Please rate my networking setup?

Z

zero_cool

Disciple
Hi folks, I am in the midst of setting up a home network for a bit large space. I have set the goal to set it up without burning a hole in the wallet so it needs to value for money, VFM, but reliable too. It will help if I have cloud access since I will be in a different city but managing it will be dependent on me. I have finalised two methods and the experts here can perhaps help me pick the best among the two or a suggest the best way ahead.

Setup 1
ISP: Airtel Fiber 100 MBPS
Router: Existing TP Link AC1900 (switch off wireless comms) and use it a switch
Cable: CAT 6 cable originating from the router with connections in each of the 3 bedrooms and one in the living room
Access Point: 3 TP Link AC750 to be used as access points. These will be connected to a power socket in each of bedrooms with the cable connected to them
PoE Injector: 1 TP Link TL-PoE150S for enabling POE on one of the cable of the living room
PoE Access Point: 1 TP Link Omada AC1350 mounted to the ceiling in the living room (probably comes with a free PoE injector)
Estimated Cost: INR 13,500

Setup 2
ISP: Airtel Fiber 100 MBPS
Router: TP Link TL-SF1006P
Cable: CAT 6 cable originating from the router with connections in each of the 3 bedrooms and one in the living room
PoE Access Point: 3 TP Link Omada AC1350 mounted to the ceiling 2 bedrooms and 1 in living room
Optional: TP Link Omada Cloud Controller
Estimated Cost without the cloud controller: INR 35,000
 
A cheaper way than "Cloud" offerings would be to have a PC/server on your home network, set up a VPN and access LAN devices configuration using that. I used to do that with WireGuard for myself, at least. Honestly, I never really liked repeaters because they were expensive and didn't work all that well.

The Access Point in your Setup 1 only has 100Mbps Ethernet port iirc, so you'll have to connect it with your router using WiFi most likely? I don't really know tbh, but I usually just setup different WiFi routers connected to the main with a switch instead of having a "mesh" network :p
 
Buy the following -
  • 3x TP-Link Archer C60 v3 (2k each on sale at fk) ~ 6k.
  • 1x TP-Link Archer AX23 (3.6k on sale at amzn) ~ 3.6k
Flash openwrt on all these routers and convert them to a mesh network.
Use AX23 as a portal node (connected to internet) and C60 as access points.

You can install tailscale on AX23 to remotely access it even in case of cgnat which airtel uses in residential connections.

Total cost ~ 10k.

PS - You can create build scripts for openwrt firmware with your wifi/internet configs, so if one of the nodes die, you can flash the image to a new one and it will be up and running in no time.
 
Navier said:
Buy the following -
  • 3x TP-Link Archer C60 v3 (2k each on sale at fk) ~ 6k.
  • 1x TP-Link Archer AX23 (3.6k on sale at amzn) ~ 3.6k
Flash openwrt on all these routers and convert them to a mesh network.
Use AX23 as a portal node (connected to internet) and C60 as access points.

You can install tailscale on AX23 to remotely access it even in case of cgnat which airtel uses in residential connections.

Total cost ~ 10k.
Click to expand...
not everywhere airtel uses cgnat
 
Back
Top