2.5gbps networking (and AP advice)

[Glasgowrob]

looking to upgrade my creaking home network kit.

just moved over to gigabit internet and currently just use cat6 between floors and a pair of Archer C6's for wired devices and for seperate wireless networks on each floor - not the most elegant of solutions


what i'm looking for is 2.5Gbps switches to sit one one each floor for wired devices which should give me some degree of future proofing and a recommendation for seamless wifi across both floors of the house. right now its a pita as you need to manually have to switch downstairs/upstairs i'd like something that will just be one network across the entire house.

anyone recommend a solution?

[eein]

For the Wifi you need a mesh system to have 'one wifi' across the whole house. Cabled backhaul between the mesh nodes is highly recommended and it sounds like you've got the cables in place to allow that. There's loads of threads on mesh wifi on this forum - most people use the LG systems as they are cheap, I happen to use the Asus as I have more money than sense (I do have 'genuine' reasons, but it's man-logic territory stuff).

2.5Gbps networking is not necessary unless you're doing some very high volume 'jobs' across your network - eg high res photoshop work on pictures stored on a NAS. Or if you have lots of people in the house all streaming 4K video at the same time off your NAS.

Don't waste money on anything beyond 1G at the moment. The CAT6E cable will be good for 10Gbps if and when you need that in the future. And 10G (domestic) kit will become very cheap in the future, so no point buying it at high cost just now. Getting the cables in place is the cost/hassle which you've already done.

2.5G is just a marketing thing from the domestic switch vendors to convince you to buy more stuff. Commodity price 10G will come in to the domestic space and overtake 2.5G.

[somouk]

I agree with the above, I would spend money on ensuring everything runs well at 1Gb for now and not worry about 2.5Gb unless you have specific need.

Even then I would probably run Unifi kit with a 10Gb model and skip 2.5Gb entirely.

I run a full unifi infrastructure so you have the centralised management, configuration and monitoring. I've had no issues at all with it really apart from my USG is now creaking a bit, I'm going to be upgrading to the UDM Pro SE most likely.

[Captain_Morgan]

Is there a use case for 2.5gbe you’ve not articulated, lots of digital video content creation & nas backups etc?

If so I’d agree that 2.5gbe is possibly overkill depending on the number & type of network clients you have.


That said along with the unifi option already mentioned also look at the tp-link Omada option, it’s a modular setup that allows for different switches, fw/router & accesspoints to be managed in a single sdn management portal, normally comes out ~20% or more cheaper than equivalent unifi systems.

One point though early next year we will start to see wifi7 accesspoints coming through so if you are looking at future proofing it might pay to wait.

By the way you did know that you could use the archers in accesspoint mode, give them the same ssid/pw & your current devices will roam between them?



Edit:

For example a 8x2.5gbe poe + 2x10gb sfp+ switch from unifi £500
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/42487-ubiq...

Omada £350
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/41374-tp-l...

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Wednesday 16th November 11:08

[Trustmeimadoctor]

or an 8 port 2.5gbe switch for £139
https://www.amazon.co.uk/QNAP-QSW-1108-8T-8-Port-2...

its unmanaged buy wont be an issue for most people