Wifi options for new house build

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bbunnys

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#173786 6-Jun-2015 14:45

We are just about to start building an new house and due to the amount of laptops, tablets and phones we have I want to set-up the house for excellent wifi. Actual internet is on Snap fibre with a Frtizbox 7390.

Does anyone know a good company in Christchurch to talk to about this.

Ideally im thinking of something like what we have at my work where we have 3 wifi outlets mounted in roof (access points) connect to main modem via cable, PoE. And when you walk around building phone/laptop just connect to strongest signal, depending on your location. Dont want to have to log onto each hotspot manually so needs to have zero hand off for when walking around house. Also needs to be able to handle 4-8 devices at any given time.

I figure having a few of these in a house should give excellent wifi range throughout. House is about 290sq meters.

Jase2985

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#1318306 6-Jun-2015 15:08

depends on how many access points you think you will need and what standard you want to run. Do you want N600, or AC1300 or ...... this helps with device choice.

another influencing factor is where will your Frtizbox be? will it be able to serve wifi? if so you might only need 1 more access point for the rest of the house.

could look at something like the 3 packs that Go wifi offer of the Ubiquiti range, or you might just need a single device.

http://www.gowifi.co.nz/ubiquiti-networks/ubiquiti-networks-unifi.html
Scroll down.

dont take much to setup and as long as you set the SSID password and encription method to the same setting they should just allow devices to roam.

lots and lots of factors will influence what you go with.

jonb

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#1318319 6-Jun-2015 15:50

I take it you will be doing full structured wiring at the same time, 2-4 Ethernet cables to each room?
Can extend that to a few more outlets specifically for wifi access points (WAP), and can decide to run power over Ethernet (PoE) so these wifi access points can be small and discrete on a wall with no power socket.

chevrolux

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#1318321 6-Jun-2015 16:12

Grab yourself a 3-pack of Unifi Pro's. Dual band access points, can be run with PoE and look sexy as hell on the ceiling.
Strategically place these around the house bearing in mind that wireless essentially 'line of sight' so think how many walls and things the signal is going to go through before it gets to your device.
Set them up with the supplied, free, software and away you go. You will set yourself up a couple of SSID's (one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz), pull the transmit power down a bit on them and all sorted.
I've been working in Christchurch for the last month or so and will be in the area for the next few months at least. Happy to help out if you need a hand.

timmmay

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#1318323 6-Jun-2015 16:21

My Fritz goes through a few walls fine at 5GHz, even more at 2.4. But yes plan ahead, run cable to a few places you think you might want access points, even if you don't do them immediately. I suspect if the access point is sitting in the ceiling above the insulation it will work fine and looks better than putting them on the ceiling, but may get a bit hot and fail more quickly.

SumnerBoy

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#1318329 6-Jun-2015 17:07

GoWifi (as already mentioned) are definitely the guys to talk to. Based out in Kaiapoi I think, very helpful and plenty of gear to choose from.

Jase2985

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#1318367 6-Jun-2015 17:48

timmmay: looks better than putting them on the ceiling, but may get a bit hot and fail more quickly.

they look fine in the ceiling, and they are designed to be in there so kinda a moot point

i suspect a device in the roof space would fail quicker as my ceiling sees temps of up to 60deg in the summer

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reven

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#1318375 6-Jun-2015 18:04

+1 for 3x Unifi wifi APs. Im just using one in my 202m2 house (600m2 land) signal is strong everywhere. I was going to get a second one but havent needed to.

bbunnys

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#1318382 6-Jun-2015 18:11

jonb: I take it you will be doing full structured wiring at the same time, 2-4 Ethernet cables to each room?
Can extend that to a few more outlets specifically for wifi access points (WAP), and can decide to run power over Ethernet (PoE) so these wifi access points can be small and discrete on a wall with no power socket.

Yea planning to have outlets in each room. Mainly for TVs and things that wont be moving around.

bbunnys

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#1318383 6-Jun-2015 18:12

SumnerBoy: GoWifi (as already mentioned) are definitely the guys to talk to. Based out in Kaiapoi I think, very helpful and plenty of gear to choose from.

Cheers, will check them out.

michaelmurfy

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#1318406 6-Jun-2015 19:16

Another option which seems to be quite good is the Xclaim XI-3 made by Ruckus:

Available from Amazon Here.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Sideface

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#1318421 6-Jun-2015 19:32

jonb: I take it you will be doing full structured wiring at the same time, 2-4 Ethernet cables to each room?
Can extend that to a few more outlets specifically for wifi access points (WAP), and can decide to run power over Ethernet (PoE) so these wifi access points can be small and discrete on a wall with no power socket.

+1

Easy to do when you're building, difficult and expensive to do later.

EDIT: Sorry, bbunnys - missed your recent response to jonb.

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Camden

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#1318467 6-Jun-2015 22:31

Four years ago I was able to completely redo the the communication, data, sound and tv/video wiring in our house as part of adding a second story covering about 50% of the ground floor. Ground floor 240 sq m and 2nd floor 120 sq m.

The old roof space previously not used is now walk in storage and holds the tv distribution cabinet and the phone/data equipment. The Spark Gateway HG659b is housed in the attic space about central to the ground floor and is at roughly floor level and at one end of upstairs. With only that one bit of equipment we get really good coverage all over the house on the wifi. Just out of old habit more than anything, I have my laptop hard wired as it is on my desk 90% of the time and also likewise the network printer is hard wired even though it works perfectly on the wifi signal.
The equipment load on it is

Four laptops
One desktop
One tablet
Four phones
One ipod
One amplifier
One X Box
One PS3
One PS4

Up until this week we were on VDSL using a Techicolor TG589vn and the results were the same. The only time the signal cut out was when someone cooked with the microwave oven. Don't know yet if the new device will be effected with that or not.

I am not up with the play on the gear you are proposing to use, but will you need the three extra devices.Will not the supplied Snap device give you the coverage you require by itself? Our house is just standard gib internal walls, brick exterior and long run iron roof.

Even just four years ago data/phone sockets were of more importance than they may be now, so we put in about 30 outlets just to make sure of future need.