- Mar 1, 2017
- 12
- 0
- 4,510
Hi folks,
Forgive me if this ends up being a long and rambling question - I'll try to keep it as tight as I can.
I'd like some network setup advice as I'm just rejigging things a bit. I'm not a complete newbie, but I'm not that current with wireless. I live in a old house - it's fairly small, but with thick masonry walls - upstairs is less of a wifi trap: just stud walls. At present, the cable modem (also wifi router) is sited where the cable comes in, effectively in one corner, low down, in the property. The internet connection is fairly quick (an advertised 100Mbps - Virgin) but, unsurprisingly, wifi connectivity is poor.
The home network has a fileserver (Nas4Free/ZFS), a main PC (my old gaming rig) and a network printer in the (new) office, plus networked AV receiver, TV and PS3 in the lounge - media PC in the offing. There are single cat5e cables running from the router to upstairs and also to the lounge, and a pair of cat6 cables to the office. All have small switches at the end. There is a Sonos system with a 'Sonos Bridge' connected to the router at present. Almost all the static kit is currently wired at GbE, where it is supported. Sonos players in kitchen and lounge are wireless - phones, tablets and laptops are all wireless.
The key objectives are: fast wifi coverage everywhere and fast file transfers from the fileserver for streaming. I've not really set a hard budget: maybe enough to consider low-end enterprise solutions (although I can't see that being necessary). I'd thought about setting the Virgin box to modem-only and getting a reasonable wifi router, with a small switch connecting the 2 cat5s and 2 cat6s, then adding small access points as necessary - upstairs, in the office and/or in the lounge - but I'm not clear on how to implement or whether that will improve things over a single AP in a suitable place. The other option is to look to the Google kit, that basically implements a mesh network, I think. I guess another option is to have a router only at the cable modem (either disable wifi on the Virgin SuperHub or add a 3rd party router) and then have a 3rd-party wireless router/AP upstairs, where I hope it should be able to trasmit from above the heftier walls.
Can anyone advise me or point me to learning resources, please? Any recommendations for kit would be eagerly received too.
Thanks - Adam
Forgive me if this ends up being a long and rambling question - I'll try to keep it as tight as I can.
I'd like some network setup advice as I'm just rejigging things a bit. I'm not a complete newbie, but I'm not that current with wireless. I live in a old house - it's fairly small, but with thick masonry walls - upstairs is less of a wifi trap: just stud walls. At present, the cable modem (also wifi router) is sited where the cable comes in, effectively in one corner, low down, in the property. The internet connection is fairly quick (an advertised 100Mbps - Virgin) but, unsurprisingly, wifi connectivity is poor.
The home network has a fileserver (Nas4Free/ZFS), a main PC (my old gaming rig) and a network printer in the (new) office, plus networked AV receiver, TV and PS3 in the lounge - media PC in the offing. There are single cat5e cables running from the router to upstairs and also to the lounge, and a pair of cat6 cables to the office. All have small switches at the end. There is a Sonos system with a 'Sonos Bridge' connected to the router at present. Almost all the static kit is currently wired at GbE, where it is supported. Sonos players in kitchen and lounge are wireless - phones, tablets and laptops are all wireless.
The key objectives are: fast wifi coverage everywhere and fast file transfers from the fileserver for streaming. I've not really set a hard budget: maybe enough to consider low-end enterprise solutions (although I can't see that being necessary). I'd thought about setting the Virgin box to modem-only and getting a reasonable wifi router, with a small switch connecting the 2 cat5s and 2 cat6s, then adding small access points as necessary - upstairs, in the office and/or in the lounge - but I'm not clear on how to implement or whether that will improve things over a single AP in a suitable place. The other option is to look to the Google kit, that basically implements a mesh network, I think. I guess another option is to have a router only at the cable modem (either disable wifi on the Virgin SuperHub or add a 3rd party router) and then have a 3rd-party wireless router/AP upstairs, where I hope it should be able to trasmit from above the heftier walls.
Can anyone advise me or point me to learning resources, please? Any recommendations for kit would be eagerly received too.
Thanks - Adam
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