Wifi for older 7,000 sq. ft. home

[p3matty]

I've been given the task of setting up a wifi network for an older roughly 7,000 sq. ft. house. It has extremely think stone walls in many places, so using only one device will not suffice. The house will have about 15 people staying it in at the end of June, so I've got some time - and the network will really only be needed for checking e-mail and websurfing, I don't believe it will be for streaming HD video or anything like that.

My wifi knowledge currently has been limited to only using one router, as that's all that's been needed in any place I've lived in. That won't work here.

The house was recently renovated and I believe has cat 5 lines running to different parts of the house (but aren't properly labeled, so I'm still working on that part). The house has DSL currently, with a modem and router in one room and that signal is lost roughly 1-2 rooms away.

I'm thinking my best solution would be to move the modem/router to the main utility room where the phone line first enters the house. This room is directly under the kitchen, where wifi will definitely be needed. From there, can I just connect 4 cat 5 lines running to the house into the router, and then connect 4 "access points" (if that's what they actually are) to the other ends of those 4 lines throughout the house?

Would that solution give me 5 wifi "hotspots" throughout the house? If so, could anyone please recommend a strong router and "access points" that I can purchase for the place?

Please let me know if you need any other information about the place, and thanks in advance for any assistance you can give me!

 

[Mark Uhde]

I'd use five EnGenius EAP-600 access points connected to a cheap PoE switch (TrendNet makes one that's $55) - this will put power on your Ethernet lines and make this install easy-peasy. Most cheap switches are only 4 port so the one in your network closet won't be PoE probably.

Set all the SSID's (2.4 and 5 GHz on each AP) and security settings the same so guests can roam between them with no effort on their part, but set the 2.4 GHz channels to use 1,6, 11 (US/Canada) or 1,5,9,13(World) as widely separated as possible (so use 1 as far from the other 1 as you can). Make sure the 2.4 GHz channel width is 20 MHz ONLY. 5 GHz use 20/40 mixed and make sure they're at least two channels apart since they're pairs (so use 36/40, 44/48, 149/153, 157/161, then either reuse 36/40 at the far end of the house or use a DFS pair somewhere and accept many devices won't get 5 GHz on that AP).

For a router, I'd use a NON-WIRELESS MikroTik RouterBoard. The RB750GL is a good option and only $60.

 

[p3matty]

I think I got about 70% of what you said there, so I'll need to do some homework on my end for the rest.

Why use a non-wireless router (and a 5th AP, and a switch....) rather than just a wireless router and 4 APs?

What happens if someone is connected to one AP and is walking through the house and loses signal on the original AP? Would they seemly connect to the next closest AP?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Mark Uhde]

I think I got about 70% of what you said there, so I'll need to do some homework on my end for the rest.

Why use a non-wireless router (and a 5th AP, and a switch....) rather than just a wireless router and 4 APs?

What happens if someone is connected to one AP and is walking through the house and loses signal on the original AP? Would they seemly connect to the next closest AP?

Thanks for all the help!

1. Because the non-wireless router is better for the money, you can get the wireless version, but I'd keep all the same AP. The switch is needed either way since it's providing PoE (power-over-Ethernet) so no power is needed for the other four access points.

2. Seamless? Nope. 802.11 doesn't specify seamless roaming. Depending on the client it can take from 1-10 seconds to connect to the new AP. iPhones and Macs do really well. Android does okay. Windows (especially old versions) is terrible. If seamless roaming is a requirement (for mobile VoIP) you have three choices:

- Cisco Aironet. The ONLY system with TRUE seamless roaming accomplished vis the proprietary Cisco CCX extensions.
- Meru. An expensive commercial-grade controller-based system that merges all your AP's into one virtual AP. Not true roaming as much as making one big AP. Limits you to one channel, dramatically cutting capacity.
- Ubiquiti UniFi. An extremely inexpensive software-controller-based system that merges all your AP's into one virtual AP. Not true roaming as much as making one big AP. Limits you to one channel, dramatically cutting capacity.

Seamless roaming is far over-hyped. Just do what I said (non-overlapping channels, same SSID, same security) and while no, you won't have seamless roaming, it'll be fine. Roaming will work, there will just be brief interruptions in connectivity.

I'll note that many widely deployed big name controller-based systems also don't offer seamless roaming - Aruba, Ruckus, Meraki (though Meraki is very low-end. Expensive but low-end with poor performance), AeroHive, etc.

Most users do NOT need seamless roaming, and you don't need it for your application.

One thing to note is that Ruckus and others DO have techniques to make WPA2 (802.1x) roaming happen FASTER (still not seamless roaming). If you're going to use WPA2 on commodity AP's like the EnGenius your roaming delays will be longer. Open networks will provide by far the best roaming experience when using commodity AP's. Also, Ruckus, Aruba, etc have some intelligence to maintain the connection states. With GOOD clients, this can actually be enough to hold onto even VoIP while roaming. But it's not the same seamless experience Cisco, Meru, and Ubiquiti provide.

 

[p3matty]

Given the complexity, we'll just say that seamless roaming isn't needed.

Also, for PoE, that just means that I wouldn't have to plug the APs into a wall socket at each location? What if each cat 5 plug in the house has a wall socket within a few feet of it which is easily accessible? Is there any advantage to using PoE? Does it provide additional coverage?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Poe

Given the complexity, we'll just say that seamless roaming isn't needed.

Also, for PoE, that just means that I wouldn't have to plug the APs into a wall socket at each location? What if each cat 5 plug in the house has a wall socket within a few feet of it which is easily accessible? Is there any advantage to using PoE? Does it provide additional coverage?

POE doesn't provide anything but the convenience of not having to find an outlet at the location of each AP. Since APs are often ceiling mounted getting power to them can be a problem particularly on a dropped ceiling.

 

[p3matty]

Oh, ok - thanks for that!

Since all cat 5 plug locations in the house are very near an outlet I'm not sure that will be needed (extra cost and complexity that I haven't dealt with before).

The main phone line (and only phone line) runs into the house and directly into a 110 type punch down block (which I'm also unfortunately unfamiliar with) and then there are 2 other 110 type punch down blocks right next to that one with various cat 5 cables running into each of them and then all through the house. None of it is labeled, either.....

Anyway, I'm trying to find the one "voice" cat 5 line that runs a good 150 feet or more from the utility room to the office where the DSL modem and current router are now. If I can find that line in the utility room, I'll see if I can run another line or splice it so that I can move the router and modem to the utility room itself. From there I'll terminate 4+ data lines (with rj45 plugs )that run through the house to cat5 outlets for the APs, and run those lines into either the router or if there are more than 5 a switch.

We're having the contractor that did the recent renovation to the house come over and properly label everything (cat5 voice, cat 5 data, and coax) which will make my job MUCH easier.

Thanks again for all the help with this.

 

[thiggins]

Definitely get rid of the 110 punchdown blocks. Not good for Gigabit Ethernet.

 

[p3matty]

Definitely get rid of the 110 punchdown blocks. Not good for Gigabit Ethernet.

I'd love to, but it looks like the phone system and something else (possibly heating/cooling system) are both using the 110 blocks. That's why I was thinking of just connecting the DSL modem and a router directly from the 110 block in the utility room, and then plugging the cat 5 lines from the various locations in the house directly to the router or a switch so that everything internet/ethernet related wouldn't be dealing with the 110 block at all (aside from the direct connection to the DSL modem).

 

[thiggins]

That should be fine. 110s are fine for phone. Not so much for Gigabit Ethernet.

 

[Mark Uhde]

Oh, ok - thanks for that!

Since all cat 5 plug locations in the house are very near an outlet I'm not sure that will be needed (extra cost and complexity that I haven't dealt with before).

The main phone line (and only phone line) runs into the house and directly into a 110 type punch down block (which I'm also unfortunately unfamiliar with) and then there are 2 other 110 type punch down blocks right next to that one with various cat 5 cables running into each of them and then all through the house. None of it is labeled, either.....

Anyway, I'm trying to find the one "voice" cat 5 line that runs a good 150 feet or more from the utility room to the office where the DSL modem and current router are now. If I can find that line in the utility room, I'll see if I can run another line or splice it so that I can move the router and modem to the utility room itself. From there I'll terminate 4+ data lines (with rj45 plugs )that run through the house to cat5 outlets for the APs, and run those lines into either the router or if there are more than 5 a switch.

We're having the contractor that did the recent renovation to the house come over and properly label everything (cat5 voice, cat 5 data, and coax) which will make my job MUCH easier.

Thanks again for all the help with this.

Sounds good, I wouldn't use the 110 blocks for Ethernet though (as Tim said). I STRONGLY recommend using PoE in a guest environment. It will make your life MUCH easier down the road - no plugs to get randomly unplugged by guests! PoE isn't just about making cabling easier - it's also a nice reliability improvement since there's less room for human issues.