New Home network configuration

[Abe_FX35]

Hello everyone,

I hope this is not asking too much, but i dont know where to start on creating a somewhat sophisticated powerful home network, moving from a small 1 bedroom apartment to a 3 story Townhouse with a Basement as a Plex Media room and a game room/Office on the top floor. Im not gonna go into too much detail yet, but in short i currently own a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 (AC1900) and that is not gonna cut it for all our needs in this much larger 3 story Townhouse.

The reason im asking, is because i know basics of networking and im a little rusty, all i ever needed was just 1 poweful router for my small apartment, now with this new space i dont know which route to take.

1) I need a powerful long range reliable wifi, with no lags or random disconnects, would be nice to have it reach out to small backyard/Deck.

2) I also have MANY wireless and wired devices, that will be scattered throughout the house but mainly in the office and basement media room.

3) Recommendations on setup, and equipment ?

4) My Internet connection is Verizon FIOS 150mb up 150mb down. (150/150) i want to to use every bit of that bandwidth easily throughout the house.

Thank you everyone fr your advice and time. I appreciate it.

 

[Solandri]

The beam pattern from the omnidirectional antenna on most routers forms a torus - a donut. Strong signal out to the sides when the antenna is oriented vertically, but weak (almost zero) signal up and down.

http://mpantenna.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FIGURE-1.png

Since the R7000 has three antennas, you can try orienting one or two of them in a different direction than just up/down. I tilt my two outside antennas at a 45 degree angle (in opposite directions so they're perpendicular to each other). If your townhouse is narrower than it is wide, you may want to orient one antenna completely horizontally. Depending on where you place your router, these should be oriented so the meaty part of the donut from each antenna intersects the high-traffic areas of your house and lawn.

Otherwise, the best solution is to run ethernet cable (try through the heating and air conditioning ducts if you don't want to drill holes in the walls). But for ease of installation, most people wind up using powerline ethernet. Usually that works pretty well for Internet access (not as well for high-speed LAN transfers, though Plex should be fine since it's relatively low bandwidth). If the house has coaxial cable (cable TV cable), MoCA adapters are an option (ethernet over coax). Absolute worst-case, you can run VDSL through the home's internal telephone lines, but that is the most expensive solution. VDSL does have an advantage in that most phones have two phone lines, so you can run separate ethernet connections over it from your router to two different locations. Powerline and MoCA are usually limited to a single location within your home. If you want a wired connection to more than two locations, ethernet is the only game in town.

 

[Abe_FX35]

The beam pattern from the omnidirectional antenna on most routers forms a torus - a donut. Strong signal out to the sides when the antenna is oriented vertically, but weak (almost zero) signal up and down.

http://mpantenna.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FIGURE-1.png

Since the R7000 has three antennas, you can try orienting one or two of them in a different direction than just up/down. I tilt my two outside antennas at a 45 degree angle (in opposite directions so they're perpendicular to each other). If your townhouse is narrower than it is wide, you may want to orient one antenna completely horizontally. Depending on where you place your router, these should be oriented so the meaty part of the donut from each antenna intersects the high-traffic areas of your house and lawn.

Otherwise, the best solution is to run ethernet cable (try through the heating and air conditioning ducts if you don't want to drill holes in the walls). But for ease of installation, most people wind up using powerline ethernet. Usually that works pretty well for Internet access (not as well for high-speed LAN transfers, though Plex should be fine since it's relatively low bandwidth). If the house has coaxial cable (cable TV cable), MoCA adapters are an option (ethernet over coax). Absolute worst-case, you can run VDSL through the home's internal telephone lines, but that is the most expensive solution. VDSL does have an advantage in that most phones have two phone lines, so you can run separate ethernet connections over it from your router to two different locations. Powerline and MoCA are usually limited to a single location within your home. If you want a wired connection to more than two locations, ethernet is the only game in town.

Thank you for your reply. As for the orientation of the antennas im almost certain the router will not perform or be capable to offer what im looking for. However i will do some testing, the Townhouse is relatively wide actually, but ofcourse being a Townhouse yes it does go more up than wide.

I dont use MoCa which is what FIOS uses, i have them come out and switch the FIOS box output from MoCA to pure Ethernet and this ethernet cable directly feeds into my routers internet/WAN port. Im just not sure if the source should come from the basement or where to setup things, will i need a switch ? or any other equipment i want to make the home as "smart" as possible without going too extreme since we are renting, however landlord is cool and probably would allow cables to be ran if done tastefully.

I dont think i want to dabble with Powerline at all, or the VDSL, i have looked into these and they dont sound promising.

What i am thinking is a Mesh wifi system, along with a switch if needed or what ever else i need do get performance hardlined and wirelessly. One PC (hard wire) will be located in the basement as plex server/entertainment connected to smart TV 55 inch LG OLED for media purposes, PS4, roku, and few other similar devices. (currenlty that PC is my NAS/PLEX server/gaming rig) In the future i want to get a dedicated rackmount server and do a proper Plex setup/home media file system.

In the office upstairs would have 2 more pcs... 2 more rokus upstairs, wireless printer and many other random devices. Along with other things like RING doorbell intercom/video wireless doorbell, so im going to need something pretty good to support all that + growth + many guest devices when company is over etc.

Sling TV runs almost all the time streaming throughout the house, we are trying to cut the wire and use our internet for all streaming and media needs.

This is what im thinking about this for a strong MESH WiFi, not sure if i can tie in my current router with these or not, or how many i need, here is link to the product.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFJ119J/ref=twister_B06XX2F41J?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

 

[Abe_FX35]

Bump, still need help :/