Howdy.
I am finally going to have to pay the technical debt I accrued over the last few years concerning my home network.
The Problem
Despite knowing better, the current network is not designed. It grew organically and is a mess of patching and workarounds. The technology committee (wife, youngest son (living here), and members-at-large (11 other family members who visit regularly) have voiced their disenchantment with "the WiFi" and their disappointment with the CIO, CTO, and IT staff—the would be me, and number 2 son who is a frequent contractor).
This accretion of network kit isn't standing up to use. In particular, the router apparently runs out of resources (speculatively, ARP table entries or something related) and becomes deaf to clients. The connected ones (to the WiFi) can't get out to the Internet and the unconnected ones can't connect. Additionally, the second WiFi network of four meshed APs can no longer see the 'net.
The aggregate network has ~60 ±10 devices connected at any one time. This includes about 15 wired devices with the rest being connected via one of the WiFi networks. Most of these are IoT devices using low bandwidth on the 2.4GHz radios, but counting desktop and laptop computers, tablets, phones, and miscellaneous things like oscilloscopes and SBCs, it is close to a 50/50 split.
The Current Configuration
The kit comprising the current configuration is as follows:
Cable Modem
Arris SB8200
Router and WiFI
Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 WiFi Router
Netgear EX7000-100NAS Nighthawk Wi-Fi Range Extender AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit
Netgear EX6300-100NAS Nighthawk Wi-Fi Range Extender AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit
(4) Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS SmartThings Wi-Fi Mesh Router (also acting as SmartThings IoT Z-Wave hub)
Switchgear
(2) Netgear GS308T 8-port Managed GigE Switches
Netgear GS108PE-300NAS ProSAFE 8-Port Gigabit PoE Web Managed (Plus) Switch with 53W 4 PoE Ports
CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender with 4 Port PoE+ Switch Support
Wired Devices (live in MDF, in the basement, and in an IDF (a shelf in the office above))
(1) Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS (IDF) connected to one of the X6 R8000 LAN ports
Arlo WiFI Camera Base Station (IDF) connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
Ambient Weather Station Base connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
Philips Hue Hub connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
RPi 3B+ (MDF) connected to one of the GS108PE-300NAS switch ports
Grandstream VoIP DECT6 phone base (MDF) connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
SMC1500C UPS (MDF) connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
Synology DS920+ NAS Server (MDF) connected to one of the GS108PE-300NAS switch ports
Synology DS916+ NAS Server (MDF) connected to one of the GS108PE-300NAS switch ports
Samsung TV (FR)connected to one of the colocated CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender switch ports
Apple TV (FR) connected to one of the colocated CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender switch ports
GS108PE-300NAS switch uplinked to X6 R8000 LAN port
(2) GS308T (MDF) switches uplinked to MDF GS108PE-300NAS switch
CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender (FR) (serves family room media devices) uplinked to MDF GS108PE-300NAS switch
X6 R8000 WiFi Router uplinked to collocated Arris SB8200
Wireless Infrastructure
Netgear EX6300-100NAS Wi-Fi Range Extender on floor 1
Netgear EX7000-100NAS Wi-Fi Range Extender on floor 2 (electronics lab instruments connected to a LAN port on the device)
Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS Wi-Fi Mesh node on floors 1, 2, and 3
Wireless Devices
3-10 iPhones (depending on occupancy)
7-13 iPads
3-8 Apple Watches
2 Samsung TVs
15 WeMo Smart Outlet Switches
5 Shelly 1 IoT Relays (more to be added)
~15 assorted MCU/SBC devices
4 Printers
3 Cameras
?? Things I have forgotten are connected but will enumerate with a network survey
The Solution
At this point I am primarily interested in replacing the routing function of the X6 R6000 with a dedicated hardware router (e.g. Microtik, Ubiquiti, MERAKI GO, etc.)
I would prefer an appliance, rather than running say, PFSense, on my own hardware.
I intend to replace the mesh network(s) with a wired backbone, but it's not a simple matter in this house. It was built in 1941 of plaster, brick, and concrete without dedicate risers and the various paths from basement to third floor are each problematic in different ways. I will eventually do this, along with wired cameras but for now it's WiFi for these things.
So, I am interested in any experience with an appliance as mentioned above. While we am currently using ~400mbps cable, the plan is to switch to 1Gbps fiber, so the router has to have decent throughput.
So, AAC—any great advice? Even warnings against something are useful.
I am finally going to have to pay the technical debt I accrued over the last few years concerning my home network.
The Problem
Despite knowing better, the current network is not designed. It grew organically and is a mess of patching and workarounds. The technology committee (wife, youngest son (living here), and members-at-large (11 other family members who visit regularly) have voiced their disenchantment with "the WiFi" and their disappointment with the CIO, CTO, and IT staff—the would be me, and number 2 son who is a frequent contractor).
This accretion of network kit isn't standing up to use. In particular, the router apparently runs out of resources (speculatively, ARP table entries or something related) and becomes deaf to clients. The connected ones (to the WiFi) can't get out to the Internet and the unconnected ones can't connect. Additionally, the second WiFi network of four meshed APs can no longer see the 'net.
The aggregate network has ~60 ±10 devices connected at any one time. This includes about 15 wired devices with the rest being connected via one of the WiFi networks. Most of these are IoT devices using low bandwidth on the 2.4GHz radios, but counting desktop and laptop computers, tablets, phones, and miscellaneous things like oscilloscopes and SBCs, it is close to a 50/50 split.
The Current Configuration
The kit comprising the current configuration is as follows:
Cable Modem
Arris SB8200
Router and WiFI
Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 WiFi Router
Netgear EX7000-100NAS Nighthawk Wi-Fi Range Extender AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit
Netgear EX6300-100NAS Nighthawk Wi-Fi Range Extender AC1900 Dual Band Gigabit
(4) Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS SmartThings Wi-Fi Mesh Router (also acting as SmartThings IoT Z-Wave hub)
Switchgear
(2) Netgear GS308T 8-port Managed GigE Switches
Netgear GS108PE-300NAS ProSAFE 8-Port Gigabit PoE Web Managed (Plus) Switch with 53W 4 PoE Ports
CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender with 4 Port PoE+ Switch Support
Wired Devices (live in MDF, in the basement, and in an IDF (a shelf in the office above))
(1) Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS (IDF) connected to one of the X6 R8000 LAN ports
Arlo WiFI Camera Base Station (IDF) connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
Ambient Weather Station Base connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
Philips Hue Hub connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
RPi 3B+ (MDF) connected to one of the GS108PE-300NAS switch ports
Grandstream VoIP DECT6 phone base (MDF) connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
SMC1500C UPS (MDF) connected to one of the MDF GS308T ports
Synology DS920+ NAS Server (MDF) connected to one of the GS108PE-300NAS switch ports
Synology DS916+ NAS Server (MDF) connected to one of the GS108PE-300NAS switch ports
Samsung TV (FR)connected to one of the colocated CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender switch ports
Apple TV (FR) connected to one of the colocated CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender switch ports
GS108PE-300NAS switch uplinked to X6 R8000 LAN port
(2) GS308T (MDF) switches uplinked to MDF GS108PE-300NAS switch
CENTROPOWER Ethernet Extender (FR) (serves family room media devices) uplinked to MDF GS108PE-300NAS switch
X6 R8000 WiFi Router uplinked to collocated Arris SB8200
Wireless Infrastructure
Netgear EX6300-100NAS Wi-Fi Range Extender on floor 1
Netgear EX7000-100NAS Wi-Fi Range Extender on floor 2 (electronics lab instruments connected to a LAN port on the device)
Samsung ET-WV525BWEGUS Wi-Fi Mesh node on floors 1, 2, and 3
Wireless Devices
3-10 iPhones (depending on occupancy)
7-13 iPads
3-8 Apple Watches
2 Samsung TVs
15 WeMo Smart Outlet Switches
5 Shelly 1 IoT Relays (more to be added)
~15 assorted MCU/SBC devices
4 Printers
3 Cameras
?? Things I have forgotten are connected but will enumerate with a network survey
The Solution
At this point I am primarily interested in replacing the routing function of the X6 R6000 with a dedicated hardware router (e.g. Microtik, Ubiquiti, MERAKI GO, etc.)
I would prefer an appliance, rather than running say, PFSense, on my own hardware.
I intend to replace the mesh network(s) with a wired backbone, but it's not a simple matter in this house. It was built in 1941 of plaster, brick, and concrete without dedicate risers and the various paths from basement to third floor are each problematic in different ways. I will eventually do this, along with wired cameras but for now it's WiFi for these things.
So, I am interested in any experience with an appliance as mentioned above. While we am currently using ~400mbps cable, the plan is to switch to 1Gbps fiber, so the router has to have decent throughput.
So, AAC—any great advice? Even warnings against something are useful.