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[Home Networking] And You

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Posts

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    That's probably about right. A lot depends on which band you're connecting to, what else is being transmitted at the time, the wifi antenna in your device, and a hundred other factors, but 300Mbit is about the theoretical max on the 2.4 band.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    We have Gigabit and a Netgear wifi router (802.11ac)

    15 feet from the router, I get 328 Mbps. As long as I get over 100 Mbps, I'm happy that the connection is doing its job.

    We have 2 TV's and a bunch of personal devices fighting for the connection.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    16-port unmanaged switch for $40 US. I have one in my basement that I set up as a central connection point while I slowly and strategically run Ethernet. It's rock solid.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AX8XHRQ/

  • NEO|PhyteNEO|Phyte They follow the stars, bound together. Strands in a braid till the end.Registered User regular
    Oh hey, we've got a dedicated networking thread these days? Nice.

    Got a TP-Link Archer c50 V2 that has some sort of fiddliness going on in its wireless. By which I mean it just sort of stops now and then. Rebooting it makes it start going again, as does going into its management page and toggling the wireless off and on. I haven't attempted getting hard information on the issue but if it isn't random it feels like it may be related to how much wireless traffic is going on, because the times it seems to happen more frequently coincide with times it's getting used more. Just gave it a firmware update to the most recent official offering, figured I'd chuck a post in here for further opinions in case problem persists, as well as opinions on if it's worth trying to fight with or if I should just get something better.

    (better in this case likely being one of those fancy mesh systems, got a fair bit of square footage to cover and at least some of the walls are that fun old-timey plaster on a metal mesh stuff)

    It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
    Warframe/Steam: NFyt
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    NEO|Phyte wrote: »
    Oh hey, we've got a dedicated networking thread these days? Nice.

    Got a TP-Link Archer c50 V2 that has some sort of fiddliness going on in its wireless. By which I mean it just sort of stops now and then. Rebooting it makes it start going again, as does going into its management page and toggling the wireless off and on. I haven't attempted getting hard information on the issue but if it isn't random it feels like it may be related to how much wireless traffic is going on, because the times it seems to happen more frequently coincide with times it's getting used more. Just gave it a firmware update to the most recent official offering, figured I'd chuck a post in here for further opinions in case problem persists, as well as opinions on if it's worth trying to fight with or if I should just get something better.

    (better in this case likely being one of those fancy mesh systems, got a fair bit of square footage to cover and at least some of the walls are that fun old-timey plaster on a metal mesh stuff)

    Oh hi, plaster with chicken wire here. Just go mesh and make your life happier.

    Unless you want to cut some holes and run some wires, then you can get a mesh system and give it a wired backhaul! :rotate:

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • NEO|PhyteNEO|Phyte They follow the stars, bound together. Strands in a braid till the end.Registered User regular
    Eyeballing some mesh stuff since it's slow at work,
    1) the ones I can find port pictures of seem to only have ethernets on the "primary" unit, are there versions where the satellites also have ethernet? We've got wire run to a few corners of the house so may as well have the wifi points hardwired if possible.
    2) is the internet/ethernet labeling on said ports a renaming of WAN/LAN so you've got to fuck around with that stuff or just poor labeling?

    It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
    Warframe/Steam: NFyt
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    NEO|Phyte wrote: »
    Eyeballing some mesh stuff since it's slow at work,
    1) the ones I can find port pictures of seem to only have ethernets on the "primary" unit, are there versions where the satellites also have ethernet? We've got wire run to a few corners of the house so may as well have the wifi points hardwired if possible.
    2) is the internet/ethernet labeling on said ports a renaming of WAN/LAN so you've got to fuck around with that stuff or just poor labeling?

    1) Eero. Eeeeeeeeeroooooo.

    2) Every Eero unit has two auto sensing ports. Others have separate internet and Ethernet ports I think, though I can't remember for sure with Velop. The orbi you can just plug the cable into an Ethernet port on one of the satellites to do a wired backhaul. Set up the units wirelessly first, then after the firmware updates are done reboot the unit and plug in the Ethernet. The backhaul will fire right up.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • Bendery It Like BeckhamBendery It Like Beckham Hopeless Registered User regular
    So I need a home router w/ wifi that can hold about 12 connections without shitting itself. I was looking at the UBNT Dream Machine as a solution that would also let me do things like setup guest vlans and even a radius server if I wanted to play with 8021x. Looking at the Google though there seems to be some conflicting information on 8021x support on the Dream Machine.

    Does networking thread have any other recommendations or just snag the DM?

  • NEO|PhyteNEO|Phyte They follow the stars, bound together. Strands in a braid till the end.Registered User regular
    Hmm, supposed delivery date for a mesh whatsit and I haven't seen a shipping notification yet. I think I might cancel this order and just snag something in-store. My choice looks to be between the tplink deco s4 and the dual-band Linksys velops. Google suggests that either can do wired backhaul, are there any glaring issues to be aware of that are tricky to dig up on a phone browser?

    It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
    Warframe/Steam: NFyt
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    For some reason I thought Eero had a wired backhaul too. I haven't dug into it though.

  • CiriraCirira IowaRegistered User regular
    edited September 2020
    So I need a home router w/ wifi that can hold about 12 connections without shitting itself. I was looking at the UBNT Dream Machine as a solution that would also let me do things like setup guest vlans and even a radius server if I wanted to play with 8021x. Looking at the Google though there seems to be some conflicting information on 8021x support on the Dream Machine.

    Does networking thread have any other recommendations or just snag the DM?

    I've got a Dream Machine Pro and a bunch of APs but I think they support 8021x. Their website lists 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ac-wave2 as supported for the Dream Machine.

    Cirira on
  • Bendery It Like BeckhamBendery It Like Beckham Hopeless Registered User regular
    Cirira wrote: »
    So I need a home router w/ wifi that can hold about 12 connections without shitting itself. I was looking at the UBNT Dream Machine as a solution that would also let me do things like setup guest vlans and even a radius server if I wanted to play with 8021x. Looking at the Google though there seems to be some conflicting information on 8021x support on the Dream Machine.

    Does networking thread have any other recommendations or just snag the DM?

    I've got a Dream Machine Pro and a bunch of APs but I think they support 8021x. Their website lists 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ac-wave2 as supported for the Dream Machine.

    Oh nice! how's the fan noise? And thank you for the insight. It looks like a recent upgrade to the DM did enable 8021x auth w/ RADIUS and it just took me forever to find it.

    The pro is a little overkill for my 700sqft apartment, but it would be pretty sweet if i could find some place to hide 6U worth of hardware.

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    For some reason I thought Eero had a wired backhaul too. I haven't dug into it though.

    All versions of the Eero support wired backhaul (aside from the old beacons, obviously).

    Velop is trash.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • NEO|PhyteNEO|Phyte They follow the stars, bound together. Strands in a braid till the end.Registered User regular
    My comment regarding choice was more about what was physically in stock in a store to walk out the door with than a commentary on what can do wired backhaul. The eero is what I have an order placed for, but its delivery estimate is today and thus far I haven't even gotten a shipping notification on it so I said the heck with it.

    It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
    Warframe/Steam: NFyt
  • CiriraCirira IowaRegistered User regular
    Cirira wrote: »
    So I need a home router w/ wifi that can hold about 12 connections without shitting itself. I was looking at the UBNT Dream Machine as a solution that would also let me do things like setup guest vlans and even a radius server if I wanted to play with 8021x. Looking at the Google though there seems to be some conflicting information on 8021x support on the Dream Machine.

    Does networking thread have any other recommendations or just snag the DM?

    I've got a Dream Machine Pro and a bunch of APs but I think they support 8021x. Their website lists 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ac-wave2 as supported for the Dream Machine.

    Oh nice! how's the fan noise? And thank you for the insight. It looks like a recent upgrade to the DM did enable 8021x auth w/ RADIUS and it just took me forever to find it.

    The pro is a little overkill for my 700sqft apartment, but it would be pretty sweet if i could find some place to hide 6U worth of hardware.

    I live in a giant house (3600 sq feet) so my network equipment is all stocked away in the utility room (with the furnace and hot water heaters). All of the network drops already ran there so it became the default location.

    I can hear the fans a little when I go into that room, but there is so much other noise from the furnace and hot water heater that I honestly don't notice it that much. I'd say it would be fine anywhere? I've got a 24 port switch, a Synology NAS, some Raspberry Pis, the Dream Machine Pro, and a few other appliances (Hue Bridge, a Bridge for our HVAC) in there and don't notice the noise from it all in my office (shares the wall with it and that room has a louvered door).

  • NEO|PhyteNEO|Phyte They follow the stars, bound together. Strands in a braid till the end.Registered User regular
    House is meshed up! Went with the decos. Setup went smoothly, though I find it dumb that the initial setup doesn't let you specify that you want AP mode, gotta set it up as a router and then afterwards switch it over.

    It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing... And take away its pain.
    Warframe/Steam: NFyt
  • FremFrem Registered User regular
    Cirira wrote: »
    So I need a home router w/ wifi that can hold about 12 connections without shitting itself. I was looking at the UBNT Dream Machine as a solution that would also let me do things like setup guest vlans and even a radius server if I wanted to play with 8021x. Looking at the Google though there seems to be some conflicting information on 8021x support on the Dream Machine.

    Does networking thread have any other recommendations or just snag the DM?

    I've got a Dream Machine Pro and a bunch of APs but I think they support 8021x. Their website lists 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ac-wave2 as supported for the Dream Machine.

    Oh nice! how's the fan noise? And thank you for the insight. It looks like a recent upgrade to the DM did enable 8021x auth w/ RADIUS and it just took me forever to find it.

    The pro is a little overkill for my 700sqft apartment, but it would be pretty sweet if i could find some place to hide 6U worth of hardware.

    The Dream Machine is almost entirely silent, save for the chime it likes to play on startup. I only hear the fan if I put my head close to it. I was more bothered by the extremely bright LED ring. Both the chime and the LED ring can be disabled in settings.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Our Brother printer is now being a dbag on wifi and I kinda want a project, so I'm seriously considering grabbing a RPi Zero W and some cables and using it as a wireless print server.

    What's stopping me is the printer model isn't explicitly supported by CUPS. It's a model LDW2520 and CUPS lists the 2500 and 2550. (I think I have those numbers right. Going from memory)

  • AngelHedgieAngelHedgie Registered User regular
    Because today has been utter shit and I need some absurdist humor at the moment, I give you from the Internet of Things file Internet-enabled male chastity cage can be remotely locked by hackers:
    A security flaw in an internet-enabled male chastity device allows hackers to remotely control the gadget and permanently lock in wearers, researchers disclosed today.

    The Cellmate Chastity Cage, built by Chinese firm Qiui, lets users hand over access to their genitals to a partner who can lock and unlock the cage remotely using an app. But multiple flaws in the app’s design mean “anyone could remotely lock all devices and prevent users from releasing themselves,” according to UK security firm Pen Test Partners.

    Even worse, as the chastity cage does not come with a manual override or physical key, locked-in users have few options to break out. One is to cut through the cage’s hardened steel shackle, an operation that would require bolt cutters or an angle grinder, and that is made trickier by the fact that the shackle in question is fastened tightly around the wearer’s testicles. The other, discovered by Pen Test Partners, is to overload the circuit board that controls the lock’s motor with three volts of electricity (around two AA batteries’ worth).

    Imagine this combined with ransomware.

    XBL: Nox Aeternum / PSN: NoxAeternum / NN:NoxAeternum / Steam: noxaeternum
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    edited December 2020
    I've finally got my NAS up and running, so now it's time to start thinking about upgrading my creeky old network to something more recent than circa 2001. Are there any preferred and not ridiculously expensive switches with 10GigE or do I need to suck it up and spend $500 for a pair of switches that are mostly Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 ports instead of 10GigE RJ45?

    Obnote: I would like 'em to be quiet because I can't just bury the switches in the basement. I have no basement. :( One switch will be living in my bedroom; the other in my living room.

    Orca on
  • SoggybiscuitSoggybiscuit Tandem Electrostatic Accelerator Registered User regular
    https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qsw-m408s

    Maybe something like that? It’s cheap, but the SFP modules you would need to add probably aren’t.

    Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    edited December 2020
    https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qsw-m408s

    Maybe something like that? It’s cheap, but the SFP modules you would need to add probably aren’t.

    I was eyeing its bigger cousin the QSW-M408-4C since it has all those RJ-45 10GigE ports. Sounds like that's as good as it gets for my use case, even if it's going to run me $600 just for switches. Maybe I can start with just one and use my PC to bridge to a cheaper gigabit switch for whatever else I need to plug in.

    What about LAN cards? I've been eying the ASUS XG-C100C 10GBase-T. It's cheap and PCIE x4 (instead of the x8 of some other cards I've seen), I'm just not sure about how reliable it is/if it can hit full speed.

    Orca on
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Does your use case need 10GbE or are you "futureproofing" ? Also, "because reasons" is a fine answer but that answer usually implies you're going to spend more even though you don't need it

  • OrcaOrca Also known as Espressosaurus WrexRegistered User regular
    edited December 2020
    Mugsley wrote: »
    Does your use case need 10GbE or are you "futureproofing" ? Also, "because reasons" is a fine answer but that answer usually implies you're going to spend more even though you don't need it

    My use case is to move all of my bulk data onto the network, even for editing. Depending on the operation, that's IO limited. So I don't "need" 10GbE, but then I also don't "need" a NAS either.

    edit: at minimum, even these crappy spinning rust drives will hit 180 MB/sec when connected via USB3. Network throughput right now is ~100 MB/sec. I want the network link to not be the limit, especially since I've slotted a pair of 1 TB nVME drives into my NAS as a read/write cache.

    edit edit: Basically I want all of my bulk data to have redundancy protection. I fully realize I'm not getting proper backups from it, but once I've got redundancy (finally) I can start thinking about what I need to do to make backups work while keeping enough space to meet my expanding storage needs.

    Orca on
  • SoggybiscuitSoggybiscuit Tandem Electrostatic Accelerator Registered User regular
    Orca wrote: »
    https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qsw-m408s

    Maybe something like that? It’s cheap, but the SFP modules you would need to add probably aren’t.

    I was eyeing its bigger cousin the QSW-M408-4C since it has all those RJ-45 10GigE ports. Sounds like that's as good as it gets for my use case, even if it's going to run me $600 just for switches. Maybe I can start with just one and use my PC to bridge to a cheaper gigabit switch for whatever else I need to plug in.

    What about LAN cards? I've been eying the ASUS XG-C100C 10GBase-T. It's cheap and PCIE x4 (instead of the x8 of some other cards I've seen), I'm just not sure about how reliable it is/if it can hit full speed.

    No idea. Last time I looked at adapters you basically had a choice of Intel or Intel. I've been looking at switches because I would like to consolidate from the 2 I'm using into 1 and that one popped up as an option.

    I do believe in the last couple of years a few new manufacturers have started using non-Intel chipsets, and that Asus card looks like one of them. The reviews on Amazon were not favorable, so YMMV. The last time I did a network build, Intel adapters were still considered to be the top of the line and I think that's still true today.

    Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I'm getting myself psyched up to have a fight with Comcast. I'm paying for Gigabit but I'm only getting ~356 Mbps even on the Xfinity speed test site.

    I haven't yet tried connecting a computer direct to my cable modem to test speed; that's next. I'm expecting similar results and I bet it's related to the fact I have to let Comcast push out updates to modems (who TF thought that was a good idea?)

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    I'm getting myself psyched up to have a fight with Comcast. I'm paying for Gigabit but I'm only getting ~356 Mbps even on the Xfinity speed test site.

    I haven't yet tried connecting a computer direct to my cable modem to test speed; that's next. I'm expecting similar results and I bet it's related to the fact I have to let Comcast push out updates to modems (who TF thought that was a good idea?)

    I'd love to hear an update about this. A lot of the maximum speed you're going to get is going to be limited by your hardware at every step of the chain. Have a good DOCSIS 2.1 modem? A relatively recent router that supports the speeds you're paying for? Is the router throttling your speed because it thinks you don't actually need it?

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I can dig up the model numbers later but I have a Netgear cable modem that's roughly a year old. It's the single-ethernet port version of a popular model on Amazon. I'm 95% sure it's DOCSIS 2.1. The wifi router is a (I think) 6790 model Netgear that I've kept updated.

    Story:
    We didn't have internet Wed night into Thu. I power cycled both the modem and router (in that order) Thu morning. Everything came back up fine. I checked speed again and we had full speed.

    Theory:
    Since cable companies are dumb, they have to push down modem updates instead of letting users update firmware.
    I think the slowdown was related to slowly downloading an update for the modem, and installing the update caused the service outage.

    Good news: I didn't have to call Comcast!

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    New crisis: I warned my wife that Comcast was rolling out caps for everyone. She didn't care until we got a 75% usage warning email this morning. Should be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

    Kids go back into the classroom twice a week starting this week.

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    New crisis: I warned my wife that Comcast was rolling out caps for everyone. She didn't care until we got a 75% usage warning email this morning. Should be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

    Kids go back into the classroom twice a week starting this week.

    The caps are bullshit. All my neighbors have been calling the local fiber providers to hurry up and build out here.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    I guess we'll see what happens when we get Not Ajit Pai. Though I'm not sure how much Net Neutrality itself can help. Maybe Utility designation could eliminate caps?

  • WeX MajorsWeX Majors 8th Floor, MegashipRegistered User regular
    So I've got some pretty general questions about my router because it's got weird antennas that are confusing me. I've got the Nighthawk x6 which as you can see has all of these plastic antennas hard wired into the unit. I actually feel like there's nothing actually inside of these but that just seems conspiracy-minded. But so what I'm wondering is...How am I supposed to position these? Any sort of Official Answer just says to have them sticking straight up, so I'm assuming they just have the typical generic donut shape that normal radio antennas have? This is just some weird area of info that I feel incredibly dumb about so if someone can just give me a ExplainLikeImSix sort of summary that'd be cool.

  • IncindiumIncindium Registered User regular
    edited February 2021
    So I finally have fiber install scheduled for Sat Feb 13. Gigabit unrestricted internet service here I come!

    I also went ahead and pulled the trigger on a Wifi 6 Mesh system with the Asus XT8 2 pack

    https://www.asus.com/Networking-IoT-Servers/Whole-Home-Mesh-WiFi-System/ZenWiFi-WiFi-Systems/ASUS-ZenWiFi-AX-XT8-/

    It looks like the fiber modem/gateway that will get installed is some model of Calix Gigacenter.

    I emailed them asking for model information and whether I they support running it in a bridged mode.

    I'd like to run it with the Calix unit running as basically a modem only with its wifi stuff disabled and let the XT8 handle everything for my home network to avoid having to have a Double NAT setup.

    Plan is to recreate the wifi access points that I currently have running on my Uverse gateway on the XT8 to make it a seamless transition for devices. I'd like to do that before fiber is installed but that's gonna depend if my XT8 order actually gets to me from B&H.

    Any comments or thoughts?

    Incindium on
    steam_sig.png
    Nintendo ID: Incindium
    PSN: IncindiumX
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    Does anyone have any suggestions on good mesh networks? I single wireless router isn't enough to cover my house so I went and bought 3 Google Wifi pods and got it setup. At first it was great and worked flawlessly but since last year I've been dealing with random disconnects on all of my devices. The worst is that one of my TVs will disconnect and just flat out refuse to reconnect for a long time. Which is especially frustrating with young children trying to enjoy a movie.

    https://support.google.com/googlenest/thread/35111427?hl=en

    Clearly I'm not the only one dealing with this and I don't want to go and buy another mesh network that isn't very good.

  • IncindiumIncindium Registered User regular
    edited February 2021
    If you don't mind paying for it and/or want Wifi 6 the Asus XT8 2 pack that I linked in my post above seems to be great in my couple weeks of use.

    Availability seems to be a bit lacking but the white color version seems to be in stock on B&H currently. I bought the black color version from them 2 weeks ago.

    https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1541980-REG/asus_xt8_w_2_pk_zenwifi_ac_whole_home_tri_band.html

    Dong Knows Tech has a good review on it (also a good site in general for wifi reviews)

    https://dongknows.com/asus-zenwifi-ax-xt8-review/



    Incindium on
    steam_sig.png
    Nintendo ID: Incindium
    PSN: IncindiumX
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    I'm out of the tech bubble when it comes to WiFi. I didn't even know current is WiFi 5 and there's a 6 coming.

  • IncindiumIncindium Registered User regular
    Wifi 6 is current and Wifi 6e is the one coming.

    steam_sig.png
    Nintendo ID: Incindium
    PSN: IncindiumX
  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    Incindium wrote: »
    Wifi 6 is current and Wifi 6e is the one coming.

    Oh Networking. Never change!

  • urahonkyurahonky Registered User regular
    I just think my wife will leave me if I pay for another mesh network for $400 lol.

  • IncindiumIncindium Registered User regular
    https://dongknows.com/netgear-orbi-rbk13-review/

    You definitely can save some money just going with wifi 5 mesh. Orbi RBK13 is only $130 on Amazon and I've heard good things but have no personal experience.

    steam_sig.png
    Nintendo ID: Incindium
    PSN: IncindiumX
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