The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

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Thoom: Jan 12, 2004; LUIGI SMASH!

Trying to decipher some of the marketing about roaming/handoff. The TP-Link Omada says it uses 802.11k and 802.11v for handoff, whereas Ubiquiti's support page talks about 802.11r.

But I can find no information about client support for any of these protocols, since they don't seem to be a mandatory part of WiFi certification. Is there any way to tell if a device supports any given subset of these protocols without just trying it out, and what's the downfall if they don't? If I take my Switch or tablet across the house, will I still have to toggle WiFi to convince it to talk to a closer AP?

# ? Oct 23, 2020 19:38

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 12:48

willroc7: Jul 24, 2006; BADGES? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' BADGES!

Thoom posted:

Trying to decipher some of the marketing about roaming/handoff. The TP-Link Omada says it uses 802.11k and 802.11v for handoff, whereas Ubiquiti's support page talks about 802.11r.

But I can find no information about client support for any of these protocols, since they don't seem to be a mandatory part of WiFi certification. Is there any way to tell if a device supports any given subset of these protocols without just trying it out, and what's the downfall if they don't? If I take my Switch or tablet across the house, will I still have to toggle WiFi to convince it to talk to a closer AP?

My Omada gear does not have 802.11r but with fast roaming and forced disassociation on all of my devices handoff seamlessly to the closest AP as I move around the house. I have 2 245�s and one 225 outdoor.

I also am a networking noob and I found the Omada cloud setup very easy and user friendly. From what I�ve read ubiquity is more difficult, but I don�t have direct experience with that.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 19:43

Incessant Excess: Aug 15, 2005; Cause of glitch:
Pretentiousness

I know the NanoHD access point gets power via POE. I assume that a POE switch can supply (so I don't need a dedicated injector), do I need to look for anything specific or will any POE switch do? Would this work for example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenda-TEG1105P-4-63W-5-Port-Gigabit-Desktop/dp/B078LCTV2R/

If I connect a device that doesn't use POE, like my desktop, that's no issue either I take it?

EDIT: I also notice a lot of the switches have a specific "link" or sometimes "uplink" port, like port 5 here:

What exactly is the function of this?

Incessant Excess fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Oct 23, 2020

# ? Oct 23, 2020 19:46

stevewm: May 10, 2005

Its just a normal port without PoE. Functionally it wont be any different from the other ports, other than the lack of PoE.

It allows you to uplink to another switch without "wasting" a PoE providing port. It is pretty common on smaller switches. You could use any of the ports to do the same thing.

# ? Oct 23, 2020 20:14

SwissArmyDruid: Feb 14, 2014; by sebmojo

Incessant Excess posted:

I know the NanoHD access point gets power via POE. I assume that a POE switch can supply (so I don't need a dedicated injector), do I need to look for anything specific or will any POE switch do? Would this work for example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenda-TEG1105P-4-63W-5-Port-Gigabit-Desktop/dp/B078LCTV2R/

If I connect a device that doesn't use POE, like my desktop, that's no issue either I take it?

EDIT: I also notice a lot of the switches have a specific "link" or sometimes "uplink" port, like port 5 here:

What exactly is the function of this?

Uplink is your Link to Upstream devices. Your router, upstream switch, or network appliance, whatever. You're not going to provide power to upstream devices, right?

Also, I would be INCREDIBLY leery of that product listing, that top image is photoshopped as hell, the perspectives are headache-inducing.

SwissArmyDruid fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Oct 23, 2020

# ? Oct 23, 2020 22:02

astral: Apr 26, 2004

Rooted Vegetable posted:

The nanoHD does have Wifi 6

Source? Last I knew their Wifi 6 (802.11ax) stuff was all early access.

e: Are you thinking of 802.11ac Wave 2? That's what the nanoHD is.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 00:21

Rooted Vegetable: Jun 1, 2002

poo poo, you're absolutely right.

Concept applies though, get router now, swap APs if needed later...

(This isn't my cheapest thinking ever)

# ? Oct 24, 2020 00:37

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Have a bit of an effort post about tweaking my newly installed APs. I live in a typical Pulte wood-construction Colonial (circa 1996, 2600 sqft not counting basement).

APs are located as follows:
1 in the upstairs hallway closet - North side of the house, most devices and centralized
2 on the main floor, one in a closet directly underneath the upstairs hallway. One in my garage on the opposite side of the house
1 in my basement, essentially underneath the closets

Other than random phones/tablets, there's an iMac right outside the Main floor closet AP, a Desktop in the room next to the upstairs closet AP, and then Nest Cams (1 on the garage, 1 on the back patio, 1 on the doorway).

I'm concerned that so many devices are using the FoyerAP, so I turned the Power down, hoping other devices will latch on to other APs. Boosted the power on the Upstairs thinking it'd grab some of the Cams?

I followed some guides online for site scanning. I disabled all my APs, then starting with the top one I did a site scan, picked the channels, then added the next and so on. For 2.4ghz, I used logic of not having one of the three main channels not adjacent to the next.

I came up with the below. I also including the site scans for 2g/5g for each AP if that helps. I'm pretty new to this so hoping some goons can point out any glaring issues that I may have overlooked. Appreciate the input!

What, if anything, should I be considering or information that I can provide?

code:

Wireless Access Points	Width	Channel	Power	Utilization/Interference
Upstairs AP - 2.4ghz	VHT-20	1	Medium	21% / -96 dBm
Garage AP - 2.4ghz	VHT-20	6	Medium	23% / -96 dBm
Foyer AP - 2.4ghz	VHT-20	11	Medium	30% / -96 dBm
Basement AP - 2.4ghz	VHT-20	1	Medium	9% / -96 dBm

Upstairs AP - 5ghz	VHT-80	44	High	0% / -93 dBm
Garage AP - 5ghz	VHT-80	161	Medium	0% / -91 dBm
Foyer AP - 5ghz		VHT-80	157	Medium	0% / -91 dBm
Basement AP - 5ghz	VHT-80	40	Medium	0% / -93dBm

Upstairs AP Scan

Garage AP Scan

Foyer AP Scan

Basement AP Scan

# ? Oct 24, 2020 00:40

skipdogg: Nov 29, 2004; Resident SRT-4 Expert

Why do you have so many AP�s? My house is over 3400 sq feet and I can cover the whole thing with a single centrally located AC lite on the 2nd floor.

I have a second AP downstairs on the opposite side of the house but it�s not necessary, my cats unplugged it and I didn�t even notice for a week.

I have 27-31 WiFi devices online at any given time and no issues at all. I think you�re way over complicating things.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 01:34

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

I very well may be. I went with an AP a floor and one for the outside. We are a family of 5 and between us and the IoT have a LOT of devices. It kind of grew on me by accident as I didn't think I could hardwire my second floor when I started so why trying to work out not having a top down view of it all.

You'll kill me when I tell you I have another AP dedicated just to my Quest for Virtual Desktop! That isn't UniFi but an old Nethawk.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 01:42

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

Why do you have three separate APs that don't know about each other instead of a mesh system? Now you have three (four?) APs that are constantly stepping on each other, I would just get three mesh routers from the same system and link them all and let them balance the system based on whatever. This kind of manual min-maxing was all automated 5 years ago for consumer devices. You're needlessly doing 2012 era network entry level admin work.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 01:58

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

Hadlock posted:

Why do you have three separate APs that don't know about each other instead of a mesh system? Now you have three (four?) APs that are constantly stepping on each other, I would just get three mesh routers from the same system and link them all and let them balance the system based on whatever. This kind of manual min-maxing was all automated 5 years ago for consumer devices. You're needlessly doing 2012 era network entry level admin work.

I don't have separate APs that don't know about each other. My APs all go back to the UDM Pro that manages the wifi and hands everything off. Mesh is only about how the APs connect to each other wirelessly, mine are all hardwired back to the switch.

Clients are grabbing the strongest signal so that's why I'm futzing with power levels at the same time I'm making sure I set the channels up right.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 02:02

MonkeyFit: May 13, 2009

MonkeyFit posted:

My friend just bought a house that has ethernet and cable jacks in every single room. All of these are routed to a central closet in the middle of the house. Each wall plate has a green ethernet jack and an orange one, and there's a bundle of green ethernet cords coming into the closet and a bundle of orange cords. Also a bundle of coax cables going to each coax jack in each room.

Obviously, you could easily set this up to have two separate wired networks. But what is the best way to go about setting up networking in this house? I'm not really sure what could be done by having two separate wired networks, or if it would be beneficial to just have them all on the same network. House was built in 2017, and the wall jacks say cat 5e, and I would guess they probably did cheap out and use cat 5e since it's not a custom home. Any ideas?

So update. The two bundles of cables coming out in the network closet are 8 green and 8 orange. They're all already terminated, so I think I can skip the patch panel. Since he has a router, I should be looking at a 24 port unmanaged switch if I want to put them all on the same network right? Since I have those 16 cables to plug in and a cable going to the router? Or maybe go with a 16 port and just leave one he doesn't care about unplugged? He's not looking to do anything super special. He's a mechanic and just wants to be able to stream to devices, and as his kids grow up maybe put computers in their rooms.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 06:20

SnatchRabbit: Feb 23, 2006; by sebmojo

Just wanted to confirm something with folks here: I just had Verizon fios installed at my new house. The tech ran the router and cable box to the main living room downstairs where previous owner had cable. The entire house has coax jacks in every room it seems. Tech also put a second tv box In The master br upstairs using the existing coax jack. I asked about running an extender and the tech recommended a Verizon network extender https://www.verizon.com/home/accessories/fios-network-extender/

So if I am understanding this correctly I should be able to buy one of these for upstairs, connect it to coax and maybe call Verizon and then I should have at least one room on 2nd floor with wired internet and some more WiFi coverage yeah?

# ? Oct 24, 2020 13:54

withoutclass: Nov 6, 2007; Resist the siren call of rhinocerosness; College Slice

SnatchRabbit posted:

Just wanted to confirm something with folks here: I just had Verizon fios installed at my new house. The tech ran the router and cable box to the main living room downstairs where previous owner had cable. The entire house has coax jacks in every room it seems. Tech also put a second tv box In The master br upstairs using the existing coax jack. I asked about running an extender and the tech recommended a Verizon network extender https://www.verizon.com/home/accessories/fios-network-extender/

So if I am understanding this correctly I should be able to buy one of these for upstairs, connect it to coax and maybe call Verizon and then I should have at least one room on 2nd floor with wired internet and some more WiFi coverage yeah?

I see MoCA listed as one of it's features so it's probably a safe bet. I'm not sure how it would work if you changed ISPs though.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 14:02

SnatchRabbit: Feb 23, 2006; by sebmojo

withoutclass posted:

I see MoCA listed as one of it's features so it's probably a safe bet. I'm not sure how it would work if you changed ISPs though.

Yeah that was my assumption as well. I don�t really care about it being locked to VZ since I�d rather plunk down the hundie so it works without much hassle.

# ? Oct 24, 2020 14:19

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

I just doubled my Internet bandwidth in the dumbest possible way.

After a couple recent plan changes my ISP service is now supposed to be up to 250mbps down, but whenever I ran speedtests I kept topping out right around 90mbps. The only device connected with a cable is the router, so all the tests have been wireless. I hadn't tried connecting directly to the modem because it is in an awkward place, but tonight I finally got up the motivation to move poo poo out of the way and hook a laptop up directly to the modem.

Cycled the modem, got the laptop online, speedtest came in at exactly the same 90mbps as I was getting wirelessly. Huh.

Then it occurred to me that I had no recollection where the ethernet cable I'd been using came from. It's this short gray and yellow cable that has "only connect to wireless router" printed on it, so it presumably came with a router.

Figuring I would be exhaustive, I went and grabbed a different ethernet cable and swapped it out. Cycled the modem, got the laptop back online, speedtest now coming in at like 225mbps.

Cycle the modem and router, hook the router back up, run speedtest over a 5ghz wireless connection, also testing at 225mbps or better.

For weeks I had been grumpily assuming Comcast was screwing me over or the house had iffy coax, but no, it was just some random lovely ethernet cable. :doh:

# ? Oct 25, 2020 07:44

HalloKitty: Sep 30, 2005; Adjust the bass and let the Alpine blast

Yeah, some gear still comes with very low grade ethernet cables, that are missing some of the conductors even. The Philips hue bridge, for example. It's fine there, it barely needs any bandwidth, but it's not a cable you'd want to use elsewhere

# ? Oct 25, 2020 11:35

my kinda ape: Sep 15, 2008; Everything's gonna be A-OK; Oven Wrangler

I'm currently running what is basically a tiny WISP for me and two other homes, using a family friend's business as the connection to the internet. The Ubiquiti equipment I'm using for everything is rock solid so far but the Spectrum modem is pretty poo poo. Because it's a business connection Spectrum won't allow me to buy my own modem to replace the one they provide. The modem is 1) in the dropped ceiling and therefore kind of annoying to get to, and 2) in a business that closes at night and usually on weekends so it's not possible or inconvenient to get in at all during those times. Is there a good solution that lets me remotely power cycle the modem if/when it bugs out? There doesn't appear to be any way to restart it from the remote interface, even after breaking in to the locked advanced settings menu.

Is there a reliable and preferably relatively cheap smart plug sort of thing that lets me log in from the local network (not through the internet and definitely not through some lovely app) so I can power cycle the modem when needed? I suppose I could put it on a timer that's set to restart every day in the very early morning but that's not guaranteed to fix every problem and I would prefer to have as little downtime as possible even if it would only be a minute or two every day.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 17:48

H110Hawk: Dec 28, 2006

my kinda ape posted:

I'm currently running what is basically a tiny WISP for me and two other homes, using a family friend's business as the connection to the internet. The Ubiquiti equipment I'm using for everything is rock solid so far but the Spectrum modem is pretty poo poo. Because it's a business connection Spectrum won't allow me to buy my own modem to replace the one they provide. The modem is 1) in the dropped ceiling and therefore kind of annoying to get to, and 2) in a business that closes at night and usually on weekends so it's not possible or inconvenient to get in at all during those times. Is there a good solution that lets me remotely power cycle the modem if/when it bugs out? There doesn't appear to be any way to restart it from the remote interface, even after breaking in to the locked advanced settings menu.

Is there a reliable and preferably relatively cheap smart plug sort of thing that lets me log in from the local network (not through the internet and definitely not through some lovely app) so I can power cycle the modem when needed? I suppose I could put it on a timer that's set to restart every day in the very early morning but that's not guaranteed to fix every problem and I would prefer to have as little downtime as possible even if it would only be a minute or two every day.

If the business connection is poo poo you should call their support and make them give you a working modem. Every single time. Get snr readings every single time, and some when it's good to compare. Is the unit simply overheating? (is the plenum space hot?) does this outage only happen on the weekends when the ac is off?

Remote reboot sounds like a job for a smart outlet, which ironically would require an internet connection to accomplish.

You should work out a way to get access to the unit during the weekend.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 19:11

Thoom: Jan 12, 2004; LUIGI SMASH!

Does the AX20 have a fan, and if so, is it loud? I'm leaning towards a single AX20 to replace my aging 802.11n Unifis, which are wall-mounted around the house, but the only reasonably central, elevated spot with an ethernet jack nearby is on a shelf right next to my bed.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 19:26

SwissArmyDruid: Feb 14, 2014; by sebmojo

my kinda ape posted:

I'm currently running what is basically a tiny WISP for me and two other homes, using a family friend's business as the connection to the internet. The Ubiquiti equipment I'm using for everything is rock solid so far but the Spectrum modem is pretty poo poo. Because it's a business connection Spectrum won't allow me to buy my own modem to replace the one they provide. The modem is 1) in the dropped ceiling and therefore kind of annoying to get to, and 2) in a business that closes at night and usually on weekends so it's not possible or inconvenient to get in at all during those times. Is there a good solution that lets me remotely power cycle the modem if/when it bugs out? There doesn't appear to be any way to restart it from the remote interface, even after breaking in to the locked advanced settings menu.

Is there a reliable and preferably relatively cheap smart plug sort of thing that lets me log in from the local network (not through the internet and definitely not through some lovely app) so I can power cycle the modem when needed? I suppose I could put it on a timer that's set to restart every day in the very early morning but that's not guaranteed to fix every problem and I would prefer to have as little downtime as possible even if it would only be a minute or two every day.

Do what H110Hawk says first, then know that this exists: https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-accessories/products/unifi-smart-power

It's a wifi-enabled plug that periodically pings the internet. No internet, and it power-cycles the modem.

I have never used this, but I knew of its existence, and it seems cheap and low-profile enough for what it seems to do. There may be other such products out there that also accomplish the same thing.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 20:59

Incessant Excess: Aug 15, 2005; Cause of glitch:
Pretentiousness

Is there a reason not to get the Amplifi Alien over the Unifi Dream Machine? It's a difference of only 40 bucks and the Alien supports newer standards like WIFI 6

# ? Oct 25, 2020 21:16

withoutclass: Nov 6, 2007; Resist the siren call of rhinocerosness; College Slice

Incessant Excess posted:

Is there a reason not to get the Amplifi Alien over the Unifi Dream Machine? It's a difference of only 40 bucks and the Alien supports newer standards like WIFI 6

I believe the alien part of their consumer mesh line.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 21:18

my kinda ape: Sep 15, 2008; Everything's gonna be A-OK; Oven Wrangler

SwissArmyDruid posted:

Do what H110Hawk says first, then know that this exists: https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-accessories/products/unifi-smart-power

It's a wifi-enabled plug that periodically pings the internet. No internet, and it power-cycles the modem.

I have never used this, but I knew of its existence, and it seems cheap and low-profile enough for what it seems to do. There may be other such products out there that also accomplish the same thing.

I considered that and it would be perfect except that it requires UniFi Network Controller for management and I don't have a device that does that. All of the other equipment including the router and AP for the business uses UNMS.

The other thing I saw that almost works is this: https://www.amazon.com/AC1200-Wi-Fi-Extender-TP-Link-Built/dp/B01MZIV9ZC

I would just plug the modem into the smart plug, plug the ethernet port into the wired router and use it as an AP instead of the current AP. Unfortunately it's not documented as being able to work that way and one review I found indicates that it definitely does not.

This connects via wifi but does have a browser interface that I can presumably access from further down the network: https://www.amazon.com/Securifi-com...&sr=1-1-catcorr

I would prefer a wired connection that would probably work well enough.

I will complain to Spectrum about the modem and hopefully get it replaced but I've been working 10-12 hour days every day for the past 5 weeks and still have a week or two to go before I actually have time for hour+ long phone calls with morons.

The modem stability actually hasn't been bad until recently. It was perfectly fine for a couple months and then about a week ago it went out for 12 hours or something until I could get there to power cycle it. Then a few days ago it decided to only connect to 1 download and 1 upload channel only, making everyone connected through it have a 30-35mbps connection instead of the 200+ we should have had. It finally fixed itself this afternoon and connected to all channels.

The friends who own the business are letting me and my cousin piggy back off their connection for free so I want to bother them with this kind of stuff as little as possible. I'm happy to barge in during the day if I have time but I'm not about to get them out of bed so I can fix my connection at midnight or have them come in on the weekend, and I'm certainly not going to ask for a key to their small business.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 21:41

SwissArmyDruid: Feb 14, 2014; by sebmojo

my kinda ape posted:

I considered that and it would be perfect except that it requires UniFi Network Controller for management and I don't have a device that does that. All of the other equipment including the router and AP for the business uses UNMS.

The other thing I saw that almost works is this: https://www.amazon.com/AC1200-Wi-Fi-Extender-TP-Link-Built/dp/B01MZIV9ZC

I would just plug the modem into the smart plug, plug the ethernet port into the wired router and use it as an AP instead of the current AP. Unfortunately it's not documented as being able to work that way and one review I found indicates that it definitely does not.

This connects via wifi but does have a browser interface that I can presumably access from further down the network: https://www.amazon.com/Securifi-com...&sr=1-1-catcorr

I would prefer a wired connection that would probably work well enough.

I will complain to Spectrum about the modem and hopefully get it replaced but I've been working 10-12 hour days every day for the past 5 weeks and still have a week or two to go before I actually have time for hour+ long phone calls with morons.

The modem stability actually hasn't been bad until recently. It was perfectly fine for a couple months and then about a week ago it went out for 12 hours or something until I could get there to power cycle it. Then a few days ago it decided to only connect to 1 download and 1 upload channel only, making everyone connected through it have a 30-35mbps connection instead of the 200+ we should have had. It finally fixed itself this afternoon and connected to all channels.

The friends who own the business are letting me and my cousin piggy back off their connection for free so I want to bother them with this kind of stuff as little as possible. I'm happy to barge in during the day if I have time but I'm not about to get them out of bed so I can fix my connection at midnight or have them come in on the weekend, and I'm certainly not going to ask for a key to their small business.

I went looking for open-source.

https://hackaday.io/project/168150-reboot-o-matic

# ? Oct 25, 2020 22:17

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

my kinda ape posted:

I considered that and it would be perfect except that it requires UniFi Network Controller for management and I don't have a device that does that. All of the other equipment including the router and AP for the business uses UNMS.

The other thing I saw that almost works is this: https://www.amazon.com/AC1200-Wi-Fi-Extender-TP-Link-Built/dp/B01MZIV9ZC

I would just plug the modem into the smart plug, plug the ethernet port into the wired router and use it as an AP instead of the current AP. Unfortunately it's not documented as being able to work that way and one review I found indicates that it definitely does not.

This connects via wifi but does have a browser interface that I can presumably access from further down the network: https://www.amazon.com/Securifi-com...&sr=1-1-catcorr

I would prefer a wired connection that would probably work well enough.

I will complain to Spectrum about the modem and hopefully get it replaced but I've been working 10-12 hour days every day for the past 5 weeks and still have a week or two to go before I actually have time for hour+ long phone calls with morons.

The modem stability actually hasn't been bad until recently. It was perfectly fine for a couple months and then about a week ago it went out for 12 hours or something until I could get there to power cycle it. Then a few days ago it decided to only connect to 1 download and 1 upload channel only, making everyone connected through it have a 30-35mbps connection instead of the 200+ we should have had. It finally fixed itself this afternoon and connected to all channels.

The friends who own the business are letting me and my cousin piggy back off their connection for free so I want to bother them with this kind of stuff as little as possible. I'm happy to barge in during the day if I have time but I'm not about to get them out of bed so I can fix my connection at midnight or have them come in on the weekend, and I'm certainly not going to ask for a key to their small business.

Have you checked to see if there are Spectrum outages when this happens? If the problem is system-wide then it might not be the modem. Of course those symptoms could also be a lovely modem acting up. Not being allowed to change the modem out is a bad and frustrating policy - I wonder how much they are charging in rental fees for it.

Does Spectrum have an account management page, and would your friends let you log into it? I'm on Xfinity and I can restart my modem from there, but of course this only works if the Internet is up and running and Comcast lets me actually log into my user account.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 22:26

Hadlock: Nov 9, 2004

CaptainSarcastic posted:

I just doubled my Internet bandwidth in the dumbest possible way.... supposed to be up to 250mbps down, but ...around 90mbps. ...I went and grabbed a different ethernet cable and swapped it out...speedtest now coming in at like 225mbps.

...it was just some random lovely ethernet cable.

We have 1gbps fiber that terminates in the telcom closet in my wife's closet, the house was built ~20 years ago and we've just wrapped up unpacking everything.

We were getting ~450-650mbps down

Now that everything is squared away, I ordered a new set of cat 6 cables from Cable Matters, replaced the limp, saggy unknown cables with the new name-brand cables, bingo-bango, now getting between 890 and 960mbps

Whenever we get a new cable with a device, it goes in a 1 gallon ziplock baggie labeled "lovely cables" that are held as a reserve, almost everything is brand new cabling whenever possible. Cat 6 cables are like $2 each on amazon if you buy them in 5-packs, no reason not to buy new cables

# ? Oct 25, 2020 23:36

my kinda ape: Sep 15, 2008; Everything's gonna be A-OK; Oven Wrangler

SwissArmyDruid posted:

I went looking for open-source.

https://hackaday.io/project/168150-reboot-o-matic

This is pretty cool but it seems a little too complicated for me, or at least too complicated for my currently frazzled brain to figure out at the moment.

CaptainSarcastic posted:

Have you checked to see if there are Spectrum outages when this happens? If the problem is system-wide then it might not be the modem. Of course those symptoms could also be a lovely modem acting up. Not being allowed to change the modem out is a bad and frustrating policy - I wonder how much they are charging in rental fees for it.

Does Spectrum have an account management page, and would your friends let you log into it? I'm on Xfinity and I can restart my modem from there, but of course this only works if the Internet is up and running and Comcast lets me actually log into my user account.

I tried checking for system wide outages and didn't find any. The one big outage was fixed immediately upon power cycling the modem and the one for the past few days appeared to be the modem working but only on 1 up and 1 down channel instead of 4 up and 24 down as normal. I happened to be around at the exact time it went out again and checked the status page when it came back up and it was back to 24/4. Spectrum will tell you if you have an outage in your area if you log in to your an account and I would guess you can probably restart your modem from there too but I do not have the log in info. I'll see if they're comfortable giving me the log in info the next time I see them. I could always log in from my phone and restart it from there, assuming it's responding to commands from the internet.

The business owners are the parents of a good friend of mine from high school who I'm still good friends with. They know me fairly well but I'm not like a second son to them or something so I would like to do everything I can to stay on their good side since we've got a pretty good arrangement going and this is the only conceivable way I'm getting internet anywhere this fast out here without spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

my kinda ape fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Oct 25, 2020

# ? Oct 25, 2020 23:41

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

Hadlock posted:

We have 1gbps fiber that terminates in the telcom closet in my wife's closet, the house was built ~20 years ago and we've just wrapped up unpacking everything.

We were getting ~450-650mbps down

Now that everything is squared away, I ordered a new set of cat 6 cables from Cable Matters, replaced the limp, saggy unknown cables with the new name-brand cables, bingo-bango, now getting between 890 and 960mbps

Whenever we get a new cable with a device, it goes in a 1 gallon ziplock baggie labeled "lovely cables" that are held as a reserve, almost everything is brand new cabling whenever possible. Cat 6 cables are like $2 each on amazon if you buy them in 5-packs, no reason not to buy new cables

I have a drawer full of old cables and it should have occurred to me to swap it before, but I had just assumed my cables were new enough they should be Cat5e or better. The main reason I was using that particular cable was it was a good length to run a short distance. Also, when I first moved in here I think my service plan topped out at 50 or 75 mbps, so I wouldn't have been seeing the bottleneck for a while. Once my plan's bandwidth started increasing I started noticing the speed differential.

Going with new cabling is not a bad practice, I just often don't think about it. I might go through and do an inventory of what I have on hand, and maybe pick up a new cable just to have something closer to "known good" available.

# ? Oct 25, 2020 23:53

LordOfThePants: Sep 25, 2002

my kinda ape posted:

This is pretty cool but it seems a little too complicated for me, or at least too complicated for my currently frazzled brain to figure out at the moment

I�ve seen those smart plugs that ping the internet periodically and power cycle if the ping fails, it�s just like that Unifi smart plug, but it doesn�t require the Unifi Controller.

I cannot for the life of me find the website now. I remember looking at them for a situation similar yours.

Don�t some of the APC UPSs with network cards have the ability to control power to individual outlets? That may be more than you want to spend though.

# ? Oct 26, 2020 00:57

Rexxed: May 1, 2010; Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

There's a bunch of premade devices that will reset power to something if they lose connection, although they all have highly varied reviews so it's hard to say what one would be recommended.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolenguyen/pretty-fly-for-a-wifi
https://www.cnet.com/news/get-a-netreset-modem-router-power-cycler-for-34-99/
probably a dozen more on Amazon.

You could always setup one of these premade power relay boards with a raspberry pi or a wifi enabled arduino product like an ESP32 or one of the myriad of other options to trigger the relay. As long as the device is on an address you can get to while the router is on making a script to turn off the power for a couple of seconds and turn it back on should be pretty easy. The way the board works is that two outlets are normally closed (on) and two are normally open (off). Triggering the relay will reverse that, so you'd just put the modem on the one that operates normally. There's code examples on adafruit:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2935

# ? Oct 26, 2020 02:50

KingKapalone: Dec 20, 2005; 1/16 Native American + 1/2 Hungarian = Totally Badass

Think I'm going to get one of the protectli boxes for pfSense. This one https://smile.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-Gigabit-Barebone/dp/B01KLECNDG/ paired with this RAM https://smile.amazon.com/Crucial-Single-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-204-Pin/dp/B005LDLP8W/ and this mSATA https://smile.amazon.com/Dogfish-Msata-Internal-Solid-SSD/dp/B07GNYZDPW

How does that look for Xfinity gigabit?

# ? Oct 26, 2020 03:57

Krailor: Nov 2, 2001; I'm only pretending to care; Taco Defender

KingKapalone posted:

Think I'm going to get one of the protectli boxes for pfSense. This one https://smile.amazon.com/Firewall-Micro-Appliance-Gigabit-Barebone/dp/B01KLECNDG/ paired with this RAM https://smile.amazon.com/Crucial-Single-PC3-12800-Unbuffered-204-Pin/dp/B005LDLP8W/ and this mSATA https://smile.amazon.com/Dogfish-Msata-Internal-Solid-SSD/dp/B07GNYZDPW

How does that look for Xfinity gigabit?

I'd suggest moving up to a quad-core unit for gigabit, I don't know that the dual core j1800 could handle it.

# ? Oct 26, 2020 06:49

codo27: Apr 21, 2008

Isn't it great the hairbrained stuff you get up to on these forums, like here I am with 100mbps service for the forseeable future but I'm just like hey, I better buy a bunch of cat7 to replace all my existing cables and throw them away!

# ? Oct 26, 2020 11:56

Binary Badger: Oct 11, 2005; Trolling Link for a decade

Copper ages. If I had a quarter for every time a new cable fixed a connection issue for a client, I'd be driving a Tesla while staying in a seven figure condo swearing never to take mass transit again.

That said, also just make sure you source your cables from known good, established vendors..

It's amazing how many people also do dumb poo poo like replace their Ethernet cables with phone cords or cords they scavenged from a dumpster, and then wonder why the hell they can't stream Netflix or keep a reliable connection.. it irks the hell out of me when I see a cable with a shiny patina and no identifying specs printed on it.

I ask them 'where did you get this cable' and it's always roll eyes or 'I don't know' or 'my cousin vinny gave it to me said it was fine'...

# ? Oct 26, 2020 12:18

KingKapalone: Dec 20, 2005; 1/16 Native American + 1/2 Hungarian = Totally Badass

Krailor posted:

I'd suggest moving up to a quad-core unit for gigabit, I don't know that the dual core j1800 could handle it.

Hmm any recommendations? I've heard these boxes are good for pfSense. Also the HP T620 plus on eBay but not really seeing good deals for that or the NIC expansion card, either Intel i210 or i350, on Amazon.

# ? Oct 26, 2020 17:08

Rexxed: May 1, 2010; Dis is amazing!
I gotta try dis!

KingKapalone posted:

Hmm any recommendations? I've heard these boxes are good for pfSense. Also the HP T620 plus on eBay but not really seeing good deals for that or the NIC expansion card, either Intel i210 or i350, on Amazon.

This may be more than you want to spend but the Seeed Odyssey is a fairly new single board computer with dual gigabit:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/ODYSSEY-c-1492.html
There's a wiki entry for putting pfsense on it:
https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/ODYSSEY-X86J4105-pfSense/

The ServeTheHome great deals forum has a long thread on the T730 thin client but no current links to great deals on it, although I see some on ebay for $115 with no power supply or drive, which is not a great deal:
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/hp-t730-8gb-ram-32gb-storage-thin-client.21352/page-12

# ? Oct 26, 2020 19:03

KS: Jun 10, 2003; Outrageous Lumpwad

KingKapalone posted:

Hmm any recommendations? I've heard these boxes are good for pfSense. Also the HP T620 plus on eBay but not really seeing good deals for that or the NIC expansion card, either Intel i210 or i350, on Amazon.

HP NC365T is the HP branded equivalent of the Intel NIC -- lots available at around $25. I went the T730 route and am quite happy.

# ? Oct 26, 2020 19:37

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 12:48

movax: Aug 30, 2008

My ER-4 is doing just fine, but I futz with it so seldomly that I have to re-learn / teach myself VyOS all over again. The Protectli boxes are appealing, mostly to play with Coreboot... I kinda like that whole vibe / being "open" so you know what's going on. At the same time, thin clients are dirt cheap, so spending like $500 total on a Protectli box is kinda hard to swallow.

I'm only doing 1000/40 Comcast, and I think I can get WireGuard on my ER-4 now, so no pressing need, but the Web UI is of course garbage on it.

# ? Oct 26, 2020 20:08

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

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