Home network design?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by supersonic, Apr 21, 2015.

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  1. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Been meaning to update this...

    The M1 for $70 is slick, and more than good enough. The 500 is a rip off. It has a HDMI in/out option for cleaner wiring, but the cable co's encryption disabled 90% of channels... the workaround was using component :eek: I exchanged it for the 350.

    I did get my Slingbox re-setup at my parents last Sunday and have been messing around with it for a week. There are indeed ads now, but the outrage is a bit overblown. I use ad-block plus (disabled for pics) and always watch in full screen which has no ads. Out of 30 odd connections to the Slingbox, I did get a single 30 second pre-roll ad and was filled with homicidal rage for 29 seconds.

    Tips:
    - Use a real PC/HTPC not a "compatible" set top device. They are all shit including Chromecast.
    - Don't buy the mobile app. It's not shit, but not great. For being the most expensive app ever, it's a ripoff.
    - Use latest Firefox w/plugin. Chrome player is shit.
    - When you first connect (each time) leave it alone for ~1-2 minutes while it figures out best performance config. Trying to do stuff immediately seems to overwhelm it.

    That said, this is still the best option I have ever seen/used. I've been average ~4.8Mbps stream that is ~90% of the actual quality back at the TV. Should be perfect on the LAN for you.

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  2. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Can you be a little more specific? What should I put money into?

    Also, how did you get Comcast to put your modem in "true" Bridgemode. I guess they did not set it right, and I was having problems and had to go back to their modem/router combo with no wifi antenna... god I hate going back to Comcast.
     
  3. Re: Wiring a home network?

    I think we already had a lengthy conversation about this in one of the previous versions of PVC, but yeah wireless AC can in theory be as good as gigabit ethernet, but it relies on the 5ghz band. And 5ghz doesn't work well in a lot of environments, and is quite terrible at penetrating walls and other solid objects and generally has poor range. So unless you're living in a dorm or small aparment, or you plan on buying a bunch of AC access points, it's not really a good solution. Also many 5ghz radios and antennae are pretty crappy. So yeah in theory it can be as good as wired, in execution wired is much more reliable and consistent. I don't even have the 5ghz band enabled on my router. It's total shit at my house because there are a lot of thick walls. And my router runs much cooler with the 5ghz radio turned off.
     
  4. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Well I'm not saying to do it but if a person was so incline to spend large amounts of money and time they could move away from the usual consumer model of 1 or 2 managed access points and go to multiple unmanned access points with a centralized access controller. That's what you might see at a hotel or airport. You map out the area you want to cover and then plan you AP deployment in such a way as to get overlapping coverage everywhere. Moving from one access point to another become seamless just like how your phone can switch cell towers without you knowing. I really don't know the best way to do something like that at home but it's possible. A service like Open-Mesh might cost you $500 to $1000 to set up plus all the hassle of running wire. I have no idea if they are a good service or not.

    I have no idea. It's my modem that I bought. I connected it and then never had a problem since.
     
  5. Re: Wiring a home network?

    So, alterego and khaid turned out to be right!

    Spent most of yesterday on the phone with Comcast getting my modem setup correctly as a 'dumb' modem. But they offered me a free upgrade to 105Mb internet for my troubles.

    Just for ice cream and fries, I decided to change out my router for the Netgear NightHawk x6. From the furthest point upstairs (router), to furthest point 2 floors down (HTPC), my Ookla speed tests are now:

    58/105 Mbps on 2.5Ghz
    101/105Mbps at 5Ghz

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  6. Re: Wiring a home network?

    @supersonic

    So I guess the 5ghz band works a lot better on some of the newer, more high-end AC routers? We both had different versions of the ASUS Dark Knight (I have the N version, you had the AC version), and I think we both came to the conclusion that while it has rock solid 2.4ghz, the 5ghz on it is unstable crap with poor range and frequent connection drops.
     
  7. Re: Wiring a home network?

    I think it has a lot to do with the wireless components on the receiving end as well. I finally got a stable 5GHz connection on my Dark Night N router using a $35 Gigabyte AC capable card. I'm on a different floor than the router but almost directly over it.
     
  8. Re: Wiring a home network?

    the nighthawk x6 also has a scandalous set up of antennas. that might help with the range with ac.
     
  9. Re: Wiring a home network?

    The higher the frequency, the lower the range...BUT...the higher the frequency, the greater the data speed.
     
  10. Re: Wiring a home network?

    That is the conclusion I'm drawing. I also disabled my 5ghz on the Asus because it was a POS. I really wasn't taking the whole new router suggestion seriously, because I thought I had a $200+ top of the line unit. Amazing what 2 years newer tech delivers...

    The Asus AC3200 is actually reviewed better than the Netgear Nighthawk. I picked the Netgear because Khaid had it and it looks cool. Also my Asus AC1750 software was buggy and problematic until I replaced it with Tomato. I didn't want to get involved with all that nonsense again.

    Internet speed/hardware is one of the few things I'm willing to spare no expense for. Would recommend the upgrade from the old Asus Dark Knight era.
     
  11. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Yeah I also found the Asus firmware, even the tweaked Merlin versions, to be buggy, and didn't have a great experience with the Dark Knight until I switched to Tomato. In general I think the Dark Knight is pretty overrated. It's not terrible, but it's not as great as the user reviews let on. With the 5ghz being crap and not working right without aftermarket firmware, it ends up basically being a lot like the much cheaper Asus RT-N16, just with a faster CPU and higher price tag. I guess one of the AC3200 routers might be something i get in the near future.
     
  12. Re: Wiring a home network?

    If 5GHz range is an issue then the Netgear R7000 and ASUS RT-AC68U or their higher models are about the best choice you can make. You can see they have they still hit 100Mbps at the 45dB attenuation point in these graphs. That's a lot better than the AC1750 models in the second graph.

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    My Dark Night has been the best problem free router I've ever had. My only complaint is my latency can go through the roof when people start streaming videos from the Internet. I can't be certain that's even a problem with the router but regardless I bought a cheap Netgear AC1450 which I can flash to AC1750. I don't think the range is any better but it has about twice the throughput.
     
  13. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Also, the NightHawk lets me connect to 5ghz SSID on my iPad, but send video casts to the 2.4ghz SSID that Chromecast is on. Not sure if this is a standard feature. But it sure as hell didn't work like that on my last router.
     
  14. Re: Wiring a home network?

    simultaneous dual band? that's fairly common now. wasn't so common years ago.
     
  15. Re: Wiring a home network?

    So is the Nighthawk X6 really all that and a bag of chips? I'm seriously considering making the leap to AC.
     
  16. Re: Wiring a home network?

    is say grab it if you can get a deal on it. $299 is quite overpriced
     
  17. Re: Wiring a home network?

    I had noticeable issues with video buffering, and Netflix downscaling so I was quite happy with the purchase. But if you haven't got any problems, I'm not sure you'll see your $300 at work.
     
  18. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Yep. I was coming from a netgear n600 (wndr-3700) from late 2010. It seemed like it was on its last legs with the network dying randomly. also things with weak wifi antennas like my cell phones had problems connecting to the 5GHz band upstairs. with the nighthawk x6, i still have a strong signal on the 5GHz band even if i walk a few houses down in my neighborhood.
     
  19. Re: Wiring a home network?

    I've never had much luck with the 5ghz on my router, but lately it's frequently dropping connections even on the 2.4ghz side. Have tried resetting and reflashing it. I think I'm ready to wash my hands of it and move on to AC.

    Does the Nighthawk do a good job of holding connections? I hate routers that can't hold a stable wifi connection.
     
  20. Re: Wiring a home network?

    Fired up the Netgear AC1750 and I'm up from 300Mbps to 650Mbps on 5GHz. 2.4GHz remained the same at 144Mbps. I don't really care about the speed increase. I'm just hoping throughput is better when I get multiple streams going on.