Barms 98 Posted June 11, 2019 Or can it be anywhere in the LAN from a switch? ISP wireless router in the basement. Signal always sucked. Had great success adding Ubiqiti Unfi extender in middle of the house. Just bought a Sonos Play 1 for the patio. The god dam Sonos doesn’t recognize extenders. I called Sonos. They told me I need a $99 boost. now, I have Cat 5 all over my house. Does the router do it’s job ANYWHERE on a LAN? Or does it need to be first in line from the modem? what I want to try is go from modem into a switch, then one line from the switch to an upstairs bedroom that would be the new central location for the router. This is a connected line. from the switch in the basement i would connect the other various things I had connected (alarm, smart TV etc) all connected down there. so again. Instead of this order: Modem, router, switches. I want to try: modem, switch, router. This new router location would be a dead end. Nothing coming “from” the router. Just a cat 5 plugged into the router from a switch from the modem. And it’s important to note it’s from SWITCH to router Not just direct from router in another room That switch “before” the router will drive another switch in an office. so like let’s say right now i got 8 devices off of 2 switches coming out the router Now I want to try to slice those 8 devices “before” the router connection. Because I want the router location more down steam . So does a router “feed” the LAN or can it just be a location on the LAN ? It’s a combo router and wireless from optimum. I really don’t need a separate wireless I have that already via my Unifi. I just want to router out of the basement now where the modem is. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sota 1,191 Posted June 11, 2019 yea... it don't work like that. router has to talk to modem then everything else talks to the router, to give you internet access. I put a call into a guy I know who does Sonos stuff all day, and ask him about extender issues (which btw, sounds like utter bullshit.) which UniFI device do you have; I've used their APs extensively and love them. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SW9racer 262 Posted June 11, 2019 Since you have cat5 all over the place, go modem in the basement, next a non-wifi router in the basement in which you have all your cat5 connected to, middle of house go with a wifi router (in bridge mode) which will handle just the wireless devices. If your home is too large for a single wifi, then go mesh like google. In any case, the basement router would be non-wifi (or WiFi disabled) with lots of ports for your cat5. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
voyager9 3,417 Posted June 11, 2019 What your proposing might work, but is a bad idea. The router is what isolates your home network from the rest of the Internet. It essentially defines, and is central to your Home network. It cannot be a dead end (unless you have a very advanced switch where you can do VLAN separation... still prob need trusted and untrusted physical link). Everything “upstream” from the router (between router and modem) is not on your home network, it’s on your ISP’s public network. You want everything on your Home network “downstream” from the router. If you have Cat5 running already maybe keep the router connected to the modem but physically move it to office? It would require two cable runs from basement to office: Modem(basement)-router(office)-switch(office)-switch(basement)-other devices. Better option: Turn Wi-Fi off in the router and get dedicated access point.. so: Modem(basement)-Router(basement)-switches(basement/office)-WAP(office) and other switches/devices. Another option is get one of the newer Wi-Fi/routers with their own extenders: EEros or similar. May work better than the mismatched setup you have now. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Barms 98 Posted June 11, 2019 Thanks guys. Totally didn’t think of the firewall issue. If I’m gonna spend a penny on a new router or antennae I might as well just buy the Boost. My WiFi is exceptional in the house because of the Unifi model QA UAP LR its just that the Sonos Play 1 ignores the Unifi !! Even if it’s 12 inches away. I am pushing 150 MPs next to the Unifi and the Sonos can’t find it. (Online someone said the Unfi defaults to 5g and you have to take it down to 2.4. I’m not gonna do that. Regarhung the idea about putting the router in the office and then Cat5 back to the basement I only have one Cat5 to each room. Screw it im just gonna buy the Boost. I think it’s bullshit that Sonos won’t commect good to some mesh hardware. But apparently what i read is that tech is going the way of all products having their own mesh. It’s actyaullg better for all the devices or so they say. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
0Jeep4 87 Posted June 11, 2019 Personally I’d buy a router for the basement. Turn off the WiFi broadcast, hook up your Ethernet. Install your other router wherever you have cat5, but you’d need to configure the second router into “AP” mode (access point) so you don’t run into an IP conflict. Sonos most likely did this internationally. I remember my old xbox360 wouldn’t recognize any WiFi adapter except the $100 Microsoft one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brucin 918 Posted June 11, 2019 9 hours ago, sota said: yea... it don't work like that. router has to talk to modem then everything else talks to the router, to give you internet access. I put a call into a guy I know who does Sonos stuff all day, and ask him about extender issues (which btw, sounds like utter bullshit.) which UniFI device do you have; I've used their APs extensively and love them. I have the Ubiquiti AP Lite. Very stable. Paired with a Mikrotik hEX RB750Gr3. A bit of a chore to set up so I had a buddy who sets them up for a living do it. I have 2 ROKU's streaming at the same time and never a buffer issue or loss of picture. ROKU's are on 2.4 GHZ all other devices on 5 GHZ Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites