Which router for our new building?

Hello,

we are planning our new build from the developer and have an appointment with the electrician soon.

I am dealing with the LAN planning.

I will plan enough LAN connections for every room and also in the garage.

Should we use a mesh network router system like Netgear Orbi, Amazon Eero (one device on every floor or in the most important rooms, it can be expanded as needed if there are gaps) or whatever they are called, or does it have to be an expensive POE access point network??

I would say we are a higher-end standard user.

I want to have good WiFi reception everywhere in the house so that I always have enough WiFi to surf with my phone.

A speed of 50-100mb on the phone would be enough for me but it should be stable (we will get a 500mb or maybe only 250mb connection).

Does it have to be POE APs mounted on the ceiling or are those a bit too much for us?

Or is a basic router mesh system (e.g. Netgear Orbi) enough for us?

The electrician will probably charge a lot of money to lay the POE cable (developer projects after all :/)

Hello,

we are planning our new build with the developer and have an appointment with the electrician soon.

I am dealing with the LAN planning.

I will plan enough LAN connections for every room and also in the garage.

Should we use a mesh network router system, e.g. Netgear Orbi, Amazon Eero (one device on each floor or in the most important rooms, can be expanded as much as needed if there are gaps) or whatever they are called, or does it absolutely have to be an expensive POE access point network?

I would say we are a user with a higher standard.

I want to have a good WiFi reception everywhere in the house so that I always have enough WiFi on my phone for surfing.

A speed of 50-100mb on the phone would be enough for me, but it should be stable (we will have a 500mb or maybe only a 250mb line).

Do they really have to be POE APs mounted on the ceiling or are those a bit too much for us?

Or is a plain old router mesh system (e.g. Netgear Orbi) enough for us?

Laying the POE cable will probably cost the electrician a lot of money (developer projects, you know :/ )

That now entirely depends on what you are building.

Do you have a basement? Should the technology be isolated from everything (separate technical room on one floor)?

For example, we have a basement and moved the router into our basement (technical room). Of course, the reception down there does not reach upstairs.

Therefore, we have had a LAN socket installed for each floor, which I have now equipped with access points.

Reception/Range: --> Perfect! I am super satisfied with the networking.

Otherwise, you can just get a FritzBox with mesh or similar and see if that is enough for you. It also depends on your building method. In our case, no signal really passes through the concrete ceiling, so I need access points floor by floor.

I had additional costs of:

1x PoE-capable switch: surcharge compared to non-PoE approx. €100?
2x access points for ceiling/wall mounting: approx. €160 --> €80 each
2x LAN sockets for the access points: depends on how much your electrician charges per LAN socket - varies...

That’s basically it? The rest like router, LAN cables etc. for your technology you will need anyway.

I just find the thing with access points really cool... Awesome WiFi reception throughout the house - in my opinion, not comparable to just having the router somewhere and then, for example, working on other floors with some repeaters or such... forget it.

By the way, we mounted the access points on the wall - relatively well hidden in some corners. It is supposedly better for the signal to mount them on the ceiling - but I have full reception everywhere.

Laying the POE cable will very likely cost a lot of money by the electrician (developer projects, you know :/ )

Why should a "POE cable" or its installation be more expensive than for a "normal" connection?

There is no POE cable. POE is simply the function that the end device receives its power supply through the existing RJ45 network cable. Therefore, no separate cable needs to be installed.

Do the APs have to be POE ones mounted on the ceiling, or are they a bit too much for us?

Not necessarily, but of course, they can be positioned more optimally than if they are connected in a room and then placed behind a cabinet.

or is a basic router mesh system (e.g. Netgear Orbi) sufficient for us?

Most likely yes. If you get a FritzBox as a router, you could also use their repeaters; some of them can also be operated as access points. Especially if you are not very technically skilled and don’t want to deal with it, this is ideal because they can be set up within a few minutes and then just work.

Running the POE cable will very likely cost a lot with the electrician (developer projects though :/ )

As already mentioned, there are no POE cables. However, outlets in the ceiling will probably be charged separately.


Just as an idea, how I did it (120m²):
* FritzBox is in the utility room
* 1 Fritz Repeater 1200 AX in the living room, so that the terrace and a large part of the garden are also covered.
* 1 Fritz Repeater 1200 AX directly above the utility room in the bedroom
* 1 small 5-port switch in the attic (cable was routed through an existing shaft), where another access point (Fritz Repeater 3000) is connected.

Connection to the router almost everywhere in the house is 300 - 500 Mbit/s. That is completely sufficient, especially if we (hopefully) get the fiber connection next year. I have found spots here and there where the reception is poor. However, it currently doesn't matter at all if only 50 Mbit arrive in the furthest corner of the kids’ room and only about 100 Mbit is possible in the bathroom.

If necessary, I could also connect the repeater in the living room via cable if there should ever be problems with throughput.

I am an IT professional and basically know about network technology. However, I have no desire to "tinker" in my free time; things should just work and offer a good price-performance ratio.

I will plan enough LAN ports for every room and also in the garage

Is LAN needed in every room? The laptops and mobile devices are connected via Wi-Fi, printers can also be connected via Wi-Fi. I would place one LAN port per floor for the Wi-Fi access point, as well as in the office/living room TV/basement/technology/garage.

Do the APs really have to be PoE ones mounted on the ceiling, or is that a bit too much for us?

With PoE it's nice that no additional power supply is needed at the access point. It runs, as already mentioned, over the normal Ethernet LAN cable.