think the ubiquiti ERL is a life saver in speed and price when it actually fails in updates as a number of articles point to replacing a MIPS based mikrotik with a dual core MIPS based 64 bit ubiquiti router. Still it seems like this cisco gateway is designed for consumers, i just hope it is not a fail like the cisco RV. Those ISP customers in sweden never actually checked the PPC based routerboards that do gigabit speeds without hardware acceleration or even the newer and faster Tile based routerboards. It is very rare to see ISPs actually giving good hardware.

For APs you can still use your apple APs as long as it works with non apple products. Upgrading to the broadcom ARM based AC wifi router will improve wifi speeds even for wireless N because of better chips. Even the Marvel implementations will also give good results. The QCA ones do poorly so avoid those. Also avoid dlink for any of your networking gear and some of the linksys stuff mentioned here that are vulnerable. I would suggest getting AC1900 or AC1750 wifi routers if you still plan to use ethernet for things, those newer AC5300 and MU-MIMO routers have bottlenecks if you use wire on them.

Do let us know if you face problems with your cisco cable modem/router.

 

[sfx2000]

It doesn't matter how well you think your setup is working. If it is based on apple products, it is always holding you back.

We're long time members here, so I get that your comment was tongue in cheek...

Anyways, OP was asking a specific question, and your comment isn't that constructive

 

[sfx2000]

im surprised you actually get a cisco device from your ISP

Here in the US, many cable companies offer these - performance-wise they're similar to other Cable Modem/Broadband Gateways...

Challenge for OP is that Comcast actively discourages customer owned equipment...

Airports as AP's are fairly decent - stable enough -

As an FYI - their 11ac devices are all Broadcom based (BCM4360), AP Express (2012) 11n is Atheros, AP Express 11n (2nd Gen) is Broadcomm, the 11n's Airport Extreme's/Timecapsules are a mix of Broadcom and Marvell depending on generation...

 

[L&LD]

We're long time members here, so I get that your comment was tongue in cheek...

Anyways, OP was asking a specific question, and your comment isn't that constructive

If I made one person smile with my comment, it did what I wanted it to do.

 

[sfx2000]

If I made one person smile with my comment, it did what I wanted it to do.

Why so serious...

 

[System Error Message]

Here in the US, many cable companies offer these - performance-wise they're similar to other Cable Modem/Broadband Gateways...

Challenge for OP is that Comcast actively discourages customer owned equipment...

Airports as AP's are fairly decent - stable enough -

As an FYI - their 11ac devices are all Broadcom based (BCM4360), AP Express (2012) 11n is Atheros, AP Express 11n (2nd Gen) is Broadcomm, the 11n's Airport Extreme's/Timecapsules are a mix of Broadcom and Marvell depending on generation...

Compared to the bulk of cable modem routers distributed by ISP cisco should do a lot better as a router and modem. Cisco still uses wireless N so i suggested that upgrading to AC wifi will improve wifi N speeds by having newer and better chips and antennas. At least you dont have virgin media. Here in the UK virgin media is very stingy in their service and the quality of their gear is just poor.

 

[sfx2000]

Compared to the bulk of cable modem routers distributed by ISP cisco should do a lot better as a router and modem. Cisco still uses wireless N so i suggested that upgrading to AC wifi will improve wifi N speeds by having newer and better chips and antennas. At least you dont have virgin media. Here in the UK virgin media is very stingy in their service and the quality of their gear is just poor.

FWIW - here in the US, bigCable's provided CPE has gotten a lot better these days with DOCSIS 3.0 and that they moving more towards SDV/IPTV solutions - so the Wireless STB's are running in 5GHz space (which is another problem, as many hide that SSID, and they generate hella traffic in the UNII-1/3 bands...).

Their CPE perhaps isn't as flexible (actually not) as retail SOHO routers, but recent devices are either N900 or AC1750 class there, and fairly high power on the wireless side.

 

[Poindaxter]

Today is the day to plug everything into the new ethernet setup. The plan is to coax to the Cisco router ---> 2ft Cat6 run to a 24 port TrendNet TEG-S24G ---> patch panel ---> 17 different port locations throughout the house for the wired connections

Wifi will have the current edition Airport Extreme in the most traffic'd part of the house with the Time Capsule paired with an old Drobo that has 4TB of available storage and the current generation Airport Expresses to plug holes in the coverage areas. The Cisco router doubles as a wifi spot that will handle things too. So that's 5 wifi-making devices covering a 4,000 square foot home on multiple stories.

Wireless AC will be a greatly appreciated upgrade in our living room and kitchen area, but I think N is perfectly fine for the simple Internet browsing that portable devices are doing throughout the rest of the house.

Will post results in the next day or 3....depending on speed bumps. Thanks sfx2000 for all the help

 

[Poindaxter]

Things went super smooth....almost scary smooth. I usually don't have this good of luck when working with multiple devices, but everything worked well.

And more importantly things are fast! In fact, coverage is much farther than before and the slowest spot in the house has been consistently hitting 40-60Mbps on Speakeasy. That same spot was barely holding 2Mbps before.

In our main wifi-utilized area we're now seeing the full breadth of our 150Mbps Comcast connection instead of the sub-20Mbps we were experiencing. Having the Airport Extreme feed those rooms has been a major improvement.....of course, having a wired network over wifi extenders makes a bit of a difference too

It is also nice getting these results by removing equipment (an old Airport Express)!

Thanks again for the help....especially sfx2000.