Always ON WiFi setup for Home

[tron05]

Hi All,

I need to setup a Always ON Wifi at home. It would be used for Personal use and also for Work from Home(need fully stable and always ON for this)

1. I currently have a unlimited wireline connection which usually disconnects quite a few times a day.
2. Unscheduled power cuts. My backup power comes ON in 2-5 minutes.
3. I also have a very limited and costly 3G data card for backup purpose.

I have my Wireline and 3G data card connected to Asus RT-N16 and a 2Tb HDD connected to store media streaming. But am facing 2 issues:
1. When there is a powercut, i am disconnected for 2-5 mins
2. When Wireline is out, it takes about 2 mins to switch to backup, but when Wireline is back, this modem does not switch back to Wireline

Now i am planning to have 2 different routers. One to connect all my personal devices, where always ON is not required. And another to have a battery backed up 3G router to have always ON connection. Some thing like
TP Link 3040(http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-MR3040) or
Asus 330N( https://www.asus.com/Networking/WL330N/).

But these are pocket routers and would not cover my entire home. Is there any battery power full fledged router that i can use or any alternative?

Any help would be appreiated. Thanks in Advance...

 

[CaptainSTX]

Ups

Purchase a UPS. They come in various sizes. The one I have will power a router, AP, 3G Microcell and my modem for forty five minutes.

 

[stevech]

consider using a Cradlepoint for celluar fall-back. They work well.
MBR95- might be good enough.

 

[tipstir]

Sounds like your live in brown out area. UPS or APC devices can only give you up to 55 minutes unless you buy the business class versions with larger batteries.

 

[tron05]

Thanks guys...
UPS beeps are really irritating for me apart from the size factor. My routers are in a central location of my home, which is the drawing room n a big UPS would spoil the decor.

Checking out cradlepoint now

 

[tron05]

How would cradlepoint help me? Did not find anything about battery backup for always ON connectivity?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Thanks guys...
UPS beeps are really irritating for me apart from the size factor. My routers are in a central location of my home, which is the drawing room n a big UPS would spoil the decor.

Checking out cradlepoint now

I use a UPS from Tripp Lite unit (425 W ) that allows me to shut off the beep as well as dim the display. Purchased it to replace a unit that did beep.

Size is 7" x 12" x 3".

 

[kanewolf]

Buy a used commercial quality UPS on E-Bay. APC SmartUPS rather than BackUPS. The commercial UPS are generally 1500+ VA. With a network infrastructure load you could have 2 hours run time. If you can buy it without batteries (assuming you buy new batteries for stability) it saves on shipping costs.

 

[tron05]

guys, i just need backup for about 2-5 minutes at max. I have backup generators, which gets switched on within 2 minutes

Getting a 1 foot high, full fledged UPS to power about 20-30 watts for 2 mins - doesnt it sound like a overkill?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Small is better

Then go for TrippLite's smaller 350VA - 180 W UPS. My 850 VA unit will give me forty five minutes run time for my network gear. The smaller unit would probably give me at least fifteen minutes of power. When the battery gets older the run times will go down particularly if you run the battery to maximum discharge.

The smaller unit looks to be about half the size of the unit that I have. While it does not have a way to shut the beep off directly from the controls on the UPS unit itself, according to the documentation you can by connecting a USB cord and downloading software go into the unit and turn the power fail beep off.

 

[tipstir]

Backup generators are much better to use. Or you could go with solar batteries. What ever works for you. I use APC highest one I could get we get brown out always. The beep can be turned off with software since these I use can be connected to PC.

 

[stevech]

How would cradlepoint help me? Did not find anything about battery backup for always ON connectivity?

I thought you had two problems: need for cellular fall-back plus mains power issues.

 

[MastarPete]

Sounds like your live in brown out area. UPS or APC devices can only give you up to 55 minutes unless you buy the business class versions with larger batteries.

I know the OP only needs a couple minutes of up time but I just thought I'd add that I've seen posts on other forums where people take an old UPS and connect them to car or deep cycle marine batteries for some extreme up time.
The only dangerous drawback would be the possibility of hydrogen fumes if non-sealed batteries were used. There is also the possibility of burning out the UPS' charging circuit due to the larger battery capacity requiring more time to charge.

As to the OP:
I agree with the others, just get a 300~500VA UPS and connect your existing equipment to it. If your device draw is low enough you can easily get an hour.

I have an APC 325VA UPS hooked up to my cable modem down in my utility room. Last time the power went out it gave me like an hour up time before I decided to move my Asus RT-N66u downstairs. I ended up getting around 2 hours of power out of it. The outage lasted almost 4 hours.

I've had the TP-Link MR3040 since about May. It's ok as a spare, but the firmware seems very limited to it's intended operation as a 3G hotspot. It's "WISP" mode is just about useless (see my rant on TP-link forum), no USB mass storage support, and the compatible modem list didn't seem very long. The battery seems to be very good though, I saw power on time of like 6 hours with light use in AP mode wired via cable to my existing network.

I don't have any experience with the Asus 330N or Cradlepoint, but I think I'd only suggest a "battery powered router" as a last resort or if you know you only need it for cellular data access. Even then I highly suggest you first check the manufacturer's support pages to see if your current data card is compatible.

 

[F5ing]

I thought you had two problems: need for cellular fall-back plus mains power issues.

That's what I thought as well.

I think I'd go for the UPS option for the power issues (as others have stated). Most decent UPSs have decent surge protection, which your hardware would appreciate.

Maybe you could use one of those UPSs that look more like a power strip. That way it could be hidden so as to not spoil the decor. I don't know how good they are, though. Or if they can be set to disable the beeps.

 

[sfx2000]

Hi All,

I need to setup a Always ON Wifi at home. It would be used for Personal use and also for Work from Home(need fully stable and always ON for this)

<snip>

I have my Wireline and 3G data card connected to Asus RT-N16 and a 2Tb HDD connected to store media streaming. But am facing 2 issues:
1. When there is a powercut, i am disconnected for 2-5 mins
2. When Wireline is out, it takes about 2 mins to switch to backup, but when Wireline is back, this modem does not switch back to Wireline

Cradlepoint - they're pretty darn good at ethernet/3g-4g failovers - and put the box on a UPS.

sfx

 

[stevech]

My cradlepoint (I have several) routers never need rebooting to restore operation. They have a stable firmware baseline that spans all products and evolved products. They have to be reliable because most of their customers use them for machine to machine (unattended), or in places like libraries where they have only cellular for Internet but have no on-site IT help.