u/hzulla

Hi there,

since a few years, I'm unhappy with my Fritz-based home network. I'm thinking to replace the devices with a pure OpenWRT setup and need some buying advice.

What I need is:

• a main router device that connects to the fibre modem and serves the internet connection to the home network
• 4 x access point devices that connect to the main router via ethernet and serve WIFI

I know of the table of hardware, but am unsure how to choose these devices.

I don't need the latest WIFI standard, my priority is choosing hardware that one can reasonably expect to have a long-term firmware upgrade path within OpenWRT. I don't want fancy, I prefer boring and years-long reliability. Installing OpenWRT should require no physical hacks.

I do not understand yet what to choose as the main router if I want to use Wireguard to my home at a reasonable speed while traveling.

The APs don't need PoE, all planned locations are having both a power outlet and an ethernet outlet.

Finally, I didn't find a guide yet on how to properly configure multiple access points on the same network so that their channels don't disturb each other while allowing proper device handover when moving within between APs within the same network.

I'd be grateful for all advice in this situation.

Here's the current setup:

I live in a fairly big house and the ceilings are blocking radio signals quite nicely.

• Telekom Fibre modem in the cellar
• Fritzbox 7530 router in the cellar, serving as the main router of fibre internet to the home network, also serving as the first DECT base
• 4 x Fritz Repeater 3000AX scattered around the building, (not used as WiFi repeaters despite their name, but) used as WiFi access points connected to the main router via ethernet
• a second Fritzbox 7530 in the first floor, serving as a second DECT base

The network as a whole is not stable. My main problem seems to be with Sonos multiroom speakers. If I try to actually play multiroom audio in several rooms over multiple floors, one or more of the 3000AX access points may crash and then has to be rebooted. This appears to be caused by a broadcast storm, but both Fritz blames Sonos and vice versa, both aren't willing or able to fix it.

What I like about Fritz is that the setup is very easy to maintain, one can configure all devices from the main router's menu. The Fritz settings menu is in fact very nice. Wireguard and other features were easy to get going.

I know the OpenWRT Luci interface and like it, as well, and I do hope that there's also a way to configure multiple APs within the network so that they work well with each other without having to configure each device separately.

Thanks for reading and hope to hear from folks who can help here.

Hey there,

this isn't meant as reaction-bait, but it's a question I genuinely wonder about.

Some background: My home cinema is run with a Sanyo PLV Z4000 and it still works fine. (I just bought a replacement lamp in advance to keep it alive for another round in the future.) For a while I had considered upgrading to a 4K capable projector, and since I'm very sensitive to the rainbow effect, my choices are limited to the few products that aren't single-chip-DLP.

I do find pretty good offers for used/refurbished non-RBE projectors using lamps, but obviously I would prefer to buy a laser-based product these days.

However, while single-chip-DLP-based Laser projectors are already in reasonable price ranges by now, laser projectors using 3lcd and lcos stayed expensive. I've kept price alerts for several laser-based non-RBE projector models for more than a year and their prices just didn't move much.

So I was wondering if there is some industry-consensus on how the market will change in the future? I had sincerely hoped that prices of laser-based projectors would go down some day, but that day hasn't arrived so far. Non-RBE projectors are still in a price range way beyond my desired budget.

Do I just wait this out and hope for more new non-RBE consumer devices bringing the prices down?

Hi there,

what are the proper settings for an ethernet switch when I use it between Fritz mesh node devices on the LAN?

Here's my problem:

My home has some thick ceilings and the incoming internet line arrives in the basement. For proper WiFi, I need four Fritz!Repeaters scattered around the house and even a second Fritz!Box as a DECT base so that we can use the phone in the roof floor room.

So obviously, if I want to use LAN for all mesh devices and since the primary mesh node Fritz!Box does not have 5+ free ethernet ports, I have to use ethernet switches to connect all the secondary mesh node devices to the master mesh node device.

My original layout was somewhat like this:

- Basement: Primary Mesh Node Fritz!Box 7530 No. 1
    - First Floor: Secondary Mesh Node Fritz!Box 7530 No. 2
    - Basement: Unmanaged Ethernet-Switch
        - Room 1: Secondary Mesh Node Fritz!Repeater 1200 AX No. 1
        - Room 2: Secondary Mesh Node Fritz!Repeater 1200 AX No. 2
        - Room 3: Unmanaged Ethernet-Switch
            - Room 3: Secondary Mesh Node Fritz!Repeater 1200 AX No. 3
            - Room 3: other devices in that room
        - Room 4: Unmanaged Ethernet-Switch
            - Room 4: Secondary Mesh Node Fritz!Repeater 1200 AX No. 4
            - Room 4: other devices in that room

So in other words, the secondary 7530 was directly connected to the primary 7530. But there were one or two unmanaged 8-port switches between the primary 7530 and the secondary 1200AXs.

This setup was usually working out quite nicely for most things.

But there was a reproducible network crash when I try to group several Sonos loudspeakers across different floors during a party: The unmanaged main ethernet switch in the basement and several Fritz!Repeaters would crash / disconnect and all needed to be power-cycled to get the network back working. Meanwhile, the secondary 7530 would not crash and keep chugging along.

Sonos support hasn't been of much use ("it's your network's fault, not our devices'," has been their repeated claim since a few years), so I contacted Fritz support instead.

Much to my surprise, official Fritz support insists that mesh users do not put any ethernet switch between the Fritz!Box and a Fritz!Repeater when connected via LAN and used as an access point. (Again, I have more secondary nodes than free ethernet ports available on the primary node, so this can't be done without using a switch.)

Doing so anyway is not supported and they consider any problem therefore mine. Fritz support also wouldn't answer if they can recommend any specific brand or settings for a switch to use in a mesh setup.

I've now replaced the unmanaged switches with (cheap, simple) managed switches. Now I wonder what specific network settings are required for Fritz mesh to properly work. I do not find any recommendations on the Fritz knowledge base, but maybe I didn't properly look.

Hello. I need help how to choose the proper external antenna.

The situation:

My automated garden gate is using a motor by the Italian company NICE. They offer the IT4WIFI device to control the motor via a smart home server. The little box is installed inside the garden gate motor's plastic enclosure, outside of my house.

The garden gate's IT4WIFI box often works fine for days, but then for no apparent reason drops its connection to the smart home server and stops responding. NICE's support tells me that this is usually the WIFI's fault.

My AVM Fritzbox WIFI router tells me that the little box is usually having a good connection, but every now and then the connection drops from above 40 MBit/s to 1MBit/s and stays there for a long time. It sometimes recovers after a while. I was unable to find any reason for this. My house is littered with APs for good coverage in every room. Based on my measurements with AVM's WIFI analysis app, WIFI coverage should be fine at the outdoor location of the garden gate motor, too.

The question:

I'd like to try if a bigger antenna might help here, but shopping for the right antenna is confusing for me.

The little box uses 2,4 GHz WIFI and comes with an SMA connector, at least it specifically says so in the manual.

The box's antenna uses an SMA male connector, the pin is on the antenna's side of the connection.

I'm unsure what kind of antenna to buy now. If I try to look for aftermarket WIFI antennas, they do not offer this connector, but I usually find RP-SMA male antennas with no pin on the antenna's side.

What I did find was this Waveshare 4G antenna, but it isn't specifially for WIFI, but a larger range from 0.7-2.7GHz.

This SMA/RP-SMA pin/no-pin situation is very puzzling to me.

I'm also unsure if I need to find an antenna that is specifically advertised for 2,4 GHz WIFI use, or if that Waveshare product above is also a good choice because 2,4GHz lies within 0.7-2.7GHz.

So should I buy an SMA male antenna and does it have to be 2,4GHz only, where do I find one?

Or should I buy one of the many readily available RP-SMA male antennas and get an adapter to put between the antenna and the box?

I'd be grateful for product recommendations or at least what kind of technical spec I should seek out. Thanks!

Hi there,

we're using a number of Debian computers with a Gnome desktop in our household. For the past years, I was the family sysadmin and would take care of major upgrades.

This is obviously bad in the long run, I'd prefer to give them a self-service solution that doesn't require me doing standard sysadmin stuff. However, my family members are understandably disinterested in using the terminal.

As far as I can tell, the release upgrade guide still describes a procedure based on command line tools.

Is there no user-friendly GUI tool that does a vanilla release upgrade for the user?

I'm considering moving my family to LMDE, as it does contain an easy to use update/upgrade tool like that. However, my family members are used to Gnome Desktop right now (and I also dislike that LMDE comes with own packaged versions of major applications like Firefox that override the Debian repository).

So - what's the correct way to have a boring Debian+Gnome system easy to update and upgrade for non-cli users?

Thanks!