[buzzy]

Originally Posted by Bilyclub

We have a winner. Must have really struck a nerve.

Originally Posted by Keefelane66

Click on new form post, find thread then click on replies it will open a list of users and count number

Thanks

[Maker]

Why put in a higher speed WAN link?
To be able to search your cloud file storage for a file with some specific contents in it.
To work from home where large files are accessed often.
To backup your computers to the cloud, or restore a block of files; without taking forever.
Improved latency.
Multiple things running at the same time without saturating the link.
You also get a faster upload speed.
Running interactive apps that benefit from having faster speeds.
So you can laugh at clueless naive people about why their slow links are great, and translating that great knowledge into why their golf carts that only go 1mph are also just fine for them.

Why put in higher speed wired links?
Reliability.
Lower cost.
Easy to do.
Performance.
Future proof the growth of technology.
Don't need to reboot wires often.

If a 20mbps WAN download speed works for someone, then that's great. It won't perform well for many others. Even the current standard definition for "high speed internet" is being raised from 25 to 100mbps.

[jrref]

I'm glad this topic came up. I consider myself a near expert when it comes to networking since i'm an electrical engineer that spent 30 years in IT.

When I came to the Villages I purchased a home in Osceola Hills built circa 2016-2017. I quickly saw that I had fiber installed to my home and many cat5 cable drops run across my home. Coming from Verizon FiOS in NY I was very excited until I discovered that all the cat 5 cable was run to the kitchen and the bedrooms as telephone wire and the one place where I wanted a cat 5 run, to my Smart TV in my living room was not there. Only cable TV wire was there.

What to do?

1) What many don't realize is with current wifi mesh systems you can get more bandwidth than you will ever need with a 1GB internet feed. Remember most of us are retired two occupant familys living here in the Villages which is different than when we were younger with kids living at home using up a lot of bandwidth. That said, there are different types of mesh networks. Google, and others costing a couple hundred dollars will work well but these will not give you up to 1GB speed wirelessly. Orbi for example is on the other extreeme that will give you close to 1GB wifi speeds but is way more expensive. As many have commented everyone doesn't need 1GB speeds but if you want this you need to understand what you are purchasing. Everyone has different needs but most don't need 1GB internet speeds which is why Quantum Fiber now offers 200 MB speeds, bi-directional for $30/month, no contract, no tax. Also remember if you get cable internet 1GB service you get 1GB download and about 30MB upload and you are sharing the bandwidth with all your neighbors.

2) If you are like me and want the best possible internet to certain devices like my computer and Smart TV wether I need it or not you can use the cat 5 wire to any of your rooms which have them available and or like the OP stated use a MOCA adapter. In my situation I have the Quantum Fiber Smart NID in my data cabinet in the garage with my Orbi Router installed on a wall mount. I have direct cat 5 wire to one of my bedrooms converted to an office for my computers and have a ScreenBeam 7250 Moca Adaptor from the garage data cabinet to my Smart TV in the living room via the installed but not used coax cable to get full 1GB speed there. Everywhere else I use my Orbi mesh wifi wirelessly. I also put the Quantum Fiber Smart NID (fiber terminator and router) into Bypass mode so my Orbi Router is controlling everything. System works great.

So by using the MOCA adaptor I saved mysef the work and expense of running another cat 5 cable from the garage to the living room via tha attic. In my house this can be done but it's not easy.

The only other thing I want to mention is if you can get Quantum Fiber they offer two speeds, 200Mbs for $30 and 1GB for $70. The 1GB service includes their 360 wifi mesh network with is the Plume Mesh system for free and occasionally they will offer the 360 wifi for free with their 200 Mbs service when they run a sale. My friend in Fenney got the 200 Mbs service with the free 360 wifi recently and it works very well. Way better than I ever expected.

I'm a little surprised that Galaxy Home Solutions isn't aware of some of the more innovative ways to get "wired" internet to rooms in older homes but I'm sure they will run cat 5 or 6 any where you want it. The question is depending on your situation do you really need full wired speeds everywhere or will a good mesh wifi network do the job for you.

[Dusty_Star]

Thanks RSMurano for a very helpful post.

[rsmurano]

Thanks. Thanks for your replies cybersprings and jrref. Isn’t it very odd that people try to put other people down or squash any info that could help many people in TV?
If you go thru the forums the past few years, you see a common theme: people have slow networks, networks that can’t see devices in your lanai, in your garage, or outside where your grill is.
For some viewers here that try to squash helpful info, did I mention anything about external network speeds? No I did not. What I wrote will create an internal network inside your home to be able to handle your current network needs (whatever they are) and for the near future. If you knew about MoCa splitters or devices, the current versions support 2.5Gb which means when you setup a MoCa network, the accumulated bandwidth passing thru this 1 device can handle up to 2.5Gb.

Mesh networks can be a great way to implement an internal network, but only if you follow certain standards/guidelines. Old mesh networks have many limitations compared to the newer releases. For example, my mesh network provides wifi6e capabilities which means better coverage, faster speeds, and the most important to me was using 6e as the dedicated backhaul from mesh to mesh device.
Let me explain things that hurt wifi network speeds and coverages. If your wifi devices are behind walls, floors, ceilings, your performance will suffer, same goes for your coverage. When I 1st created my network in our house here, I didn’t get a good signal outside where my grill is not in my garage.

So here’s what I did in my house and could be a blueprint for anybody to create their own network too. I have stated this in prior network threads for the last couple of years but I can repeat it here.
Galaxy wires new homes using cat5/6 cabling for landline phones in each of the bedrooms. So I bought the tools and testers to rewire these connections for Ethernet, this required each room with the 4-wire outlets to be re-wired for the 8-wire rg45 connectors, same goes for the wires in the garage network panel and the cat5/6 wire in the kitchen above the cabinets was wired with rg45. I then placed my network switch in the garage network panel to allow all Ethernet cables to be connected.
So I have the 1200Mb xfinity network to the outside and I had xfinity put their router/modem where it would be beneficial to me for wired devices, I use my own mesh network so I didn’t care about the xfinity router for wifi coverage. I modified the xfinity router configuration to my criteria from doing networks for work and for friends for decades.

I have the latest version of mesh networks that provide wifi6e capability. The biggest boost for this mesh network to work at its peak was to use a wired connection to the primary mesh device and then use the 6e backhaul to the other mesh devices. Most people will use wifi to setup multiple routers (wireless bridge mode) and the speed coming into the 2nd/3rd routers is already compromised. I’m getting ready to put a 3rd mesh device in and I will be using a MoCa connection so I will be getting 1G speed to this remote mesh device, then it will broadcast wifi from that point which will strengthen the connections and speeds.

At each location where the mesh devices are located, I hook up a 1G switch so all my internet devices are connects by wire which gives much better throughput with very low latency. It’s not all about speed, it’s about the quality of the connections/coverage and the latency.

So why do all this, easy to define. My whole house is automated: garage doors, cameras, all external door locks, lights, streaming multiple TV’s and hi res audio, doorbell/camera, backup all computers/phones/tablets to a central server, my thermostat, refrigerator, stove/oven, roomba vacuum, and the outside grill are all connected, and more. I can adjust the temperature on the inside oven and the outside grill or can tell what temperature the food is at anywhere in the world. I stream music from my cars to my home server so I can play hundreds of thousands songs that I like in any order with better quality than Sirius/Xm, and I save $20+ each months.

No ISP (spectrum, xfinity for example), no geek squad, no computer store down the street will be able to do this type of work, it’s only people that can think outside of the box and have some networking experience behind them that could put something like this together, so my goal was to kickstart your creation of a robust internal network.

This is just the basics too, you do need to know what a wan/lan/DMZ/vlan is, 2.4/5ghz networks (most devices to automate your home operate on the 2.4ghz network btw), bridged networks, mesh networks, 802.11a/b/g/ac/ax, and the new wifi6e technology.

Instead of trying to squash helpful info that myself and the few others tried to do in this post, try to embrace it. Doing a mesh, wired, or MoCa network that provides great throughout with very low latency, doesn’t cost much more than a network that will provide you poor coverage, poor speeds, and no room to grow in the future.

[Freehiker]

I ran CAT6 throughout and put in 3 AP’s (inside, lanai, garage) for best coverage. I’ve got multiple cameras, NVR, PC’s, NAS…etc. Everything works very well.

[laboutj]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

Thanks. Thanks for your replies cybersprings and jrref. Isn’t it very odd that people try to put other people down or squash any info that could help many people in TV?
If you go thru the forums the past few years, you see a common theme: people have slow networks, networks that can’t see devices in your lanai, in your garage, or outside where your grill is.
For some viewers here that try to squash helpful info, did I mention anything about external network speeds? No I did not. What I wrote will create an internal network inside your home to be able to handle your current network needs (whatever they are) and for the near future. If you knew about MoCa splitters or devices, the current versions support 2.5Gb which means when you setup a MoCa network, the accumulated bandwidth passing thru this 1 device can handle up to 2.5Gb.

Mesh networks can be a great way to implement an internal network, but only if you follow certain standards/guidelines. Old mesh networks have many limitations compared to the newer releases. For example, my mesh network provides wifi6e capabilities which means better coverage, faster speeds, and the most important to me was using 6e as the dedicated backhaul from mesh to mesh device.
Let me explain things that hurt wifi network speeds and coverages. If your wifi devices are behind walls, floors, ceilings, your performance will suffer, same goes for your coverage. When I 1st created my network in our house here, I didn’t get a good signal outside where my grill is not in my garage.

So here’s what I did in my house and could be a blueprint for anybody to create their own network too. I have stated this in prior network threads for the last couple of years but I can repeat it here.
Galaxy wires new homes using cat5/6 cabling for landline phones in each of the bedrooms. So I bought the tools and testers to rewire these connections for Ethernet, this required each room with the 4-wire outlets to be re-wired for the 8-wire rg45 connectors, same goes for the wires in the garage network panel and the cat5/6 wire in the kitchen above the cabinets was wired with rg45. I then placed my network switch in the garage network panel to allow all Ethernet cables to be connected.
So I have the 1200Mb xfinity network to the outside and I had xfinity put their router/modem where it would be beneficial to me for wired devices, I use my own mesh network so I didn’t care about the xfinity router for wifi coverage. I modified the xfinity router configuration to my criteria from doing networks for work and for friends for decades.

I have the latest version of mesh networks that provide wifi6e capability. The biggest boost for this mesh network to work at its peak was to use a wired connection to the primary mesh device and then use the 6e backhaul to the other mesh devices. Most people will use wifi to setup multiple routers (wireless bridge mode) and the speed coming into the 2nd/3rd routers is already compromised. I’m getting ready to put a 3rd mesh device in and I will be using a MoCa connection so I will be getting 1G speed to this remote mesh device, then it will broadcast wifi from that point which will strengthen the connections and speeds.

At each location where the mesh devices are located, I hook up a 1G switch so all my internet devices are connects by wire which gives much better throughput with very low latency. It’s not all about speed, it’s about the quality of the connections/coverage and the latency.

So why do all this, easy to define. My whole house is automated: garage doors, cameras, all external door locks, lights, streaming multiple TV’s and hi res audio, doorbell/camera, backup all computers/phones/tablets to a central server, my thermostat, refrigerator, stove/oven, roomba vacuum, and the outside grill are all connected, and more. I can adjust the temperature on the inside oven and the outside grill or can tell what temperature the food is at anywhere in the world. I stream music from my cars to my home server so I can play hundreds of thousands songs that I like in any order with better quality than Sirius/Xm, and I save $20+ each months.

No ISP (spectrum, xfinity for example), no geek squad, no computer store down the street will be able to do this type of work, it’s only people that can think outside of the box and have some networking experience behind them that could put something like this together, so my goal was to kickstart your creation of a robust internal network.

This is just the basics too, you do need to know what a wan/lan/DMZ/vlan is, 2.4/5ghz networks (most devices to automate your home operate on the 2.4ghz network btw), bridged networks, mesh networks, 802.11a/b/g/ac/ax, and the new wifi6e technology.

Instead of trying to squash helpful info that myself and the few others tried to do in this post, try to embrace it. Doing a mesh, wired, or MoCa network that provides great throughout with very low latency, doesn’t cost much more than a network that will provide you poor coverage, poor speeds, and no room to grow in the future.

What brand do you have for your mesh network?

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by Freehiker

I ran CAT6 throughout and put in 3 AP’s (inside, lanai, garage) for best coverage. I’ve got multiple cameras, NVR, PC’s, NAS…etc. Everything works very well.

Similar setup:

I have a cable modem for the incoming signal, a gigabyte NAT router with two wired ports, one direct to the TV for streaming, the other to the gigabyte switch for wired outlets and the wireless access point. All rooms have an ethernet plugs next to the coax outlet, for different TV or desk locations, but the added piece is each TV location has two gang outlets (4 plug outlets) added to handle any added devices. Lanai has one ethernet outlet and a 4 gang outlet, no tv yet.

Single wireless access point on the ceiling in the middle of the house. . wifi has password, hard wired does not. . cameras wireless and occasional dropped signals. . meh. . mostly storm related

requires two standard size wiring closets to get everything in. Home surge protector AND surge protector strip in the wiring closet included BUT missing is UPS on the cable model/router/switch. . haven't figured out how to get that into the closet without being ugly. ..

everyone has different needs, the house is a rental and renters have asked for high speed for work related access. .

all houses are customized to the owners' desires, and all owners are different, i am pretty sure those that are judgmental of other people's spending desires on speed or network design or anything else in others' houses are too judgmental by nature, and should just be mentally noted and ignored (no posted response)

[jrref]

Originally Posted by laboutj

What brand do you have for your mesh network?

If you want the best get an Orbi. It's the most expensive but will last the longest.