Router and mesh advice for Leased Line

Hi. I'm having a leased line survey tomorrow and hoping that the service is installed not long afterwards. It's 100/100 (but for home use) and I am looking for advice on basically what to do once the line is installed, ie router recommendations and solutions to ensure the whole property is covered. The house is quite large (approx 3600sq ft) and over 3 floors. A few rooms have ethernet cables sticking out of wall plates which I think all terminate in the loft, but aside from a gaming PC I think everything else should be fine on wifi provided I get a good mesh network. Open to suggestions for a router and mesh system, or a better plan if one exists, and thanks in advance for any advice as this is something I know very little about.

Budget?

Although if you are going for a leased line then I guess you are willing to spend a reasonable amount.

HAve a look at Ubiquiti ...

Dream Machine Pro as teh router with in built management console and more, then maybe three of their HD or new WiFi6 WAPs. The HD WAPs come with POE injectors.

DMP has an 8 port switch built in (plus WAN inputs) and you can add another of their switches to the system if you wish.

Will have a look at all that thanks. Budget wise, I was thinking around £500 all i

UDM Pro * 3 x WiFi 6 lite or 2x HD Nano/Flex - maybe £500 ish.


I have a fairly large hose on two floors - and two HD FLex gives excellent coverage.

In case the setup catches fire?

😎😎🤐

After the lightning strike and items catching fire, YES!

100 Mbps is not particularly taxing for a modern router so there is plenty of choice out there that will do what you need, without any performance concerns.

Also make sure you understand from your service provider what physical “presentation” you will be getting from their NTE (network terminating equipment). On a 100 Meg bearer it will quite likely be copper (standard RJ45 port) but you don’t want to be surprised when they come to install if they have configured the for single mode or multi mode fibre interface.

Also ensure you have the necessary rack space for the fibre termination tray/shelf (usually 1 rack unit) and also the NTE (again typically 1 or 2 RU high). Neither are particularly deep so you won’t need a massive space. They also often are able to wall mount both the fibre termination and NTE if needed, but it may be neater actually if you dedicate a small wall or floor mounted shallow equipment cab.

On the WiFi side - the Ubiquiti UniFi range access points are pretty good on the whole.

The only caveat I would advise is that sometimes their firmware is a bit on the ropey side, but on the whole the hardware is v.good. You could safely get away with their UniFi Nano HD APs, neat small and immense performance that will flatter your 100 meg connection. They will easily do 600 Mbps (just up to 4x4 on AC) both ways in real life. They seem to have dropped a cog with some of the latest AX supporting AP kit…but I digress.

Edited by Pheasant (Sun 18-Jul-21 17:10:50)

As others said AP is easy if you are not fully techy - just get either Ubiquiti or TP-Link. TP-Link's are cheaper and offer better coverage but are physically bigger.

Router though all depends on what you are after and your tech knowledge. Personally I would go for a Draytek as they are easy to setup, are virtually bomb proof; Draytek2865 is a good option as would give you future proof if you ever get 1Gbps FTTP, but its £200+. Other options are Ubiquiti's Edgerouters, Mikrotik or various consumer routers, as 100mbps even the lowest of low routers can handle.

Also don't buy WiFi6 kit yet, wait till the next version with 6GHz is more available, that's the one that will actually bring real improvements.

Edited by deleted (Mon 19-Jul-21 09:20:55)

In reply to a post by dogcat:

As others said AP is easy if you are not fully techy - just get either Ubiquiti or TP-Link. TP-Link's are cheaper and offer better coverage but are physically bigger.

Router though all depends on what you are after and your tech knowledge. Personally I would go for a Draytek as they are easy to setup, are virtually bomb proof; Draytek2865 is a good option as would give you future proof if you ever get 1Gbps FTTP, but its £200+. Other options are Ubiquiti's Edgerouters, Mikrotik or various consumer routers, as 100mbps even the lowest of low routers can handle.

Also don't buy WiFi6 kit yet, wait till the next version with 6GHz is more available, that's the one that will actually bring real improvements.

One thing I'd say is the DrayTek isn't great for 1Gbps as you basically have to disable all firewall features for it to hit its maximum through put of 950Mbps,

Thanks
Dan

Post deleted by nofappingway

One thing I'd say is the DrayTek isn't great for 1Gbps as you basically have to disable all firewall features for it to hit its maximum through put of 950Mbps,

Not true. 2865 connected to symmetrical gigabit connection runs at full 950Mb/s speed with all features enabled including its firewall no problem.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

On the WiFi side - the Ubiquiti UniFi range access points are pretty good on the whole.

I have the Unifi AC Lite (two of them). Very good for the price, flying saucer form factor works great for ceiling mounting, powered using PoE, good management software.

I use Mikrotik rather than Unifi for the routing, but TBH at 100M pretty much anything will work fine, so go with what you're comfortable managing. A small form factor PC running pfSense is worth considering too.

Hi and thanks for all the advice given. A brief update: despite assurances from the account manager that the leased line would be a quick & easy install with no initial charges beyond TalkTalk's £2800 'contribution', the survey has just come back & I need to top up by £1400 & there's a 2 month lead time. Still not 100% decided, but right now I'm not happy with the additional cost so I'll continue to struggle with 4g until Starlink is available (paid deposit in May).

Are you urban, semi-rural or rural?

Did you get quotes from several providers or just one for the LL, as excess construction costs can vary massively depending on which supplier tails your CP is quoting? I’ve been on the receiving end of the leased line merry-go-round…

On Starlink they will prioritise if you are in a rural area, and especially with cell coverage. That is really their target market at the mo

Semi rural I'd say. Mostly farmland & few properties but reasonably close to a large business park. I had LL quotes from about 5 providers for 100/100 (3 year contract), ranging from £220/ month to £300+. The £220 was with TalkTalk who also had the highest construction contribution at £2800.

Any recommendations for checking cell coverage? Thanks

Fair enough with the leased lines. Much like FTTP if there is no nearby node with capacity then they have to build to get to you which is expensive. In major cities there can be enough nearby capacity that they will effectively absorb the build charges on a 3 year deal, but not typically the case when you get out in the sticks.

With Starlink all you can do is sign up and hope you get selected (soon). They don’t publish any availability maps etc. At the moment it’s rather random.