Wireless options for new home?

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scobar

Member
Nov 24, 2013
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I am going to be moving in a few weeks and much of the home is finished. This means I cannot just run cables all over like I've been able to do at my current home.

That being said, my servers/network core will be housed together. However, my desktop will not be near them. Until I move in, there is not an easy way for me to see if I can run cable to my computer room.

With that being said, I am looking at wireless. Right now I am feeding my non-wired devices with a pair of unifi APs. I see they offer some AC units. It looks like I can pick up an Intel-based AC wifi card for about $50. I've also seen some powerline kits, but it seems these just suck.

I am looking for some ideas or suggestions here. I do quite a bit on my network from desktop to server(s), so speed IS important. Wires ARE NOT an option.

Idears?
 

mmmmmdonuts

Member
Mar 22, 2012
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Looks like wireless AC or powerline is the only way to go if there is no way to do a home run. I would first your cell phone and look at how busy the wi fi network is in the area to see how much potential interference you may have. In my house I have I think access to 15 other wireless networks of surrounding neighbors and it makes it very difficult to get a sustained data transfer over wireless for large files. It takes forever because it drops out constantly. Granted this is wireless N but the same principal applies. Interested to see what others have to say.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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AC is going to be a best bet option. New AC chipsets came out in Q3/Q4 last year IIRC so there is a benefit to getting newer devices.

I actually have a similar run that I am trying to overcome. I tried powerline. 300mbps adapters get about 1MB/s
 

dswartz

Active Member
Jul 14, 2011
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I like the unifi wifi units. That said, do you have coax to these rooms? If so, actiontec has MoCA bridges for like $50 each. Work a treat...
 

scobar

Member
Nov 24, 2013
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There are no cables run to this run currently. The neighbors are few and far so not concerned on wireless. I am not willing to open walls/ceiling to run cables. As my OP said, cables are not an option.
 

apnar

Member
Mar 5, 2011
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If the only critical link you're looking for is desktop to server and you want max performance I'd pick up a AC router and multi-stream AC client. Set AC router up as a AP on an isolated channel and have the desktop as the only client of that network. Then for your random other wireless stuff use a separate router/AP on different channel.

Edit: meant to also mention that there are some good wifi reviews over at Small Net Builder. They reviewed the ubiquiti AC AP twice so far and weren't pleased with the results. I've been a fan of ubiquiti stuff in the past so I hope they can work out the issues soon.
 
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mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
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the next-gen powerline kits can still work but they run at 85-95% packet loss (UDP) - TCP isn't so friendly to this technology. 200 meg kit might pull 15megabit
 

dswartz

Active Member
Jul 14, 2011
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I am skeptical. I have 3 of the pla407 (200mb), and don't see this. My wife telecommutes over a vpn via one of these, as well as making hour long VoIP calls using the same link. If it was suffering this kind of packet loss, I'd be hearing about it. What basis do you have for this?