Question Rebuilding home network for WAP

[Demised]

Good day!

I am looking to upgrade my current, and basic, home network.

Uber simple Floor plan:

https://imgur.com/a/jE4z3ix

View: https://imgur.com/a/jE4z3ix


Each floor is around 1500 Sq. Feet so like 50' wide & 30' deep. I can put together a more detailed floor plan if needed for interior walls. Standard house construction interior. Brick on 1st floor exterior walls, but not overly concerned with signal in front or side of house for now.

I have Ethernet wired to each of the Orange circles and the Yellow circle net to the blue area in the basement. Exception is i have not run Ethernet to the Deck area which is also covered, but i will get the run completed soon.

I have a WiFi router on the 1st floor (green area) but if anyone goes to the opposite side of the house or outside to the patio/deck the signal dies due to the brick (red areas). My switch is the Blue circle in the basement.

My general computer skills is slightly better than average person so i an looking for a solution that will not require too much configuration, but I am willing to learn to do some simple configuration like setting up SSIDs for each person.

I am currently using a Netgear JGS524 switch and i also have a Netgear ProSAFE GS748T.

I am leaning on using WAP instead of a simple mesh since i kept reading about hand off issues with Mesh.

I was thinking i would replace the current switch and get a new 16 port POE+ Switch and TP Link Omada series, EAP610 for the covered Deck & EAP235 inside for my current Ethernet runs (orange dots) and a controller.

Main floor: same as current "Green" WiFi and outside on the deck area (covered/screened in)

2nd floor: Middle bedroom which we use as an office

Basement: Next to TV, but i can also add one in the Blue area where the switch is

I have also read that Ubiquiti is also a good solution and more "plug n' play" friendly so i am open to other brands of course.

I am hoping to be in the $600 - $700 range for the hardware

I saved the following hardware so far

• TP-Link TL-SG1016PE | 16 Port Gigabit PoE Switch
• TP-Link EAP610 Ultra-Slim Wireless Access Point (Deck area)
• 3x TP-Link EAP235-Wall Omada AC1200 in-Wall Wireless Gigabit Access Point (Interior WAPs)
• TP-Link Omada Hardware Controller

 

[bill001g]

Hard to say if any AP is really going to perform that much differently than another brand. The units that have similar specs likely use the same wifi chipsets.

Make sure you read the fine print some POE powered AP use proprietary forms of POE and can not be powered from a standard switch.

Ubiquiti are complex devices mostly because they support many feature a normal home user will never use. They do have free management software which makes it easier to modify and monitor them. It makes much more difference if you have 50 AP rather than just a few. You seldom make changes to the AP ones you have them working.

Key is testing the coverage and adjusting the power to avoid too much overlap but still provide a good enough signal in the remote rooms. This will allow the hand off to work better. A common error people make is to run everything at full power. The end devices are stupid and do not know there is a better signal nearby they will stay with a poor but still usable signal rather than switch. A big thing to remember about this is the end device not the network decides where to connect. So you can't really trust statement made by network vendors talking about how they are better. With the proper signal levels the end device will most the time figure it out.

Just don't get too hung up on the roaming. Almost nobody watches netflix while they walk around their house. Pretty much by the time you walk to the other room the device will switch if you have your coverage layout correctly.

 

[Demised]

Thanks bill001g. I appreciate you taking the time and your advice.