Wifi setup for large family and 3000 sq ft.

[3j3j3j]

My family is moving into a 3000 sq. Ft house. We will have 8 people all using stuff. We have 2 game consoles used mostly online. We like watching netflix. There is 10 smartphones/tablets. We have 4 laptops. 1 bluray with wifi. What do we need to do to support all of these people? We obvously wont be using everything at once but could be close. What speed of internet? Any necessary router specs? Anything else necessary for this setup? We currently have a cisco router. Not dual band.

 

[3j3j3j]

We currently have 20mbps

 

[John Connor]

I would bump the 20 Mbps to 30 Mbps and get one of these routers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

If you buy that router do install the latest firmware.

Be sure you are using WPA2 AES encryption and a good password. Standard is 64 hex digits, but that's imposable to use with the peripherals. Something that can't be brute forced. Like AES9733A234.

 

[dma0991]

Get the router mentioned in the post above. If the signal strength is weak at the farthest point from the router, install repeaters in those blind spots. A repeater is probably unnecessary expense with the Asus RT-N66U but you'll almost need it if you're using your current router.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

If possible, I'd up your internet connection based on 1) cost 2) number of simultaneous users. You might try 20 mbps but if you start seeing performance issues, you might need to upgrade.

My house is roughly that size and I have a DIR-655 that covered the entire house at one time. The problem I ran into was that neighbors started installing wireless networks and as a result, the interference started disrupting my coverage in certain places in the house. I also needed patio coverage (around 1100 sq ft) as well. So what I currently have is my DIR-655 in my upstairs office (main internet connection), an Amped Wireless SR10000 repeater in my downstairs entertainment center, and a DAP-1522 overlooking my patio and providing 5 Ghz coverage. In a few weeks, I'm going to get the Netgear R7000 or the Asus RT-AC68U and see if I can go back to having one device cover the entire house and hopefully it will cover the patio as well. The Amped Wireless device has strong signal but I've had some recent connectivity issues with it and want to replace it.

 

[3j3j3j]

I would bump the 20 Mbps to 30 Mbps and get one of these routers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

If you buy that router do install the latest firmware.

Be sure you are using WPA2 AES encryption and a good password. Standard is 64 hex digits, but that's imposable to use with the peripherals. Something that can't be brute forced. Like AES9733A234.

Is the only reason the long password because of brute force cracking and nieghbor usage?

 

[azazel1024]

Yes.

64 character is just paranoia though.

A good, non-dictionary, 12 character password is fairly brute force proof. At least if you are doing a good alpha numeric mix with upper and lower case characters mixed in. That is 3.22x10^21 different possible combinations and so long as it can't be attacked through a dictionary attack, assuming a billion hashes a second, that is 102,000 years to crack it or a 50% probability of cracking it within about 50,000 years.

Even if you could up that to a trillion hashes a second (well beyond any workstation I can think of, even with multiple GPUs), that is 50 years for a 50% probability of cracking the password.

Of course it could always get a lucky guess on the very first try.

 

[dma0991]

Is the only reason the long password because of brute force cracking and nieghbor usage?

I doubt anybody would waste their time trying to hack into a home network with no valuable information. The password doesn't have to be too long, shouldn't be from a dictionary, shouldn't be an answer to a common question (what is your cat's name?) and something that you can actually remember (make a memorable sentence with the first character of every word as the characters that form the password).

The real problem with long and difficult passwords is that people don't remember them. The password then becomes a memo or a post-it somewhere around the house as it isn't easily remembered. As such, the security is nullified, when a stranger comes in and happen to see it.

 

[gus6464]

Can you run wire through your crawlspace? If you can I would get a regular router and a 3-pack of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Netwo.../dp/B005EORRBW

I have them and they cover a huge area and never go down. I have had mine for almost 2 years now and I haven't had to reboot them once. I will never buy a consumer router again after owning these puppies.

I used them for a while with a super cheap belkin router with all wifi turned off and it worked fine. When I was using the same router with wifi I had to powercycle it once a month or so but when I turned all the wifi off I stopped having to do that.

Now I have a Juniper SRX240 I got for free from work

 

[3j3j3j]

And when I upgrade the router what more will I be getting out of it besides a larger range? Will it help in making the network faster? Supporting more people? Of course it has the onvious improvements - file sharing, printer sharing, etc.

 

[3j3j3j]

*Obvious

 

[VirtualLarry]

And when I upgrade the router what more will I be getting out of it besides a larger range? Will it help in making the network faster? Supporting more people?

In theory, all of the above. In practice, you'll just have to try it out and see if it works for you and your mix of devices.

However, that router is in the top 10, if not top 5 or even 3 of consumer routers.

 

[s44]

And when I upgrade the router what more will I be getting out of it besides a larger range? Will it help in making the network faster? Supporting more people? Of course it has the onvious improvements - file sharing, printer sharing, etc.

For a single family there are two differences: more stable routing, and better radio coverage. But as the previous guy said, the best way to do radio coverage is by setting up a UniFi AP or three around the house and not using your router's radio at all.

Asus has pretty good stock firmware. But for most people, unless you're running QOS while saturating a gigabit WAN connection, any modern router should do the trick as long as you flash it with a third-party firmware like Tomato.

I suggest this $32 router
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Play-N6...dp/B0045HHTGW/
with this firmware build (yes, you can flash it directly from the web interface)
http://www.victek.is-a-geek.com/Rep.../tomato-F7D4301-1.28.9013MIPSR2-RAF-V1.2e.trx

Or, if you want more CPU headroom for more intensive router activities later, get this ARM-based unit ($120):
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-Dual-Band...dp/B00DES2FQW/

 

[VirtualLarry]

I doubt anybody would waste their time trying to hack into a home network with no valuable information. The password doesn't have to be too long, shouldn't be from a dictionary, shouldn't be an answer to a common question (what is your cat's name?) and something that you can actually remember (make a memorable sentence with the first character of every word as the characters that form the password).

The real problem with long and difficult passwords is that people don't remember them. The password then becomes a memo or a post-it somewhere around the house as it isn't easily remembered. As such, the security is nullified, when a stranger comes in and happen to see it.

In an era of huge rainbow-tables and dictionary cracking, that cartoon is obsolete. The first example is in reality probably more secure, though not by much.

 

[s44]

However, that router is in the top 10, if not top 5 or even 3 of consumer routers.

If he's going to use the radio, it's really good. Not sure I'd get it over the AC56U though -- firmware development on that is really progressing, and the CPU in the latter is just way faster.

OP, which Cisco do you have now? You may be able to keep it and just set up an AP... though if it's single-band it probably doesn't have gigabit either.

 

[3j3j3j]

I have the wrt160n.

 

[alkemyst]

I have the wrt160n.

internal antennas will not be sufficient in that size home (I am assuming single story).

not to mention the WRT160N isn't that great to begin with. I owned one and it had signal issues with my concrete walls inside the home.

My e4200 was a great improvement, now I run a Cisco C819HWD-A-K9 which does much better.

 

[3j3j3j]

Ya this router sucks. If it helps the house is two story, so how would I run ethernet to the upstairs to install the unifi access points if that is the route I take?

 

[3j3j3j]

I also have a Belkin Connect 150, but it doesnt keep ports open very well for xbox

 

[3j3j3j]

Will I be able to stay with my modem? Its just rented from the internet company. It is a Motorola Surfboard sb6141

 

[John Connor]

Yes, you don't have to change modems.

 

[3j3j3j]

Ok

 

[azazel1024]

For running up the second story, if it is a stick frame house, you have a couple of options. If you have central AC, you can run the wire from your current router through the wall, or even along the baseboard in to an AC duct and then snake up through the duct work up to the second floor. You'll want/need to use plenum rated wiring as it is running through your HVAC duct work.

Alternately, you can just open the wall and run the wire up to the next floor. It helps if you have walls between floors that are placed on top of each other, but you can always run the wiring up through the header of the wall on the first floor, down the joists to below a wall on the second floor, up through the footer of that wall and in to a wall box and stick a keystone jack in it, or just up through the baseboard there.

You won't have to cut too many holes, so long as there is no blocking in the wall. Just one to have it enter, then at the top of the wall so you can drill the header and then upstairs a hole in the wall to go down through the footer to pull the wire up. A wire fish would be useful for all of this.

 

[s44]

I have the wrt160n.

Which version? All but v2 are flashable to Tomato. This will give you long uptimes and stable routing, at least, though you still won't have gigabit or a very fast processor or great radio.

 

[3j3j3j]

Its v2 but thanks