Advice on home networking setup.

[kb353]

I just built a 16000sq feet new house which i am hoping to network in the best possible manner. I am looking for wifi on the ground floor, first floor, garden area, patio and pool area. It would be nice if i could the basement with the existing setup but thats not exactly the priority.

The main internet wire is on the first floor main router. Which has a lan wire going from the the first floor to the ground floor. Each of the two routers has lan wire going into each room with a tv for the purpose of smart tvs or any future smart product which may require a lan connection.

Now the patio area is fairly far from the main router which means the wifi network on the ground neither the first floor can be used in the patio area. But what i did during the earlier stages of construction was i put a wire from the guard room to the patio area which i was hoping would help in some manner in later stages. Using a repeater is facing the patio is not an option as there is a cctv unit in the patio area (its for security purpose as there is a small gate in the backyard) which requires a lan wire.

Now what i require-

1. A single network running across the house which means i dont want different networks on different floors or areas of the house.

2. With that i also want the first floor main router to be connected to the ground floor secondry router using a LAN Wire (amd not repeater/wds option) so as to keep the network running at its optimal levels.

3. The first floor main router should be one with a usb port with a hard drive compatibilty so i could use it to store media/files which could be accessed across the network on any computer/tablet.

4. I already have an extra TP Link tl-wa5210g lying around in the house which i am hoping i could use for the patio area.


Now i am looking for advice on what eauipment to purchase, i.e. The first floor main router(with usb support) and the ground floor secondry router and how to go about setting it up. I have my fair share of knowledge on home networking but just wanted to be sure before buying anything.

Ohh and the lan wiring is all internal and therefore cannot be changed or nothing more can be added.

All kinds of advice would be highly appreciated.

Please use the layout attached for a rough idea.

 

[ViviTheMage]

geez, you built a 16k square foot house and didn't run cat5/6 cable throughout?!?!

budget?

you'll most likely need 3-4 access points to have decent wireless coverage. You'll want 1 router to dish your DHCP.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Hire a guy. Forget about it.

 

[kb353]

geez, you built a 16k square foot house and didn't run cat5/6 cable throughout?!?!

budget?

you'll most likely need 3-4 access points to have decent wireless coverage. You'll want 1 router to dish your DHCP.

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry if wasnt clear enough the first time.

The house itself has CAT5 running through the house, its only the patio area which was bought later after the house was built therefore couldnt take the CAT5 up till the Main Router.

Not too constrained on the budget, but again dont want to spend too lavishly. Around $200 maybe.

Any suggestions?

 

[kb353]

Hire a guy. Forget about it.

Sadly its a small town i live in and most people doing the networking are highly unprofessional and only have basic knowledge.

I am fairly decent with it. But i wanted to get an opinion on the access point or routers i buy.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[smitbret]

For this kind of thing, look at the Ubiquiti setups with Access Points throughout. This is exactly the kind of thing they are made for.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...35&N=100010075 50066620&IsNodeId=1&IsPowerSearch=1

http://www.ubnt.com/

 

[ViviTheMage]

How far is the run to the patio? You could bury some ethernet, or run fiber. OR get a high gain ant. like smitbret linked to the patio area.

 

[azazel1024]

What kind of construction is the house? Even with 2x4" construction you are probably looking at a minimum of two access points per floor, plus 1-2 access points outside depending on the space you need to cover outside.

16,000sq-ft is a considerable area to attempt to cover with wifi. Figure each access point is going to cover around 2,000-3,000sq-ft for 2.4GHz, assuming the rooms are on the large size, and the construction is primiarly 2x4". Might be able to get away with 4,000sq-ft for coverage per AP if you are lucky and they are rather large rooms.

For outside, figure around half an acre to an acre of coverage per access point with decent antennas. I'd get a dedicated outdoor access point and run outdoor rated Cat5e/6 to it and power it using POE. I'd look at Ubiquity for the outside access point.

For the specific model of AP/router inside, just depends on what your other criteria is. If you are going minimal cost and just basic wireless access with blanket coverage, I'd go cheap and get something like the Asus N16, or TP-Link 841n and spread them around.

For unified access, so long as you set them all to the same SSID and same password, it'll operate as a unified network as far as your wireless devices are concerned. The wireless devices themselves will handle switching between the different access points.

However, I will say, if you want to do this right, you will not get it done for $200 to cover that entire property. I'd figure $500 at a MINIMUM as you are looking at probably half a dozen routers/APs for inside the home (if not double or triple that number, depending on construction) plus one or more outdoor rated access points.

Figure a budget of $500-1,000. Not sure what country you are in, or if the US, what area of the US, but I would think after building/buying a 16,000sq-ft house, a $1,000 on wireless gear would be a tiny, tiny drop in the bucket. Or just hiring a person or business to do it, even if they have to be brought in from else where (within reason).