How do I set up my home network?
How do I set up my home network?
I just moved into a new house and got a brand-new fiber connection. The box is up in the top floor, which is about 2300 square feet. I need to run cables from the ONT down to two computers, but my main goal right now is getting good signal for the TV downstairs because it's really weak when you go from upstairs to down here. I am wondering if connecting a Router would help, or maybe some Mesh devices? I'm not very experienced with that stuff yet. To be clear: two PC's and one TV will stay wired on the top floor. Ideally, another TV should get wired downstairs so it gets better service too. Right now, there are 6 to 10 wireless gadgets on the network at once, like laptops, three cell phones, a tablet, security systems, etc.
One model is very popular and costs a little bit less than a lot of things like Wi-Fi 6 routers used to cost back in the day. Back then, Asus sold their Wi-Fi 6 router for around $700. Now there are different options out there but one thing I need to mention is that the tplink model only works with 80mhz speeds and not the newer 160mhz speeds. But hey, it doesn't really matter much for your everyday stuff. The tplink company has pretty good support though so you shouldn't run into any problems using them.
If you can stretch an ethernet cable down to your downstairs room, put a wifi router there and use it as a wireless access point (AP), you will get better coverage than having one at ground level. Running two routers in one house makes things complicated because all the devices have to talk directly with each other instead of going through a central hub. If you need extra ports on your main router, just add a small switch instead.
You don't actually need a separate router because the ATT box already acts as one, so buying another isn't necessary. There are some weird port forwarding settings out there that might confuse you, but those require your main router in the way. It's a pretty good router for general use if you have a newer model with wifi6. If you plan on using a VPN instead, then the ATT box is fine as your main router. It has many advanced features offered by ISPs.
If you were talking about putting another "router" downstairs that isn't necessary, it really doesn't matter much. You could buy an actual AP unit, but usually routers are cheaper than those. The main thing to look at is how many wifi radios and data rates they support. Something like a 1200-1900 MHz router would work well for most people unless you have very advanced devices that need faster speeds.
Any extra features in the router aren't important because when you set it up as an AP, nothing goes through its CPU chip. The traffic just passes between the wifi radios and the lan switch ports. When you turn it into AP mode, the wan port becomes a lan port too. If you connect your devices to the router's lan ports, you are essentially connecting them to what is like a small 4-port switch (or up to 5 if you count the internal chip port). If you add another switch and plug some stuff into both, it really doesn't make much difference. A switch does not slow down the traffic, and unless your devices go over the 1 gbit limit, there is no real downside to having a device talk to something on a different switch.
Okay sorry, I'm not very good at figuring out which device is which. The stuff ATT gave me to connect to the ont(?), it's upstairs. I am currently running two ethernet cables from there to connect two PCs, and soon a third one for a TV. The WiFi coming down here is weak or spotty, so they say you need to put a router right on that cable and run it downstairs. But should I just set the router as an Access Point? Will any router work? Something in the 1200-1900 range would be good. The things downstairs are another Smart TV, Security System, plus Cell phones, Tablets, and Laptops.
The little box from ATT you could probably call an ONT because it has an optical connection, but actually it's just a router or gateway depending on what name you give it. For normal people like us, this is the only thing we need or use. You just run a cable downstairs and plug it into your regular router that you set to AP mode in its settings. There isn't anything special required here; any cheap router will do fine for this job. The main thing to watch out for is making sure it has gigabit wan/lan ports instead of the older 100mbps stuff. Most really inexpensive routers still have those slow ports, but most things you use today rely on wifi protocols that match a router's speed. What actually changes the numbers? It's how many antennas they try to send data over at once. Your gadgets usually only need two antennas. There isn't much difference in price between a router with a 1200 number and one with 1750 that can use three antennas if your gadget supports it. Basically, look for something on sale and skip those weirdly named brands just to be safe. Those brands are usually fine too; the only real issue would be if they broke later and it took a long time to get a warranty replacement.
That one is very well known and costs a lot less than before. Back when Asus had wifi 6 routers, they sold them around $700 back then. The TP-Link model on the other hand only gets 80 megahertz (mhz) instead of the faster 160 mhz that you might have seen in those Asus units. It's not really a big deal for your everyday stuff, though. TP-Link has really good support, so you should definitely run into no trouble with it.