Adrian E
Established Member
Hi all
I've got a fairly straightforward networking setup at home, but unfortunately my router is well past end of life support and there's known to be security flaws lurking that won't be fixed....
My broadband is supplied by Sky over BT infrastructure, and they're currently prepping to update the copper cable in the street to full fibre, so hoping I might be able to get some better service than I have now. I'm on 'superfast', which is anything but...they've got as far as running rope through the conduits in the street and installing a new cable access at the top of the road so I'm hopeful it won't take forever!
Current setup is an Asus RT-AC87U, running Merlin firmware so it works with Sky (needs 'option 61' for manual clientid), with an ancient BT modem. It's co-located with my HP Microserver/NAS via LAN in a cupboard in the hallway, with most devices being fed via wi-fi. I have a couple of old-ish Devolo powerline adaptors supplying LAN connections to the study (1 LAN connected desktop and the option to LAN connect my work laptop if needed), lounge (TV and Blu-ray), and family room (4k TV, PS5, although I think they may both be on wifi at the moment)
With mobiles, tablets, kitchen appliances etc there's probably at least 20 devices using wifi (albeit most at low demand) and tomorrow we're having a Drayton Wiser heating setup added, which will add another wi-fi broadcasting hub, 2 room thermostats and 15+ smart TRVs!
I've seen the Nighthawk RAX120 for £250 which seems to fit the bill, but I'm wondering if there's other factors I should be considering before jumping in? I'm keen to do away with the powerline adaptors if I can - they're not massively reliable and the kit is quite old. Usage is pretty typical mix of streaming, gaming, wfh most days.
I'm not looking to run LAN cables through the walls anywhere at the moment, and although the floor area is quite big the walls are mainly plasterboard so the signal reaches quite well (so long as I don't use the Sky router!). I was wondering, having been confused by reading about 'mesh' setups, whether there's any benefit to buying a 2nd box of tricks to live by the 4k TV and PS5 that would allow LAN connections to the PS5 in particular, with a nice stable mesh wifi connection back to the router (forgive the potential mis-use of techie language!) which I presume will improve on wifi performance when there's a squillion connected devices? We don't do Alexa or anything of that ilk at the moment, in case it makes a difference.
Thanks all
Adrian
I've got a fairly straightforward networking setup at home, but unfortunately my router is well past end of life support and there's known to be security flaws lurking that won't be fixed....
My broadband is supplied by Sky over BT infrastructure, and they're currently prepping to update the copper cable in the street to full fibre, so hoping I might be able to get some better service than I have now. I'm on 'superfast', which is anything but...they've got as far as running rope through the conduits in the street and installing a new cable access at the top of the road so I'm hopeful it won't take forever!
Current setup is an Asus RT-AC87U, running Merlin firmware so it works with Sky (needs 'option 61' for manual clientid), with an ancient BT modem. It's co-located with my HP Microserver/NAS via LAN in a cupboard in the hallway, with most devices being fed via wi-fi. I have a couple of old-ish Devolo powerline adaptors supplying LAN connections to the study (1 LAN connected desktop and the option to LAN connect my work laptop if needed), lounge (TV and Blu-ray), and family room (4k TV, PS5, although I think they may both be on wifi at the moment)
With mobiles, tablets, kitchen appliances etc there's probably at least 20 devices using wifi (albeit most at low demand) and tomorrow we're having a Drayton Wiser heating setup added, which will add another wi-fi broadcasting hub, 2 room thermostats and 15+ smart TRVs!
I've seen the Nighthawk RAX120 for £250 which seems to fit the bill, but I'm wondering if there's other factors I should be considering before jumping in? I'm keen to do away with the powerline adaptors if I can - they're not massively reliable and the kit is quite old. Usage is pretty typical mix of streaming, gaming, wfh most days.
I'm not looking to run LAN cables through the walls anywhere at the moment, and although the floor area is quite big the walls are mainly plasterboard so the signal reaches quite well (so long as I don't use the Sky router!). I was wondering, having been confused by reading about 'mesh' setups, whether there's any benefit to buying a 2nd box of tricks to live by the 4k TV and PS5 that would allow LAN connections to the PS5 in particular, with a nice stable mesh wifi connection back to the router (forgive the potential mis-use of techie language!) which I presume will improve on wifi performance when there's a squillion connected devices? We don't do Alexa or anything of that ilk at the moment, in case it makes a difference.
Thanks all
Adrian