Wi-Fi network setup for 3 floors

[ak56u]

I want to set up a wi-fi network for my home. My home has three floors, which includes a basement, ground and first floor. Approximate
area of each floor is around 2800 sq.ft. My current setup and wiring is as follows:

I have a server room in my basement which is where I have Airtel optical cable coming in. Airtel has installed a company modem+router (300 mbs speed) in the server room.
From here, I have Lan cables going to 3 bedrooms on the ground floor and one bedroom on the first floor. I also have a Lan cable going to the home theater room in the basement.
I have a Netgear 10/100 switch installed with all the Lan cables plugged in and TP Link Archer C60 AC1350 router in every room. I have turned off the DHCP servers of all the routers
so that the IP Address is assigned by the Airtel installed modem/router and I have given different names to every router's wifi network.

I wanted to ask that is there any way that I can setup a single network throughout my home with multiple routers so that I do not have to change the wifi network every time I walk in a
different room/floor. If so, can it be done using my existing hardware setup?



P.S. My PC has a plex server which I use to stream media throughout to different devices in my home.

 

[napstersquest]

Yes. Most routers (or access points) have a mode in which they just repeat the signal. You can configure them in wired or wireless mode (this will be the bridge of communication between main router- or the switch- and other access points)
SSID and password for all access points will be the same in this case.

 

[greenhorn]

Sounds like you need a mesh network.
The c60 supports onemesh which is a proprietary version of mesh. Only issue is that the c60 can work only as master, and won't work as a slave (need an RE repeater for it (I use an re305 in my two floors)

Alternately, you can use a proper set of mesh AP's like the tp link deco series. All of them go on sale frequently, keep an eye on ecom sales

 

[skoka123]

I want to set up a wi-fi network for my home. My home has three floors, which includes a basement, ground and first floor. Approximate
area of each floor is around 2800 sq.ft. My current setup and wiring is as follows:

I have a server room in my basement which is where I have Airtel optical cable coming in. Airtel has installed a company modem+router (300 mbs speed) in the server room.
From here, I have Lan cables going to 3 bedrooms on the ground floor and one bedroom on the first floor. I also have a Lan cable going to the home theater room in the basement.
I have a Netgear 10/100 switch installed with all the Lan cables plugged in and TP Link Archer C60 AC1350 router in every room. I have turned off the DHCP servers of all the routers
so that the IP Address is assigned by the Airtel installed modem/router and I have given different names to every router's wifi network.

I wanted to ask that is there any way that I can setup a single network throughout my home with multiple routers so that I do not have to change the wifi network every time I walk in a
different room/floor. If so, can it be done using my existing hardware setup?



P.S. My PC has a plex server which I use to stream media throughout to different devices in my home.

Why do you want to use a 10/100 Switch when your internet is 300 mbps? Also, do make sure you lan cables are not limiting the internet speed.

 

[Silent47Assassin]

A proper mesh network would be the best solution here as @napstersquest mentioned for seamless roaming. Repeating the signal would introduce speed drops and latency issues. You can also try to rename all the AP SSIDs to the same name, but it is not guaranteed that the device will connect automatically to the nearest AP everytime. One way to ensure this is using the 5GHz network only (shorter range) and reduce the signal strength of all devices to ensure that they don't reach the other floors. You may have to experiment with this and this may also introduce weak signal zones on the same floor.

 

[MadAxe]

Use a gigabit switch and TP Link Deco M4/E4.

 

[ak56u]

Sounds like you need a mesh network.
The c60 supports onemesh which is a proprietary version of mesh. Only issue is that the c60 can work only as master, and won't work as a slave (need an RE repeater for it (I use an re305 in my two floors)

Alternately, you can use a proper set of mesh AP's like the tp link deco series. All of them go on sale frequently, keep an eye on ecom sales

A proper mesh network would be the best solution here as @napstersquest mentioned for seamless roaming. Repeating the signal would introduce speed drops and latency issues. You can also try to rename all the AP SSIDs to the same name, but it is not guaranteed that the device will connect automatically to the nearest AP everytime. One way to ensure this is using the 5GHz network only (shorter range) and reduce the signal strength of all devices to ensure that they don't reach the other floors. You may have to experiment with this and this may also introduce weak signal zones on the same floor.

So by what I understand, since I cannot ensure seamless connectivity when I walk up and down floors, my current setup with multiple names seems to be the best bet.

So, my question is that if I upgrade my switch, and use the same routers and configuration (DHCP server turned off in all routers except for the modem + router), does having multiple networks in the house result in latency issue?

 

[sid1712]

Use a gigabit switch and TP Link Deco M4/E4.

Avoid the E4. It doesn't have Gigabit ethernet ports

 

[Silent47Assassin]

So by what I understand, since I cannot ensure seamless connectivity when I walk up and down floors, my current setup with multiple names seems to be the best bet.

So, my question is that if I upgrade my switch, and use the same routers and configuration (DHCP server turned off in all routers except for the modem + router), does having multiple networks in the house result in latency issue?

You're actually using your routers as access points. If the software allows, try changing the operation mode to AP. Multiple networks can cause interference if more than one are using the same channel, but it should not introduce additional latency. However I've not tested this theory so cannot really confirm it.

 

[MadAxe]

Avoid the E4. It doesn't have Gigabit ethernet ports

Correct. Go for M4.

 

[greenhorn]

So by what I understand, since I cannot ensure seamless connectivity when I walk up and down floors, my current setup with multiple names seems to be the best bet.

So, my question is that if I upgrade my switch, and use the same routers and configuration (DHCP server turned off in all routers except for the modem + router), does having multiple networks in the house result in latency issue?

A mesh network will ensure seamless connectivity. That's pretty much the only way that I'm aware of. The way you're currently doing it, your speeds will drop as you move farther away and will become atrociously bad , and then the device will disconnect and then switch to the next network. This will depend on the wifi of the device you're using. Your current setup is not the best way to avoid latency, at least in most of your house

 

[nithin1992]

Desperately looking for a solution as well, so far I have tried,

• Powerline adapters and renaming AP point to the same
• Expensive single routers

Neither of them worked for me. What's a good mesh router to go for? Any personal recommendations after use?

 

[babhishek]

well if money is not an issue, netgear orbi.
a deco will also suffice, 3 pack is fine

ideally single routers with the same wireless name will also work since they are ethernet backhauled. reduce transmission power of wifi on 5g as someone recommended. roaming should be seamless.

one more thing - use mac address based ip addressing, disable generate random mac on gadgets [latest android and apple do that], dhcp is covered by airtel router using mac and roaming between routers should be faster not seamless since dhcp is static based on mac.

 

[nithin1992]

well if money is not an issue, netgear orbi.
a deco will also suffice, 3 pack is fine

ideally single routers with the same wireless name will also work since they are ethernet backhauled. reduce transmission power of wifi on 5g as someone recommended. roaming should be seamless.

one more thing - use mac address based ip addressing, disable generate random mac on gadgets [latest android and apple do that], dhcp is covered by airtel router using mac and roaming between routers should be faster not seamless since dhcp is static based on mac.

Is ethernet backhaul necessary? I know it works much better but in my current residence I don't have a cable going up all floors, any workaround for this?

 

[MrB]

AK given your requirement you will need to swap out everything. You can make life easy and buy deco mesh or to save cost build step by step. Below points are based on gigabit ethernet backhaul.

1. You need to setup your airtel router in bridge mode, contact airtel customer service for this. After that's done, connect this lan to wan to primary router.
2. Get a new gigabit router for your primary, set it up with airtel login, then connect that to your existing routers lan to lan.
3. Setup your existing routers with separate fixed ip outside the primary routers dhcp pool, turn dhcp off, and set same wireless ssid and password for all routers.
4. Setup your wireless channels so that they don't conflict with each other.

From here you basically upgrade each of your existing routers as you like to gigabit ones with access point feature (the c60 does not have this) and then connect them lan to wan as access points.

Members can advise which routers to get as primary and access points

Hope it helps.

 

[aasimenator]

@ak56u DON'T buy any DECO M5 device. take it from my experience, It lacks a lot of functions and features that are on even sub 2K routers that you won't find on the DECO, I have 4 of the DECO M5's, If I had the information about the product I have now, I would have not bought it at all.
It's a dumbed-down version, where everything you have to do with the app, there is 0 configuration that can be done from the webpage other than rebooting.
You cannot segregate the 2.4 and 5Ghz network ranges and are only stuck with 2 SSID's at max whereas any basic 2.5K routers can do 4 SSID's
You cannot set the signal strength for each device.
The only benefit is that you get 1 SSID throughout your house and ease of setup if you are a noob. that is it.
Oh, and they are way costlier for they are basically 1 being the main router, and all others are just powered range extenders.

P.S. the above is only limited to the DECO M5 series, I have no idea about its other DECO products and whether they are also the same or not.

 

[ak56u]

AK given your requirement you will need to swap out everything. You can make life easy and buy deco mesh or to save cost build step by step. Below points are based on gigabit ethernet backhaul.

1. You need to setup your airtel router in bridge mode, contact airtel customer service for this. After that's done, connect this lan to wan to primary router.
2. Get a new gigabit router for your primary, set it up with airtel login, then connect that to your existing routers lan to lan.
3. Setup your existing routers with separate fixed ip outside the primary routers dhcp pool, turn dhcp off, and set same wireless ssid and password for all routers.
4. Setup your wireless channels so that they don't conflict with each other.

From here you basically upgrade each of your existing routers as you like to gigabit ones with access point feature (the c60 does not have this) and then connect them lan to wan as access points.

Members can advise which routers to get as primary and access points

Hope it helps.

My current setup is almost exactly like this. The only difference is that I have given different names to each network instead of one same name. Also, how do I setup wireless channels so that they do not conflict with each other?

 

[rsaeon]

I have four ~1k wifi routers set up as access points with the same SSID and password, at different corners of the house. Channels are on auto.

The transmit power is set to the lowest setting, so devices switch over easily this way and no access point overpowers the signal of another.

I've had this setup for a few years, so it's worked well across multiple generations of phones, tablets and laptops.

One person described this strategy as making 'pools' of wifi. It's basically a mesh network, without the mesh.

 

[ak56u]

I have four ~1k wifi routers set up as access points with the same SSID and password, at different corners of the house. Channels are on auto.

The transmit power is set to the lowest setting, so devices switch over easily this way and no access point overpowers the signal of another.

I've had this setup for a few years, so it's worked well across multiple generations of phones, tablets and laptops.

One person described this strategy as making 'pools' of wifi. It's basically a mesh network, without the mesh.

Have you turned off the DHCP server of all your access point routers?

 

[rsaeon]

yes, they act as unmanaged switches that also have wifi broadcast/authentication built-in and they're all connected to a (fifth) central router that does all dhcp/dns/routing.

Linksys calls this configuration 'Bridge Mode':