Need a router!

anaron said:

bro67, could you explain why? My current 5 year old system has had no issues until now. There are no dead spots or signal degradation in my 3000 sq ft house. Most days, I can still get a good signal in my barn that is 90 feet from the house. Will I get less range with the newer routers? I would think it would be a lot less issues and aggravation to deal with on piece of equipment instead of 2 or 3 pieces of equipment to do the same thing.

If your current setup is working well, then there would not be a need to purchase new equipment. Unless you are going to get Internet with 1000mbps speeds. Your system will work just fine.

Streaming media will also do fine on 100mbps for 720p, even for 1080p at a lower rate. I went with a wired router, a POE Access Point at the time when I redid my network and used a 2.4GHZ 300mbps Wireless-N Access Point, because we did not have a need for storing tv recordings on a NAS or the need of backing up a laptop or desktop, since everything was stored locally at that time. When I went through the assessment that when Wireless-AC Access Points came down for Engenius, I stayed with the brand, that I had originally used for a 2.4GHZ unit, now I have the EAP-1750H for 1300mbps burst. My LAN speeds for Wifi run stable around 867mbps and I have zero issues if I want to stream across the network or even from online of 50mbps down through my provider.

Your question now is like going on a car lot and telling the agent that you are looking for a new car, but your current one works just fine, so you will not be doing anything.

If you want faster LAN speeds and be mobile, go with a Access Point or two of the model that I have, which works flawlessly for me and the price is decent. Everything else runs into a ISP Gateway with the Wifi turned off or you place your own personal Gateway that is wired only behind the ISP gateway through a Passthrough mode.

anaron said:

LOL, I can only dream! Probably won't happen here in my life time! The max in this area is 24!

I would not laugh, since we are seeing Fiber replacing Copper, since it is able to stand up to the elements more than Copper. Also our Copper infrastructure for Communications is aging, along with even Coops are running Fiber out to those who wish to become customers.

Internally, you may see a need for it if you are moving around a lot of large data for backups. Otherwise, if you are just going online and not really needing more than say Wireless-G 54mbps or Wireless-N 100mbps, it is really up to you. Especially that Wireless-ac and 1000mbps equipment prices are dropping all of the time as Wireless-N is replacing Wireless-G and 1000mbps is replacing 100mbps.

Sit down and look at what you are doing, how much you are streaming from the Internet to be able to justify redoing your network. I went with the Cisco RV-320, because WAN to LAN is always a choke point. At the time I bought it, I was with Comcast and paying for the 100mbps package, because my wife was working from home and needed the fast speeds and not have the choke point that a lot of consumer gear has.

Masterchiefxx17 said:

Right, he currently has the switch. I too have multiple devices connected to a switch and all of that is connected to the one port on the eero. I'm no different here and have found the mesh type wireless is ideal. Especially if his grand kids and wife are on wireless devices.
I recommended it, because it works for me quite well and I too have multiple wired devices. Switches are fairly inexpensive IMHO. Another reason I mentioned it is because it is extremely easy to use. You really never need to think about it, perfect for somebody who doesn't know a lot about routers.

Tell me about it on the Switches. I have two 5 ports for backup and just switched my Netgear GS-105 for the GS-108, due to I ended up pulling the Cisco RV-320 out and just going with the U-Verse Gateway I have, due to the Cisco was just making a nightmare when dealing with IPv6. I do not need that headache, so I turned off IPv6, but the changes that AT&T did recently with Native IPv6, and that Cisco had not been looking at the future of that device, I retired it.

It did pull out a choke point withe Passthrough that I was seeing with the Engenius AP that I have. In the future I may end up moving to the Mesh if it warrants it. I cannot justify it right now as a marketing tool for those I have ask me for consulting, which way they should go. The last one I just dealt with was suggesting the Mesh network, either Google's or Engenius. I push more towards the Engenius, because I am able to better manage it from remote.

bro67 said:

Tell me about it on the Switches. I have two 5 ports for backup and just switched my Netgear GS-105 for the GS-108, due to I ended up pulling the Cisco RV-320 out and just going with the U-Verse Gateway I have, due to the Cisco was just making a nightmare when dealing with IPv6. I do not need that headache, so I turned off IPv6, but the changes that AT&T did recently with Native IPv6, and that Cisco had not been looking at the future of that device, I retired it.

It did pull out a choke point withe Passthrough that I was seeing with the Engenius AP that I have. In the future I may end up moving to the Mesh if it warrants it. I cannot justify it right now as a marketing tool for those I have ask me for consulting, which way they should go. The last one I just dealt with was suggesting the Mesh network, either Google's or Engenius. I push more towards the Engenius, because I am able to better manage it from remote.

You are more invested into switches than I am, that's for sure!

I somewhat like the eero ecosystem of self managed, one of the reasons I recommended it, so I opted to go with unmanaged switches. I bet I could get better performance like your network by managing them, but I am not a network admin.

Masterchiefxx17 said:

You are more invested into switches than I am, that's for sure!
I somewhat like the eero ecosystem of self managed, one of the reasons I recommended it, so I opted to go with unmanaged switches. I bet I could get better performance like your network by managing them, but I am not a network admin.

I had one five port where our TV is, because I had three devices there that needed Ethernet and the U-Verse box. I cannot see a need for managed switches in a home, unless you are working from home and want to have VOIP. I have actually been using Facetime voice on my Macbook more, than using my phone, since it is easier to work and talk.

My thing is that range is a factor when I can walk across the street to the sub shop and still have a wifi connection to get alerts that stay within my LAN.

I have actually been begging people to take some of the surplus gear I have collected downstairs.