The router which our broadband provider gives is awful (doesn't support ac or 5ghz) particularly for wifi. So I use at in modem mode and have d-link router for all other tasks and wifi. You can attach a hard drive to it for use as an iTunes server or for other media but I never managed to get it to work successfully or reliably. For most of the devices I allocated an address to as I was finding so devices would try and compete for an address and then not work.
Amazon product ASIN B00E1AM1JS
Most devices are cable connected otherwise there would be too many devices competing for band width. For cables, I found that buying 100m cable, connectors and a clamp was cheaper than buying individual cables. Also you can make a cable the length you need and not one with about 5m more than required. Near the TV this means you can make a 50 cm lead and not have to buy a 1m lead. It is a bit tidier.
I also got a lan cable tester which also saves a lot of time errror finding. Again, buying all that was less than buying ready made cables.
The device list image shows current devices but there are others that are switched off that can bring the total up to 20! There is a 10 port switch just for devices connected to the TV (TV, Apple TV, PS3, PS4, Receiver, BluRay player, Sky+ box, Hue light hub, and finally Hive central heating hub). There is another switch that is for the backup server, Mac Mini and gaming PC. Finally there are all the wifi devices; iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone, Windows phone, Amazon TV stick and printer.
So you have a lot of devices competing for bandwidth which can affect streaming and gaming. On the d-link router I have enabled QoS. Before doing that run a QoS speed tester as this will give you more realistic information to use. The QoS engine will then prioritise use of the bandwidth across the network and device usage. The result is that gaming and streaming can then get a higher priority than web browsing. Once implemented if you do a Speedtest in a browser the speed you get may be a lot lower than what you are paying for but do you need 100mbps for browsing? I have tried with and without QoS enabled and generally it is better with it switched on. If you only have a few devices it may not be worth it.
I did have 200mbps broadband when I was doing the car photography as the upload speed increase was worth the extra but since then 100mbps is fine. At one point the provider was doing tests and I was getting 300 down but in practical terms I didn't notice any difference.
I had tried powerline network devices but that wasn't reliable enough and could become expensive.
The new Google router that can form a mesh network when other outlets are added sounds really good but there is no way I would have any Google hardware in the house. I just don't trust them at all. Don't have anything to hide but their invasive snooping is just creepy.
Amazon product ASIN B00E1AM1JS
Most devices are cable connected otherwise there would be too many devices competing for band width. For cables, I found that buying 100m cable, connectors and a clamp was cheaper than buying individual cables. Also you can make a cable the length you need and not one with about 5m more than required. Near the TV this means you can make a 50 cm lead and not have to buy a 1m lead. It is a bit tidier.
I also got a lan cable tester which also saves a lot of time errror finding. Again, buying all that was less than buying ready made cables.The device list image shows current devices but there are others that are switched off that can bring the total up to 20! There is a 10 port switch just for devices connected to the TV (TV, Apple TV, PS3, PS4, Receiver, BluRay player, Sky+ box, Hue light hub, and finally Hive central heating hub). There is another switch that is for the backup server, Mac Mini and gaming PC. Finally there are all the wifi devices; iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone, Windows phone, Amazon TV stick and printer.
So you have a lot of devices competing for bandwidth which can affect streaming and gaming. On the d-link router I have enabled QoS. Before doing that run a QoS speed tester as this will give you more realistic information to use. The QoS engine will then prioritise use of the bandwidth across the network and device usage. The result is that gaming and streaming can then get a higher priority than web browsing. Once implemented if you do a Speedtest in a browser the speed you get may be a lot lower than what you are paying for but do you need 100mbps for browsing? I have tried with and without QoS enabled and generally it is better with it switched on. If you only have a few devices it may not be worth it.
I did have 200mbps broadband when I was doing the car photography as the upload speed increase was worth the extra but since then 100mbps is fine. At one point the provider was doing tests and I was getting 300 down but in practical terms I didn't notice any difference.
I had tried powerline network devices but that wasn't reliable enough and could become expensive.
The new Google router that can form a mesh network when other outlets are added sounds really good but there is no way I would have any Google hardware in the house. I just don't trust them at all. Don't have anything to hide but their invasive snooping is just creepy.
