Advanced Home network help

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shrub

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#279996 21-Nov-2020 12:09

I have back myself into a bit of of a corner and its becoming an unmanage situation now so I am reaching out here to see if there is a better way of doing things.

Current sutuation

Gigabit Fibre > Pfsense > Netgear R6000 as an access point.
Full house cat6 networked of with an unmanaged switch from pfsense
30 odd devices scattered around some on Wifi and some on LAN
I have 3x Chromecasts and a tablet on PIA VPN through Pfsense to watch Kayosport and Motortrend on Demand
UnRaid server for Plex(Docker) + Torrents(Win10 VM)
wireguard for remote LAN access

Issues I am encountering that is now beyond me.

Xbox is not happy and ping climbing to 400+ then dropping connections
WiFi constantly pisses of the flatmates with apple devices?
I CBF logging in to router to change locations to switch between AUS/USA for VPN
Torrents are a pain and I'm still manually extracting. (Autowatch is working ok)
UnRaid wireguard needs rebooting occasionally or on Pfsense I need to kill states to make it work. Would prefer to have remote LAN access live on the router.
Arlo wont play live on WiFi only works if I turn off WiFi and use mobile data.

I have a few $$ spare and would like to clean things up and make it so I don't have to waste my time manually managing everything. Need a solution that works out of the box.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been down this hole and how its best to get out of it?

froob

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#2607964 21-Nov-2020 13:37

One solution for your WiFi issues might be to get a dedicated access point, rather than the repurposed router. I use a Unifi AP AC Lite with pfSense, and the WiFi is flawless. Works well with my Apple devices and Xboxs.

Can’t comment on some of the other more complex pieces of to your setup.

Guide: Installing Network Cabling in New Zealand Homes

nztim

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#2607988 21-Nov-2020 15:06

Whats the spec of the machine running PFsense?

If you plug into the LAN side directly excluding anything else on the internal network what is the performance?

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

shrub

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#2607989 21-Nov-2020 15:20

Lan performance is perfect always has been. Currently pfsense is on a desktop intel g4400 on H170 motherboard with 8gb ram. It's also got a 4 port Intel card. AES-NI is enabled.

Massively overkill performance for a router.

Looking at Access points would something like https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETUBI1229/Ubiquiti-UniFi-UAP-AC-PRO-Dual-band-AC1750-4501300 future proof me?

How are others getting around GeoLocation issues with Chromecasts/Tablets? I have PIA VPN(OpenVPN) on pfsense which I direct all traffic from these through just a pain switching between AUS/USA.

cyril7

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#2608001 21-Nov-2020 16:31

Hi, depending on your layout you may be better off with more than one AP, two AC-Lites to share the load will well out perform an AC Pro.

Would be interested in seeing some speedtest results from your pfsense box.

Cyril

fe31nz

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#2608002 21-Nov-2020 16:32

shrub:

Lan performance is perfect always has been. Currently pfsense is on a desktop intel g4400 on H170 motherboard with 8gb ram. It's also got a 4 port Intel card. AES-NI is enabled.

Massively overkill performance for a router.

Looking at Access points would something like https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETUBI1229/Ubiquiti-UniFi-UAP-AC-PRO-Dual-band-AC1750-4501300 future proof me?

How are others getting around GeoLocation issues with Chromecasts/Tablets? I have PIA VPN(OpenVPN) on pfsense which I direct all traffic from these through just a pain switching between AUS/USA.

No current WiFi gear can be said to be future proof, as WiFi 6 is still "coming". I have not heard if the final standard has actually been published yet, but until that happens and you can get a device that does the final standard, then you are likely to be going to have to replace whatever you buy for now. But for the same reason, you are unlikely to have any devices that need WiFi 6 to connect to yet. I decided that it was best to just get a good AP anyway as I am very unlikely to be buying any WiFi 6 capable devices soon, so I got one of these:

https://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?itemID=475855

I did not want to get Ethernet put into the ceiling - too expensive! So a free-standing device like the FlexHD suited me nicely. I have it in the middle of the house and get excellent coverage everywhere, but it is not a large house. I am very happy with it.

With a good WiFi access point like the Ubiquiti ones, you can set up different SSIDs connected to different VLANs. Then on the router, send the traffic from each of those VLANs via a specific VPN connection. You would need to run more than one PIA VPN connection at once, so they would have to allow that. With all that going, you just tell the Chromecast or tablet which SSID to connect to so that it is on the right VPN or to use the main SSID for no VPN. Note that I have not actually done this, but I do have a Guest and an IoT SSID set up using VLANs. The only problem I have with this setup is that my tablet has credentials for connecting to both the main SSID and the IoT SSID and if left to itself will often connect to IoT instead of the main SSID, even when it was last connected to the main SSID.

sbiddle

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#2608007 21-Nov-2020 16:55

fe31nz:

No current WiFi gear can be said to be future proof, as WiFi 6 is still "coming". I have not heard if the final standard has actually been published yet, but until that happens and you can get a device that does the final standard, then you are likely to be going to have to replace whatever you buy for now. But for the same reason, you are unlikely to have any devices that need WiFi 6 to connect to yet. I decided that it was best to just get a good AP anyway as I am very unlikely to be buying any WiFi 6 capable devices soon, so I got one of these:

WiFi 6 was officially ratified by the IEEE in September. Most current model WiFi 6 hardware is fully compatible with the final spec, it is really only some earlier stuff that isn't. There are also a huge number of devices out there now that support it - most new phones and high end laptops all support it.

The real question however is whether WiFi 6 will make any difference, and for many people the answer is no. Even if you have WiFi 6 AP's and clients many people will find there are zero performance gains over WiFi 5, and you then also have to look at things such as the number of chains - UBNT have released their new WiFi 6 AP's and one is only 2x2.

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shrub

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#2608008 21-Nov-2020 16:55

cyril7:

Hi, depending on your layout you may be better off with more than one AP, two AC-Lites to share the load will well out perform an AC Pro.

Would be interested in seeing some speedtest results from your pfsense box.

Cyril

From when I was with Orcon

Currently with Voyager but due to cg-nat its a bit slower and varies from 700-850mbps

shrub

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#2608010 21-Nov-2020 17:01

sbiddle:

fe31nz:

No current WiFi gear can be said to be future proof, as WiFi 6 is still "coming". I have not heard if the final standard has actually been published yet, but until that happens and you can get a device that does the final standard, then you are likely to be going to have to replace whatever you buy for now. But for the same reason, you are unlikely to have any devices that need WiFi 6 to connect to yet. I decided that it was best to just get a good AP anyway as I am very unlikely to be buying any WiFi 6 capable devices soon, so I got one of these:

WiFi 6 was officially ratified by the IEEE in September. Most current model WiFi 6 hardware is fully compatible with the final spec, it is really only some earlier stuff that isn't. There are also a huge number of devices out there now that support it - most new phones and high end laptops all support it.

The real question however is whether WiFi 6 will make any difference, and for many people the answer is no. Even if you have WiFi 6 AP's and clients many people will find there are zero performance gains over WiFi 5, and you then also have to look at things such as the number of chains - UBNT have released their new WiFi 6 AP's and one is only 2x2.

Good Old 2.4ghz can still handle 4k streaming. Large file transfers between Server and computers/laptops I'd still be stuck plugging into gigabit LAN anyway.

My house is only 90sqm and a square box. If I roof mount an access point coverage will be perfectly fine.