[PLUG] OT: Looking for some WiFi Networking Advice

Russell Senior russell at personaltelco.net
Wed Oct 14 20:29:50 UTC 2020


It doesn't actually matter, but where are you located? Portland is
primarily Comcast territory. Where are you that you are a Cox
subscriber?

If you have wired connections to your wireless access points, you
don't need fancy "mesh" equipment. Instead, you just need devices that
can be configured as "dumb APs".

I don't actually know anything about eero, except for a general sense
about how they sort of have to work. I have a lot of experience with
mesh networks generally. My humble opinion is that mesh networks are
usually the wrong solution to your problem, since most people's
problem with wifi is congestion, and mesh networks only make
congestion worse. So, generally, I think you are on the right track
with wires. More people should bite the bullet and either run wires
yourself or hire an electrician to run wires for them instead of
pissing around with meshes.

Any consumer off-the-shelf "router" can be turned into a "dumb AP" by
turning off its DHCP server, setting a unique static IP, and
connecting to your ethernet cable through a LAN port instead of the
WAN port. You might want to consider an access point that can be
reflashed with OpenWrt, and then you can configure it as a dumb AP,
have it fetch its own address via DHCP from a gateway device, and not
worry about which port you are plugged into.

The one feature of "fancy" wifi gear that OpenWrt and traditional dumb
wifi network devices typically don't have is fancy mechanisms for
pushing devices onto less congested devices and channels. You are
mostly going to have to hope your devices pick a good AP to connect to
in different areas of your house. There are some tricks you can use to
make this more deterministic.

So, there's my advice.

-- 
Russell Senior
russell at personaltelco.net

On Wed, Oct 14, 2020 at 12:11 PM Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
>
> I need to upgrade my home wifi network with a high speed mesh network
> (primarily for better phone coverage in my house - I make a lot of video
> calls to the UK). I have Cox Gigablast on my wired network. The issue I am
> running into is that the "base" unit of the eero units and other vendors'
> boxes have to connect to either (1) the cable model or (2) the router and
> not the switch. My modem, router, and switch are all in a cabinet above my
> desk in the office, so (1) I don't need wifi in the office and (2) I don't
> relish the thought of having a wifi transmitter sitting 3 feet from my head
> 12 hours a day. I want to connect the wifi boxes to my wired network in a
> couple of different rooms away from the office. Eero (and other vendors)
> says the "base" unit has to act as a gateway (my router does that now), so
> it cannot be after the switch. Any suggestions on how I can get a high
> speed mesh network in my house and not take a daily showert in 2+ GHz
> radiation? I also want to use the wired network as the backhaul channel.
>
> Please don't start a discussion on the health effects of wifi radiation.
> Just assume I am so unscientific and superstitious that I believe in wifi
> gremlins and I don't want them invading my head.;)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
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