Need help to set up large(!) home network

winnoe

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Avoid rewiring by planning it properly and future proof your house. May be every room put at least 2 LAN cables (cat.6) instead of one cable.

Totally agreed! More is better than less... but when my uncle was building this house, the architect/project manager said 5e was more that sufficient because blah blah blah and he didnt insist on Cat6.

Also 1.5 years ago before, he didnt know that he wanted us to stay with him... the initial design was a 2 storey house no internal lift, that slowly changed to 4 storey with lift over time; but the Connectivity budget never went up or was overlooked.
 

AwfullySmart

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For 1Gbps home network, Cat5e or Cat6 doesn't really matter much.

It is not necessary to have X LAN points for X amount of devices, you can use a network switch (e.g. 8/16/24-port switch) instead to add more LAN points.
 

petetherock

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i'm actually skeptical about the claims on 7-800mbps (that's almost as fast as lan speed?) on mesh wifi, especially with lower end ones like google wifi. i have never heard of such results for mesh wifi (max is also 500-600).

could you share more on this with screenshots etc? and do u achieve such result consistently at everywhere of the house?

You don't have to believe me, I'm happy with my network, the basic principle is to keep the distances short, put the AP devices higher.

I'm here to give a suggestion to TS, and Mesh is one of them. If TS goes for the higher end because it meets his gaming needs, and that's needed, then his money is well spent.

A more basic network suited my needs. Cheers
 

petetherock

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I know this is going to sound super noob of me... but up until 2 weeks ago, I never heard of Ubiquiti... so I still need to do my due diligence in researching.






Thanks, seems many of you network experts like Ubiquiti.. I'm going to put this Ubiquiti as my final contender.


Seems like i am really too inexperienced in this field, thanks for everyone's comments!

Looks like you are all set on this, just check if you need the top of the line gear, or will something cheaper suffice. The pros have spoken, all the best!
 

winnoe

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Looks like you are all set on this, just check if you need the top of the line gear, or will something cheaper suffice. The pros have spoken, all the best!

Thanks Petetherock, actually it was your links that helped me decide that home mesh network would have been best due to ease of use and less moving parts....if the home was smaller. The problem with home mesh networks seem to be lack of scalability.

If there was an infinitely scalable and fast mesh, I would have probably chosen that.
Google is fast but not fast enough, also not infinitely scalable.
Asus is fast but only I like the Spider design, everyone else vetoed ASUS. LOL.
Netgear orbi bro likes alot but still has poor scalability, also ethernet back haul still iffy, and also cannot combine various Rbk22, RBK40, RBK50 units together.

Ubiquiti checks all the boxes except that it's the priciest option, but I think combination of low profile/hidden APs, plus versatility, ability to mix/match up to 11 types of AP, snagged the win.

Thanks everyone as well, hope the information you all shared will benefit another large home user in the future.
 

TopGun

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How big is your store room?

You need to cater for adequate ventilation. A 24 port POE switch is going to run hot. And not to forget mounting the switch.

You can probably get by with a USG3. Next step up would be a USG pro4.

Both switch and pro4 runs on active cooling so watch out for noise.
 

winnoe

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How big is your store room?

You need to cater for adequate ventilation. A 24 port POE switch is going to run hot. And not to forget mounting the switch.

You can probably get by with a USG3. Next step up would be a USG pro4.

Both switch and pro4 runs on active cooling so watch out for noise.

The store room is in a triangle shape. Imagine those red agar agar jelly from those fruit shops.

1.5m deep by 2.2m wide. High is 2.4m at the highest side (left) and 20cm at the lowest side (right)

I would have the equipment set up against the wall on the left side on a wire rack... a cheapo refurbished stainless steel wire rack from CityLife... hopefully that will be my "passive conductive cooling". Haha.
Unfortunately the storeroom has no ventilation whatsoever.

I have decided to get:

1 x USG
1 x 24 Port Switch PoE+ (250w)

and the 24 port switch connects to
4 x AC in-wall AP (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th floor)
2 x AC Pro (1st floor + 3rd floor)
2 x AC NanoHD (2nd + 4th floor)
4 x Unifi Protect Cameras (havent decided which model)
2 x PC
4 x TVs (remaining 3 TV's will connect to AC-In-Wall)
2 x Speakers (remaining 2 speakers will just go wireless)
1 x Devialet dialouge
1 x Cloud Key Gen2+

Have 2 slots remaining....
 

dryteletubby

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The store room is in a triangle shape. Imagine those red agar agar jelly from those fruit shops.

1.5m deep by 2.2m wide. High is 2.4m at the highest side (left) and 20cm at the lowest side (right)

I would have the equipment set up against the wall on the left side on a wire rack... a cheapo refurbished stainless steel wire rack from CityLife... hopefully that will be my "passive conductive cooling". Haha.
Unfortunately the storeroom has no ventilation whatsoever.

I have decided to get:

1 x USG
1 x 24 Port Switch PoE+ (250w)

and the 24 port switch connects to
4 x AC in-wall AP (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th floor)
2 x AC Pro (1st floor + 3rd floor)
2 x AC NanoHD (2nd + 4th floor)
4 x Unifi Protect Cameras (havent decided which model)
2 x PC
4 x TVs (remaining 3 TV's will connect to AC-In-Wall)
2 x Speakers (remaining 2 speakers will just go wireless)
1 x Devialet dialouge
1 x Cloud Key Gen2+

Have 2 slots remaining....

The PoE switch may heat up your entire store room if there is no ventilation.

I am guessing you are trying to lower cost by using a mix of unifi AC Pro and NanoHD AP? I suggest you stick to one model as you don't have to just replace half of the APs if it eol earlier then the rest.
 

winnoe

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The PoE switch may heat up your entire store room if there is no ventilation.

I am guessing you are trying to lower cost by using a mix of unifi AC Pro and NanoHD AP? I suggest you stick to one model as you don't have to just replace half of the APs if it eol earlier then the rest.

Actually i was thinking about how the NanoHD has better 5ghz speeds and is MU-MIMO for future proofing but AC Pro has wider range and higher 2.5ghz speed... ....

The disclaimer here is i have no prior experience with the product, have the networking knowledge of a small child, and that i am using my own (flawed) judgement and not real world experience in AP placement.

If you think AC NanoHD will suffice despite the lower speed on 2.4Ghz (im pretty sure there are some old devices around the house im not including yet), i would defintely prefer

I do admit most of the gear I'm choosing is from the links you posted on 9th June, it was a great place to start. :s12:


Question: Would it be overkill for 4 x AC HD (instead of nanoHD) to be installed on each floor, given that the AC HD is better in everyway, has more stable firm ware, and is not prohibitively expensive.
 

dryteletubby

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Actually i was thinking about how the NanoHD has better 5ghz speeds and is MU-MIMO for future proofing but AC Pro has wider range and higher 2.5ghz speed... ....

The disclaimer here is i have no prior experience with the product, have the networking knowledge of a small child, and that i am using my own (flawed) judgement and not real world experience in AP placement.

If you think AC NanoHD will suffice despite the lower speed on 2.4Ghz (im pretty sure there are some old devices around the house im not including yet), i would defintely prefer

I do admit most of the gear I'm choosing is from the links you posted on 9th June, it was a great place to start. :s12:


Question: Would it be overkill for 4 x AC HD (instead of nanoHD) to be installed on each floor, given that the AC HD is better in everyway, has more stable firm ware, and is not prohibitively expensive.

WiFi range shouldn't be an issue since you have 8 APs covering a 4 floor house. 1 AP should be capable of covering a average 5 room HDB flat.

overkill or not depends on your budget and preference. I personally am satisfied with my 1 unifi AC pro AP
 

winnoe

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WiFi range shouldn't be an issue since you have 8 APs covering a 4 floor house. 1 AP should be capable of covering a average 5 room HDB flat.

overkill or not depends on your budget and preference. I personally am satisfied with my 1 unifi AC pro AP

dryteletubby, you seem to be pretty experienced at this networking thing and Ubiquiti.

would 2 x 16 port switch (which only 8 has PoE) produce less heat overall (i'll put them on different shelves) than a single 24 port PoE+ switch?
 

dryteletubby

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dryteletubby, you seem to be pretty experienced at this networking thing and Ubiquiti.

would 2 x 16 port switch (which only 8 has PoE) produce less heat overall (i'll put them on different shelves) than a single 24 port PoE+ switch?

Are you concerned about the switch getting hot or the switch heating up the room? Both the 16 and 24 port PoE switch should have fans built in so I doubt they will overheat. As for heating up a room I doubt running 2 switches instead of one will result in lower ambient room temperature.
 

petetherock

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I have a 24 port switch in my storeroom
Temp is a constant 28. No active cooling
Just leave plenty of space around it
 

squarepipe

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I have a 24 port switch in my storeroom
Temp is a constant 28. No active cooling
Just leave plenty of space around it


Poe switch ≠ normal unpowered switch. Your switch only use 13.5Watt the ubiquiti 24 Poe switch can use 250 - 500Watt
 

petetherock

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Poe switch ≠ normal unpowered switch. Your switch only use 13.5Watt the ubiquiti 24 Poe switch can use 250 - 500Watt

Thanks for the reminder. Indeed there are many pros here..

A side question:

Anyone experienced varying wifi and even LAN speeds when different LAN points are used?

I decided to test each point, and when I use certain points, the LAN speed is up to 950 up and download, but when I utilise another point, it can drop by half or more.. and that affects the wifi speeds too.

Thanks
 

dryteletubby

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Thanks for the reminder. Indeed there are many pros here..

A side question:

Anyone experienced varying wifi and even LAN speeds when different LAN points are used?

I decided to test each point, and when I use certain points, the LAN speed is up to 950 up and download, but when I utilise another point, it can drop by half or more.. and that affects the wifi speeds too.

Thanks

Did you accidentally enable QoS or some other setting that give certain ports different priority?
 

petetherock

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Did you accidentally enable QoS or some other setting that give certain ports different priority?

I’m no techie so I haven’t done anything other than use it. :s22:
It’s weird- as in I use a LAN point somewhere or change cables say on one level, and the speeds on another level (where I haven’t changed anything) change speeds dramatically..but maybe I’ll start a thread soon..
This is the switch
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0779R9LJ3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 

coloumbiaGames

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DragonFire

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Cheaper unmanaged switches may not be able to handle line rate across all ports. Personally I try to stick to Dell or HP hardware.

Or even Huawei.

Can you share a network diagram?
 

DragonFire

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To clarify,

Is there a network wide performance dip when you plug in many devices, or are you encountering some ports operating at lower than expected speed?

For the former, switch hardware capacity is probably the cause.

For the latter, structural cable issues may be to blame. Most consumer cabling folk do not follow best practices when doing network cabling. They may exceed permitted cable length runs (100m) or use noncompliant fittings.
 
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