I’m looking for some advice as to what product(s) I would need to replace an access point in my house.
My current setup is crudely drawn below. The house is ancient and weirdly shaped, so needs multiple wireless access points to get decent coverage everywhere.
I have 300Mbps fibre to the premises which goes into the Wi-Fi router ®. I have a Cat 6 cable (red line) running from the router, outside the front of the house and back in through the back of the house where it connects to an old router (AP1) that is configured as a Wi-Fi bridge/access point.
Another Cat 6 cable (blue line) then runs from that access point to my cabin into another old router (AP2) that is configured as an access point so I can have Wi-Fi in there.
Basically I’ve chained the old routers and set them all up with the same Wi-Fi network and password so I can seamlessly connect automatically wherever I am, and all devices can see each other where relevant.
The issue is AP1 is failing every few days and giving very slow speeds. It’s fine after a reboot and goes back up to 300Mbps for a couple of days until it needs another kick.
I’d like to replace AP1 with something else. What I don’t know, is what would give the fastest/most consistent speeds.
Should I:
a) Just replace AP1 with another newer, more reliable router set to bridge/AP mode.
b) Replace AP1 with an Ethernet switch so that the red line and blue line connect to the switch, and connect a dedicated AP to the switch where AP1 is. Most inexpensive dedicated access points I’ve looked at don’t seem to have enough Ethernet ports to allow chaining, which is why I’m wondering if a switch is necessary.
c) Something else?
Assume I can’t run any new cables outside the house, i.e. I can’t be arsed to replace the red line because it would be a huge pain.
If you have specific recommendations of products, that would be great. Cost is a factor - I’m not looking to replace the whole setup with some expensive mesh product because 80% of the time I’m getting maximum speed with this current cheapo setup, it’s just that it’s annoying to have to reset AP1 regularly.
To piggyback of what neidu3 said, I think your issue is a wonky application of consumer hardware.
You can utilize your existing cable runs, but I would: -grab gigabit 4-8 port switch (a cheap Netgear 5p would work) -grab 2 access points (I’m a fan of Uniquiti, the nanos can be fairly inexpensive, especially older ones, these work as well). Make sure they include POE injectors (ubiquitis do)
Install the switch where you have AP1 and mainline that to your router (red wire), run an AP and the blue line to AP2 off the switch. Connect the POE injectors inline from the switch to the 2 APs. Bonus points if you want to add a 3rd AP at the main router (disable wifi on your router).
Uniquitis are pretty rad in that they’ll automatically select the best channel and power level to operate on give the density within your house as well as minimize interference from neighbors operating on the same wifi channels, and they’re self managing to a certain extent.
The biggest point is that you want to avoid chaining through devices as much as possible to minimize latency and throughput. Switches are especially designed for this application, while chaining through devices will absolutely impact performance. The ideal topography is wheel-and-spoke, where every device has a minimal hop path back to the router (router -> [optional switch] -> dedicated line to each AP/device). While you can rig an old router to act as an AP, especially with open firmware like openwrt, it’s still kind of a hacky way of going about it.
Edit: for reference, here’s my topography:
Granted this is quite a few years of collecting hardware when I spot deals or get old devices from friends (Though I’m not sure why my proxmox and pinhole are showing off the router, they’re connected to the switch).
UXG_PRO buddies!
I’ve noticed the topology view doesn’t handle non-Ubiquity devices well. They tend to just go to the very top.