Setting up a wireless network in a two-story house

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Kookoo

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#322739 17-Sep-2025 23:11

The trouble I'm having with getting UFB to my new home has given me time to think about how I want to set up my network once I do get fibre.

In our previous place I had a Fritz!Box 7590 hooked up to the ONT, and a 7530 as a wireless mesh. I was hoping to reuse them, even though both are WiFi 5. The new place has two floors. The comms cabinet is in the garage on the ground floor. There are two Ethernet cables running from the comms cabinet to Ethernet wall jacks - one on each floor, where the architect expected the TVs to go. 🤦‍♂️That's it, no more Cat6 in the entire house.

I assume the ONT, once installed, will be in the comms cabinet. The comms cabinet being in the garage and made of aluminum, I don't want to place the 7590 there if we plan to use it for WiFi. I can place the 7590 in the lounge and use one of the two available ethernet cables to connect the ONT to it. That would mean I have to connect the 7530 to it as a wireless mesh which isn't a great option. What else can I do here? Can I, for example, use the 7590 in the comms cabinet as a modem router, and get a couple of Deco x55 units or similar as APs, hanging off the 7590 LAN ports? Is there anything else I can do, asides from rewiring the place?

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nitro

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#3415837 18-Sep-2025 09:33

even if you keep the 7590 as your router, why decos as pure access points? you can get enterprise grade access points for similar pricing. especially if you're ok with the used market.

in your place, i'd take the opportunity to upgrade your network gear, as well. think a router (wired/no wifi) in the comms cabinet with the ONT and 2 access points at the other ends of the cables to cover the 2 floors with wifi goodness. also consider a switch at the port behind your tv/entertainment centre to have the devices there wired.

darylblake

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#3415838 18-Sep-2025 09:44

I got a 2 storey house. I used to have two unifi 802.11n access points one on the top floor. One on the bottom.
Now I just have a single Wifi-6 AP in the centre of the house and I get great coverage in every room. Grandstream GWN7605
My best advice would be to cable in everything you can. I have Xbox, TV's and desktop pc's and even a few bits and pieces plugged into the LAN.
Meaning less items in total using the wifi. This leaves it for phones/tablets and items that are wifi only.

I can easily add another access point if i need to but I dont need to.

You can keep your existing router but having AP's that do a bit of a dodgy mesh where it overlaps a lot etc wont be ideal. Your better off with one or two well placed high quality access point(s) and disabling the wifi on your router.

Its hard to tell as I dont know your house layout. But my 2nd floor is directly above my first. If you do need to go with two access points try keep them further ends of the house and tune their output.

freitasm

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#3415852 18-Sep-2025 10:27

If you are getting a mesh system, just get rid of the FritzBox and have one unit in the cabinet (if it fits) and other two units, one in each floor, connected via ethernet?

A lot simpler configuration than having a router, then a different system, avoiding configuration problems.

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Behodar

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#3415874 18-Sep-2025 11:43

darylblake:

I got a 2 storey house. I used to have two unifi 802.11n access points one on the top floor. One on the bottom.
Now I just have a single Wifi-6 AP in the centre of the house and I get great coverage in every room. Grandstream GWN7605
My best advice would be to cable in everything you can. I have Xbox, TV's and desktop pc's and even a few bits and pieces plugged into the LAN.
Meaning less items in total using the wifi. This leaves it for phones/tablets and items that are wifi only.

Same sort of thing there. I also have a two-storey house and I have the router (a Synology RT6600ax if you really want to know) in a central cupboard and it seems to do the trick. But like darylblake I have everything important cabled, so the Wi-Fi is only really used by my phone and laptop.

turtleattacks

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#3415876 18-Sep-2025 11:47

freitasm:

If you are getting a mesh system, just get rid of the FritzBox and have one unit in the cabinet (if it fits) and other two units, one in each floor, connected via ethernet?

A lot simpler configuration than having a router, then a different system, avoiding configuration problems.

Are the mesh AP 2.4 and 5GHz? One thing to remember is that some dishwashers, security cameras are only on 2.4GHz.

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toejam316

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#3415879 18-Sep-2025 12:05

How much space do you have in your cabinet? You could keep using the Fritzbox, grab a PoE switch and grab 2 PoE APs to use in the house itself. I recommend Grandstream for the APs

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CYaBro

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#3415880 18-Sep-2025 12:06

When my parents had to do some work on their place I made sure to advise them about putting data points in each room and where they thought a TV may go.

Plus we put an extra data cable into the ceiling of the middle floor of a 3 story house, centrally located.

Data cabinet was put in the garage.

I then installed a Unifi AP on the ceiling with that data cable and it covered all 3 floors no trouble, even with a concrete floor for that middle floor.

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freitasm

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#3415882 18-Sep-2025 12:09

toejam316:

How much space do you have in your cabinet? You could keep using the Fritzbox, grab a PoE switch and grab 2 PoE APs to use in the house itself. I recommend Grandstream for the APs

Too complicated. Will need space for the FritzBox and switch, plus pottentialy the ONT.

Then needs to manage Frizboz and those APs.

If those APs are just dum APs they will likely conflict with each other. And require individual management for each AP and router.

Just get a mesh solution with three nodes, all managed from a single UI, no interference.

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cddt

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#3415898 18-Sep-2025 13:22

freitasm:

Then needs to manage Frizboz and those APs.

If those APs are just dum APs they will likely conflict with each other. And require individual management for each AP and router.

Grandstream APs have on-device management, i.e. no additional device is required to manage them. If you have multiple then one acts as the master for the others. Hand-off between the devices is seamless...

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Kookoo

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#3416036 18-Sep-2025 22:41

Wow, that's a lot to digest, thanks for your replies everyone. One thing is clear - I should ditch the Fritz!Box. It makes no sense to use it just as a wired modem or router if I need to manage the wireless appliances separately. It will be missed.

To answer questions:

The cabinet is 45x30x9cm (hwd)
I've got one RJ45 in the lounge, about 40cm off the floor. There are 5 devices there that I prefer to run over LAN.
The only other RJ45 is upstairs in the master bedroom. I've got no devices to connect to it currently. I do have devices in the study that I'd prefer to connect to LAN, but short of wiring changes, that's not an option.

If understand everyone's suggestions correctly, I've got two options, more or less:

Option 1 (based on nitro/darylblake suggestions): ONT + PoE Router in the cabinet, 2 x APs at each PoE end. The APs need to be wall-mounted or freestanding. All appliances need to be same brand for simplicity of management, so something like Grandstream GWN7002 in the cabinet, and a couple of GWN7604 at each PoE end. Plug an unmanaged 4-port switch into the AP in the lounge (or the other way around).

Option 2 (based on freitasm suggestion): ONT in the cabinet, 1 mesh unit hanging off Eth in the lounge, the other one is wireless upstairs. One Eth cable will remain unused. So let's say something like 2 x Deco X60, and plug an unmanaged switch into the mesh unit downstairs (or the other way around).

Am I on the right track here?

Hello, Ground!

freitasm

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#3416039 18-Sep-2025 22:51

It will depend on which devices you need wired or not. There's some stuff to consider but we don't know everything.

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toejam316

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#3416040 18-Sep-2025 23:47

I'd recommend Option 1 hands down. The GWN7002 would be a great solution, and if you want to really be tidy about things you could use the GWN In wall/wall mounted line of APs and replace the existing wall plates with them, though this will require reterminating the existing cables too.

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CYaBro

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#3416044 19-Sep-2025 00:19

Unifi have in wall APs that also have a 4 port switch in them so you get both wifi and LAN connections in that location.

Leave the already punched rj45 socket on the end of the data cable and use a short patch lead to connect the in wall AP.

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