This is my intention:
Plan:
Fibre optics termination point and Cat 6(a) termination points all in a Utility Box located somewhere in the house.
Cat 6(a) cables will be pulled to various locations and terminated with RJ45 keystone.
At the “user” end of the cat 6(a) cables in various locations, I am intending to add Wireless AP. all points will have at least 2 wires, (for redundancy sake), since I will have 2 rj45 keystones, 1 will be used for wireless AP, the other will either be kept free or use for wired connections
In the Utility box…
Fibre Optics point ——(Fibre cable)——> modem —— (ethernet cable) ——> router —— (ethernet cable) ——> network switch (to expand the lan ports available to me) —— (ethernet cable) ——> cat 6(a) termination points.
If you don't care for wireless at all but want Gigabit LAN/WAN ports, any modern router will do as long as it's advertised that it's Gigabit on the wired side. There are cheap routers at about 40/50 bucks that offer only 300 Mbps wireless but have 4 ports Gigabit each. Find one and be happy.
Can't really recommend one as I have my preferences for brands so I'm biased (TP-Link, ASUS and sometimes Linksys)
On the wired side, you'll pretty much get equal performance from a top-level model and a mid or low-end model, maybe a bit more from the top-level
EDIT: yes, the AC68U will have much better WiFi performance than a low-end or mid-end model. That is on the AC side mostly
Initially I wanted to just do alway with the router the ISP will be giving and just get an Asus RT-AC86U as router issued by ISP are generally of lower performance.
However as my fibre optics point and termination point of my Cat 6(a) wires are located in a metal utility box and in a not so ideal place, I feel that the wireless performance and range of the RT-AC86U will take quite a big hit for the price I am going to pay due to reflection and the relative" remote location of the utility box.
Now that you say the on the wired side, I'll pretty much get equal performance for the different range of router (I'll assume the DIR-865L should be quite top end and the wired component shouldn't lose to the RT-AC86U by that much?). It will make better sense for me not to waste money on a top of the line RT-AC86U router, when the range the performance will be affected, and just use the DIR-865L issued by my ISP, and connect an AP using an ethernet cable to it and place the AP in a more ideal location?
No, because you have WAN to LAN and LAN to WAN differences between them that impact the wired only bit. First you have differences between some router on, are QoS features offered for traffic shaping (most are no, or yes but are primitive/don't work well). Next, the hardware/firmware also can have vastly different capability when talking about how much data it can pass to the internet and back. Routing has massively more overhead than switching. A gigabit switch is a gigabit switch is a gigabit switch, or darned close to that so long as you are ONLY talking about switching packets, and not in to L2/L3 features, just pure switching performance.
A router is a whole different beast. If you are simply looking at something to handle a basic internet connection, just about any gigabit router is likely to handle at least 100Mbps internet connection just fine. Start getting up in to faster connections and the differences can become readily apparent.
Also other possible features, such as storage performance if hanging a USB drive off the router varies wildly, extras like having a built in print server, VPN server, etc. Typically a higher end router is going to be better at those things (or just have them).
this is getting a little too technical for me to understand, but does what i say above make any sense to you and whether it's a good idea?
The internet plan i am going to get will have a speed of 500mpbs. there are already plans out there that tops 1Gbps, but cost is still on the high side now hence i am not getting that yet. but i want to keep my options open so the equipment i am getting must be future proof hence it should at least handle gigabit internet on the wired side.
soontobetold,
I read your post several times and I'm still not sure what you are asking for. It sounds like you have a wired system that satisfies most of your needs, but need wireless sometimes. The wireless clients are close to your router. AC class routers appear to be of interest to you, but you haven't stated any AC class clients are in use.
If you have only occasional need for wireless, then a gigabit wireless router with possibly an unmanaged gigabit switch will support your wired needs. PoE is needed only for PoE devices attached to your PoE switch, such as cameras. All wireless routers allows you to turn on and off the radios as needed. If you are using 5GHz clients then you should consider a dual band router. If you are using AC class clients, then you should consider an AC class dual band router with a good track record. If you have no AC clients, then just get a good dual band router at your price point. Amazon ratings are useful. If you're not currently using any 5GHz client, you may someday. If not, just turn the radio off.
In the case you need inexpensive professional class electronics, Ubiquity offers items that may suit your interests. My response above relates to consumer grade stuff.
I have written a summarised version of what I am intending above. Don’t have AC class clients YET, but intend of future proofing.
As described above about my intention. I will definitely have AP and will have a few cameras for “surveillance” purposes. Whether I get PoE version of them or not depends on whether I can get decent PoE AP, Cameras and switch. If I can’t then I will just add power points to those places I am placing the equipment, if I can get decent PoE version of them, then it will save me the need to install power points. Just want to keep my options open.
I am already using 5ghz clients, but I am looking at getting AC class dual band router for future proofing.
Pardon my ignorance, what’s ubiquity?
From what I understood, the wired is much more important than the wireless for him. He also wants to add more ports for his wired so I suggested a unmanaged switch. He also seems to want to put an AP somewhere for the occasional wireless needs
actually both are equally important to me. just that I want to have good wired infrastructure to support my wireless ap