Home Networking

198 readers

1 users here now

A community to help people learn, install, set up or troubleshoot their home network equipment and solutions.

Rules

Please stay on topic.
Please use the search function to look for keywords related to what you want to ask before posting since most common issues have been answered.
No Ads. This community is for support and discussion. Ads and self promotion are not welcome here.
No product reviews or announcements. If you have a question about a product, be specific about what you want to know.
Be civil. Don't be a jerk. Not being a jerk is surprisingly easy.
No URL shorteners. URL shorteners tend to hide the real use of a link. For this reason, please use normal links, even if they're long.
No affiliate links.
No gatekeeping. With profession shall come professionalism. Extend help without judging others for their ignorance. The same goes for downvoting of comments or posts for "stupid questions" or not being as knowledgeable as others.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Home WiFi Coverage (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Moved into a new 4/5-bed property a year ago. The house has a 516Mbps down/52Mbps up fibre line installed.

Originally set up a TP-Link WDR3600 with Gargoyle firmware (mainly for the bandwidth limiting and device access control... because children) that I'd used in my last place. It's positioned towards the rear of the property (as the fibre enters here)

Quickly received complaints about connectivity/reception/speeds in the front of the property (esp upper floor) so bought 2 TP-Link TL-WPA7617 for additional WiFi Coverage (one for main house upper floor, one for outbuilding). One unit broke within a few months and the other suffers from occasional crashes and upsets the entire network when unplugged. This remaining unit also gets a lot of the household load due to how people are positioned in the house. Although connectivity is now reasonable the current setup 'feels' like its not optimal.

Additional info - We have approx 50 devices with static IPs on DHCP (could possibly be trimmed down slightly) with approx 15-25 active at any one time. Almost all are wireless devices but any that can be wired reasonably, already are.

I'm looking for advice on how to improve the current setup. I've considered the following alternatives but open to suggestions:

Buying a TP-Link Archer C2300 and using the existing WDR3600 as a repeater
A mesh system like TP-Link Deco M4 or X55 systems. Don't know too much about these but am concerned I'd experience similar issues as the existing extender

Thanks

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

As the other commenter said the upload speed is suspect for fiber but that doesn't really matter.

That TP-Link WDR3600 is a wireless n only router best case on wifi you are looking at only 100-150 mbps.

And I don't have a good sample of nat performance but it seems to be only arround 100mbps on a basic gargoyle install.

https://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=9029

Where you using powerline on the TP-Link TL-WPA7617?

I don't know how advanced you rules in gargoyle are and that will limit your device selection.

If doing powerlinr i would recommend just using a normal powerline ethernet bridge and then connecting a ap to that.

The broken tplink is likely under warranty, my experience with tplink warranty was pritty good.

And finally do you have any coax lines or ethernet lines ran in your house?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not sure where you are geographically and terminology used but here in the UK the fastest connection available to consumer properties is 1Gbps - I use the term fibre as in fibre optic to distinguish it from copper cable which it what a lot of UK infrastructure uses (though that is changing).

I don't think my setup in gargoyle is that complex and there may be a better approach - basic mac whitelist for network access, some site blacklisting, each person has an ip range for their devices and an associated QoS classification with a max bandwidth rule for each.

The remaining powerline device is currently positioned on the upper floor and is connected to the router via a powerline/ethernet bridge

The house is currently devoid of any ethernet wiring. In time I'd like to get it fitted but would probably wait until we're doing other renovation work or replacing electrics.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm in canada we have 3 main possibilities for wireing to the house.

True ftth/fttp with symmetrical plans up to 10gb usally 1.5gbps/1gbps is the max offerd in most areas with this technology.

Coax cable with plans up to 1.2gbps but uploads of 50mbps

And bonded vdsl 100/10 max the company markets that as "fibe" as it is fttn/fttc but uses phone likes from the box to the house.

Your plan honestly sounds more like g.fast as I know the uk had a limited roll out of that. Fttc/fttn with a short copper phone line run to the house. With speeds technically up to 1gbps.

This really dosent matter though.

I think I worded the question about powerline wrong.

The adptors would likely need to be on the same ring or a spur from that ring for best performance. I don't know how big the hit is going cross rings as we don't use ring wireing here.