Wiring home cinema with ac68

[dryasanne]

After years with a slow dark knight, finally I pulled the cork today, invested in a AC68 and a D-link 1210-24.

I have no big demands, its just for my living room at 70 sq meters.

My hometheatre is a Yamaha 2030 receiver based 7.2 setup of PSB spesakers, three blurays; oppo 103, pana 700 and a SOny 790. They are all hardwired to a 5 quid 8 port Zyxel switch, as are my Samsung 65" TV /2015 and a Sonos 90 box

The wifi is ac Ipad air 2 and Sams s6 edge +. The roomie app controls it all, via two globaltech adapters, a wifi and a serial for my Oppo.

The number one priority is my Oppo 103. Streaming vudu and netflix
As second, I might says my Ipad, or the Sonos streaming Rhapsody at 320 k
My Tv streams UHD Netflix with little problem
The very least important is my mac mini 2012. Its on wifi at the moment. This mac is used in them rare instances my Ipad is unable to login

To put this simple, this is a mess just now.

What would be the best configuration in the asus / in the dlink switch to get the best performance?
(my isp is Canal Digital Telenor Trondheim at 100 Mbit/s -- 20 up cable broadband, all we can get where I live)

 

[sfx2000]

Maybe clean up and reroute the cabling a bit, but sounds like you have a pretty decent setup...

Didn't mention if the 8 port switch is GigE or not, but a simple unmanaged 8-port GigE switch is less than $50USD, and there, might use that to move internal traffic around, taking some load off the 4 port switch in the Router/AP.

There's a lot of utility in having that MacMini in there - they make for pretty decent HTPC's themselves with Kodi and Plex (Client and/or Server), and very power efficient (<10w idle) - with both GigE and 3-stream 11n, networking is good, and the builtin HDMI is handy. P

Maybe pick up an elgato EyeTV tuner card for over-the-air or broadcast cable, and it can make for a decent DVR (with USB3 or FW800 as external storage).

 

[dryasanne]

Just to clarify my post
A. My switch is the dlink 24 port. Evrything else is sold/ ditched
B. I use two only two ports on the ac router. The in from the cable modem. All out traffic goes to the dlink switch. (Ie three out free)
C no media server Been there, done that, never got it
D. A lot of streaming devices are floating about in my apt. A roku 3, a chromecast, several bluray player etc

E. I use the Oppo 103 as my main (read only..) media streamer. The 4 k upscaling is fantastic, vudu and in particular netflix looks almost as the real uhd q!

F Tonight I checked my 65 samsung 4 k tv for new apps. At last HBO Nordic! In addition to the netflix app which do indeed stream native uhd 4k, my tv will be the preferred media device

So. Asus ac router. One cat5e to the d-link switch. At least eight cat5e (cat 6?) to my bluray players, TV and sonos box.
And asus wifi to my mobile devices.

Thats the headache of mine. How do I sort this out, giving the oppo and then the tv every possible priority??

 

[L&LD]

A single switch is hardly the best solution for typical home and business networks.

http://www.snbforums.com/threads/still-confused-about-switches.20955/#post-152238

This link might give you an idea of how to better group the devices that interact with each other while minimizing any negatives to the devices that don't.

Using multiple 1GBe switches on each router port and grouping the devices appropriately goes a long way to getting the best overall network performance. Especially when many devices are used for different things at the peak times of the network in question.

 

[dryasanne]

I reckons thats it?

Deploying a multiple switch setup is way out of question. The family suffers due to all them speakers and gadgets in our apt. There is no more budget after spending almost usd 300 on a new switch and a new ac router. There are no computers here of importance here only a rarely used mac mini on wifi. There only three devices of importance, the TV and two bluray players.

I just neede more ports than the four on the Asus. Since the Asus is sitting seven meters away from my three gadgets, a switch was purchased Just to have only one cat5 cable. The very short cat cables from the swirch to the devices were easy to hide, out of sight of any housewives

I might have gotten it all wrong when I wired this back in 2011. I might now just return the asus ac router and the d-link switch. Take a break, read and learn what I can of this forum. Later on maybe an upgrade, if I find it necessary, really. But the clock is ticking as they say, I am turning 60. There might not be significant number of neurons left to fire

 

[sfx2000]

Again, I think you're ok where you probably are - enough ports in place to do what is important...

Probably the first thing to do is draw out your nodes and connections on a clean sheet paper...

Traffic that moves around inside the HTPC complex can stay on the switch, and things that reach out to the internet, consider maybe putting them on the AC-68U.

You've got plenty of good gear to work with....

 

[L&LD]

I reckons thats it?

Deploying a multiple switch setup is way out of question. The family suffers due to all them speakers and gadgets in our apt. There is no more budget after spending almost usd 300 on a new switch and a new ac router. There are no computers here of importance here only a rarely used mac mini on wifi. There only three devices of importance, the TV and two bluray players.

I just neede more ports than the four on the Asus. Since the Asus is sitting seven meters away from my three gadgets, a switch was purchased Just to have only one cat5 cable. The very short cat cables from the swirch to the devices were easy to hide, out of sight of any housewives

I might have gotten it all wrong when I wired this back in 2011. I might now just return the asus ac router and the d-link switch. Take a break, read and learn what I can of this forum. Later on maybe an upgrade, if I find it necessary, really. But the clock is ticking as they say, I am turning 60. There might not be significant number of neurons left to fire

Also keep in mind that when I state multiple switch setup, even a few 5 or 8 port 1GBe switches can make the difference when grouping devices is beneficial for optimum network setup. The total cost for 4 switches might be less than half of the single switch you have now.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BVYT3/?tag=snbforums-20

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00MPVR50A/?tag=smallncom-20


I would suggest you read once again the link I provided before. And remember, you can mix and match switches as needed (they don't all have to be 5 port, 8 port, etc.).

 

[sfx2000]

The Linksys 8 port un-managed switch (SE3008) is about 10 bucks cheaper on the Amazon than the Netgear GS108, and it's got port indicators on the front-side vs. back end where the cables are.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=SE3008

Both the Linksys and Netgear SOHO/SMB switches are good, and simple enough - plug and play...

 

[RMerlin]

I'm using cheap/plain TP-Link switches at home personally (5 ports in my computer room, and 8 ports in my "networking center" where I have modem + router + ATA + NAS + home theater).

I'd only pay more if I was looking for something more advanced (i.e. managed).

 

[sfx2000]

I'd only pay more if I was looking for something more advanced (i.e. managed).

agree - not everyone needs a managed switch - and the 5-port/8-port unmanaged GigE switches are a pretty good deal these days... consider they're about 5 bucks a port or less even...

 

[dryasanne]

My slow firing neurons still dont get, after reading that cited thread;

Why do I need more switches??
I have just bought this expensive dlink ( a 24 port D-Link Web Smart DGS-1210-24v web managed) swicth I bought this week

I have three devices a bluray, a sonos box and a TV

Why cant I just drop a single cat 5 from the router to the d-link switch and then three short cables one for each device??

And then fix parameters in the d link web interface?

And finally fix wifi parameters on the asus router?

There will be no more hardwired devices, all this is to get my home cinema setup stable internett connection. Thats why Im asking, that router / switch setup I dont understand. Esp that elaborate web setup of the dlink switch.

There will be wifi only on any other and future devices, like Ipad, apple tv 4, samsung mobile.

 

[kvic]

I would connect the following devices to your brand new Dlink switch:

• oppo 103
• pana 700
• SOny 790
• Samsung 65" TV /2015
• Sonos 90
• mac mini 2012
• apple tv 4

Then turn off Wifi in the above devices if they have.

Use AC68 for Internet, the Dlink switch and Wifi (for iPad, samsung mobile..)

Play around with settings in the dlink switch. See any optimization possible. You shall end up with a solid and performing setup in your living room.

 

[dryasanne]

Thank you so much!!

Now we can discuss the main headache;

The ROomie remote app. Please look at that in the app store if you are unfamiliar with it.
The app is on my Ipad air 2

The app controls my entire home cinema via a Global Cache wifi to iR
http://www.globalcache.com/products/itach/wf2irspecs/

HOW do I run my Ipad Air at full 802,11 ac speed,
while still controlling tha Global Cache
with the Roomie Remote App
via/
from my brand new Asus ac68?

AS you might see that G C is a sloow 802,11 b device,
at the moment I also run my Ipad at that speed - soooo sluggish!

 

[kvic]

Interesting..there are products like wifi2ir. I would have bought ip2ir model instead. Then can connect to your new dlink switch. Realise you already have wifi2ir, still can make good use of it.

Connect wifi2ir to AC68 on 2.4GHz. Connect your faster devices such as iPad to 5GHZ instead. They will get along at their respective optimal speeds.

 

[dryasanne]

Something remarkably magnificient happened today.

I replaced that old black knight with my new AC68!

a) upgraded it to latest Asus Merlin fw

b) on 5g, I now get 90 /20 !! On the old router never more than 65/19

c) the old one ddnt accept ivp6. The new ac68 no problem with ivp6!

The router reports 9 clients on network map, and now I am assigning each one unique IP -- that is correct - yes?

 

[CaptainSTX]

[QUOTE="

The router reports 9 clients on network map, and now I am assigning each one unique IP -- that is correct - yes?[/QUOTE]

Assigning a static/ unique local IP is a matter of personal preference. I do it so I can keep track of what is connected to my network. Different type of equipment within certain limited ranges within the scope of my subnet. All devices that connect to my network have static IPs. I need this because depending on the IP the connection for this device is either routed over my local ISP or by my VPN. I also have a limited range of automatic DHCP addresses available. Then if look at my connected clients list and see something connected in this range I can investigate.

 

[dryasanne]

Thats excactly my problem!
I m doing a lot of fixing in the router setup, but no idea or understanding of what I´m doing
Of course, running Amaz inst video on a European Oppo 103, wont work. The magic is served by unotelly.

This has been working for almost three years now. But I should like to get a better grip on things, like having
only my TV and my Oppo bluray working the magic by Unotelly.

More magic, that wifi2ir on the 2,4 G, all the sudden is controlled by my Ipad on the other, 5g, network. That didnt happen earlier....