Is this a smart and reasonable layout for a home network?

[Nicoletta]

I am looking for some advice for where I am thinking of network access points.

The internet comes into the home at the top left arrow and I am thinking that all lines will have to lead back to this area?

I also have a plan to put three wireless mesh access points around.

Is there something else I am missing or haven't considered?

 

[tgl]

I'm not liking the look of that shot from the upper left corner of your diagram to the upper right. Not only is that a long way, but the signal would have to travel through five walls and perhaps some appliances. Is there a chance of locating the base wifi unit in the middle of the wall at left, and the study's unit towards its lower right corner, with the aim of getting a more or less line-of-sight connection via the hallway? The signal path to the office doesn't look great either.

Any chance of running some ethernet cables instead of relying on wireless mesh?

 

[Nicoletta]

Yes, sorry! I didn't make that clear in my post. The purple numbers represent the locations I am looking to put in ethernet ports.

 

[tgl]

If you mean that you plan to run cables to those points and then put wireless APs there, then yeah this will probably work all right ... but that kind of setup is not what people typically call a mesh. Usually that term implies wireless backhaul, which is what I was worried about getting signal through for.

The reason I'm emphasizing this seemingly-academic terminology question is that if that is your plan, you should not be buying gear labeled as "wireless mesh". That will probably end in spending a lot of money on high-bandwidth backhaul radios you don't actually need.

 

[Nicoletta]

What should I be looking for if I also want to have wifi available for mobile devices? Just wireless access points plugged into those ethernet ports?

 

[tgl]

Yeah, that's what an access point is. You just have to be careful that you're buying only an access point, and not buying hardware you don't need. In particular, consumer "wireless routers" also incorporate router functionality, which is wasted hardware for you if you have a wired router at the ISP entry point. If they advertise "mesh" they may well have a radio that's intended for backhaul rather than wireless-client support, and you don't need that either. What you do want is more likely to be sold as SMB (small/medium business) gear than consumer gear. There are a couple of active threads over in the "Wireless Buying Advice" forum debating the merits of some of the available product lines of this kind.

 

[Nicoletta]

Right. I was probably thinking that a mesh network would allow me to roam around with say my mobile and it would all be smart enough to connect and work seamlessly but it sounds like there are better options.

 

[elorimer]

You might look at the Asus line of routers for a Mesh system using wired backhauls. If you have the ability to run cables the APs don't need to be fancy; most people can't so they need fancy wireless devices for coverage, and putting them at the far points like you have would be wrong, as opposed to maybe the laundry room. With wires you get 1gb or 2.5gb internal speed reliably; with a wireless mesh it depends. The Mesh part gives you easier maintenance of the system. All the settings are done once on the main router and propagate to the other routers.

I've got a mixture of mesh/AP/client bridges with older hardware.

 

[degrub]

What is the physical construction of the walls - inside and outside walls ?
Do you have attic or crawl space under floor access to run cables ?

Location is US or Europe or ?

If you are pulling cables, seriously consider one drop to each room for wired and small in-wall APs and flexibility for larger AP location.
Depending on physical type of ISP drop to the current upper left corner of the drawing, you may be able to relocate the router and termination point of all the cables to another spot in the buildings. Also, the ISP might be willing to terminate elsewhere in the buildings ( garage office maybe ? ).

 

[coxhaus]

I would put wall mounts where you are going to put switches and ceiling mounts where you are going to put wireless APs.

 

[L&LD]

I encourage all customers to have multiple runs at key locations (i.e. current or future potential office 'rooms', central location of home/building, and consider additional locations where they may sublet their main homes from.

A single run is pretty useless when things become even just a little more complicated (i.e. your requirements and expectations are past bare basics).