I am moving into my first home which is about 2250-2800 sqft 3 levels. I am getting gigabit internet from xfinity(only isp available). I would like to hear your recommendations on how I should go about setting up my home network. What I would like is to have the entire house covered with wifi with good speeds( fast as possible) and solid connection. So basically no dead spots. I also want to wire my desktop(bottom level) to the router which will be in the middle level of the home. It will only be 2 people using the network at a time for the majority of the usage. pc/console gaming and streaming via smart tv or laptop/ipad would be the heaviest work load at one time. It doesn’t have to be “Easy” to install/setup if I can gain some performance/features/benefits on a one time hard initial setup/install.
I was wondering if i should get a modem and a router or a combo modem/router. The research I have done has led me to these 2 options:
modem and router:
combo:
I am wondering what you think of my options. Do you have any recommendations if so why? Do you have any tips/tricks/ideas I may have not mentions or thought of. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank You.
220+ sqm across 3 levels and gigabit internet connection begs for a setup that includes multiple wired accesspoints.
If recommend Ubiquiti, their UDM next to a CM1000 and another 2x nanoHD or 2x flexHD accesspoints upstairs (one per level middle of the floor).
If you don’t already have cat5 or better infrastructure in your home, it’s best to take care of this before painting.
Usually stairs tend to be in the middle of the home - that helps, and walls in the middle usually don’t have insulation so it’s easier to pull cable if you don’t have it
I don’t think you’ll be happy with those Nighthawks across 3 levels, or any wireless backhaul mesh thing. As much as I like r7800 and how well it runs openwrt there’s no way a single accesspoint will cover that area/shape of space.
And as much as the idea of wireless backhaul/wireless mesh looks easy to setup, it ends up being shitty and slow and complicated and unreliable compared to plain old ethernet cable going to an accesspoint.
@risk You’re assuming the OP lives in North America, given your references to building techniques commonly practiced for homes there. That may not be the case elsewhere (in fact, in Europe, brick and concrete are the prime building materials for houses. Good luck getting wireless to a satisfactory level then )
I fully agree on your remarks about wired vs wireless connectivity here!
@Dutch_Master also, interestingly, UK/Ireland are 50/50 when it comes to studs+drywall construction vs. brick’n’mortar/blockwork. … most new builds are studs+drywall, and most housing renovated 90s onwards will have stud+drywall in some places. My house is originally from late 1700s, but was most recently renovated in 2012 … I can say with confidence that wifi definitely does not work through 25cm wide wet stone wall.
Blockquote
If recommend Ubiquiti, their UDM next to a CM1000 and another 2x nanoHD or 2x flexHD accesspoints upstairs (one per level middle of the floor).
if I end up doing your recommendation. It ends up being $828+tax+Ethernet cables. I was planning on spending about $340-370 originally so that is quite the jump. I am going to have to think about it.
Is it better to do separate router and modem? Or should I get a combo?
Your modem whether combo or discrete is owned by the ISP (from a configuration provisioning and security perspective). Your router is also your firewall. If combo and your ISP decides it’s time for you to switch to a different model, you’ll also have to change your router and/or wifi. (Typically once every 3-5 years or so).
Another option that would work well is to do e.g. a CM1000, pfsense or Debian router (a minimal ryzen 3 build $200) + 3x unleashed ruckus R600 from eBay (roughly per floor at $120, maybe you get away with 2 of them) + a switch – it’s potentially a better setup for similar money, it’s definitely more complicated.
Another option is to get a cm1000 and get e.g. 3x R7800, and do openwrt on them to enable 802.11r on them. A little less money, in the middle between pfsense+ruckus / unifi level of complicated.
Either way if your house is not wired for data, and you want data you’ll have to pay for it in some way to get it where you want it to be, like plumbing or power sockets. Random (low voltage) electricians around the us would charge a $100 per hour + $20-$50 per “ethernet drop” to get you data sockets. If your house is based on studs and drywall construction, YouTube is full of videos of folks just buying cable from monoprice and fish tape and sockets for Lowes or Home Depot and DIY-ing it.
A mesh setup is cheaper, and requires no additional wiring, for example you could grab a cm1000 and 3x google wifi pucks (or get the ubiquiti stuff and make your own mesh out it those nano hds - they support “wireless uplink” or using r7800 running openwrt) and probably you’ll be able to watch Netflix at 4k in two spots anywhere in your entire house (15mbps average, 30mbps peak per stream), but it’s very unlikely you’ll be able to get 200+ mbps anywhere and 600/700mbps over wifi in same room as accesspoint. At that point you could just choose to save money and not bother with gigabit service - is there a 250 plan that works for you.
Also, don’t overlook the back garden area of the house for summer barbequing or similar , exterior walls usually aren’t as good for wifi, typically as first nice summer weekend of the year rolls over you’ll be wanting wifi there.
Thank you very much for your help. I am going to do research on all of this. I will do a basic setup at first because of initial costs and then create a mesh network.
(in fact, in Europe, brick and concrete are the prime building materials for houses. Good luck getting wireless to a satisfactory level then 
)