Home Network: Routers VS Access Points & CAT5e Cabling

[Greenbot]

Hi, I am building a home network for a house with rooms made of concrete. Since concrete blocks off wifi signals significantly, I know I need more access points to cover most area of the house.

With the help of this great website, reviews and numerous research, I ended up buying the ASUS RT-AC66U as my main router. I have a 1000Mbps Fiber connection and modem. There is a network switch which run the CAT5e to the different locations of the house. The WAN>LAN throughput of the router is superb but after running through the switch and AP, my internet speeds dropped dramatically.

Here I run into 2 issue:

Routers VS Access Points
Access Points seem to have very basic functions, no LAN ports, cheap build/look and worse, they generally cost more than a high end router. My father went to a shop and was recommended a Cisco WAP4410N and I realized it only runs on Draft N and don't even have Dual Band at the cost of $155USD! I took over the entire project now.
So can someone please give me a hint why those dedicated AP look so dated and even cost more than a high end router? Are they obsolete products now? Are they for business use? The range of the AP is not a critical issue as the concrete will block it off so I would need a AP in each area anyway. Shouldn't I just buy some good gigabit routers and use them as AP and even have LAN ports to spare for the TVs/PCs in the rooms?

CAT5e OK?
I am told that CAT5e are capable of delivering Gigabit network speeds. Is that true? Should we upgrade to CAT6 cables? It would be quite a project...

Thanks in advance

 

[thiggins]

The consumer market for access points is minuscule, but the business market is huge. So most APs are geared for businesses, which usually will pay more.

So, yes, just convert routers into APs and be done with it.

CAT5e is fine for Gigabit Ethernet.

 

[Greenbot]

The consumer market for access points is minuscule, but the business market is huge. So most APs are geared for businesses, which usually will pay more.

So, yes, just convert routers into APs and be done with it.

CAT5e is fine for Gigabit Ethernet.

So what does the AP do extra for businesses? A router can be a AP, Bridge, Repeater already... Thanks for clarification.

 

[thiggins]

Some APs have management features that fit better into large multi-AP installations. Others have upgradeable radios.

In most cases, you are paying for brand name, better support (which you'll need a contract for) and just because they say so.

 

[jlake]

So what does the AP do extra for businesses? A router can be a AP, Bridge, Repeater already... Thanks for clarification.

I'm pretty sure the cisco 4410 AP comes with AP Isolation enabled by default. Some consumer routers don't have AP Isolation. For example, the Linksys smart wifi firmware (which was developed when cisco owned linksys) doesn't even have AP isolation. It was completely stripped out.

Most home consumers don't have a need for AP isolation. Whereas businesses often do need it.

Edit: and I think the cisco 4410 uses an additional proprietary isolation/security/privacy feature (in addition to AP isolation).

 

[thiggins]

Most home consumers don't have a need for AP isolation. Whereas businesses often do need it.

Depends on how this is defined. Many consumer routers can prevent wireless client-to-client traffic. This would work even when repurposed as an AP.

Not as many routers have the option, usually on "guest" network, to allow wireless clients internet access only. This would not work on a router converted to AP.

 

[stevech]

Professional / Managed APs also do client mobility management (fast, seamless handoffs) well - since that capability is not defined by WiFi or IEEE 802.11.

Other things in pro APs are anti-DDOS, Intrusion detection, auto de-association of unauthorized clients, proper VLANing, managed frequency/channel assignment and dynamic assignments based on loading, etc.

Much of this enables VoIP to work well for products such as
http://www.vocera.com/ and http://www.vocera.com/index.php/voice

 

[jlake]

Depends on how this is defined. Many consumer routers can prevent wireless client-to-client traffic. This would work even when repurposed as an AP.

Not as many routers have the option, usually on "guest" network, to allow wireless clients internet access only. This would not work on a router converted to AP.

For all I know, Linksys may be the only one that has stripped AP isolation out of its new firmware. The Linksys guest network does block access to the primary LAN, but I'm pretty sure guest network clients can still see each other, but I'd have to double check to say for sure.

Anyway, I set one of those 4410's up in a relative's home-office, and there's three things that I 'think' I can remember about it: 1. AP isolation was enabled by default and 2. I was unimpressed with the range. 3. I thought it was overpriced.