Managed to get dual WAN working, had to reboot my cable modem one more time to get the ISP dhcp to accept my router on the LAN port. I'm down a port, but at least I'm online at home for now. Don't think it's a surge because my modem (and the cable tv box in my other room) still work, how would my router ports get fried but leave those unscathed if it's thru the coax cable. Googling my router's model and I see similar instances of wan/lan ports failing over time.
Interesting situation: while away for vacation we had a short power outage. When we got home, I restarted the modem, router, and pihole. Everything is working fine, except both my Unifi APs have solid white lights.
A quick Google says they are awaiting adoption. I can reach both APs from the mobile app (not using a Unifi router) and all devices can connect.
So, my area finally has Google Fiber available. I am scheduled for an install next Friday!
This is finally motivating me to get my rooms wired for ethernet, and do an network upgrade.
My initial plan was to get an edgerouter X , and a unbiquiti AP, but that looks like a pipe dream right now, as the edgerouters look to be sold out , and people want like 3 times what they should retail for. I can afford to pay a markup, but I refuse to on principle.
What would be a good alternative? Anyone have any recommendations?
I don't really have any specific price constraints.
If you are reading this add me.
D3: HexDex#1281, PSN: DireOtter, Live: DireOtter
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
Costco ended up having the Deco 3 unit set on sale for less than Amazon had the 2 unit that I was considering, so I pulled the trigger on a whim.
Having three units means my fear of the backhaul not working properly because of distance goes away as I could just stick another one in the middle. Everything works great, even though it didn't respect my NAS asking for a static IP, which meant I needed to configure it to ask for a dynamic IP and then tell the Deco to just give it a static one as a reserved address. It worked.
So far as good with these, and having a switch for all the consoles that just plugs into one of the Decos works exactly as intended. Now I have dramatic overkill for home wifi, which is the way I like it.
can you feel the struggle within?
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Yeah, we're finally carrying them at work so I can actually sell the things to people, I've been impressed so far with them.
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
I’ve got the 3 piece Deco 6E set and I absolutely love it. I kind of picked it up in anticipation of the house we’re buying, but even just running 2 for now in our apartment has been super nice because I don’t lose my connection right at the door anymore. And their app for management is surprisingly decent!
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
edited September 2022
The idea of using an app for management makes me feel icky since if I could I’d be running dd-wrt on a Linksys WRT54g but on the other hand maybe it’s ok not to have to have a GitHub repository just to keep track of everything I did to get everything working.
The Deco 6E setup seems fast and stable and I didn’t need to take any notes. Maybe that’s ok.
Six on
can you feel the struggle within?
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Oh yeah. Trust me, I get that. But yeah, the extreme ease of use and the “it just works” factor with the Deco was enough to bring me over to the dark side without looking back.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
Oh yeah. Trust me, I get that. But yeah, the extreme ease of use and the “it just works” factor with the Deco was enough to bring me over to the dark side without looking back.
I just have an inherent distrust of "it just works" when it comes to networking, but also I hate troubleshooting networking so I'm very happy for now.
A good example was when I switched everything over, attached my NAS and...couldn't see it. It was driving me nuts and the Deco app gave me nothing to work from. Only after a bit of googling did I discover that these will not accept a device taking a static IP, it has to be done as an IP reservation through the app. Which meant (because I used the same SSID), I needed to unplug everything, hook up my old router, plug the NAS in there, configure it to get an IP dynamically, redo everything, then set up the reservation in Deco. With all the rebooting of routers and NAS, the whole endeavor took a little while.
I guess so far I haven't found anything that I can't do that I normally would, and in general it's all much easier and faster and I shouldn't complain, but part of me wishes there was a more full-features browser interface I could dig into if I wanted. Instead, the browser interface is way less functional than the app.
Between this and my ISP modem/router being controlled via another app, I'm just wary of everything having an inscrutable interface layer over it that may make troubleshooting harder. In theory, because so far I've been able to manage fine.
Hey, I'm looking for a recommendation for a router. I don't think I need a complicated mesh setup, my house is only 1600 sqft, I just need something stronger than the at&t basic router I'm using now so I can get more consistent signal to the whole place and basement. I don't have any home automation or assistants or anything to sync with and don't really want any. It's been a while since I really looked into wireless tech, is it worth it getting AX wifi and tri-band and all that, are they actually supported by devices? Any brands I should look for or be wary of?
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Hey, I'm looking for a recommendation for a router. I don't think I need a complicated mesh setup, my house is only 1600 sqft, I just need something stronger than the at&t basic router I'm using now so I can get more consistent signal to the whole place and basement. I don't have any home automation or assistants or anything to sync with and don't really want any. It's been a while since I really looked into wireless tech, is it worth it getting AX wifi and tri-band and all that, are they actually supported by devices? Any brands I should look for or be wary of?
If you want strong wifi in your basement, honestly look into one of the cheaper mesh options. The TP-Link deco stuff has been pretty good and it's quite affordable, all things considered.
I have had no trouble with a recent $50-$100 TP Link router, specifically an Archer AX21. It's covering a smaller space than 1600 sq. ft., but it's located on the far side of the house and I get good signal so it should be fine, especially if it's centrally located in the building and there's no concrete or metal walls to go through.
Wifi 6/802.11ax is completely broadly supported. You definitely want to get a Wifi 6 or 6E router at this point as that's what wifi devices like phones are being made with going forward. I don't know anything about the usefulness of tri-band but it sounds like it's a function that's handled on the router's end so probably doesn't require any special support from the other end of the connection.
Building a new house and getting the utilities set up. Would there be any reason the ISP would need to send a tech out to "install" the modem? I know damned well how to set up a modem and router, but I'm not sure if they would have to do some things with the ONT outside or something. I think fiber's available in my area but we don't need that level of speed, so I may be connecting via coax.
Building a new house and getting the utilities set up. Would there be any reason the ISP would need to send a tech out to "install" the modem? I know damned well how to set up a modem and router, but I'm not sure if they would have to do some things with the ONT outside or something. I think fiber's available in my area but we don't need that level of speed, so I may be connecting via coax.
Maybe it's part of QC/QA on new installations so they can complete initial tests from the customer end?
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
Building a new house and getting the utilities set up. Would there be any reason the ISP would need to send a tech out to "install" the modem? I know damned well how to set up a modem and router, but I'm not sure if they would have to do some things with the ONT outside or something. I think fiber's available in my area but we don't need that level of speed, so I may be connecting via coax.
It depends. The providers by me will let you do a “self install” where they just ship you a modem IF the house is already set up from a previous install (coax run or ONT box installed, etc). Your best bet is to just ask them if they offer a self-install.
They might just also always require a tech to go out, just as a way to justify their activation fee.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
Did the builder run coax from the utility box to the house? Because around here they wouldn't be allowed to get into that, so like @minor incident said you wouldn't be able to self install because you're missing the run to your house.
Does anyone have Frontier Fiber and are able to tell whether it's worth switching to? They apparently just arrived in the part of CT that I'm going to be moving to, and they're advertising gig fiber for less than half the cost of what Cox bills for gig cable. Cox is already set up on the property but even if I cancel and pay the early termination fee, the cost stands to be balanced out within a few months, so I'm seriously considering doing it.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
Does Frontier have an early termination fee or anything? It's worth doing and just seeing how it works for a month or so.
Does Frontier have an early termination fee or anything? It's worth doing and just seeing how it works for a month or so.
There are normally no early termination fees or lock-in contracts, but being new to the area they are courting new customers with a $200 visa gift card if you do agree to lock in for a year. It's a hard thing to pass up because even ignoring that deal it's $60/month for 1 gig fiber for the first 3 years with no installation or device rental fees which is kind of insane (compared to Cox which is like $160/mo total for the same thing and that's only if you lock in for 2 years, and $240 early termination).
The only thing that I am mainly concerned about is service reliability; the only thing I'm really intolerant of is outages since I work from home(also gaming) and I can't have extended downtimes, and I'm not familiar with them as a company. Though I did hear that they were bought out last year and were making extensive efforts to turn the company into a heavy pusher of fiber rollouts.
I think my router is dying. When trying to connect to the regular SSID I often get a "connection failed" error, but can usually connect on the 5G SSID without issue. Restarting it fixes works for a while, but the error will come back within a couple days. I honestly wouldn't mind much, but my automated vacuum only uses the regular signal and I keep having to re-pair it when I restart the router and that's annoying. Also, I work from home so if the whole thing eventually stops I'd be in a bad spot.
All that to say, which router should I buy? I live in a 1000 sqft apartment and have Fios if any of that matters.
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
1000 sqft means you can buy just about anything and cover it unless your rooms are separated by brick walls. The TP-Link AX3000 would cover the space pretty well I'd think, and provide pretty good future proofing.
1000 sqft means you can buy just about anything and cover it unless your rooms are separated by brick walls. The TP-Link AX3000 would cover the space pretty well I'd think, and provide pretty good future proofing.
Cool, I haven't been following networking stuff so just wanted to make sure I got something with good performance and a bit of future proofing. We often stream to multiple devices while I'm on a video call, for example. But, if our old router could handle it I imagine anything newer could as well. My building is relatively new. I think the walls are mostly metal/cement. Regardless what you recommend looks good, so thank you!
Anyone understand why a Powerline connection might drop in speed? It got down to under 5mbps to the point where streaming HD wasn’t possible on my PC, and I decided to reset it and suddenly I’m back to around 70 or so. Nothing great, but considering how old this house is I’ll take it. But mere hours later it’s back down to the 5ish speeds again.
I’ve heard certain electronics can cause interference, but as far as I can tell nothing in the room itself and neighboring rooms changed regarding electronics being on or off. It’s on the same circuit as the unit connected to the router, and that particular plug got the best speeds when testing. Any ideas?
We do have a coax outlet near the same plug. I’d like to try moca instead but the nearest coax outlet to the router is in another room, so not sure if running cable that far will net any benefits. Is Cat6 or coax the more efficient over longer lengths? I imagine the former would be easier so far as neater cable management.
Anyone understand why a Powerline connection might drop in speed? It got down to under 5mbps to the point where streaming HD wasn’t possible on my PC, and I decided to reset it and suddenly I’m back to around 70 or so. Nothing great, but considering how old this house is I’ll take it. But mere hours later it’s back down to the 5ish speeds again.
I’ve heard certain electronics can cause interference, but as far as I can tell nothing in the room itself and neighboring rooms changed regarding electronics being on or off. It’s on the same circuit as the unit connected to the router, and that particular plug got the best speeds when testing. Any ideas?
We do have a coax outlet near the same plug. I’d like to try moca instead but the nearest coax outlet to the router is in another room, so not sure if running cable that far will net any benefits. Is Cat6 or coax the more efficient over longer lengths? I imagine the former would be easier so far as neater cable management.
Powerlines are giant unshielded antennas. They can pick up interference that will reduce your speeds from everything.
MoCA and Ethernet have the same cable length rating of around 300 ft. Unless you live in an extremely large house, you shouldn't hit that on any run.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
My experience with powerline in a 20 year old hour was similar. It would slowly degrade until I reset. It wasn’t ideal.
I need some details about FiOS before I try to contact them.
Our contract is up with Xfinity so our current 1.2 Gbps plan is going from $80/mo to $100/mo.
I don't need Gigabit, but dropping speed to 400 Mbps saves only about $7 per month. (Around $92/mo)
FiOS has a 500 Mbps plan for 2yrs for about $70/mo. but it includes the router. I don't need the router and I have the FiOS fiber box in the basement.
Is there a way I can sign up for the service and not use the router? I don't need to run service through coax to get to my router; I can run Cat5 from the FiOS box.
We are checking other offers but since we're so close to Philly it's basically Xfinity (Comcast's back yard) or FiOS. Potentially TMo but I don't have faith in what they can offer.
Mugsley on
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ShadowfireVermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered Userregular
I don't have personal experience with FiOS, but the internal forums talk a lot about hating having to deal with them because their equipment is required. I don't know if this is only if there's no ONT on site or if your situation applies, though. I would ask if you can access their router so that you can DMZ a port to run your own router from so at least you're not running a double NAT.
minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
I’ve used my own router with FiOS at two houses now. It’s never been any issue at all. I’m currently on the 300Mbps plan and only pay $39.99 a month because I don’t use their router (saves $5 or $10).
Keep in mind that this only applies if you have an ONT at your place
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
I currently have a WRT 3200ACM, and I get weird intermittent outages where its internet access just vanishes. I can't rule out something with the ISP (haven't really dug into that yet), but I feel it's time for an upgrade anyway.
I've been considering some mesh system -- not because I really need the coverage, but because the ethernet in the walls here is kind of crappy, and there's not much I can do about that since I'm renting. I discovered that I get higher speeds with wifi than when plugged in, so I've been all wifi, all the time since saw that.
Lately I've been dabbling with a Kubernetes cluster and I have plans to work on building a NAS. My ideal solution would be something like:
Mesh router over by the front door, where my Internet Hole™ is located. Limited space there unless I want to cram it all onto the hat shelf.
Mesh switch near my desk, ideally with four 2.5Gb ethernet ports.
My general idea is to have a few devices plugged into the switch via ethernet, such as the NAS, my Mac Mini and my gaming computer, since those would be the devices I'd want to sling larger files between. Other stuff can sit on the wifi.
Is there any halfway decent prosumer stuff here I can look at?
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
edited January 2023
1. I used my own router with fios without any issue but that was a few years ago.
2. Echo, I’ve been very happy with my Deco 6E mesh. Each node has Ethernet ports and the I run a switch off one for the media console where I have a bunch of devices on the other side of my place from my internet hole. The wireless backhaul works well and it’s been exactly what I wanted. The three node setup was I think $350 from Costco which was a little more than a single good new router but it’s way more functional for me. Also on the internet hole side I use the node ports for one wan port and one for NAS.
Hmm, the Deco XE75 AX5400 looks like it would fit the bill nicely and I can go pick one up tomorrow.
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
The management app UI (and that it’s done through an app) isn’t great. That said, everything I’ve needed to do I’ve eventually figured out how to do and part of me is happy that lots of stuff that took admin work before is obfuscated.
can you feel the struggle within?
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minor incidentexpert in a dying fieldnjRegistered Userregular
I also have the 6E version of the Deco. The 3-piece set. It’s been uniformly great for me.
The app recently got a big update that made it substantially better from a UI perspective. Firmware updates are smooth. Assigning static IPs is easy, as is doing custom DNS servers, and all the usual router stuff.
Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
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SixCaches Tweets in the mainframe cyberhexRegistered Userregular
One thing- if you have static IPs, like with your NAS, and they’re set at the NAS’s nic (like mine was) set it to dynamic before you do the swap. The deco will not let anything grab a static IP that way, you have to assign it through the app. That added a lovely “well, shit, I guess I have to put the old router back, reboot the NAS, set it to dynamic, then put the deco back in” hour to my afternoon when I installed it.
For mesh stuff, I'd look for two main things. One, look for wifi6 units that have a 3rd, dedicated backhaul radio band. Sometimes called tri-band. This allows clients on 5 or 2.4 GHz to operate at full speed to the AP while letting the APs talk to each other at full speed on a separate band. Without that, the clients and backhaul must share bandwidth and everything will be slower overall. Or worse, one of the 5 or 2.4 radios will be used for backhaul and the clients will only be able to use the other. Two, look for ones that have an Ethernet port on the satellite units. Some don't have any ports which obviously restricts what you can do with them. The top end Deco units mentioned above have both, though the minimalist UI can be tough to get over if you're used to controlling all your router settings. And if you have needs over 1Gbit LAN/WAN you'll need to look at more expensive alternatives.
Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
Posts
A quick Google says they are awaiting adoption. I can reach both APs from the mobile app (not using a Unifi router) and all devices can connect.
Am I missing anything?
This is finally motivating me to get my rooms wired for ethernet, and do an network upgrade.
My initial plan was to get an edgerouter X , and a unbiquiti AP, but that looks like a pipe dream right now, as the edgerouters look to be sold out , and people want like 3 times what they should retail for. I can afford to pay a markup, but I refuse to on principle.
What would be a good alternative? Anyone have any recommendations?
I don't really have any specific price constraints.
D3: HexDex#1281, PSN: DireOtter, Live: DireOtter
Having three units means my fear of the backhaul not working properly because of distance goes away as I could just stick another one in the middle. Everything works great, even though it didn't respect my NAS asking for a static IP, which meant I needed to configure it to ask for a dynamic IP and then tell the Deco to just give it a static one as a reserved address. It worked.
So far as good with these, and having a switch for all the consoles that just plugs into one of the Decos works exactly as intended. Now I have dramatic overkill for home wifi, which is the way I like it.
The Deco 6E setup seems fast and stable and I didn’t need to take any notes. Maybe that’s ok.
I just have an inherent distrust of "it just works" when it comes to networking, but also I hate troubleshooting networking so I'm very happy for now.
A good example was when I switched everything over, attached my NAS and...couldn't see it. It was driving me nuts and the Deco app gave me nothing to work from. Only after a bit of googling did I discover that these will not accept a device taking a static IP, it has to be done as an IP reservation through the app. Which meant (because I used the same SSID), I needed to unplug everything, hook up my old router, plug the NAS in there, configure it to get an IP dynamically, redo everything, then set up the reservation in Deco. With all the rebooting of routers and NAS, the whole endeavor took a little while.
I guess so far I haven't found anything that I can't do that I normally would, and in general it's all much easier and faster and I shouldn't complain, but part of me wishes there was a more full-features browser interface I could dig into if I wanted. Instead, the browser interface is way less functional than the app.
Between this and my ISP modem/router being controlled via another app, I'm just wary of everything having an inscrutable interface layer over it that may make troubleshooting harder. In theory, because so far I've been able to manage fine.
If you want strong wifi in your basement, honestly look into one of the cheaper mesh options. The TP-Link deco stuff has been pretty good and it's quite affordable, all things considered.
Wifi 6/802.11ax is completely broadly supported. You definitely want to get a Wifi 6 or 6E router at this point as that's what wifi devices like phones are being made with going forward. I don't know anything about the usefulness of tri-band but it sounds like it's a function that's handled on the router's end so probably doesn't require any special support from the other end of the connection.
Maybe it's part of QC/QA on new installations so they can complete initial tests from the customer end?
It depends. The providers by me will let you do a “self install” where they just ship you a modem IF the house is already set up from a previous install (coax run or ONT box installed, etc). Your best bet is to just ask them if they offer a self-install.
They might just also always require a tech to go out, just as a way to justify their activation fee.
There are normally no early termination fees or lock-in contracts, but being new to the area they are courting new customers with a $200 visa gift card if you do agree to lock in for a year. It's a hard thing to pass up because even ignoring that deal it's $60/month for 1 gig fiber for the first 3 years with no installation or device rental fees which is kind of insane (compared to Cox which is like $160/mo total for the same thing and that's only if you lock in for 2 years, and $240 early termination).
The only thing that I am mainly concerned about is service reliability; the only thing I'm really intolerant of is outages since I work from home(also gaming) and I can't have extended downtimes, and I'm not familiar with them as a company. Though I did hear that they were bought out last year and were making extensive efforts to turn the company into a heavy pusher of fiber rollouts.
All that to say, which router should I buy? I live in a 1000 sqft apartment and have Fios if any of that matters.
Cool, I haven't been following networking stuff so just wanted to make sure I got something with good performance and a bit of future proofing. We often stream to multiple devices while I'm on a video call, for example. But, if our old router could handle it I imagine anything newer could as well. My building is relatively new. I think the walls are mostly metal/cement. Regardless what you recommend looks good, so thank you!
I’ve heard certain electronics can cause interference, but as far as I can tell nothing in the room itself and neighboring rooms changed regarding electronics being on or off. It’s on the same circuit as the unit connected to the router, and that particular plug got the best speeds when testing. Any ideas?
We do have a coax outlet near the same plug. I’d like to try moca instead but the nearest coax outlet to the router is in another room, so not sure if running cable that far will net any benefits. Is Cat6 or coax the more efficient over longer lengths? I imagine the former would be easier so far as neater cable management.
Powerlines are giant unshielded antennas. They can pick up interference that will reduce your speeds from everything.
MoCA and Ethernet have the same cable length rating of around 300 ft. Unless you live in an extremely large house, you shouldn't hit that on any run.
Our contract is up with Xfinity so our current 1.2 Gbps plan is going from $80/mo to $100/mo.
I don't need Gigabit, but dropping speed to 400 Mbps saves only about $7 per month. (Around $92/mo)
FiOS has a 500 Mbps plan for 2yrs for about $70/mo. but it includes the router. I don't need the router and I have the FiOS fiber box in the basement.
Is there a way I can sign up for the service and not use the router? I don't need to run service through coax to get to my router; I can run Cat5 from the FiOS box.
We are checking other offers but since we're so close to Philly it's basically Xfinity (Comcast's back yard) or FiOS. Potentially TMo but I don't have faith in what they can offer.
Keep in mind that this only applies if you have an ONT at your place
I currently have a WRT 3200ACM, and I get weird intermittent outages where its internet access just vanishes. I can't rule out something with the ISP (haven't really dug into that yet), but I feel it's time for an upgrade anyway.
I've been considering some mesh system -- not because I really need the coverage, but because the ethernet in the walls here is kind of crappy, and there's not much I can do about that since I'm renting. I discovered that I get higher speeds with wifi than when plugged in, so I've been all wifi, all the time since saw that.
Lately I've been dabbling with a Kubernetes cluster and I have plans to work on building a NAS. My ideal solution would be something like:
My general idea is to have a few devices plugged into the switch via ethernet, such as the NAS, my Mac Mini and my gaming computer, since those would be the devices I'd want to sling larger files between. Other stuff can sit on the wifi.
Is there any halfway decent prosumer stuff here I can look at?
2. Echo, I’ve been very happy with my Deco 6E mesh. Each node has Ethernet ports and the I run a switch off one for the media console where I have a bunch of devices on the other side of my place from my internet hole. The wireless backhaul works well and it’s been exactly what I wanted. The three node setup was I think $350 from Costco which was a little more than a single good new router but it’s way more functional for me. Also on the internet hole side I use the node ports for one wan port and one for NAS.
The app recently got a big update that made it substantially better from a UI perspective. Firmware updates are smooth. Assigning static IPs is easy, as is doing custom DNS servers, and all the usual router stuff.
This thing get! Very painless to set up. Haven't set up the other unit yet, need to dig up an extension cord so I can put it just where I want it.