Advice Building a Home Network

[rabmcnair90]

Hi,

I would like to upgrade my home network but am unsure how to design it and what hardware I need.

I currently have the modem router from my ISP, which is the Huawei HG633 which is situated in my lving room and has an ethernet cable connecting my Media Centre PC, which is also situated in my living room. The rest of the devices in my house are connected by Wifi. I have upstairs and downstairs in my house and the walls are 2 brick thick.

List of devices conneted to Network:

2 mobile phones (mostly used downstairs)
1 tablet (mostly used upstairs)
1 Media Center PC (downstairs Living Room)
2 Gaming PCs (Upstairs Computer Room)
1 Smart TV (downstairs Living Room)
1 Smart TV (Upstairs bedroom)

List of requirements:

Seperate wifi network downstairs to connect TV & mobiles
Seperate wifi network upstairs to TV and Tablet
Ethernet connection downstairs to connect Media Center PC
2 Ethernet connections upstairs to connect Gaming PCs on seperate network
Would like separate guest network upstairs with wifi and ethernet connection which can't see devices in my house
All devices invisible to each other but would like mobiles, tablet, and gaming PCs to access files on media center.
VPN in router
Good security
ac wireless networking standard
Ability to filter what websites kids can acess on the tablet

Therefore, I was wondering what is the best way to achieve this setup and what hardware would I need?

Ideally I would like to do this for under £500 but the budget is flexible as I don't have to buy it all at the one time.

Thanks for any help you can give me and remember I am a bit of a noob when it comes to networking but am happy to read any material you suggest to improve my knowledge.

Edit: PCs running WIndows 7 or Windows 10.

 

[failboat]

I'd strongly suggest running wires for your ethernet (CMR cat6a monoprice, cat6a patch panel monoprice, monoprice cat6a keystones). Stay away from powerlines, MoCa, wireless mesh, etc. Might have to relocate the modem if there isn't space to hide this stuff in the living room.

Two Unifi AP for wireless and one of the edgerouters. You may need to dig to see if all the features are on the routers. You might have to buy an edge switch. You will probably need a switch for all the ethernet ports you want. It's ideal to have all your LAN on the same switch. layer3 ones are much more costly than unmanaged ones. If you can do all the managed part from the router you won't need a layer3 switch for your personal subnet. To stay near the budget you don't want the layer3 switch.

Setting up the guest network properly is not very simple. You can probably find how to do it for Unifi stuff.
It will use a VLAN for guest and it must be plugged into your router in a trunk port. Trunking allows two subnets to go over the same wire. On the guest subnet they have a feature for client isolation. Basically, firewalls off all ports to other local machines. Trunking like this is ideal for two subnets over wifi. You won't need to buy extra APs for each subnet, which would cost more and congest your wireless space.

The ERX router has really good QoS for gaming if your internet is less than 100Mbs. Should be able to connect to a VPN like PIA, not sure about running a VPN server to connect to your home network remotely.

For the kids stuff the router can change the DNS to one that filters content. ISP may be hijacking your DNS though, but if it's connected to a VPN they can't or if you use an encrypted DNS. You might be able to block specific ips via firewall. Some tablets have better resources for this. Not really my strong suite.

ERX $50
Unifi AP Lite 2x$80
layer2 1Gbs switch 8 port $50
cat6a 1000ft $180 (could save a little running everything cat5e make sure to get CMR for in wall, no CCA, check for POE rating)
cat6a keystones $25
cat6a patch panel $25
cat5e patch cables $1.50ea or make your own from buying a 50ft cable, plugs, and crimper $35.
(installation for drywall: drill, sawsall or hand one, punchdown tool $20, gang boxes, covers, laser level)

 

[rabmcnair90]

I'd strongly suggest running wires for your ethernet (CMR cat6a monoprice, cat6a patch panel monoprice, monoprice cat6a keystones). Stay away from powerlines, MoCa, wireless mesh, etc. Might have to relocate the modem if there isn't space to hide this stuff in the living room.

Two Unifi AP for wireless and one of the edgerouters. You may need to dig to see if all the features are on the routers. You might have to buy an edge switch. You will probably need a switch for all the ethernet ports you want. It's ideal to have all your LAN on the same switch. layer3 ones are much more costly than unmanaged ones. If you can do all the managed part from the router you won't need a layer3 switch for your personal subnet. To stay near the budget you don't want the layer3 switch.

Setting up the guest network properly is not very simple. You can probably find how to do it for Unifi stuff.
It will use a VLAN for guest and it must be plugged into your router in a trunk port. Trunking allows two subnets to go over the same wire. On the guest subnet they have a feature for client isolation. Basically, firewalls off all ports to other local machines. Trunking like this is ideal for two subnets over wifi. You won't need to buy extra APs for each subnet, which would cost more and congest your wireless space.

The ERX router has really good QoS for gaming if your internet is less than 100Mbs. Should be able to connect to a VPN like PIA, not sure about running a VPN server to connect to your home network remotely.

For the kids stuff the router can change the DNS to one that filters content. ISP may be hijacking your DNS though, but if it's connected to a VPN they can't or if you use an encrypted DNS. You might be able to block specific ips via firewall. Some tablets have better resources for this. Not really my strong suite.

ERX $50
Unifi AP Lite 2x$80
layer2 1Gbs switch 8 port $50
cat6a 1000ft $180 (could save a little running everything cat5e make sure to get CMR for in wall, no CCA, check for POE rating)
cat6a keystones $25
cat6a patch panel $25
cat5e patch cables $1.50ea or make your own from buying a 50ft cable, plugs, and crimper $35.
(installation for drywall: drill, sawsall or hand one, punchdown tool $20, gang boxes, covers, laser level)

 

[rabmcnair90]

Just wanted to say thanks for your in depth response. Will need to spend sometime to understand it all . Will post back when I'm done.