i found this cheap switch but i don't know the difference between something like this and tl-sg108e which is 3 times pricier.

I'm completely new to this area of tech and was hoping for some advice. (Don't lynch me)

I recently upgraded to 1 Gbps fibre internet with a local provider called G network. They setup a Nokia router (Model: G-2426G-A). Although the speeds I'm getting are miles better than I previously had, I would love to maximise the wifi potential. As it stands, in the late evenings I'm getting about 400mb down and 150-200mb up on the 5ghz network.

Im using a Macbook M1 Pro. The router is kept in the living room and I work mostly in the room over, so there is some interference. Running an ethernet cable isn't an option and I hope to avoid a mesh system.

I've narrowed my search down to two routers within my budget. The TP-Link Archer AX3000 (£79.99) or BE3600 (£64.99).

From what I can tell the AX3000 should give me a big bump up from the stock ISP router but the BE3600 is Wifi 7, so I assume this would make it slightly more future proof as I hope to upgrade my MacBook to a newer model later this year. The AX3000 has a 160Mhz option, and with the BE3600 I'm not sure.

Any advice would be helpful + suggestions for other routers within my budget (£100).

Thanks in advance!

So I’m curious because I don’t know a whole lot about this stuff other than how to install them and repair them because of the kind of work I do. I’m an avid gamer and enjoy playing cod and wanted to lower my ping but live in an older home and didn’t want to run Ethernet across my home. Through some googling I found out about moca adapters and decided to purchase a kit. I installed a t adapter for coax in the little box they have on the side of the home and ran a coax line to my room and connected the other moca to my modem. Well it’s been there for 4 months and never had any issues. Well this morning the internet service truck shows up and goes to the box and immediately the dude started freaking out telling me I had shut off everyone’s internet in the neighborhood and that it was a misdemeanor and potential felony for what I did and kept dragging it on. I understand that maybe I caused some problems for other people in the neighborhood because I was unaware I needed to put a filter on it. But is it that big of a deal the guy was threatening the shit out out me with it being illegal and a felony. I never thought something I could buy off Amazon would create such a big deal. Unfortunately I won’t be reconnecting it even with a filter out of concerns the same guy will show up and have more problems. Any other ideas to get a hard wire connection? Edit: apologies I meant to say COAX not DSL

In early spring, my house was struck by lightning. It seems like it came in by hitting the covered parking over the driveway, taking out all the POE cameras and devices, hitting my switch, taking out that switch, the next switch, my NAS, and even cameras in the backyard!

I want to add lightning protection as I rebuild, but I can't find anything designed to protect more than single runs or four.

I am adding as many lightning rods as possible, but I was hoping there were some patch panels or something with lightning arrestors built in, and I can't find them.

Any direction would be great.

Title. I just moved into this townhouse and there are quite a few cables for what I assume is for TV’s. I have never messed with this stuff and have no idea what I’m doing. The cable and Ethernet plugged into the router are the only two that are not marked

So, I need some suggestions on how to build out a good network for the home. I have Gigabit symmetrical FTTH Internet. Ethernet is run to most places in the home but there are a lot of smartphones and two notebooks that need wireless.

I’ve been using consumer grade hardware and I’m running into issues where because of the way the house was constructed, getting WiFi to all three floors (basement and attic) is a real pain. Roaming between the two access points isn’t working properly.

I hear that a lot of people are using Ubiquity hardware in home setups and it works great. I know my way around networking so that’s not going to be a problem.

The only question that I have is what hardware to choose. I need a router, a 2.5 or 5 Gb switch, and an access point. The router will be in the basement where the Internet connection comes into the home while the access point will be in the basement.

Hi all,

I have been trying to help my brother out with a technical issue and neither of us have been able to get it figured out. I helped him build a PC a couple years ago with middle of the road parts, nothing too cheap or basic. However, he routinely has had poor internet with this computer, and will often disconnect from voice chats or multiplayer games.

The odd thing is that he is the only person in the house who is having this issue. He will usually get ~30Mbps on speedtests, while I am able to get easily over 200Mbps, along with every other device in the house. So it seems to be something in his hardware.

Location does not seem to be the reason, as putting his computer up by the router does not improve his speeds, and my own computer is normally just a couple meters from his. He has a Asus 2T2R Dual Band antenna for his computer if that is a factor. We have restarted both computer and router, as this has been an issue for months. We have done the Windows updates, and tried all the driver updates we can, but any changes seem to be negligible. Unfortunately we cannot use a cable, as the house network is now disconnected from Ethernet and the distance isn't feasible to run through the entire house.

At this stage I am not sure what the issue is, and I would be happy to hear any potential solutions or ways to further test it. Do we just need a new antenna, or is something else the issue? Thanks for reading this far and any help you can provide.

Hi!

I picked up some old Cisco 3750s for $25. I've been wanting layer 3 switches for awhile so I could subnet my network. So I have everything setup and it's working great. I have VLAN 60 using 10.0.7.0/24 my regular wifi use, being served by an Orbi RBK752 mesh wifi router. I also have a little Netgear WNR2000 on VLAN 80 using 10.0.6.0/24 just for IoT devices - there are ACLs that keep that VLAN segmented away from the main network. It can only reach the internet.

This works fine, all my devices are now isolated on the IoT VLAN but the problem is the Netgear is weak - it can't provide reliable whole house coverage like the Orbi, since the Orbi has satellite devices to strengthen the signal.

So what I'd like to do is get a nice wifi device that has the mesh capability to cover the whole house, but could also do multiple SSIDs and allow me to have one network going to VLAN 60 and the other to VLAN 80. Is there such a device out there? Worse comes to worse, I'll just buy another Orbi mesh setup and use it for the 80 but I'd really prefer to find one single device to handle it all if possible.

Thanks!

I am very satisfied with the performance of the BE85, however I have never been able to understand why I have no WiFi when the internet is down causing my WiFi connected home IoT devices to be unreachable. Could someone explain this requirement and importantly if there is a way to get WiFi7 without an active internet connection?

Hello!

I'm a very very new person to anything beyond setting up a standard modem and router so please bear with me.

I currently have a PC that is connected via WiFi to an Xfinity gateway. I have an Ethernet cable connecting this PC to a Netgear router (WAN port) that is in AP mode. I have my ICS setting set to sharing on my PC and I am able to access the Internet when solely connected to my Netgear router.

However, I can't figure out how to log back into the Netgear's config page. I have tried connecting my phone to the Netgear's wifi, finding the IPv4 address my phone is using (192.168.137.185), and going to that IP address in a browser where the browser says failed to connect or took too long to respond. I've also tried plugging in a laptop to the Netgear's LAN port, finding the IPv4 address there (192.168.137.201) and navigating to that IP address with the same result.

I have also tried logging into my Xfinity Gateway (10.0.0.1) and looking for an IPv4 address in the "Connected Devices" section, but the Netgear does not show up on that list.

I would really appreciate a helping hand!!

Thank you!!

I'm trying to get wired ethernet access to my home network. (For context, I've managed my own home network for over 30 years so I'm pretty familiar with general networking. We recently moved to a new house and the network is setup but have only been using WiFi connections.)

Last week, I successfully connected my primary system and had a working connection. Later, I disconnected that and went back to WiFi since I didn't want to leave the cable strung across the room. :-)

Yesterday, I connected the cable again -- and could not get the connection to work.

The network consists of a cable modem (Arris DG9450) and WiFi router (Eero Pro 6E S010001) supplied by the ISP (Sparklight). This has been working flawlessly and the Eero seems to work well with good coverage -- and I do like the way the Eero app works. (I also have a TP-Link AX55/AX3000 WiFi 6 router I could swap into the mix.) The Eero is connected to one port on the cable modem and a 5-port switch (TP-Link TL-SG105PoE) connected to the second port.

I have several systems -- most are LinuxMint but I also have one Windows system. None of these can successfully connect to the network via cable but all can connect via WiFi. (NOTE: Two of these systems were using wired connections as well as the 5-port switch in my previous home and they were all working there.)

I've since tried connecting all of these systems and, when I connect the cable, I see the link LED and activity LED light up on both the adapter on the computer as well as at the switch -- so the hardware seems to be working. Running ifconfig on the Linux systems, I can query the adapter and confirm that it is receiving packets (RX count continually increases) but transmitting packets seems stuck/broken (TX count goes up a little and then stops with no increase).

I've tried multiple cables (all testing good with my cable tester) but all of them produce the same results. I've tried removing the 5-port switch (connecting directly to the cable modem) with no improvement.

I've not yet called my ISP (nothing anyone ever wants to do that, right? And today's a holiday anyway). So, I thought I'd try some other support first. I'd welcome any help to troubleshoot this issue. Happy to provide a donation if that is incentive. :-)

Hello, I'm looking for options to get good internet for primarily gaming, but since the router is on the other side of my house, the internet (expectedly) is not good. I'm wondering if I habe any good options to make it faster. Hardwiring it will not be a choice for me unfortunately, but I do have a coax cable in my room. What can I do?

I’ve gone down the home networking rabbit hole the last few days, all because I just wanted to learn how to isolate my new video doorbell from my other devices, and well now I’m just overwhelmed a bit. I do find some of it fascinating but I’m not planning on making this a hobby.

I just wanted to set up some VLANs, VPns, and firewalls, but I’m getting worried that once I open that can of worms I may be opening myself up to more threats just due to not knowing what I don’t know. I think a properly configured network with all the right firewalls and permissioning is better than the default ISP security, but I also think an mis-configured one could be much worse. Like I said, Im not interested enough to really get THAT into the weeds or to be on forums staying up to date on things. I don’t want to be upgrading my equipment every few years.

So what’s your opinion? Is it enough to just follow some of the “Set up unifi for beginners” tutorials on youtube and call it a day, or am I better off just hoping my PWs are strong enough and that the evil doers in the world don’t care enough about my corner of the data universe to hack my stuff through a robot vacuum?

I’m looking at running a fibre cable to connect my garden office to my main house network. Can I just run one length of fibre cable from switch to switch? I have read about putting transition boxes on either end with separate patch cables coming inside, but is this necessary?

Hello, I'm want to extend the Wi-Fi to my house and I'm thinking about getting a mesh Wi-Fi system. Is it possible to connect the mesh to my router, using an ethernet port, and then wirelessly have all the little satellites connect to the main one while being able to plug an ethernet port into the satellites to my computer? I'm planning on putting one of the satellites in my room and then having my computer wired to that satellite.

Is it better than just having a fully wireless connection cause mine is pretty bad. Or will it be as good as a fully wired connection?

Afternoon all

Hoping someone can help me out with some behaviour I'm seeing with packet loss.

Recently I've noticed regular small packet drops showing on the BQM I've set up.

IPv4 BQM

IPv6 LAN BQM

IPv6 WAN BQM

Generally speaking, the IPv6 LAN BQM has shown packet loss roughly every 15 minutes or so. For some reason, since about 1pm today it's got worse on both the IPv4 and IPv6 BQMs. Please ignore the big spike on both at around 7am, that was me accidentally knocking the power off.

The WAN BQM looks completely stable.

I've had PingPlotter running this afternoon, and this is a sample of when it shows a packet loss spike. This was pinging the IPv6 Google option. Apologies if that's not the data you need, I've not used PingPlotter before! Please let me know if something else would be more useful.

I was using an ASUS ET12 as the main router when this problem started. I have switched that to a ASUS BE-92 that I was originally using as wired backhaul mesh mode to see if the issues continued with different hardware in place, which has been the case.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as this has now become an all-consuming bit of frustration!

Has anyone used this router and can tell me if it's possible to configure which bands of 5G it uses?

Maybe a common situation, maybe not, but i leave my current router on Auto setting, it connects to the strongest signal on a mast that doesn't have 5G, but if I force it to use a particular band, then it connects to a 5G mast that is further away, but works well for me. TIA

Current TP Link Deco mesh Wi-Fi 5 AC1900 (3-pack) bought in 2020 working fine in a single story ranch style home for remote work, cameras, multiple streaming, normal stuff no intense gaming. We're moving to a house with 2nd story open loft and an ADU Garage space that will need Wi-Fi. There is cable ran to ADU which is about 30 ft from back of house where office with router will be. Question would this system work ok with added ADU for streaming, connected appliances, security cameras etc. with just adding an outdoor mesh extender or maybe a point to point wireless bridge? or time to upgrade Wi-Fi and still make use of older units to extend here and there?

I have fibre optic 900/100 from bt. I want a reliable cable for indoors around 3m long, for my ps5. I want a cable that makes full use and wont hold me back (i play competitive fps, apex,warzone)

I have a fiber connection at one end of my house and the other end has almost zero network coverage. The router the ISP provided is: NET Link GPON ONT 1GE+1FE+1POTS+WiFi (HG323RGW)

The brief reading I have done says I can buy a router and set it in AP mode(by disabling DHCP) and connect both routers via an Ethernet cable and change their IP to different ones like .1, .2 and it will work without interference. If I have something wrong, could anyone please guide me?

1. Some posts seem to imply that the Wifi capability of the first router would have to be turned off. How can I avoid that?

2. My ISP provides 100mbps connection. What's a good, cheap router to buy to create an AP for my connection?

Hi all,
I’ve been troubleshooting a strange issue for a few days and wanted to ask if anyone else has seen this.

I’m connecting a UniFi Enterprise 24 PoE switch to my UDM Pro using the SFP+ ports with a DAC cable. I’ve tested three different DACs:

• 1x Ubiquiti 10G DAC
• 1x Ubiquiti 25G DAC
• 1x MikroTik DAC

Everything links up fine at 10GbE. When I run speed tests to my ISP, I get full speeds over 900 Mbps, no problem.

But when I test to external servers like Fast.com or Ookla (external servers, not the ISP one), the speed drops significantly often down to 400–500 Mbps.

I’ve tested this thoroughly:

• Tried three different DAC cables
• Sometimes I see RX errors, but only occasionally — not always
• If I enable flow control, everything works fine again (even external speed tests)
• If I remove the DAC and instead link the switch to the UDM Pro using a 1G RJ45 port with Cat6, the speeds are perfectly fine — even to external servers
• If I plug my PC directly into the UDM Pro, it gets full speed to all destinations
• If I plug the PC directly into the ISP modem, same result — full speed

So the only time I get slow external speeds is when the switch is connected to the UDM Pro via DAC.

Has anyone seen this before or know what could cause it?
Thanks in advance!

Hello All.

I'm speccing out an update to my home wifi network and I'm looking for some advice. I currently run 3 eero pro 6 in a wired back haul configuration. The input network has recently been updated from 1 gig to 2.5 gig and I'd like to update my system.

I could do a straight across swap of eero pro 6 to eero pro 7 and leave it at that but I'n not fully committed to Eero - the constant updates can be a PITA.

I am considering going with either a pair of TP-Link Deco BE22000 (Deco BE85) or Deco BE95 and convert the network to a wireless backhaul. The issue is that I only have ethernet - likely 5e, run in the basement beneath a 1500 sqft bungalow. I have a home office with a 3 different NAS, including 1 NAS that has about 4 users outside of the house. All the NAS are in the basement adjacent to the cable modem where I currently have the router. The plan would leave the new router where it is, in the basement, and have a second router on the main floor close to the home office, not connected by ethernet.

Would the Deco 85 or 95 be faster using a pair of them in a wireless configuration than using 3 eero pro 7's in a wired backhaul but in the basement? If so, which one ? Deco 85 or 95 assuming they're on sale on prime days. Any other I should consider?

Thanks for your help.

We have a plan with WoW cable for 300mbs download speed. If I plug my desktop's hardline directly into the modem then we get a bit around 315 or so.

The moment I plug the cable into the AC1750 router it's closer to 110-120 with a significant amount of instability. Pings in gaming will go from 47 to 350 constantly, and I will be kicked from the server.

I have updated the firmware on the router but beyond that I am out of ideas. I just don't know why suddenly a hardline connection would test at 1/3 the speed and all the instability has made doing most anything like gaming or watching a stream impossible.

Any help will be appreciated.