u/carguy143

Hi all.

I've recently upgraded my network and could do with a hand in further optimising it please.

Here's the current set up:

The house is a mid terrace (attached pysically to a another house on the left and right in my diagram). It's alsl over two floors, with 3 bedrooms (or 2 beds and an office in my case). Size wise, it's around 1000 square feet, built in the late 60s of cavity walls (outer brick, inner breeze block, with an insulated gap between them). The windows are double glazed with "energy glass", which blocks WiFi (i lose around 20dB of signal through the glass alone). Internal walls are concrete breeze blocks and these cause the signal to be almost non existent without having all these APs in such a small space..

3x Deco BE65, each one has 4x 2.5 Gb LAN/WAN ports. They are Wi-Fi 7, tri band. Each one is hard wired directly to the main one in the livingroom using solid copper outdoor rated cat 6 cable.. They do not support PoE so are powered off the electrical sockets..

A Deco BE25, outdoor unit. Currently powered from an outdoor electrical socket temporarily. This can take PoE and is dual band WiFi 7.

The layout: Please see diagram for current cable runs.

1. Livingroom Deco BE65, which has the following:

- LAN 1: This acts as WAN from the ONT. No internet supplied routers so no NAT issues.

- LAN 2: Gigabit switch which links to the TV, games console, and a Tapo hub.

- LAN 3: Cable to the Kitchen Deco.

- LAN 4: Cable to the Office Deco.

2. Kitchen Deco BE65.

- LAN 1: Hard wired directly from the livingroom Deco on its own cable.

- LAN 2: Has a cable going to one camera out of the front of the house (bottom of the picture). This is currently powered by a mains electrical socket but ideally I want to free up that socket.

- LAN 3: Another cable goes to a camera about 25 metres away, off the top of the picture, which is currently powered by a PoE injector on top of one of the kitchen units.

- LAN 4: Spare.

3. Office Deco BE65.

- LAN 1: Hard wired directly to the livingroom Deco on its own cable.

- LAN 2: Cable to a streaming box on the TV.

- LAN 3: Cable to the docking station for my work laptop.

- LAN 4: Cable temporarily routed through a cracked window (on vent) to the outdoor BE25.

No Spare LAN port but I do have a spare gigabit switch I could move the TV and work laptop to if needed (they only have gigabit LAN so no big deal).

4. Outdoor Deco BE25 which is attached to the outside wall in my back yard.

- LAN 1: Cable from the office Deco.

- LAN 2: Spare. No other LAN ports.

WiFi:

I have zero concerns about with this setup as internally, a get an almost full signal in every room. I have a few smart plugs and smart speakers around the house and apart from that, I use my mobile and sometimes my work or personal laptop on Wi-Fi.

Externally, the BE25 is enough for me to get signal when sat in my car which is about 12 metres away and behind a tall wooden gate. The BE25 is currently about 8 feet up a wall but I could move this higher if it may help.

What do we think is the best way of simplifying this lot?

Ideally I want the two outdoor cameras to be powered by PoE to avoid running power cables and also avoid taking up valuable electrical sockets in my kitchen. I was thinking of using a LAN port on the kitchen Deco to feed into a gigabit PoE switch and having both cameras running off that, as it would give me room to expand the number of cameras in future.

I want the outdoor BE25 to be powered by PoE so I was thinking of just taking the 2.5 Gb PoE injector upstairs and using that between the office BE65 and the outdoor BE25.

I think some say it would be better to add a switch between the 4 Deco units but my main concern is the indoor units. The outdoor BE25 while used a lot, isn't something I would worry ahout being connected to the office Deco BE65 as they all support and can automatically switch to wireless backhaul if one of them was to go down.

I'd love your input.

Thanks!

Just had this in the post this morning from my vet. It's a nice little gesture and another memento.

I still shout "the dogs" when it's feeding time or time for a walk, and then I remember, it's just two of us now.

On the way back from the vet I stopped at a local pet shop to pick up a new bed for Wilbur.

It's the biggest bed I could find and he still fails to fully use the thing! 😉

Still, he's curled up with Ceri's blanket that was with her for her final trip to the vet. I'm sure he must know what happened as he seemed to be looking all over.

Today I had to pay the ultimate price. The price for all the love, affection, loyalty, companionship, comfort, and safety of having a pet. I went to the vets with Ceri, and came back with just her lead, collar, and blanket.

I had to have Ceri put to sleep for her own wellbeing.

She developed a small limp about 2.5 weeks ago and I gave her some pain meds from a vet. However, while they worked at first, and everything felt normal with her legs according to me and the vets, she started to decline at the weekend just gone.

She stopped barking to be let outside unless she needed number 2. She wouldn't put any weight on one leg and even when she went outside, she couldn't hold herself steady enough to bathroom without almost falling over. If she rolled over in her sleep she'd cry from lying on said leg and she struggled to get up off the floor. I felt her legs and one of her bones (upper rear right thigh for want of a better term) felt almost twice as thick as the other. I took her to my vet and they determined it was indeed most likely some form of bone cancer.

She also needed dental work doing which was scheduled for the next couple of weeks but with that, and the likely amputation of her leg and any other cancer treatment, I decided the kindest thing to do was let her go today. I know we all wish for one more day, one more night, as no matter how much more time you have, it is never enough. I sat with her on the floor in the vet's office and curled up with her on her favourite blanket from the car as she went.

As strange as it sounds, I got a little comfort from being there with her at the end. It hurt me a lot. 6ft3, 300lb man crying on the floor with my dog, but she was, like they all are, the best.

It's now just Wilbur and I.

Pic 9 was the last of her alive.

The view from my window this morning shows the local kiddies have been making the most of the nice weather this weekend with chalk pictures and games on the floor. :)

It's a small positive sign from my area.