The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date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 The Home Networking Megathread - Yes the OP is out of date

SouthShoreSamurai: Apr 28, 2009; It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.; Fun Shoe

Any recommendations for a decent wifi extender? I use Verizon's base router. I had an extender that worked well enough for 4-5 years, but it has sadly passed. I bought this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZJ9M3K5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and couldn't get it to connect to internet. I have returned it.

# ¿ Apr 3, 2020 20:44

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 03:11

SouthShoreSamurai: Apr 28, 2009; It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.; Fun Shoe

So, situation:

Family of six. Four children are all remote learning, all have chromebooks using Wifi (two of which are in the finished basement, and two of which are at the opposite end of the house from the router.)

Wife and I work from home. Hers is almost all phone-based, but also using a macbook on wifi (also at opposite end of house.) I use the computer cabled to the router.

The router is whatever router Verizon gave me for Fios several years ago. I can look up exact model when I get home later if needed.

I also have a wifi extender towards the back of the house.

So far, this has mostly held up to the abuse. It's definitely showing it's vulnerability, though. Lag, patchy signals, and outright drops are becoming more common.

My plan:

- Buy a new router with a substantial upgrade.

- Upgrade my internet speeds with Verizon.

Please tell me in which ways this is stupid, and if it's not, which router would you all recommend? Performance is far more important than price. (I'm not especially keen to throw myself completely into a full-on home networking, I have a billion other projects going... but if I have to then I have to. Just would rather keep it as simple as possible.)

# ¿ Oct 16, 2020 00:55

SouthShoreSamurai: Apr 28, 2009; It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.; Fun Shoe

Current plan is 150/150.

Current router is Fios G1100.

Would it work to push my plan to 1G, and get a Netgear Nighthawk and just be done with it?

I really don't have the time to go fishing cables and setting up switches, etc (including the time to learn how to do these things properly)...

# ¿ Oct 16, 2020 02:51

SouthShoreSamurai: Apr 28, 2009; It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.; Fun Shoe

Ok. If I do that, I have to also buy a new modem, yeah?

# ¿ Oct 16, 2020 04:00

SouthShoreSamurai: Apr 28, 2009; It is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.; Fun Shoe

Hadlock posted:

You just plug the output from the modem into the new router

Any modern wifi system should be fine. My vote is for the nest/google wifi system simply because I already have it, but any of the pricier options ought to be fine

And echoing what somebody else said, wifi equipment tends to degrade within 5-7 years for whatever reason, expect to replace your WiFi every 5 years

There have been huge advances in wifi beam shaping, mesh everything etc in the last five years, ripping out what you have and replacing it all will probably resolve a lot of minor issues like too many devices on the same channel, trying to broadcast at max strength constantly etc etc

If you can push your primary node closet to the middle of the house by running a $7, 15' ethernet cable from the modem to the WiFi main node, all your sattelite nodes will perform a lot better

I know you plug the modem into the router, but can you plug the mesh router into the G1100 (which is already a router) directly? Or would I have to get a new modem only and use that?

If I can plug the mesh into the G1100, any issues with the throughput of that?

H110Hawk posted:

I've never heard of someone liking the nighthawk stuff.

150 is probably fine unless there is a lot of streaming video going on, even with 6 zoom calls going. Open the stats window in zoom while you have a giant 50 person video meeting going - you will likely be surprised how little bandwidth it uses.

I imagine that you lack wifi reach and a mesh system will solve your issues. If you get one with ethernet ports you could even potentially remove some wifi clients from your network. I assume you have at least 15 clients (6 computers, 6 cell phones, 3 misc.) if they are all chattering away on 2.4ghz at max power to try to talk to your single AP then that would make it hard to be heard. The solution is to get to 5ghz, which has terrible range, or reduce client count. A mesh system could make the former a reality.

This makes sense, thanks. I imagine you're all probably right and mesh is the way to solve this. I don't really have a way of running ethernet cables through the house, other than potentially vertically at one end. My house is a long rectangle and the Fios cable comes in at one end, and that's where the modem/router is currently. I could drill down right there to run one ethernet down to the basement and have one of the mesh waps down there.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2020 14:09

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