So my predicament is that my rental has free internet! We only have one wired connection which is pretty fast (800 megabits), but the wireless network is shared among all of the other units nearby! The amount of TVs and IOT devices is ridiculous and makes is hard to connect my devices, and impossible to connect older devices altogether. WPA2 devices cannot connect to this network.
If I get a router to get more wired connections, can I also use it to have my own access point? And can I do this without having admin access to the router provided by my rental?
I don’t know exactly what hardware is used, but when I go to the home IP, i get a Unifi Security Gateway login. I tried the default login and “admin, admin” but sadly they didn’t work.
I’d like to connect 2 PCs, 2 TVs, 2 Phones, PS4, PS5, Wii.
If y’all need more info from me let me know! Thanks guys, I looked around but could only find posts about private networks with people that already have full access to their network/s.
Technically you only really need a switch and an access point.
But, if this network is shared with a bunch of other people, some of whom you don’t know or don’t want to have to trust that they’re taking care of their devices, then a basic home wifi router will help separate the networks, and will act as a bit of a firewall between their devices and yours.
I see you’re mentioning PS4/PS5/Wii … if you use a basic router you’ll be double-nat-ed on IPv4 , I don’t know if you care.
You could have a “filtering bridge” with OpenWRT, or you could setup nat-pmp upnp forwarding, but that requires you to "know how these things work in openwrt, e.g. it might take me an hour of attention and I’m no spring chicken to weird networking stuff.
Just keep in mind that if you build your own network, then port forwarding might not work for you.
Would have to check, but you could maybe cook up a DHCP-relay that is aware of your “trusted” devices so it keeps IP-traffic coming from “not the gateway” out.
Shame my WAN-Router does not want to WiFi anymore and I do not have a second AP for my network to test this.
Do you have a brand you’d recommend? Maybe one you’d find in a second-hand shop? I found a few Linksys and ASUS routers in those places but didn’t wanna’ jump the gun.
I don’t know what double-nat-ed on IPv4 means haha. I’ve only ever done very basic network management, but I figured something like this would be a good way to start learning. When I move, I’d like to have my own network and not rely on the router that’s provided for me.
Tough question.
From past experience, I would stay away from Linksys and Lancom. The former for being bad reasons, the latter because they are challenging to set up without prior knowledge.
I see MikroTik has been mentioned already… I’ve got they stuff myself and am very happy with how you can manage all APs through their central manager.
If you’re looking for something to just take out of a box and activate, I wouldn’t recommend them. But if you like to tinker a bit and don’t mind looking up how stuff works, then I think that they’re a great option (for a good price generally).
Here’s some watching/reading material to give you an idea:
Yes. BUT there can be some performance concerns. If your router is connecting to the free Wi-Fi internet on the same radio as your client devices (e.g. 2.4GHz), performance will be somewhat degraded. I expect this may perform well with modern, MIMO routers, but with older units you’re likely to find “in a second-hand shop” you might see mediocre performance/speeds. Compare speed-tests of your Wi-Fi devices on your router, versus those cabled into your router to see how much of a hit this is, and see if maybe TWO APs/routers (cabled together, one ONLY acting as a Wi-Fi client, the other ONLY acting as a Wi-Fi AP) is worth the extra performance to you.
I’d always recommend getting a device supported by OpenWRT:
I’ve done wireless bridging with Asus routers using the vendor “asus-wrt” firmware, but I understand not all models can. With Asus, in addition to OpenWRT firmware compatibility, you also have the alternative of:
I found a Netgear R6050 for 12 bucks! Verified it was compatible on OpenWRT and updated to latest version. PS5 and other 5G compatible Wifi units went up from 20mbps to 200/500mbps depending on device! And I now have legacy support to have my Homebrew Wii connected. Thank you guys so much! I might look into cleaning up my 2.4G connections to avoid the common channels in my complex.
