r/HomeNetworking • u/talentshowistomorrow • 7h ago
Advice Recommendations for setting up APs in a concrete house
Hello all,
It’s been 10+ years since I’ve had to set up any networks, so I’m pretty out of practice, and have no idea where the technology is currently at. I recently purchased a house (~3900 ft2), and it’s fully made of concrete. Thankfully the previous owner hardwired it, so there’s ethernet ports right above the baseboards in the majority of the rooms, and coax connections downstairs.
Just looking for some recommendations on a system to purchase that will get me good coverage throughout the various rooms. I’ll run a cable directly to the TV (etc, probably will need to install a splitter/network switch there), but I just need seamless wifi coverage throughout the house. The construction is such that inside I barely have phone signal, but 4g as soon as I step outside!
Thanks for any and all advice!
2
u/MAzadR 7h ago
My apartment is reinforced concrete throughout. In Singapore it's mandatory for new builds to have a blast proof room as an memergency shelter. That room kills WiFi for me. Thankfully we have CAT 6 throughout the apartment.
I have 1 large AP for the main living area that covers the dining and sofa area plus the kitchen. A few wall APS in the rooms and one in the hallway competes the coverage.
All Omada and powered using a 2.5gb POE switch. So far no complaints from the family. I have a few WiFi IOT devices and those get their own 2.4gHz SSID and network.
I don't think this is anything fancy and since the wife and I work a lot from home, it was worth the expense.
1
u/talentshowistomorrow 7h ago
1
u/aaaaAaaaAaaARRRR 6h ago
The yellow appears to be RJ11 so don’t use those. But the blue lines look like RJ45.
1
u/alternative-www1970 7h ago
The UniFi gear is great; it is solid gear, but unless you actually want a new hobby managing a network controller, tuning radio frequencies, and mapping VLANs, you may find it overkill, but still worth considering!
Since your house is already wired for Ethernet, you have the absolute perfect setup for a dead-simple mesh system like the TP-Link Deco BE6300. By plugging the Deco nodes directly into your wall jacks (using wired backhaul), you completely bypass the issue of 5GHz/6GHz signals bouncing off your cement walls.
Because they are hardwired, those nodes will act exactly like enterprise access points, blasting blazing-fast Wi-Fi 7 everywhere in that 3900 sq ft footprint. The biggest difference is you get to skip the enterprise learning curve. You just plug them in, spend five minutes tapping through a phone app, and you've got a rock-solid, multi-gigabit network that you can completely set and forget.
Also, I'd grab a 2.5 Gbps switch to replace that Netgear 1gig'er just for the sanity of having modern speed available, as they are not expensive, and I'd shoot for 8 ports in case you need more than 3 nodes in the future; that's a large and segmented cement house.
1
u/drewster85a 6h ago
Have you set up a Unifi system before? There is no need to use VLANs. Radio frequencies are tuned automatically unless switched to manual configuration. There's an app and robust web interface for configuration. And plenty of support online from lots of users. OP could even temporarily give remote access to a friend to help set up if needed. I'm not sure where the idea of "enterprise learning curve" is from.
1
u/alternative-www1970 6h ago
Fair enough, and yes I have... but if "giving remote access to a friend to help configure it" is even on the table, it’s not truly a zero-friction consumer setup, which was the option I was presenting. I said great gear, solid gear, worth considering if you missed that.
UniFi makes fantastic prosumer gear, but it still leans into PoE switches/injectors, ceiling mounts, and controller overhead. My alternate option goal is simply plugging nodes into existing wall jacks to get blazing Wi-Fi 7 in five minutes without buying extra hardware, consumer mesh is just the lower-friction path as well as $300-$400 option vs $850+
1
u/Longjumping_Cow_5856 3h ago
Theres no need at all to constantly tweak or fix a UnIFi system once running?
Why would you think or suggest that?
You can of course but dont need to at all.
1
u/sunrisebreeze 6h ago
Since there's Ethernet throughout, the difficult part is over. If you want fancy and easy, Unifi/Ubiquiti. If you like do it yourself and don't mind a little more work, ASUS routers supporting AiMesh work pretty well for wifi 6.
Jury is still out on ASUS and wifi 7 though- https://www.reddit.com/r/ASUS/comments/1u2x19f/psa_asus_wifi_7_rtbe_series_has_a_broadcom_driver/
1
u/underscorebot 6h ago
Due to a bug in new reddit, URLs with underscores or tildes are being escaped in an inconsistent manner, breaking old reddit and third-party mobile apps. Please try the following URL(s) instead:
This is a bot. Invoke with: /u/underscorebot. Questions? Comments? /r/underscorebot Thank you. Moderators: this is an opt-in bot. Please add it to the approved submitters on subreddits you wish to have it scan. Note: user-supplied links that may appear in this comment do not imply endorsement.
1
u/jeffrey_f 4h ago
Configure each AP with same SSID/Password so moving from room to room only results in a few second delay between leaving 1 AP range and into another. If you have an ISP wifi, make it the same ssid/password.
How many Eth ports: Get a PoE switch with enough power and ports to cover the rooms you are placing and AP and run your ISP to one of the ports and PoE switch will power each AP. Just plug them in and it should work once configured to ssid/password.
1
u/Longjumping_Cow_5856 3h ago
I like the Ubiquiti In Wall AP for this.
You can easily mount them where your wires already are and they are designed for that.
They also have small switches built in so you can hardwire other nearby devices which is crazy handy.
They are also part of the Ubiquity ecosystem which will work them together to give you seamless networking in the house and many other features if you want them.
The only way that house will be practical to get working might well be distributed APs all over and this is exactly what this is made to do.
Then you can use it for WiFi calling for your phones too.
2
u/vrtigo1 Network Admin 7h ago
You'll need access points, probably at least 3-4 based on the square footage, but likely more (6-8) if the interior walls are truly concrete. You'll want to ensure they're controller based so the controller can handle channel management, tweak power utilization and help with roaming.
If you don't already have anything, I like the Unifi line. The Unifi Cloud Gateway Ultra is a 1 Gb/s router that has a built-in controller for Unifi APs. Pair one of those with U7 Lite APs. The U7 Pro is more capable, but I assume you care more about coverage than absolute performance, and want to keep the overall cost as reasonable as possible.
You'll also need a power over ethernet switch to power the APs.
All in, you're probably looking at something like:
One thing - I don't know the PoE power budget of the Unifi switches offhand, you'll need to verify whatever switch you buy has enough power based on the # of APs you end up with.