I’ve dealt with structured wiring and PoE in a few setups myself. It’s a lot more than just plugging in a WiFi router, especially when you’re setting up multiple access points. If you want to bounce some ideas around or need advice on specific issues, I’m here to help.
Working with our member David Pease, and a local contractor CATJACKS LLC, about a year ago, I figured out the solution to my problem and CATJACKS helped me implement it.
Problem is, and was,
WiFi sucks. I had several routers all high quality, then two different mesh networks and all were awful; these were not simultaneous of course, but sequential in deployment. "Awful" meaning that my 600MB download fiber service I was paying for was achievable only at the router. Rigorous testing throughout the house confirmed that my attenuation around corners and through walls was 30% at best, 70% at worst. So using the advice and understanding as mentioned, and working with the limitations of my house itself and where the wiring points are, we engineered the following:
1. Installed a recessed wall mount wiring panel in the garage at the origin point of the fiber. Inside the box is the fiber ONT, the primary router (TP Link Deco PoE chosen for form factor only), and a gigabit network switch. That's the
primary mesh node, and provides
perfect internet in the garage.
2. CAT5e wiring throughout the home all terminates at this panel, and all wiring is connected to the switch.
3. Four additional TP Link Deco nodes are all
hardwired back to this switch in the panel. One serves my office upstairs, and the other three are dispersed through the home's first floor around the perimeter; NOT centrally located. An additional node is near to the front foyer and that backhaul is wireless, the only node not hardwired back to the primary.
So with the exception of that one node at the front foyer, all are using
wired backhaul. I get close to my 600MB download speed
everywhere in the house, upstairs and downstairs. Certain network devices like my computer, my printer, and the television, are hardwired into the router nodes.
CATJACKS had to run only
one CAT5e wire for me to support this home network architecture as all the other wiring was in place. It originally terminated OUTSIDE the house, but we brought the terminations inside to the panel. Yes I had to spend some $$ for CATJACKS to add the RJ45 wall jacks (builder did not terminate any wiring, left bare in a box) and test the integrity of all the wiring and test everything, money well spent. Also had to sell all the old routers and mesh networks and focus on the TP Link Deco products which all play nice together.
Problems analyzed, researched, solutions found and implemented and all is well.
