New Build Home Networking

TheFullDuck

Hi All,

Hoping for a steer on the below before I pull the trigger..

Recently moved into a new build and have ordered 1gb internet from Digiweb.

The electrician has left a CAT6 cable in the cabinet at the side of the house where the installers will take the fibre in through a duct into the plant room under the stairs. This cable runs from the cabinet to the attic, and from there he has ran a second CAT6 down to the sitting room.

What I was hoping to do is plug the CAT6 into the ONT and place the Fritzbox 7530AX in the attic which should in theory give good wifi coverage upstairs (we both WFH).

From there, I will run the second existing CAT6 from the Fritzbox to a network switch located on a shelf behind the TV. This switch will serve the TV, Nvidia Shield and Access Point PoE which should give good wifi coverage downstairs.

I was looking at Unifi devices but am open to suggestions:

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/collections/unifi-wifi-flagship-compact/products/u6-plus?variant=U6%2B

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/collections/unifi-switching-utility-poe/products/usw-lite-8-poe?variant=USW-Lite-8-POE-EU

I mocked this up on Visio, any flaws to this plan?

TIA

dam099

I wouldnt mix and match Fritzbox and UniFi for the WiFi. Either get a Fritz mesh repeater that can work in tandem with the 7530AX or switch its WiFi off and get 2 UniFi APs.

Also be careful with putting an AP behind a TV, you are immediately potentially obstructing the signal.

TheFullDuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121994117#Comment_121994117

Thanks for the reply.

From my research into the 7530AX it seems to be a capable router compared to the ones that Vodafone, Eir etc. will give you so I'm willing to give it a chance.

Taking your advice on board so, I would be best getting the Fritz repeater and using the CAT6 between attic and sitting room that's already in place, wire directly into the fritz router. Then add a simple gigabit switch to that for the TV & shield.

https://en.avm.de/products/mesh-wi-fi/fritzrepeater-3000-ax/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MERCUSYS-Installation-Auto-Negotiation-Configuration-MS105GS/dp/B0CDQT2BCW?ref_=ast_sto_dp

I'll need to have a think about the placement of the repeater, where the electrician dropped the cable I dont have many options.

niallb

I agree that you're better off sticking with another mesh capable Fritzbox.

If it's behind an entertainment area get as much off the wireless network as you possibly can.
This could be done by putting the gigabit switch behind the TV plugged back to the router, but the Access point doesn't have to live there too. Do you only have the two locations with CAT6 in the house?

Unifi make great gear, but you're looking at their most basic modern Access Point there and you'll still need to get lots of bits and pieces set up to manage it - Unifi AP's don't have a web interface like other devices you're used to. You can set them up with a temporary install of a controller on a laptop or phone app, though Unifi's sites will suggest you get a cloudkey. Unifi is at its best when you need to cover large or complicated spaces.

You also don't need to buy a Unifi PoE switch to power it - the newer models use standard PoE from any capable switch and could be cheaper. A few generations back a lot of their gear also used 24V passive power delivered over ethernet. It wasn't a standard, so the Unifi PoE switches could switch between modes to supply either. You're paying for that convenience you will probably never use.

TheFullDuck

Unfortunately yes he only ran 2 CAT6 cables

1 - Plant Room to Attic

2 - Attic to Sitting Room

Electrical fit out was complete before the house was listed, if I had gotten in earlier the house would have been set up to be networked to every room!

If locating a repeater behind the TV has that much of an impact would the below be a better alternative.

Instead of just the ONT in the Plant Room under the stairs I could also leave the router. This will supply wifi downstairs.

I then use CAT6 no.1 to wire from the router to the repeater in the attic. From the attic I use CAT6 no. 2 to wire a network switch behind the entertainment area which will take tv & shield off the wifi.

Noted regarding the Unifi gear, the Apple of networking!

ECO_Mental

Im a bit of a Unifi fanboy so apolgies…but they have started releasing a lot of smaller units for people who dont want big network switches.

You could put this as your router/gateway/unifi controller next to the ONT

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/all-unifi-cloud-gateways/products/ux

You could then add a small POE switch in the Attic and run a AP off this (for upstairs or the far corner of your house)https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/all-switching/products/usw-lite-8-poe

You could get one of these puppies to fit behind the TV, it had a 4 port gigabit switch and has wifi, there is a wifi6 version also that is a bit more expensive though, the POE switch in the attic will power this.

https://eu.store.ui.com/eu/en/pro/category/all-wifi/products/uap-ac-iw

The advantage here is that the cloud gateway will manage the APs better and you will have a lot of useful features such as 1 SSID and seemless roaming between the APs.

What I will say most of the stuff we do now is connected to the internet and with people working from home having a solid reliable home network is something that you should invest in. I built a new house and treated the home network like the plumbing and costed it into the build costs. Maybe I went a bit over board but I dont think so, its been rock solid for the last few years and no one ever complains that the wifi is slow or the internet is down..

theintern

I think the previous poster is overstating the impact of putting the AP behind the TV. It'll likely make very little difference to you for your use cases unless the house is massive and will work perfectly well for your use case.

If it was me, I'd pick up a couple of APs and use those, from either TP Link or Ubiquiti and switch off the wifi in the Fritzbox, but that might even be overkill for you.

TheFullDuck

Thanks you all for your input, a lot to consider.

I actually bought a cable tester during the week and terminated the existing CAT6 cables. Turns out the electrician was mistaken and the way the cables were ran is:

Plant room → Sitting room

Sitting room → Attic

So what I think I will do initially is go from ONT in Plant room to router behind TV.

Router to basic gigabit switch beside the router to take TV, Nvidia shield, PlayStation off wifi.

Fritz repeater in attic hardwired to router will provide wifi coverage upstairs.

As much as I would love to go down the Unifi rabbit hole, the total cost for Fritz repeater and switch is €160 vs. approx €500 for the Unifi gear and, also appears to be much more straightforward.

I'll reassess then after a few weeks of use and I get an idea of wifi strength and speed in each of the rooms