Orbi with Cable modem/router also using cat5

[PalmTree]

I'm intending to purchase an Orbi.  I wish to work out all the varibles before the purchase.  Thank you for the indulgence.

My home has cat5 to every room in my house with all runs ending in a single (home run) location.  My thought process is to connect my Orbi as follows.  

1) Move my Arris DG1670a modum/router to the home run room which is upstairs in my two story home.  

2) Connect the Orbi Router from a central location upstairs to the Arris modum/router. It would probably be up to a 30' run of cat5 between the Arris modum/router and the Orbi Router.  

3) Install the Orbi Satelite downstairs in the center of the house.  

4) Connect a cat5 cable from my iMac in the downstairs office to the Arris modum/router upstairs in the home run room. My thought process is this would give me the fastest possible internet speed to my iMac.  

Would this plan work?

Would I receive the best possible speed to my iMac with a cable from the Arris modum/router to the iMac?

Should I turn off the wifi from the Arris modum/router?

If I turn off the wifi from the Arris, will the port still work for my direct cable to my iMac?

I welcome all feedback and suggestions.

Thanks!

[st_shaw · Accepted solution]

Yes, everything you suggest will work.  However, the fact that you have Ethernet cabling to every room means you have other options, some of which may be better than using Orbi.

If I were you, I would instead look at installing wired APS at a couple rooms in your house and connect them back to a Gigabit switch at the Arris router. You should be able to cover the house with two APs, maybe three.

You would use one SSID, set all the APs on different chanels to avoid interference, and tweak the power levels to get even coverage.  Assuming your wiring can handle Gigabit Ethernet, you would get 1 Gbps backhaul per AP.  The wired backhaul would be faster, lower latency, and more stable than Orbi's wireless.  I measured my Orbi backhaul throughput at 500 Mbps, and that is shared by all devices that connect to the satellite.  Wired throughput would be around 940 Mbps per AP.

Take a look at the Unifi APs from Ubiquiti.

[loomis1975]

Yes this should work, unless the distance and materials between the Orbi Router and the Orbi Satellite are too much for the dedicated backhaul signal to penetrate.  But definitely worth trying.

In this scenario, it sounds like you would want to setup the Orbi in AP mode and let the Arris modem/router continue to handle the routing duties.

I would suggest turning off the wi-fi on the Arris Modem/Router, but that will in no way affect the speed of an ethernet cable from your modem/router directly to your iMac.

You should get the best speed available from a cable connection from your modem/router to a device in this scenario.  As long as your cables can deliver most of the bandwidth given to you by the internet service provider.

[st_shaw · Accepted solution]

Yes, everything you suggest will work.  However, the fact that you have Ethernet cabling to every room means you have other options, some of which may be better than using Orbi.

If I were you, I would instead look at installing wired APS at a couple rooms in your house and connect them back to a Gigabit switch at the Arris router. You should be able to cover the house with two APs, maybe three.

You would use one SSID, set all the APs on different chanels to avoid interference, and tweak the power levels to get even coverage.  Assuming your wiring can handle Gigabit Ethernet, you would get 1 Gbps backhaul per AP.  The wired backhaul would be faster, lower latency, and more stable than Orbi's wireless.  I measured my Orbi backhaul throughput at 500 Mbps, and that is shared by all devices that connect to the satellite.  Wired throughput would be around 940 Mbps per AP.

Take a look at the Unifi APs from Ubiquiti.