Complex Home(-ish) Wireless Configuration

[OhioDad]

Do you have your cup of coffee or choice of beverage at hand? This will take a minute.

I recently purchased my first Synology NAS device (DS211+) and I'm working on how and where it should be placed in the network so I'll draw a bit of a map.

Modem (not router) to>
Belkin F6D4230-4 Router providing wifi (to Roku) and 10/100 to Xbox (rarely on) and Synology (DS211+), IP Cam DVR, and a feed line to 2nd router.
2nd router is a Linksys E1500 also providing wifi to back part of house (Roku/Guest Network)+ one laptop and 10/100 to two laptops, a Seagate NAS device, and a feedline to an Engenious Access Point.

Not really important but cool: The Engenious transmits 2km is picked up and rebroadcast to another Engenious bridge (1km away) that feeds into a Linksys bridge that connects to my buddy's home network to provide internet (ISP doesn't provide coverage in his area.)

So tonight I find a Netgear WNDR4000 sitting in the garage that has Gigabit ports and 5Ghz wireless. Is it worth hooking up? Where should I hook it up in the network to provide the best intranet transfer speeds to get data loaded onto my Synology?

 

[nigelivey]

How have you set everything up? "IP schemes" etc etc

 

[OhioDad]

How have you set everything up? "IP schemes" etc etc

All of the network is on the same network with no subnets, all appliances and machines (minus tablets/phones) are assigned IPs. DHCP is handed out via the router only. IP numbers go up as they progress away from the router. For instance everything in the modem/router/nas area is assigned 1.1-1.9, everything at my workstation is 10-19, wife's workstation 20-29, son's room 30-39 and the remote "long-shot" wifi is in the 200-254 range including the bridges in between.

 

[OhioDad]

How have you set everything up? "IP schemes" etc etc

I did replace the Belkin F6D4230-4 with the Netgear WNDR4000 last night, and hooked the DS211+ into it via Cat5e. There's still an open LAN port that I left with an open so I can hook a laptop into test transfer speeds.

 

[Alabalcho]

I would put your new discovery (being the newest and fastest) at the centre of the network (directly behind the modem). You should keep your network tree wide, not tall - that is, if you have three "sub-routers", you should connect them as close to the root as possible.

Depending on how your sub-routers are connected, and accessibility rules, you might want to place the NAS connected to the core router, too.

 

[OhioDad]

I would put your new discovery (being the newest and fastest) at the centre of the network (directly behind the modem). You should keep your network tree wide, not tall - that is, if you have three "sub-routers", you should connect them as close to the root as possible.

Depending on how your sub-routers are connected, and accessibility rules, you might want to place the NAS connected to the core router, too.

Thank you for the reply. I did install the new router directly behind the modem with the NAS plugged into the new router as well. The other appliances such as the network bridge in the other part of the house also tie directly via Ethernet to the new router.