Please look at my network design and help deciding if Orbi is the way to go.

[Daniels1984]

Hi,

I'm designing my home network and I have a few questions I hope some of you can aswer for me.

I have 1100m2 of ground and a 2 story house. I have a 600mbit fiber connection.

I'm thinking of creating 3 regions:
1. Living room
2. Upstairs
3. Garden / solar panels

These 3 regions will get a cat7 cable connection to the router. Each region will have a unmanaged 8port 1gb switch. The router will be the only DHCP in the network.

In my network I will have 3 sonos speaker, 5 foscam camera's, a synology, 2 smart tv's, a network printer, solar panels and the normal array of tablets, phones and laptops.

I think 3 accespoint will be sufficient for the wifi network. I say accespoints because I don't want an extra router in my network. I am afraid that would disrupt connectivity between the wifi connected devices and the wired appliances.

The downside of accespoints is that (even with the same ssid and security) switching between accespoints only occurs when the device is completely out of range, as opposed to when there is an accesspoint with a stronger signal.

my questions:

1. Is this setup the way to go?
2. Can Orbi help me with setting up a mesh network without an extra router? Even when the accespoints are not in range of one another (cable backhaul, via the router?)?

I appreciate any input!

[plemans · Accepted solution]

Orbi backhaul does work going through switches. 

https://kb.netgear.com/000051205/What-is-Ethernet-backhaul-and-how-do-I-set-it-up-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-Sy...

If you continue to use your fritzbox as router, place the orbi in AP mode. This will disable its nat function and allow your primary router to act as nat. 

[plemans]

in this post you state the area you want to cover is 1100m2 which works out to roughly 11000 square ft. Your other post said 217m2 which is 2300 square ft. Which one would it be? a bit of difference from 11000 ft to 2300 ft and would change which setup I'd look at. 

You also stated in the other that the house material was brick. Its a good thing you plan on using a wired backhaul as brick does a great job of blocking signals. 

From the sounds of it, you want the network to dynamically change you from router/satellites.  Within the consumer market, Orbi does a fairly good job of switching devices to stronger signals without you having to manually do so. I've ran mine with up to 4 satellites without having issues. You also have the option of a orbi outdoor satellite to cover your garden/solar panels. 

it should run all the devices you've listed. I'd hardwire as many of the streamers as you can. I've got 30+ wireless devices on my orbi setup but I do have all my 4k tv's hardwired.  I've read issues on the forum with people using sonos and orbi but I haven't had any problems and my neighbor who runs orbi and sonos hasn't either.  

the only other question I have is you asked "Can Orbi help me with setting up a mesh network without an extra router?" and " I say accespoints because I don't want an extra router in my network". Do you already have a router? Orbi does need a single orbi router to function but you can place the router in AP mode and still add satellites to it.  You can add orbi satellites to it with a mixture of hardwired backhaul and/or wireless backhaul. 

If your house size is the 11000 square ft, I'd probably start moving out of the consumer market to the business market. It all depends on what size your house is.

sorry this was a bit of a ramble. Hopefully it answers some questions.  

[Daniels1984]

Hi plemans,

Thanks for helping me (again).

To clarify, I have 1200m2 of land and in that land sits a house of 217m2 (measered over both levels).

I'm aiming for full wifi coverage inside. In the garden I want an accesspoint at the place we sit most.
So most of the garden will have no or poor wifi and that's fine.

At the moment I have the same setup with accesspoints and (apart from the crap job I did setting up the network) the coverage is fine.

I do have a router (fritzbox) and it is working fine. But if it is advisable to start using the router of Orbi I'm fine with switching. As long as the NAT capabilities are similar.

My only remaining question would be, will backhaul work when the satellites are connected via switches?

Kind regards,

Daniel

Edit: all listed devices will be hard wired except for the phones, tablet and laptops. Looking at the number of devices it should support (2 of each) it shouldn't be an issue.

[plemans · Accepted solution]

Orbi backhaul does work going through switches. 

https://kb.netgear.com/000051205/What-is-Ethernet-backhaul-and-how-do-I-set-it-up-on-my-Orbi-WiFi-Sy...

If you continue to use your fritzbox as router, place the orbi in AP mode. This will disable its nat function and allow your primary router to act as nat.