New LAN from scratch

[Mark Hooper]

Hi,

I'm a newbie here but have been reading silently for a while now. Great site and I have found a number of helpful articles

I am about to update my LAN since it's now pretty old.

First things first:
Modem...
I am connecting using ADSL. My connection currently is not great at all, but I want it to be reliable, and I also don't want to buy everything a second time when I move house and end up with a faster connection. Would the Linksys AM200 be any good? These are cheap and available. Would you recommend any other? And why? I have read that most people simply bridge their ISP combo, but I believe people have had trouble with the model I own (Thomson TG585 V6 from Plusnet in the UK) so would rather just ditch it - tbh the UI is so slow it is ridiculous so an upgrade for that reason alone is probably worth it.

Secondly:
Router...
What router would you recommend and why?

Thirdly:
Which switch/hub? And why? I would like link aggregation/teaming for my NAS and desktop, and would also like to hardwire some parts of the house, so I guess 8-port is a minimum. In future I will expand this part with a 24-port and get the whole place wired

Fourthly:
Which WAP? And why? This HAS to be reliable as it is extremely frustrating when I'm 10ft away from my current wireless source (albeit through a wafer thin modern ceiling) and I still get poor wireless strength

I don't have mega bucks to spend on this equipment, but would like to choose quality items.
I can build it in stages if items are expensive.
I would like to stream HD over cat5e.
I'm not a huge wireless fan due to its reliability - currently it drops out or its range is really poor.

Hope you can help!

Regards
Mark

 

[tipstir]

Hi Mark,

Are you in the US/Canada? I ask this first before start recommending devices and hardware. If your overseas you might not have the same products.

ADSL modems from ISP, you should see if you can use off shelf type and save in rental fees? Check with your ISP on that if they allow it first.

Gigabit Router
Wired or Wireless or both.
Things to consider. Sounds like your want Wired Router with your first post.

Gigabit
Additional Switches

Megabit are for those devices 10/100mbps

 

[sinshiva]

hey Mark,

the dsl modem you are considering would by default also function as your router. i don't know what it's NAT throughput looks like, but i know the lan side of that router would immediately be a 100mb interface. i don't know if that matters much, i'm currently dealing with it, regardless i'd ask the ISP for their most basic modem possible. if you get one with just a single ethernet port, the modem might yet still be acting as a router and you'd have to get into it's webconfig before connecting it to the rest of your network, to set it into bridge mode.

 

[Mark Hooper]

Thanks for the replies!

Thanks for the replies.

I am in the UK.

There are no rental fees for our routers from our ISPs.

I'd choose wired, but require wireless access also, hence the question about adding a WAP later, or choosing a switch with wireless built in. And I'd opt for a gbit switch - no point in less than gbit since it's an ideal opportunity since im replacing everything.

Yes normally the AM200 would work as a router, but I would set it to bridging mode and use a more advanced router for routing and firewall.

Firstly I want to know if using individual devices for each stage is still the way to go?
Then I guess we can move onto specific device recommendations.

Thanks

 

[canuckle]

IMHO, I think you want any modem that will pass the signal through to the router without performing NAT/DHCP, in bridge mode as you mentioned.

I've used 2 ASUS products (RT-N66U and now the RT-AC68U). They've both been excellent for wireless strength and throughput, although I've elected to use RMerlin's firmware in both cases. You can find his section on this forum under ASUS Wireless.

I have no problem getting a very strong signal/throughput on both 2.4 and 5 GHz, on 2.4 I get full signal and 70 Mb/s 30 feet away in my backyard, through 1 interior and 1 exterior wall.

I also use the EA-N66 AP to connect my devices in the Home Theatre in the floor below, lots of bandwidth and no issues there.

I use a Netgear GS108T managed/smart switch to to LAG/LACP from my Synology 1512+ with dual LAN, works great.

HTH

Mike