Home Network- wired repeaters, guest access

Dhermesh · Nov 1, 2018

Hey all,

I have a fairly basic networking setup in my house. I have my main router on the ground floor that connects to a switch which then connects to all the different access points in our house. My house is made of concrete because of which i have an access point in every room; all these access points have a different SSID, "a's room","b's room" etc. I've looked into a mesh network but all of them seem a bit expensive at the moment. Is there anyway i could use the existing access points as a wired wifi repeater? and I don't mean giving them all the same SSID.

Every hotel I've been to has one wifi network that covers the entire hotel with multiple access points in different locations, how do they do it? Is it possible to do something like that at a private residence?

Also on my main router I have guest access, and that works fine on the ground floor but when we have guests that go upstairs the guest network doesn't really work well. Is there any way i could replicate this guest access through out my house?

Any information, recommendations on routers/access points or any networking software/hardware really helps! Thank you

Ps - my main router is a linksys max-stream AC1750
Heres a network map
https://imgur.com/a/aWBYVpF

kanewolf · Nov 1, 2018

You can do what you want, but you have to change your hardware. To have guest network with access points, you have to have an AP that can provide multiple SSIDs and has VLANs. You then have to have a switch and router that support VLANs. Very doable, but not with the hardware you have.

bill001g · Nov 1, 2018

If you ignore your guest network requirement you can just change all the ssid to be the same with the same password. This will give the appearance of a single network. It really does not change much other than your end devices only need a single configuration.

This does not make it so you can magically run around your house and you automatically roam between the AP. This is a fundamental design issue with WiFi. The end device not the AP network control the switching. The end device for stability reasons will stay connected to what ever AP it first connects to until the signal level gets so poor that it is almost unusable and then it will connect.

You many times must force manually it to change by dropping the wifi connection and letting it reconnect.

The mesh systems do not really solve this problem since the problem is the end station. There are a couple that force a disconnect when they think there is a better option but it is kinda hit and miss and since it is repeater based it performance is very bad compared to just ap. More commercial AP systems like ubiquiti use a similar trick.

The only solution is to replace the wifi system itself which cisco and HP used to do on there commercial AP. It was a pain since you had to load custom drivers. I have not seen it in many years so I don't know if they still even offer it.

There really is little need for seamless roaming. Few people walk around and watch movies or talk on skype. I can see the idiot falling down the stairs in his house that tries it. Years ago when cell phones worked poorly inside large buildings and microcells did not exist we used the roaming for VoIP but it only used certain phones we could load cisco drivers on.

failboat · Nov 1, 2018

Different SSID doesn't provide separation if they are bridged into the same lan. Do not buy wireless mesh.

Unifi has great stuff if you want the guest separation. POE switches are expensive.

Need more info to make any suggestions.
Budget, current stuff, # switch ports, # POE ports, POE type, LAN traffic (NAS or server), wire type in wall and longest run (full copper, gauge size. high gauge CCA would not be great for POE+).

Unifi AP lites or LR have inexpensive POE injectors using 24V ($2). the universal POE type 48V IEEE 802.3af(15W)/at(25W) costs a lot more per port. single injectors are $25.
1Gbs multi injectors for 802.3af only are a lot less per port. POE switches are expensive with af and at. If you need a ton for APs and cameras etc the switch is not a bad way to go.

Setting up trunking and vlans with unifi is not bad. The controller lets you push your config to every AP. configuring roaming will take a lot of trial and error. basically you play with the antenna power and minimum signal strength per client. so that overlap is minimal and clients drop and reconnect to a new ap.

Dhermesh · Nov 2, 2018

I have CAT 5E and CAT 6 cables connecting all of them and my budget per access point is about $50. I am planning to switch over to a gigabyte connection soon so I'd like to get access points that can get me as close to gigabyte as possible

Dhermesh · Nov 2, 2018

If I do decide to ditch the idea of guest network throughout the house, would it be possible to change the password of all my access points at the same time?

bill001g · Nov 2, 2018

You would have to log into each device and change them. Since you should have assigned them IP addresses you should be able to do this pretty quickly without having to physically touch them. It would be recommended that you do it from a wired connection. Its not like you are doing this a lot I hope.

I would try what you have first. Ubiquiti has a central management software that you is free that you can make changes to all but the AP will cost you more than $50. You can save a bit by buying 3 packs. The lower end ones cost in the $70 range.

If you want gigabit speeds always run ethernet especially since you have it in every room. Even the best wifi using all the fancy feature like 4x4 mimo will get maybe 500mbps sitting right on top of the ap/router. Even if you buy fancy router/AP with this feature your end device likely only have 2 antenna so can not use it. Your current router is already better than most end devices. Don't expect more than 200-300mbps and that also is sitting very close to AP.

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Home Network- wired repeaters, guest access

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