Network Setup and Configuration Help

[rhett7660]

Hello all,

I am looking for suggestions on how I should setup my home network now that it is growing and well more and more devices are using my home network/wifi. So having said that... Here is what I have:

Computers:
Mac Pro (Hardwired)
Mac Mini (Hardwired)
Windows XP Media Box (Hardwired)
QNAP NAS Media Storage (Hardwired)

Entertainment:
AppleTv (Hardwired)
2x Sonos Play 1 (wifi)
1x Sonos Play 2 (wifi)
1x Sonos Play 3 (wifi)
1x Sharp tv (Hardwired)
1x Panasonic Blu-ray (Hardwired)
1x Verizon Fios DVR box (Hardwired)

Wireless Devices:
2x iPads (wifi)
2x iPhones (wifi)

Home Wireless Devices:
3x WeMo Wifi Switches
1x Honeywell wifi thermostat

Network equipment:
1x Fios Router Actiontec (used both for wifi and hardwired)
1x netgear 5-port hometheater hub (used to manage entertainment area)
1x TRENDnet 24 Port switch (used for all the hardwired devices, not full, but purchased with expansion in mind)
3x Apple Express (all hardwired throughout the house)

As you can see there is a lot of stuff that I am putting on the network and was wondering if I should start breaking it up, i.e. 2.4ghz and 5.0ghz. Right now everything is on one network.

Seems like my network is getting congested with all the devices connecting to the same network, maybe splitting it up?

Wifi home on one network (everything else, iPads, iPhones etc)
Wifi home on second network 2.4 (home stuff since it is small data)
Hardwired network

Open to suggestions or if this is the correct way of doing things. Just looking to improve my home network that is all.

Any questions please let me know.

 

[satcomer]

I would suggest you change out all your cabling with CAT 6a cable plus use a great dual wireless router and since you gave Expresses I would highly urge a new Extreme. It will work with the Expreses seemlessly in the Macs.

Plus if you have anything transferring video to your TV boxes use hardware with 4K or raw video. This will prevent any studdering in video sync. Also get a switch with a gig ports to keep speed. Plus using a dual pane wireless router you can seperate all the collisions of the 2.4 frequencies and get more true wireless speeds. Don' t worry but with the dual wireless networking all your devices will stay on the same domain for proper sharing.

Just remember the old network saying of in home networking just have the first router doing NAT networking and all other routers after that main router be in non-NAT mode (Apple routers call it Bridged Mode). This way you never have of the dreded double NAT errors slowing down home networks.

Edit: make sure if you cable crosses any Electral cables or high powered electrical devices to use Shield cable in that case.

 

[rhett7660]

I would suggest you change out all your cabling with CAT 6a cable plus use a great dual wireless router and since you gave Expresses I would highly urge a new Extreme. It will work with the Expreses seemlessly in the Macs.

Plus if you have anything transferring video to your TV boxes use hardware with 4K or raw video. This will prevent any studdering in video sync. Also get a switch with a gig ports to keep speed. Plus using a dual pane wireless router you can separate all the collisions of the 2.4 frequencies and get more true wireless speeds. Don' t worry but with the dual wireless networking all your devices will stay on the same domain for proper sharing.

Just remember the old network saying of in home networking just have the first router doing NAT networking and all other routers after that main router be in non-NAT mode (Apple routers call it Bridged Mode). This way you never have of the dreded double NAT errors slowing down home networks.

Edit: make sure if you cable crosses any Electral cables or high powered electrical devices to use Shield cable in that case.

Thank you for the input!

Running new cable, is probably not going to happen.

All of my switches have gig ports..Check

All of my expresses are switched to Router Mode: Off (Bridge Mode): check

Can you elaborate on this statement a little more:

Plus using a dual pane wireless router you can separate all the collisions of the 2.4 frequencies and get more true wireless speeds. Don' t worry but with the dual wireless networking all your devices will stay on the same domain for proper sharing.

 

[satcomer]

Like what I said before get the dual pane routers since they are the only ones that use the proper 5 GHz channels and not just tring the cheap 5 GHz in the 2.4 channels.

Things like microwaves and cordless home phones & baby monitors all use the 2.4 frequencies. That whole 2.4 band is saturated and what is called crosstalk happens all the time.

Now with TVs and TV boxes are coming online it is going to get a lot more crowded. Also with AC coming online maybe a good AC router might be looked at.

 

[rhett7660]

Like what I said before get the dual pane routers since they are the only ones that use the proper 5 GHz channels and not just tring the cheap 5 GHz in the 2.4 channels.

Things like microwaves and cordless home phones & baby monitors all use the 2.4 frequencies. That whole 2.4 band is saturated and what is called crosstalk happens all the time.

Now with TVs and TV boxes are coming online it is going to get a lot more crowded. Also with AC coming online maybe a good AC router might be looked at.

Any recommendations on a good dual pane router? I have looked at the Apple one and you mentioned it above. Good for what I am looking to do?

I am seeing the normal brands:
Netgear
Belkin
Cisco Linksys
etc...

Thanks again for your help!!!!!

 

[satcomer]

With the Apple devices That you have the newer Extremes might be in order.

However if you are considering Secure VPN back to your network NAS then get the Netgear AC1900 since it has support for VPNs.

IMHO cheap wireless routers are lying that they support N or better. They don't really go to proper wireless channels that dual pane routers do. Also getting an AC router now you could future proof your home network. Dual pane routers need special channel support so to learn about the channels read the blog article why 802.11ac Will Kill The 5 GHz Wi-Fi Band. So always choose the correct band channel then with cheaper routers always look at the bands it supports that usually in small print on the box. Then you will know if you will get the maximum bandwidth speed from your wireless network. The one caveat is figuring out what all your wireless device support.