[SOLVED] Setting up house network

[MannyChachere]

Hello,
I just moved to a new home and got ATT fiber. The box is upstairs in the furthest part of the house and the house is about 2300 Sqft.

I'm running cords from the ONT to 2 PCs and ideally, I want to run the last two open ports for the TVs, but the signal from upstairs to downstairs is weak.
I am looking for suggestions on how to tackle this best.

I was thinking about running a Router and connecting a port from the ONT to it, then running a cord from it to the downstairs TV while also hoping to strengthen the WiFi downstairs.
Also was advised to look into Mesh devices but Idk much about them.

For clarity, 2 PC's and 1 TV will be wired upstairs.
Ideally, 1 TV will be wired downstairs.
6-10 Wireless devices will also be on the network at any given moment (Laptop, 3 Cell phones, 1 Tablet, Security Systems, etc.).

 

[bill001g]

If you can run a ethernet cable downstairs and put a wifi router on it there you will get better coverage. You want to run the second router as a AP and not a actual router. Running 2 routers in a house makes the networking between devices in the house very complex.

If you need more ports on the att router just add a small switch.

 

[MannyChachere]

If you can run a ethernet cable downstairs and put a wifi router on it there you will get better coverage. You want to run the second router as a AP and not a actual router. Running 2 routers in a house makes the networking between devices in the house very complex.

If you need more ports on the att router just add a small switch.

Any recommendations for routers?
I read some stuff about not getting caught up in the “gaming” stuff.

Also, is being directly connected to the Fiber ONT optimal?

 

[bill001g]

You do not actually need a router since the ATT box is a router and you have no option to no have it. The have some strange version of port forwarding but their router is always in the path.

It is a pretty good router in general if you have the newer one that has wifi6. Unless you want something like say VPN I would just use the ATT box as your main router. It has a lot of very advanced features for a ISP provided device.
If you mean the second "router" you are going to put downstairs that doesn't matter as much. You could buy a actual AP but routers tend to be cheaper because AP have features like PoE. All you care about is number of wifi radios and what data rates they support. Something like a 1200-1900 router likely would be fine unless you have some advanced devices that can use more. Any other feature in the router you don't care about because when you set it to AP mode none of the traffic will pass through the router CPU chip. It will go between the radios and lan switch ports. The wan port is converted to a lan port when you set it to AP mode.

When you hook to the router lan ports all you are doing is hooking to what is equivalent to a small 4 port switch....5 ports if you include the internal port going to the router chip.
If you hook another switch to is and then hook some devices to the router and some to the other switch it really doesn't make much difference. A switch does not delay the traffic and unless you exceed the 1gbit limit there is no real disadvantage to a device on the router talking to a device on a different switch.

 

[MannyChachere]

Okay sorry, I'm not too familiar with how to distinguish between each device.

So the equipment that ATT provided for me to connect to the ont(?), is upstairs and I am currently running 2 ethernet cables from that to connect two PCs and soon 1 more for a TV. The WiFi from it is weak/spotty when reaching downstairs and the recommendation is to connect a router to it via Ethernet and run that downstairs; but run the router as an AP?

Will any router do? Something between 1200-1900?

The devices downstairs are another Smart TV, Security System, as well as Cell phones, Tablets, and laptops.

 

[bill001g]

The device from ATT I guess you could call a ONT because it has the optical interface but it is actually a router or gateway depending on what name you want to call it. For you more average consumer it is the only box they have or need.

Yes you just run a cable downstairs and connect it to a router that you set to AP mode in its configuration.

You need nothing real special any inexpensive router will do. I guess the only thing to watch for is that it has gigabit wan/lan port rather than 100mbps. Only really cheap device still have 100mbps ports.

The vast majority of end device use wifi protocols that would be the same as 1200 number on a router. The main thing that changes the number is how many antennas they attempt to transmit over at the same time. End devices tend to only have 2. There is very little difference in price between a router
that has a 1200 number and say one that is 1750 which can use 3 antenna if the end device also supports it. Pretty much look for something on sale and avoid those really strange off name brands. Those brands will also likely work fine it would more be if the unit would fail how much trouble is it to get a warranty replacement.

 

[MannyChachere]

So something like a TP-Link Archer AX21?

 

[bill001g]

That one is pretty popular and is very inexpensive. Wifi6 devices sure have come down from a couple years ago where asus had a wifi 6 router they wanted $700 for.
The tplink model though only support 80mhz and not 160mhz.....not that it really matters for you application.

Tplink has pretty good support so you should have no issues.