Home Network extension

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LaatSahab

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I have a Nokia ONT for my Airtel Fibre connection. It has dual Wi-Fi bands, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, and 4 LAN ports. I want to extend the wireless network and wired network in my home. I have 4 rooms in main living area and 2 more rooms at a distance of 30 meters from main living area. My aim is to:
1. Have the "same" Wi-Fi network available throughout the house, i.e. single SSID accessible to all on the network.
2. Have a "high speed" wired connection available in 2 other rooms too, one in the main area and the other in the remote rooms.
I do have 4 ADSL modems; 1 from TP-Link, 1 from Tenda and 2 are BSNL ones. Would they suffice, or do I need to invest in repeaters/range extenders ?
 
1. Connect two rooms which are at a distance of 30m using cat 6/7 cable from Nokia ONT 's Lan port.
2. Connect another cat cable from Nokia ONT to any of your router TP-link or Tenda which has access point mode. Configure this router as access point and make a SSID and place this router in central location.
3. Turn OFF SSID broadcast on Nokia.
 
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Synth-Pop said:
1. Connect two rooms which are at a distance of 30m using cat 6/7 cable from Nokia ONT 's Lan port.
2. Connect another cat cable from Nokia ONT to any of your router TP-link or Tenda which has access point mode. Configure this router as access point and make a SSID and place this router in central location.
3. Turn OFF SSID broadcast on Nokia.
Click to expand...
1. OK
2. Should the SSID be the same as one on Nokia ONT's Wi-Fi or different?
3. Ohk but then would the WiFi of Nokia be available ? If not, then how to have its Wi-Fi be concurrently up and running?
I have a RasPi attached to the ONT, which is running a PiHole and also NAS. While having a network wide Pi hole won't be an issue, would the shares be accessible across the network too?
 
2. You can choose same SSID as on Nokia' s ONT. Once configured you can turn off SSID broadcast on Nokia. Certainly wifi on Nokia will not work.
OR just don't turn it OFF on Nokia and you can use both devices simultaneously with same SSID
Only issue is sometimes the device which is accessing Wi-Fi may connect to distant device instead of nearby access point. It's not a big issue, this is how I ve set up my network and it's working good.
Set up wi-fi channel selection to automatic on other router which is working as access point.

3. You can connect raspberry Pi and NAS storage on other router whichever you are using as access point. It won't be a problem, can be accessed on whole network.

If you plug this NAS on Nokia ONT then also it will work but I am not sure. I will try it tomorrow.
 
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I have a somewhat similar setup but I haven't kept the same SSIDs. I have a TP-Link Archer C80 at home and a TP-Link 941HP at the farm shed around 50m away connected via a Cat-6 cable.
You can keep the SSIDs same, but I haven't even used the C80s feature where it broadcasts same SSID for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands because I saw that it's working wasn't good enough.
You need to decide what device you are going to use as a router and the other will be configured as an Access Point. Please remember to switch off DHCP on the AP.
My devices switch pretty well despite 3 different SSIDs being broadcasted, though I do have to manually connect to the 5Ghz at times when it doesn't automatically switch, but thanks to the range of both routers, I am never without Wifi in my farm compound.
 
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LaatSahab said:
I have a Nokia ONT for my Airtel Fibre connection. It has dual Wi-Fi bands, 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, and 4 LAN ports. I want to extend the wireless network and wired network in my home. I have 4 rooms in main living area and 2 more rooms at a distance of 30 meters from main living area. My aim is to:
1. Have the "same" Wi-Fi network available throughout the house, i.e. single SSID accessible to all on the network.
2. Have a "high speed" wired connection available in 2 other rooms too, one in the main area and the other in the remote rooms.
I do have 4 ADSL modems; 1 from TP-Link, 1 from Tenda and 2 are BSNL ones. Would they suffice, or do I need to invest in repeaters/range extenders ?
Click to expand...

1. Configure Nokia ONT with DHCP scope from 100-250 (IP 1-99 excluded) eg. 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.250 (assuming Nokia is 192.168.1.1)
2. Disable the DHCP server on the other four ADSL routers and configure with static Ip of 192.168.1.2/3/4/5 respectively
3. Configure the four ADSL routers with the **same** SSID and encryption/key. Use the **same** lowest common denominator if some encryption methods are not available on the other routers
4. Connect one wire from each of the ADSL router **LAN** port (any) to any of the LAN port of the main ISP Nokia ONT

With above setup you will get good wifi speeds at all locations and have the same SSID/Network, while using the ADSL hardware available to you.

Any wireless repeater without a wired backbone will **half** your wifi speed unless the repeater is equiped with dual wifi radios.

With a better OpenWRT Router/s you can configure **fast roaming** to ensure better connectivity while moving around the premise.

Since you already have a raspberry pi for pihole, you may consider loading the omada controller on the pi and using Omada supported hardware for easy management, if buying additional hardware in future. https://www.tp-link.com/us/solution/omada-sdn/



 
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gwrench2000 said:
1. Configure Nokia ONT with DHCP scope from 100-250 (IP 1-99 excluded) eg. 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.250 (assuming Nokia is 192.168.1.1)
2. Disable the DHCP server on the other four ADSL routers and configure with static Ip of 192.168.1.2/3/4/5 respectively
3. Configure the four ADSL routers with the **same** SSID and encryption/key. Use the **same** lowest common denominator if some encryption methods are not available on the other routers
4. Connect one wire from each of the ADSL router **LAN** port (any) to any of the LAN port of the main ISP Nokia ONT

With above setup you will get good wifi speeds at all locations and have the same SSID/Network, while using the ADSL hardware available to you.

Any wireless repeater without a wired backbone will **half** your wifi speed unless the repeater is equiped with dual wifi radios.

With a better OpenWRT Router/s you can configure **fast roaming** to ensure better connectivity while moving around the premise.

Since you already have a raspberry pi for pihole, you may consider loading the omada controller on the pi and using Omada supported hardware for easy management, if buying additional hardware in future. https://www.tp-link.com/us/solution/omada-sdn/



Click to expand...
It's all good info and thanks for that video too.

2. Yes all 4 routers can be configured in AP mode but Nokia has got just 4 Lan ports.
Other ADSL routers when configured in AP mode automatically disables DHCP server but just need to ensure it.

Actually we all the telling the same thing and I hope it clears the doubt of laatsaab.
Just like Rdst I 've similar configuration only difference is I am using same SSID and both my routers are just 3 meters apart, though technically its' wired backhaul.
 
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gwrench2000 said:
1. Configure Nokia ONT with DHCP scope from 100-250 (IP 1-99 excluded) eg. 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.250 (assuming Nokia is 192.168.1.1)
2. Disable the DHCP server on the other four ADSL routers and configure with static Ip of 192.168.1.2/3/4/5 respectively
3. Configure the four ADSL routers with the **same** SSID and encryption/key. Use the **same** lowest common denominator if some encryption methods are not available on the other routers
4. Connect one wire from each of the ADSL router **LAN** port (any) to any of the LAN port of the main ISP Nokia ONT
Click to expand...
I already have DHCP enabled on the Nokia ONT but range starts from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254 and have MAC address based IP binding for Raspberry Pi and personal laptop. Why should I exclude 1-99 as suggested ?
If a 'slave' router has "WAN" port, then shouldn't I ought to connect the LAN cable from Nokia ONT to that port?
 
Yes as synth-pop said double nat is bad. Additionally it will be worse and wont help for fast-roaming of connected wifi devices. Preferably you want to disable DHCP/DNS/Firewall etc.. on all routers **other** than the ONT and configure them as **dumb** access points. From my experience when I configure fast-roaming properly on openwrt using old/existing routers with wired-backbone, it makes me question the need and expense of a new mesh system.

You can try DIY/Jugad wifi fast-roaming after disabling DHCP/DNS/Firewall etc.. on all routers **other** than the ONT and configure same ssid/encryption and key on **all** your routers, even without openwrt. True fast-roaming requires router firmware to support **802.11r Fast Transition** and proper configuration. Remember ultimately it is the choice of the client and not the router to roam, so you should try the config even if your ADSL routers dont support Openwrt, and check the functionality using your own (client) devices.

Please note **802.11r Fast Transition** requires the wpad package (full) rather than the wpad-mini package which ships as default openwrt firmware on many routers.
 

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