Comcast Modem/Router for a 5000 sq ft house

[randomrogue]

This is something I've been struggling with but I need to get the internet to work on all 3 floors. I also am switching to Comcast so I need a modem that supports the voice ports for the phone service. Any insight? I get the impression I need to get a modem, a router (or a combo), and an extender to get this to work.

The house is broken up into 3 floors with one TV on the top floor, one on the bottom floor, and internet needed on all 3. With a regular router on the top floor I can get shitty wireless on the top floor and middle floor and nothing on the bottom. I definitely need something with some oomph.

 

[nsafreak]

Do you have a budget in mind? For the modem I would use the Arris TM822G. I have one and it works just fine giving me a steady consistent speed and I haven't really had to reset it although part of that is dependent on Comcast. For the router I would use something along the lines of an Asus RT-N66U with 2 or 3 Ubiquiti Wifi APs. Total amount of that setup (depending on sales & where you purchase) is going to be about $400 give or take a bit. Not cheap but it should work quite well.

 

[randomrogue]

What's the difference between that modem and the TM722G that they have listed on their supported modems page? Will I notice these differences?

 

[Genx87]

This is something I've been struggling with but I need to get the internet to work on all 3 floors. I also am switching to Comcast so I need a modem that supports the voice ports for the phone service. Any insight? I get the impression I need to get a modem, a router (or a combo), and an extender to get this to work.

The house is broken up into 3 floors with one TV on the top floor, one on the bottom floor, and internet needed on all 3. With a regular router on the top floor I can get shitty wireless on the top floor and middle floor and nothing on the bottom. I definitely need something with some oomph.

My dad rented the Comcast modem with voice. I got him a D-Link wireless that had an extended range(Cant remember the model). The modem comes into his office with the wireless router there. The office is next to the garage. He is able to get a good signal in his bedroom on the other side of the house. His house is 8000 sq feet.

 

[nsafreak]

What's the difference between that modem and the TM722G that they have listed on their supported modems page? Will I notice these differences?

Well they're both DOCSIS 3.0 modems which is the main thing that you want to look for in a cable modem so either should be fine. There might be some new features in one over the other but I doubt anything you'll notice.

 

[randomrogue]

So there should be a router out there then that can handle 5000 sq ft without extenders. I'll try to google again for a specific model.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Wireless is very subjective.

keep nsafreak's solution in mind. those unifi's have a good track record, as does the Asus. I would be doing it similar to that and not relying on my SOHO router to cover all of it adequately.

 

[JackMDS]

Depending on the layout there is a very good chance that there is No one Wireless Router that would take care of 5000 sq ft.

Start with one good Wireless Router (example - http://www.amazon.com/RT-N66U-Dual-B.../dp/B006QB1RPY )

Then put more devices as needed.

The typical means to extend coverage are.

1. Access Points (or Wireless Router working as an Access Point) connect with wire to the main Router (Using Wireless Routers as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html )

2. Wireless Extenders.

3. Power line (Ethernet over the house electrical ).

4 MOCA (Ethernet over coax cables).

Best and guaranteed success is no (additional AP).

The others depends on your specific physical and electronic environment.

 

[azazel1024]

I am with Jack on this. With 5,000sq-ft, one router will not cover it all. In all likelihood even a router with a wireless extender will not cover the entire thing and will deffinitely be a bad experience in general (wireless extenders halve wireless bandwidth, or worse). With a house that large, if you want satisfactory coverage you are probably going to want a wireless router on one floor and an access point on each of the other floors wired back to the router (no wireless extenders!). You'll want them all pretty centrally located and having 5 or 7dBi external antennas wouldn't hurt.

I'll grant I am handicapped by a nice large 4ft thick masonry chimney blocking part of my house, so I MUST use a pair of APs to cover the interior. Without that I could probably cover my entire house with at least fair wireless reception at 2 levels and ~2400sq-ft if the router was centrally located (and I didn't have that masonry chimney in the way blacking out one room and my garage). As it stands I have my router in the basement on one side of the house and an AP on the main level on the other side of the house (in the room with the masonry chimney "blocking" things). I have generally excellent to very good 2.4GHz reception through out and excellent to good 5GHz reception through out.

I can't imagine trying to double the space AND adding another level and hoping a single router, even with a wireless extender could cover it all (with reception, sure. With good reception, heck no).

 

[randomrogue]

Well wiring the house is probably out of the question. Unfortunately.

So let me be more specific and see what you think.

The bottom floor has a TV and it needs internet access for streaming TV. The middle floor is just living space and the kitchen and just needs wireless internet for things like phones and laptops. The top floor is bedrooms, has another TV, and desktops that need decent internet. If I can't wire the whole house what would you do?

This might also be a dumb question but would more than one modem solve this problem somehow? What if I had a modem on the top and bottom floor and just wired straight to the TV's and then I'd pretty much only need to worry about the top two floors. Maybe...

 

[ch33zw1z]

Well wiring the house is probably out of the question. Unfortunately.

So let me be more specific and see what you think.

The bottom floor has a TV and it needs internet access for streaming TV. The middle floor is just living space and the kitchen and just needs wireless internet for things like phones and laptops. The top floor is bedrooms, has another TV, and desktops that need decent internet. If I can't wire the whole house what would you do?

If it was me, I would try to drop a WAP from the top floor to the middle. The best location you can. Getting the signal to the bottom floor that way. I know you said you can't wire at all, but this is what i would look into first. I would be aiming for a closet to mount the WAP in, with Power over Ethernet to run it.

This might also be a dumb question but would more than one modem solve this problem somehow? What if I had a modem on the top and bottom floor and just wired straight to the TV's and then I'd pretty much only need to worry about the top two floors. Maybe...

This would require another line of service from the ISP. other two options:

1. Moca setup between floors. Uses coax to join the ethernet network. I'm assuming the coax runs through the house from splitters or something. google it
2. Powerline. Using existing electrical wiring to join the ethernet network

All these options are YMMV. a couple google searches will get you loads of info.

 

[JackMDS]

It seems like running one or two simple runs of Ethernet Wire became the New ""AntiChrist"". :'( - - :twisted:.

In most cases one or two wires for an additional AP solve very nicely many of the Thread that appear in this Forum.

There are many creative ways to run one or two wires without offending the Household "Chief Architect" (or the Rental Landlord).

 

[kevnich2]

If you can't add a few drops of cat5 (my preferred way and just stick a few AP's in the central point on each floor), then do a search on amazon for some actiontec moca access points. They connect to the existing coax lines and basically do the same thing. I'm more a fan of cat5 for AP's but the moca does work, just slightly slower speeds than cat5.

Something along the lines of this: http://www.amazon.com/Actiontec-Dual...actiontec+moca

 

[randomrogue]

So this house is built like a rock but it's built a long time ago and has old coax and crazy splitters that make me using something like a moca ap very difficult. We have a central control room and each room has two seperate coax cables running to it and it's all arranged in a way that makes zero sense to me and even the cable guy was impressed with it. Plus on top of that we have direct TV lines running through the same box.

Odds are we'll only be in this house for a couple more years at most. Quite frankly a house this big is nothing but a pain in the ass and we want something smaller. That makes investing in running cat all over the place a bit of a wasted expense. We'd have to punch through multiple floors and run hundreds and hundreds of feet which just won't work. When we moved in the garage had so much head room that we created another floor above it so technically I'd have to punch through 4 floors.

I'm going to go buy some powerline adapters and see how they do.

 

[Fardringle]

You don't need to "run cat all over the place". You just need one connection to each floor. Put an access point that that location and you have very solid wireless coverage for the whole house.

 

[randomrogue]

If I was staying here...sure. However for $49 I linked the top floor and the bottom floor today in 2 seconds. I might switch it to the 500Mbps setup but so far the 200Mbps kit works just fine.

One thing though. Netflix keeps saying that the internet isn't on even though every other app works. I'm not sure if that's because the Blu Ray player is still running updates or I haven't setup an account somewhere not but the app is installed and will not load.

 

[azazel1024]

I would blame it on crappy blu ray player if that is what you are trying to watch netflix on. Does it happen to be a Samsung BR player by any chance?

Personally I wouldn't touch "smart TV" or blu ray player media streaming or internet apps with a 10ft pool. To many vulnerabilities, too many issues and the interfaces are almost always crap. I'd just get a cheap AppleTV, Roku or similar.

 

[randomrogue]

lol yeah it's a Samsung player. First one that could do it so I think it is a 5300. I got it working and think it was just needing to download a ton of updates. I'll look into the alternatives though. A bit new to me so I appreciate the suggestions.