Modem/Wireless Router

[RockChalk]

Wife and I are moving into a larger house in a few weeks (currently live in a wide open ranch style house, one floor) and I want to get us set up with a good cable modem and wireless router for a house with 3 levels.

Do any of you have good recommendations for equipment and how to best set that up in our house? I can handle the technical set up up the equipment, so I'm moreso looking for modem and router options.

Thanks

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

That's not very many devices at all. You don't need a lot of bandwidth.

How many neighbors you have? Normally, I would recommend trying to provide 5Ghz coverage to as much of your house as possible and minimize use of 2.4Ghz because of lack of spectrum. But covering a 3-story house with one wifi router isn't always easy. A cheap dual-band router on the main floor with some standalone AP's to cover the upper and basement might be your best bet if you can run ethernet to central locations. Otherwise, you'd be extending via wifi, which isn't ideal.

It really just depends on the layout of the place, the building materials, and the amount of interference you're dealing with. I do fine in my place with a 5GHz signal, and mine's two floors plus a basement with a ~900 sq ft footprint. My router is close to center of the house on the upper floor, and I don't have trouble getting it all the way down in the basement. Mine's just an old N900 router, and it does fine.

Really, the best option might be to just find one locally that you can return without too much of a hassle and give it a try. If it doesn't work, consider something with more umph or a mesh system like Google WiFi. I've never had great luck with wireless repeaters, personally.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by RockChalk

When you say standalone APs, I assume you are saying Access Points. That's as much as I know. What would I use for a standalone AP?

Most normal routers can function as an access point. The key, as he mentioned, is being able to have Ethernet running between them. If you don't have that, I wouldn't try going that route.

[MTG#10]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

In general, you'll want to rent your modem from your ISP. I know the monthly charge sucks but buying your own modem opens the door for your ISP to blame every little problem on you. By renting from your ISP, you'll get better support and be 100% sure it will work with their service.

The savings over time is worth it. My ISP (Suddenlink) has never blamed any issues I've had on my modem over the years. **** modem rental charges.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DaFace

It really just depends on the layout of the place, the building materials, and the amount of interference you're dealing with. I do fine in my place with a 5GHz signal, and mine's two floors plus a basement with a ~900 sq ft footprint. My router is close to center of the house on the upper floor, and I don't have trouble getting it all the way down in the basement. Mine's just an old N900 router, and it does fine.

Really, the best option might be to just find one locally that you can return without too much of a hassle and give it a try. If it doesn't work, consider something with more umph or a mesh system like Google WiFi. I've never had great luck with wireless repeaters, personally.

Yeah, it all depends on environmentals. Placement of the router and antenna orientation make a big difference too simply because of the shape of the radiated signals.

Wireless repeaters automatically have your bandwidth even if they work. I don't personally like them.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Most normal routers can function as an access point. The key, as he mentioned, is being able to have Ethernet running between them. If you don't have that, I wouldn't try going that route.

Exactly.

A wireless access point is basically a wireless base station with no router function. A lot of consumers have a "router" mode and an "AP" mode, so they can really function as both. You just don't want to hang another router off of your main router as that will cause issues like double NAT and firewall stuff.

The key is connecting them via cables. If you have relatively good electrical cable through your house, you could try power line adapters too.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by MTG#10

The savings over time is worth it. My ISP (Suddenlink) has never blamed any issues I've had on my modem over the years. **** modem rental charges.

Suddenlink (from what I understand) is extremely customer friendly.

If you've ever had Comcast or Mediacom, you might think twice about your stance. Trust me.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Exactly.

A wireless access point is basically a wireless base station with no router function. A lot of consumers have a "router" mode and an "AP" mode, so they can really function as both. You just don't want to hang another router off of your main router as that will cause issues like double NAT and firewall stuff.

The key is connecting them via cables. If you have relatively good electrical cable through your house, you could try power line adapters too.

Mildly off topic, but if you run multiple APs, do you prefer to name them all the same and pretend like it's all one network or name them differently and let the device pick which one it wants? I've never really come up with a definitive answer to that one.

[MTG#10]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Suddenlink (from what I understand) is extremely customer friendly.

If you've ever had Comcast or Mediacom, you might think twice about your stance. Trust me.

Had Mediacom before Suddenlink, never had an issue with them either...at least blaming issues on my modem.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Mildly off topic, but if you run multiple APs, do you prefer to name them all the same and pretend like it's all one network or name them differently and let the device pick which one it wants? I've never really come up with a definitive answer to that one.

I prefer to name them all the same but most of the tech heads at DD-WRT forums think I'm an idiot.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by MTG#10

Had Mediacom before Suddenlink, never had an issue with them either...at least blaming issues on my modem.

Mediacom is terrible. I have several friends who have issues with them constantly and if you have your own modem and router instead of their Xtream branded stuff, they treat you like garbage.

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I prefer to name them all the same but most of the tech heads at DD-WRT forums think I'm an idiot.

Yeah, that's been my approach when I've done it (though I haven't often). I mainly just hate having to tell a guest which one they should connect to.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Sorce

I also have 3 google wifi routers running a mesh system. My existing router had dead spots in my new house (quite a bit bigger than my old house). It was by far the easiest router I've ever set up and the App to manage it is really simple. It won't have some of the advanced features of other routers but if you are looking for something that just works, that would be my vote.

I switched to google WiFi around when they were first released and understand there are quicker systems now. Basically as no effort as it gets if you just want to plug it in and things work. Had a pretty solid Archer router before that and the extra mesh points gave me full blast 5 ghz throughout my house and back to my detached garage.

[htismaqe]

I couldn't imagine putting Google network probes in my house.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

I couldn't imagine putting Google network probes in my house.

Yeah a fair point. While they are just an innocent mesh router I’m sure Google has done something with them to collect even more data from me.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Miles

Yeah a fair point. While they are just an innocent mesh router I’m sure Google has done something with them to collect even more data from me.