[SOLVED] home network buildout

[rfsurfer]

Just moved into an old 3 story brick + plaster house and currently only have the basic Pace 5268 wifi router supplied by ATT ( "1gb" fiber/uverse) plus a few of their mesh/repeaters.

Wifi is ok but not great. We also have a detached garage id like to get a signal out to.

Few questions to start with

1. should i get a better wifi router and disable wifi on the Pace, or just spend $ on better mesh/repeaters?
2. take the trouble to hardwire as much as possible or just live w a wifi signal supported by mesh/repeaters?
3. direct burial cat6e to the garage or wifi? (its maybe 30' from the house)

equipment suggestions?

 

[kanewolf]

Just moved into an old 3 story brick + plaster house and currently only have the basic Pace 5268 wifi router supplied by ATT ( "1gb" fiber/uverse) plus a few of their mesh/repeaters.

Wifi is ok but not great. We also have a detached garage id like to get a signal out to.

Few questions to start with

1. should i get a better wifi router and disable wifi on the Pace, or just spend $ on better mesh/repeaters?
2. take the trouble to hardwire as much as possible or just live w a wifi signal supported by mesh/repeaters?
3. direct burial cat6e to the garage or wifi? (its maybe 30' from the house)

equipment suggestions?

Use wired network for every stationary device. That leaves WIFI for portable devices.
WIFI repeaters are the worst option.
If you can run cable to the garage that will give you the most flexibility. If you don't have power in the garage, you can use a POE powered outdoor rated access point.

 

[rfsurfer]

Use wired network for every stationary device. That leaves WIFI for portable devices.
WIFI repeaters are the worst option.
If you can run cable to the garage that will give you the most flexibility. If you don't have power in the garage, you can use a POE powered outdoor rated access point.

ok thats good info. I do have power to the garage, but the more i look, its going to be hard to get a cat6 line out there (alot of concrete patio to go around). If i cant get a cable out there, is my next-best option a better wifi router like an xr1000 in the house and make the att equip passthrough?

 

[USAFRet]

Agree with the above. WiFi should be reserved for those things which cannot be hardwired.
Kindle, tablet, Roku, phones...

Anything with an ethernet port should be hardwired.

 

[kanewolf]

ok thats good info. I do have power to the garage, but the more i look, its going to be hard to get a cat6 line out there (alot of concrete patio to go around). If i cant get a cable out there, is my next-best option a better wifi router like an xr1000 in the house and make the att equip passthrough?

The next best option is a point-to-point radio setup. This is done with a pair of outdoor access points like the Ubiquiti nanostation AC units. They are designed to work in pairs to bridge that concrete. In the garage you bring an ethernet cable inside to a switch or access point for network connectivity.

 

[SamirD]

1. should i get a better wifi router and disable wifi on the Pace, or just spend $ on better mesh/repeaters?
2. take the trouble to hardwire as much as possible or just live w a wifi signal supported by mesh/repeaters?
3. direct burial cat6e to the garage or wifi? (its maybe 30' from the house)

equipment suggestions?

1. I wouldn't disable it unless you plan to no longer use it as the primary router (which we all know you truly can't, but that dmz+ mode is there). I would add other access points where you need them and use moca if you have coax in the walls to create a wired link back to the att.

1. Hardwire as much as possibly can--there is no substritute.
2. If the power in the garage is on the same circuit, I would try a pair of powerline adapters. This would be a really easy way if it works. And if you have an existing coax wire out there, moca might even be possible.

Generally, when it comes to Internet access, I generally like wired Ethernet-->Moca-->Powerline-->wifi. Powerline and wifi sometimes battle based on if something needs better latency or better bandwidth, but I usually try to solve the problem with ethernet or moca or powerline before resorting to wifi.