Travel Router

[Dave Rice]

If the PC and it’s backup target are both wired a £25 gigabit switch would make a good backbone. If any speed critical part is wireless then you need to look at true 300N (most devices are 150) or preferably AC.

Here the newer laptops and phones are 5Ghz but for everything else I find that 2.4Ghz 300N isn’t far behind, certainly not enough to have me yearning for the AC equivalent. In the PC I use a £12 CSL – 300Mbps PCI Express (PCIe) WLAN card  .

I was using my sons bedroom as an office / workshop and I had the gigabit switch there connected to a £22TP-LINK TL-WA801ND 300 Mbps Wireless N Access Point and I use one on the Sky box. I can see the bedroom AP (same floor, 3 metres and one wall away from the Ubiquiti AC-AP-LR) is connecting at the full 300mbps. My son is a very serious competitive DOTA player and I get no complaints. The Sky AP is the floor below, 5 metres horizontally, 2 walls and the TV furniture and still connects at 243 Tx 216 Rx.

Looking at the rest of the “always on” infrastructure, the 1st Gen Chromecast is 65 / 65, the Fire TV 130 / 144, Canon MG6550 printer 150 / 150 and the Brother colour laser 65/65. So all on their specs as near as dammit. None of them have dropped a connection since the AP was rebooted for an upgrade 38 days ago. From those specs you can see that speed is not the be all and end all, most things need less than you think, but reliability is very important.

And that is what I tend to buy for, reliability and coverage rather than headline speeds.

[Richard]

I had to stop writing last night, I had another of the rare but disrupting ocular migraines, which this time was followed up by quite a long time when I could barely string two words together that made sense. Hopefully I am a little better today.

I do already have a 5 port gigabyte switch sat next to the router for the additional ports. This is in part to serve a 100 Mb switch in the lounge with one PVR and several wired devices – so much more reliable than the Wi-Fi. It also serves several switches upstairs, some of which are slower speed devices serving printers and lower speed computers, but one 8 port Gb switch also serves the server (8TB storage) as well. To give extended Wi-Fi coverage I have recycled a couple of old routers as part switch, part AP as the walls are not very good at letting signals pass. One serves an Amazon Fire stick via Wi-Fi as well as a wired PVR in probably the most distant spot from the main router. Because of the various redeployed routers (2), several print servers (3), the DHCP has been set up to allow reserved address ranges for different functions. We currently have three Mobiles all of which use the Wi-Fi, though they are only used in parts of the house but need good Wi-Fi coverage. The portables all use 2.4GHz but wired is so much superior in many ways, especially for back ups and updates. My wife’s mobile can use Wi-Fi calling but I have yet to set that up, it should help with the otherwise crap mobile signals we get at home.

Because it has all grown over a number years it has become complex and would probably benefit from a total rework, but I do not want the work at the moment. The ubiquity sounds an interesting upgrade route should/when/if the time comes, that plus with Wi-Fi calling for my wife’s mobile, it should improve things and keep her doctor’s calls from getting cut off so often!

So thank you Dave for your help, interest and guidance to date.

[Dave Rice]

That reminds me of what this house used to be like. A mixture of wired, homeplugs and independent APs and extenders. I think I’ve tried them all.

Once you have a dependable AC network running, things like backup times are acceptable. My laptop’s daily incremental backup takes about a minute. The monthly 51GB full system backup takes 31 minutes. A 1.8GB Linux ISO copies from the NAS in 55 seconds ~ 300 mbps.

A mesh system may be the answer to your dilemma if a single central AP is a non starter. Either a totally wireless system like the BT Whole Home Wi-Fi or, if you have the Ethernet in the right place, Ubiquiti APs that will cooperate with each other to provide a seamless network.

I manage over 20 Ubiquiti UniFi networks now (and many more AirMax external point to point ones) and they just work. The family ex-farm in Cornwall is all joined together internally and externally by a mesh AC1200 system that also gives them a guest network for when a barn may be rented out in the summer. That only cost £300 and WiFi calling has taken the pain of crap mobile coverage away. They saved more than that by being able to cancel 2 BB contracts (although they kept one phone line for incoming calls).

Once you have a fast, dependable system in place WiFi suddenly makes sense.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for all that advice and info,Dave.

I am processing it all and will probably change/improve network, hardware, methods and functions when I get my faster connection. At the same time, I am waiting for the landlord to remove our fireplace, which contains a coal-fired back boiler from the early 1960’s. This is, according to HSE and the Environment Agency, is dangerous and should have been removed many years ago. Removing the whole thing will allow me to move back the TV onto a proper stand, and off the horrible IKEA shelf. A complete reset of everything will follow: cables, power strips, connections and more sensible, practical device connections.

This will all take time, nothing going to happen immediately, but I will refer back to all your advice in time. Your advice is much appreciated.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

Please do Bob.

IIRC you have some Cat 5 in the loft? That’s the perfect place for an access point (on the landing ceiling) and being Power over Ethernet you don’t need mains up there.

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