[SOLVED] Home Network Advice

[shaunetheridge1]

Hello-

I recently purchased a large(ish) house, around 4000 sq. ft. The previous homeowner, the original owner/builder of the home, appears to have really thought out and planned out the home network. Here is the setup:

Network/AV Closet on the second floor. All cable connections, ethernet, etc. run to this room/closet and everything is rack mounted. There is a patch panel that feeds multiple ethernet drops around the house. There are 2 at every TV, several in the office, and several other locations around the house. Downstairs, there are 4 access points (ceiling mounted) scattered throughout the lower floors (in, what I suppose are the "WiFi dead zones"). It is overkill IMO but hey, I didn't build it and there's not a square inch of this property that doesn't have a strong 5G WiFi signal, even to the property lines outside. Those Access Points are all connected in the upstairs network closet to a large (I believe it is 48-port) PoE switch. Along with several other items that I have put in the closet as well. Xbox, Playstation, my ASUS Router, and some Sonos gear (house is also fully wired for whole home audio). Anyway, on to my question. I have gig speed internet from Comcast. On every wired connection, as mentioned, no issue. Speeds approach 1000mbps easily. Downstairs WiFi is the issue. It appears all the access points are TP Link N300 and speeds only at or around 200mbps when connected via WiFi downstairs. That is via Speedtest app. Fast.com gives an even lower number 180-190mbps. When I go upstairs and connect to the ASUS AX58U WiFi, of course, speed is great, again, approaching the gig speed I'm paying for. So my question, should I just upgrade all those Access points? Or is there a better setup with the way this house is wired? Also, in case it matters, I have the Access Points set to the same SSID as my router. Just curious as I'm not a network Engineer by any means. Hoping some folks with strong networking background could weigh in? Thanks!

 

[Quanticriver]

It depends on your needs basically

If you need better speeds downstairs, you'll need to install a new "mesh" of AP's

tbh 180 seems enough

 

[kanewolf]

I tend to agree with @Quanticriver -- Most people would be fine with the WIFI speeds you have. Gigabit WAN speeds don't really benefit most people. 4K streaming is about 40Mb/s or less. 200 to 400Mbit is plenty. If you can find a plan with lower bandwidth you can probably save some money.
You need to get a model number for the APs They may be end of life, which means you won't get any security updates for them.
If you want to replace them, then Ubiquiti nano-HD are the current best choice. Ubiquiti has WIFI6 hardware in beta testing right now.

 

[shaunetheridge1]

Thanks for the replies. Probably should elaborate a bit more on my situation. Both me and my wife work from home. Gig speed is a requirement for my job per our "remote worker" policy. Downloading lots of large files for work, working over VPN, Zoom and Teams meetings, etc. I was remote pre-Covid, my wife is also working from home now and is pulling significant bandwidth for her work, Teams calls, etc. In addition to that, we have kids (4) using WiFi for remote learning. Gig speed seems to be a necessity for us with everyone eating up bandwidth. Also, my work foots the bill for my internet, so cost is not a consideration. Just trying to make sure everyone on the downstairs WiFi can take advantage of the bandwidth we have.

I will take a look at new access points.

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for the replies. Probably should elaborate a bit more on my situation. Both me and my wife work from home. Gig speed is a requirement for my job per our "remote worker" policy. Downloading lots of large files for work, working over VPN, Zoom and Teams meetings, etc. I was remote pre-Covid, my wife is also working from home now and is pulling significant bandwidth for her work, Teams calls, etc. In addition to that, we have kids (4) using WiFi for remote learning. Gig speed seems to be a necessity for us with everyone eating up bandwidth. Also, my work foots the bill for my internet, so cost is not a consideration. Just trying to make sure everyone on the downstairs WiFi can take advantage of the bandwidth we have.

I will take a look at new access points.

You won't get more than 600Mbit on WIFI. If you want gigabit speeds you need wired. There is no alternative.
If you actually look at your bandwidth usage, it is probably less than 200Mbit.
If the kids are using laptops, then connect them to wired network ports. Move EVERYTHING possible off WIFI.