Wired backhaul and AP/mesh router

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TinTinSnowy

Herald
Hi,

I want to run a CAT cable through walls across my home. Should I use a separate conduit pipe? Should I go for CAT6 or CAT7 wrt futureproofing? Does anybody know the cost per meter? I'm not looking to go beyond a 300 Mb/s plan right now and don't see the need for any lan operations beyond 2.5 Gb/s.

I also want to have a single SSID throughout the home. Therefore I'm considering a mesh solution with wired backhaul. Any suggestions? I'm looking at Deco M4 (3 pack) for now and upgrading to a better model when I have any wifi devices with faster support or I upgrade beyond 1Gb/s and higher. I'm also open to using a proper wifi router which supports MESH (AIMESH / EASYMESH) or any commercial APs. Openwrt support will be an added plus. But I want to fit everything within a 20K budget if possible.

Please drop in your suggestions. Also tagging @superczar as they have previously helped with my network queries. Thank you!
 
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1) Use a separate conduit for low interference
2) Cat 6a is more than enough for the next decade. If you want to futureproof go for fiber. Cat 7 or 8 is too expensive
If you dont plan to use LAN to setup servers or NAS then even cat 6 is more than enough depending on the length of cable but cat 6 isnt shielded. Hence, my suggestion is to get shielded cat6a pure copper
3) for ease of setup mesh nodes like deco is sufficient for regular usage. Dedicated routers with openwrt along access points are for tinkering and not for common folks
 
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Rayman said:
2) Cat 6a is more than enough for the next decade. If you want to futureproof go for fiber. Cat 7 or 8 is too expensive
If you dont plan to use LAN to setup servers or NAS then even cat 6 is more than enough depending on the length of cable but cat 6 isnt shielded. Hence, my suggestion is to get shielded cat6a pure copper
3) for ease of setup mesh nodes like deco is sufficient for regular usage. Dedicated routers with openwrt along access points are for tinkering and not for common folks
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'll get a CAT 6a 50m roll. It's costing me Rs. 1600 from this site. https://www.fedus.in/products/cat6a-shielded-sftp-ethernet-cable?variant=44321853604140 and will need to find some body who can clip it properly.

I'm considering between Deco M4 (6K for 3 pack) and Deco X50 PoE (22K for 3 pack). I'm only considering X50 because of PoE (will reduce the need to have 3 adapters). What do you think of PoE?

Edit: Should I also run the fiber cable through the same conduit as Cat 6a? Will add 50m fiber for futureproofing and does not seems to be costing more than 1K for the same.
 
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TinTinSnowy said:
Thanks! I'll get a CAT 6a 50m roll. It's costing me Rs. 1600 from this site. https://www.fedus.in/products/cat6a-shielded-sftp-ethernet-cable?variant=44321853604140 and will need to find some body who can clip it properly.

I'm considering between Deco M4 (6K for 3 pack) and Deco X50 PoE (22K for 3 pack). I'm only considering X50 because of PoE (will reduce the need to have 3 adapters). What do you think of PoE?

Edit: Should I also run the fiber cable through the same conduit as Cat 6a? Will add 50m fiber for futureproofing and does not seems to be costing more than 1K for the same.
Click to expand...
Either run fiber or cat cable. Why would you need both? Also fiber would need some additional tools for conversion. You can check with your local broadband guys if they can run fibre and terminate and stuff. Fibre doesn't require a separate conduit btw and run along with power line
You should not be picking X50 PoE edition just for PoE feature tbh. For PoE you need a switch or PoE injectors. Unless you cannot provide power separately or are a neat freak I wouldn't suggest splurging on this. PoE switches are either expensive or low speed. Gigabit PoE switch cost a lot over a normal switch.
 
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Rayman said:
Either run fiber or cat cable. Why would you need both? Also fiber would need some additional tools for conversion. You can check with your local broadband guys if they can run fibre and terminate and stuff. Fibre doesn't require a separate conduit btw and run along with power line
You should not be picking X50 PoE edition just for PoE feature tbh. For PoE you need a switch or PoE injectors. Unless you cannot provide power separately or are a neat freak I wouldn't suggest splurging on this. PoE switches are either expensive or low speed. Gigabit PoE switch cost a lot over a normal switch.
Click to expand...
It seems fiber cable might be fragile to run through. It seems I'll need these media converters everywhere to terminate. https://www.amazon.in/TP-Link-MC220L-Tp-Link-Fiber-Converter/dp/B001GQDRWK?th=1
 
TinTinSnowy said:
Hi,

I want to run a CAT cable through walls across my home. Should I use a separate conduit pipe? Should I go for CAT6 or CAT7 wrt futureproofing? Does anybody know the cost per meter? I'm not looking to go beyond a 300 Mb/s plan right now and don't see the need for any lan operations beyond 2.5 Gb/s.

I also want to have a single SSID throughout the home. Therefore I'm considering a mesh solution with wired backhaul. Any suggestions? I'm looking at Deco M4 (3 pack) for now and upgrading to a better model when I have any wifi devices with faster support or I upgrade beyond 1Gb/s and higher. I'm also open to using a proper wifi router which supports MESH (AIMESH / EASYMESH) or any commercial APs. Openwrt support will be an added plus. But I want to fit everything within a 20K budget if possible.

Please drop in your suggestions. Also tagging @superczar as they have previously helped with my network queries. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Is the house under construction/ refitting?
If yes, get a separate conduit added. Interference avoidance aside (debatable), it's a whole lot easier to pull new cables in /out in a uncrowded dedicated conduit even after several years.

Cat6 305ft rolls are typically under 5K and should be enough for the whole house
Normally one would use a star model with 2 or 1 wire per room coming in on to a central location for termination.

Also if you are doing it in ths manner, strongly recommend using a SDN mesh (ubuqiuiti/ omada) as against consumer mesh.
Omada in-wall APs are quite cheap (3-3.5K) , look nice and can be added to every room for perfecly seamless connectivity
They also come with 3 or 4 additional ethernet ports which can be used for wired devices as and where needed

Lastly dont get enamored by wifi 6/7 etc
i have a mix of wifi 5 and 6 APs (3x 5, 2 X6) and recently tried a 7
there is no practical real world difference in wireless speeds - file tfr speeds on 5 were around 600mbps vs 750-800 peak on wifi 6 and 7 (tested across multiple clients)
The averages on all will be around 500
 
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@superczar Thanks! It's under construction and will add a separate conduit for easy replacement.

Can't find pure copper cables online. Most are CCA, which aren't fire-resistant and can overheat with PoE. Even most shielded cables are unshielded in reality. I'll stick with CAT6. It's hard to terminate CAT 6A and higher, but no idea where to find pure copper cables. If any body know then please let me know.

I think you were referring to this model. https://fgtechstore.com/product/tp-link-eap235-wall/ and they look good and can be powered via PoE. Will I need to add a controller to operate these?

My initial plan was this:-

JioFiber Router -> Main Deco M4 (Living Room) -> Gigabit Switch -> 3 CAT6 cables running through a 1 inch conduit terminating in each bedroom -> 3x Deco M4

Are you suggesting this?

JioFiber Router -> TP-Link OC200 Controller -> Gigabit PoE Switch -> Main Omada EAP 235 (Living Room) -> 3 CAT6 cables running through a 1 inch conduit terminating in each bedroom -> 3x Omada EAP 235
 
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Cost is around 7.5K for a 305m box at market. This is CAT6. This should be your first and primary investment. Ensure that you run wires from the central router to each possible room for future use - important if the rooms are large

Single SSID on the cheap, get multiple simple APs, setup with same WiFi and do the needful. roaming will not be seamless, but should be dirt cheap.

Upgrade to whichever mesh network you can afford later.

Ensure your WiFi devices are kept as high as possible to get best range and least clutter.

Conduit is only useful if you want to do any replacement etc. Else just run alongside any wires, the cables themselves are capable of rejecting interference

If you buy dlink original cat6 305m box - it will be pure copper. Avoid other which are aluminum etc - there will be issues later.

Fibre is only needed if your LAN wire will span more than 100m end to end. Else for home use - its an absolute overkill.

You should put a fibre wire however if the router is going to be kept inside the house and not near from where the ISP will run wires into your house. Get a small termination box at both ends, and use 6 core fibre, armored.

Avoid POE unless needed. You can run upgrade to POE devices later, all you need is a POE switch.

As for consumer mesh vs commercial mesh - I have not seen much difference for home use. But where the number of devices is more than say 20-25, the latter will start showing its edge.

WiFi 6 is useful if you have too much interference. 6E and 7 - not so much useful.
TinTinSnowy said:
@superczar Thanks! It's under construction and will add a separate conduit for easy replacement.

Can't find pure copper cables online. Most are CCA, which aren't fire-resistant and can overheat with PoE. Even most shielded cables are unshielded in reality. I'll stick with CAT6. It's hard to terminate CAT 6A and higher, but no idea where to find pure copper cables. If any body know then please let me know.

I think you were referring to this model. https://fgtechstore.com/product/tp-link-eap235-wall/ and they look good and can be powered via PoE. Will I need to add a controller to operate these?

My initial plan was this:-

JioFiber Router -> Main Deco M4 (Living Room) -> Gigabit Switch -> 3 CAT6 cables running through a 1 inch conduit terminating in each bedroom -> 3x Deco M4

Are you suggesting this?

JioFiber Router -> TP-Link OC200 Controller -> Gigabit PoE Switch -> Main Omada EAP 235 (Living Room) -> 3 CAT6 cables running through a 1 inch conduit terminating in each bedroom -> 3x Omada EAP 235
Click to expand...

Both plans are wrong.

Keep the Decos in AP mode - connect them all to the Gigabit switch. Ditto for the Omada's. The OC200 will also connect to the switch
 
TinTinSnowy said:
@superczar Thanks! It's under construction and will add a separate conduit for easy replacement.

Can't find pure copper cables online. Most are CCA, which aren't fire-resistant and can overheat with PoE. Even most shielded cables are unshielded in reality. I'll stick with CAT6. It's hard to terminate CAT 6A and higher, but no idea where to find pure copper cables. If any body know then please let me know.

I think you were referring to this model. https://fgtechstore.com/product/tp-link-eap235-wall/ and they look good and can be powered via PoE. Will I need to add a controller to operate these?

My initial plan was this:-

JioFiber Router -> Main Deco M4 (Living Room) -> Gigabit Switch -> 3 CAT6 cables running through a 1 inch conduit terminating in each bedroom -> 3x Deco M4

Are you suggesting this?

JioFiber Router -> TP-Link OC200 Controller -> Gigabit PoE Switch -> Main Omada EAP 235 (Living Room) -> 3 CAT6 cables running through a 1 inch conduit terminating in each bedroom -> 3x Omada EAP 235
Click to expand...
What @vivek.krishnan said above.
e.g. my topology is roughly as follows:

Airtel fiber and ACT fiber (both bridged) -> Opnsense router -> 2.5G switches -> Omada APs
Controller at my house is virtualized while its a hardware store(OC200) box at my Dad's house - both perform the same

As for pure copper - will let others comment.
Personally, I have had good long term experience with D-Link CAT6 rolls and I dont think you need to worry too much about pure copper for these esp if its hard to find
 
demon_slayer said:
Question: Has anyone done this with a under construction property in Greater Noida ?
Can I ask them to do this wiriing while building things ?
Click to expand...

Not in greater noida, but yes in Mumbai. You would need to provide the additional wires plus pay a bit to the electrician

For Lodha World Towers however, they gave the flat in an unfinished condition. All wiring was laid as per our suggestion - wiring in centre of each room for Ubiquiti AP plus where TVs/ etc routed to the electric panel. All dlink wires from our regular dealer.
 
vivek.krishnan said:
Not in greater noida, but yes in Mumbai. You would need to provide the additional wires plus pay a bit to the electrician

For Lodha World Towers however, they gave the flat in an unfinished condition. All wiring was laid as per our suggestion - wiring in centre of each room for Ubiquiti AP plus where TVs/ etc routed to the electric panel. All dlink wires from our regular dealer.
Click to expand...
Regular dealer ? Are you in this business ?
 
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