Help me design my network, please.
I moved to a new four-bedroom house about 18 months ago. Please give me some thoughts and ideas on setting up my network. I would like to know if investing in more up-to-date Ubiquiti Unifi devices, such as the UniFi Site Manager or UniFi Express, would be useful or make life easier.
Since moving in, I have been using the ISP-supplied FRITZ!Box 7530 which is located in the cupboard under the stairs.
My unifi kit has been gathering dust.
I need to upgrade this network as I keep having problems with the doorbell and smart lights disconnecting. Also, there are dead spots in the kitchen and lounge, which means the smart TVs disconnect. Plus, I want to add more smart devices. Plus, I changed jobs to be 100% work at home in the study, and the network needs to be completely solid. It is time to sort it.
Alongside the wall with the study and utility is a driveway and a garage, which starts in line with the utility.
There is a plan of the house here
In my old house, I had a UniFi Security Gateway as the edge router to connect to the internet via a Draytek Vigor 130 configured in bridge mode, connecting to the ISP over VDSL/FTTC. I also had a couple of UAP-AC-LITE as the access points. I used a Unifi controller on a Raspberry Pi that was PoE-powered. I also have two US-8-60w switches. This kit was set up about three years ago, and I posted about problems I had with DHCP to this subreddit: see here.
This house has FTTH with a BT/ Access Terminal Box ATB 2111 Optical Network Terminator in the understairs cupboard off the downstairs WC. I am with Zen Full Fibre 900. But I never seem to get anywhere close to that. I am supposed to have a minimum speed of 450 Mbps.
BT/ Access Terminal Box ATB 2111 Optical Network Terminator.
I have installed an 8u Mini Office Cabinet where the ONT comes into the house with a 3 Way 10" UK Socket SoHo Rack PDU and 12 Port Cat6 10" UTP Patch Panel. The network point here terminates in the living room by the TV socket. I suspect it is CAT5 rather than CAT6, but I will take it apart and look at it. I have also drilled a hole into the outside and fed a CAT6 cable out of the under-stairs cupboard, up the outside wall, into the loft and out of the ceiling in the landing roughly central to the whole home to put a ceiling-mounted AP.
Network connection and black CAT6e cable to loft.
Some questions I am considering at the moment:
- What changes would you make, or what kit would you invest in to get the best home coverage and speed, including achieving above 450 Mbps on the fibre connection?
- Could I plug the USG directly into the ONT and connect it to the ISP - an ISP login is required. I suspect I can?
- One design goal is to run a security camera on the outside wall that watches over my cars. The camera needs to be Apple Home Kit enabled, so it's probably not Unifi, but how would you do that? I am thinking of Eve Outdoor Cam.
- How would you architect the network taking into account existing kit?
- Would you replace the Raspberry Pi Unifi controller?
Thanks in advance!