Routers & Other Networking Stuff

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Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,690
3,201
Still having annoying wifi problems intermittently on devices. I bring it up again because today when I got home my desktop, connected via AC 5g, was out. That's never happened before. Previous problems were all Apple iPhone and iPad related. My Samsung Note 9 never had connection issues either, or maybe I just didn't notice it? I'm gone all week for work, and the wife says she has to reboot the modem all the time.

So then I was like ohhhh, maybe I need a firmware update on my Netgear CM1000? It's a docsis 3.1 modem, and Netgear's website says that the firmware updates get pushed by my ISP. Ok, so it's probably not that?

A lot of house updates are happening this year, and one of them is running Cat6 through the attic and putting in wall drops in all the rooms. So my PC will eventually get the wired upgrade, but this problem still happens for the other mobile devices.

Router: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/linksys-max-stream-ac1750-wi-fi-router-black/5604102.p?skuId=5604102
 

loudgas

Golden Baronet of the Realm
3,777
18,800
You could be overthinking it, most consumer routers are plastic ovens with little ventilation and no fans. A router will need a reboot or power down from time to time no matter how fancy or expensive a plastic oven you buy.
 

sadris

Karen
<Donor>
21,129
80,755
I replaced my router with an orangepi and doubled my internet speed.

My shitty Linksys was so slow it's CPU was getting capped routing packets. Lol
 

Chancellor Alkorin

Part-Time Sith
<Granularity Engineer>
6,029
5,915
Probably had an Intel Puma chip in it. They're very broken and incapable of some of the most basic networking tasks, but the price is right.
 

Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
1,092
436
Does this shit actually work better than having three routers strewn about the house?
(actually one router/modem t-systems, one old d-link which probably needs replacing anyway and a fritz! wifi range extender)
Amazon.com: tenda nova
 

Chancellor Alkorin

Part-Time Sith
<Granularity Engineer>
6,029
5,915
Does mesh work? Yes.

Does mesh work better than range extenders? Generally, yes.

The real question is: Does your existing setup work poorly enough to justify the price tag?
 

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
2,001
713
If you can run a wire to an AP it will almost always work better than mesh.
 
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Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
1,092
436
Does mesh work? Yes.

Does mesh work better than range extenders? Generally, yes.

The real question is: Does your existing setup work poorly enough to justify the price tag?
If you can run a wire to an AP it will almost always work better than mesh.
Well I do have some wire in the house but as I mentioned one of the APs is some old piece of crap, the other is ISP provided, and the wifi repeater just plain sucks. It repeats the wifi. No wire there. But this is for the bottom floor where the inlaws live.

There are some spots in the house were my coverage is shit, but I sometimes want to blame it on the phone. Not 100% sure.

I have LAN outlets in two opposing corners of the house on the middle floor, and then some in the middle on 1st and 2nd.

They just had a sale on those tenda nova sets this weekend so maybe I'll wait until easter and try them out.
 

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
2,001
713
Just get a couple of decent APs (ubiquiti seems to be everyone's favorite, I prefer ASUS gear) and use your cabling. Your inlaws should be able to get coverage from the 1st floor AP if it's placed centrally. Just make sure you are having them use the 2.4GHZ band.
 

Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
1,092
436
Just get a couple of decent APs (ubiquiti seems to be everyone's favorite, I prefer ASUS gear) and use your cabling. Your inlaws should be able to get coverage from the 1st floor AP if it's placed centrally. Just make sure you are having them use the 2.4GHZ band.
Yeah I bought a Ubiquiti AP for work and it has good range, easy to configure, all fine. Cost 80€ though.
The cheapest Ubiquiti AP I can find on Amazon costs 60€.
Three of them = 180€

Tenda Nova 3-set 170€ when not discounted. 140 during flash sale. So I guess if either works I'll probably just grab whichever I can get for cheap enough at the right time.
 

Illuziun

Bronze Knight of the Realm
209
16
Can anyone recommend a device that will take a WiFi signal and allow me to run an Ethernet out from it, preferably capable of 1gbs speeds?

I see a lot of these mesh systems and WiFi extenders these days but I’m getting a lot of mixed information when I read into the details, just want to make sure I get something capable for what I need.
 

Chancellor Alkorin

Part-Time Sith
<Granularity Engineer>
6,029
5,915
The majority of Wi-fi routers will do this, either as part of the standard OS, or with a replacement firmware like dd-wrt. It's called bridging.

Keep in mind that bridging wireless to wired is one hell of a band-aid. Wireless signal is (by necessity) somewhat lossy and high-latency compared to wired connections. The likelihood of getting stable 1Gbps is pretty low unless you're buying some really high-end wireless routers, and even then, wireless latency is pretty much guaranteed.
 

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
2,083
307
Can anyone recommend a device that will take a WiFi signal and allow me to run an Ethernet out from it, preferably capable of 1gbs speeds?

I see a lot of these mesh systems and WiFi extenders these days but I’m getting a lot of mixed information when I read into the details, just want to make sure I get something capable for what I need.

Orbi does this. I have a base station near my device and it has 4 gigabit Ethernet ports on each base station.
 

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
2,001
713
Can anyone recommend a device that will take a WiFi signal and allow me to run an Ethernet out from it, preferably capable of 1gbs speeds?

I see a lot of these mesh systems and WiFi extenders these days but I’m getting a lot of mixed information when I read into the details, just want to make sure I get something capable for what I need.

You'll have to be more specific as to what it is you want to accomplish. Just about any commodity wifi router can be set up as an Access Point (i.e. does not route, only passes traffic to your external router). Most routers these days have 1GB ethernet ports too. You obviously won't get 1gb wireless though.
 

loudgas

Golden Baronet of the Realm
3,777
18,800
I use a TP-LINK AC1350 Wireless Dual Band Router (Archer C60), to do this. I configured it to wirelessly bridge my AC network, it functions as an AC & N access points (separate SSID's), and plugging in works as well albeit at 10/100.
 

Quineloe

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,978
4,463
YfuD6Gz.jpg


would this work?

This is random junk I stole from work, trying to work with what I have for now :) So I don't have any manuals.
 

Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
1,092
436
YfuD6Gz.jpg


would this work?

This is random junk I stole from work, trying to work with what I have for now :) So I don't have any manuals.
What are you trying to achieve? On mobile and all I see is a cascade of switches that you could just skip and enable wifi on your fritz box... So, more information needed.
 

alavaz

Trakanon Raider
2,001
713
Are you just wanting to hook up more than 4 devices? If so, that looks fine, otherwise the netgear switch isn't necessary.
 

Quineloe

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,978
4,463
in short:
I need to connect LAN only devices to the internet and I need a switch to hook into a switch.

detailed LAN 1 is a computer, LAN 2 is another computer, LAN 3 is switch 1 which connects the printer, my computer and switch 2, switch 2 connects the living room PC (and torrent box), the xbox, the TV over internet box and a WiFi repeater. That being a total of 8 devices requiring internet and the router itself only having 4 ports, I need switches on top. Besides I don't want to run 4 cables to the living room. Even if I were to break up the smaller switch, I'd be one LAN port short on the router.

I'm trying to avoid WiFi as much as possible, as I've detected 28 other WiFi networks with just my router. So the air is pretty "thick" already, so to speak
our phones already lose connection at the other side of the aparment despite running 802.11ac
 

Kuriin

Just a Nurse
4,046
1,020
ATT Fiber finally got installed on the streets. Do you guys recommend Mikrotik or Ubiquiti routers? No budget on the router as I run an AirBNB and need maximum speeds throughout the house on wireless. Do I go AP? Mesh? Etc?