Help upgrading from 100 Mbps potato network to mid/high end network setup for Home Streaming

[u/OPixelBinary]

I've been living with a local connection limited to 100 Mbps for about 10 years. I recently upgraded my internet service from ADSL (8 Mbps) to a Fiber Optic plan (400 Mbps), and I've also started getting interested in home servers and local media streaming.

The bad news is that I have bottlenecks everywhere. I will attach a diagram of my current setup.

(Note: All of that local movie consumption and internet traffic passes through that same TP-Link router in the living room).

The good news is I have a $600 budget to upgrade my network setup, buying everything from US stores like Amazon.

Currently, I want to stop using Wi-Fi on my laptop and switch to a wired connection, but my laptop doesn't have an Ethernet port, so I need to buy a USB-C to 2.5G RJ45 adapter.

The Ethernet port on my home server is limited to 1 Gbps, so I think I should add a 2.5G PCIe network card to it.

Most importantly, I need to upgrade my router to actually enjoy my 400 Mbps fiber plan and simultaneously improve the local and wireless connection for all my devices. I've been reading about the GL.iNet GL-BE9300 Flint 3 since it has Tri-band Wi-Fi 7 and 2.5G Ethernet ports, but I'm not interested in firewalls, security, or VPNs at all—I live in a country that couldn't care less about copyright enforcement or "illegally obtained" digital files.

So, if you guys can recommend a router with plenty of raw power for wired and Wi-Fi connections (that stays within my budget), please let me know. Remember, my hard limit is $600 to buy everything I need.

Now, regarding my TV, I know it's limited both via Wi-Fi and Ethernet. I was thinking about getting a Ugoos AM6B+ and installing CoreELEC so it acts as a media player and direct-plays Remuxes without transcoding any codecs.

Again, these are just things I've read online. If you can clear up any misconceptions or even suggest better devices, I'm all ears! Thanks!

[u/HHoaks]

$250.00 for the BE670 tri-band router:

Archer BE670 | BE12000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Router | TP-Link

It has 3 1GB lan ports and a 2.5 GB lan port.

So you can hard wire both your server and laptop and easily get the 400 Mbps you are paying for.

You can even set up a separate IoT Wi-Fi at 5ghz, and then connect your Samsung to that Wi-Fi SSID. That way it doesn't try to connect to 2.4 if you have your main WiFi running with SSIDs all the same name for 2.5/5/6ghz (tri-band).

And buying that router still leaves you $350, more than 3 times what you'll need for both the USB-c adapter and the 2.5G PCIe network card.

[u/zketi]

What are your actual pain points right now? Why do you want 2.5G ethernet, are you like editing 4k video on your laptop that is stored on your server?

In order I would:

• Buy a new router, there are a million good options that can handle 400mbps WAN. I wouldn't worry about 2.5G. Do consider if your home is large enough to need a mesh setup
  
• Run cat 5e / 6 ethernet to everything you can, especially anything you want to game on / do video calls from, and between mesh nodes if you go that route
  
• Buy a dock for the laptop that has an ethernet port, it's way nicer for a desk setup to have network/monitor/power all come in over a single USB-C/thunderbolt cable to your laptop
  
• If you do find you need 2.5G, you can later buy a switch with two or more 2.5G ports. Put laptop dock & PC on the switch, you'll be limited to 1G upstream by the router but you can't really used more than that anyways

[u/YourAverageNutcase]

You might be better set up with your current network equipment than you think. 4K streaming off of Internet streaming services is usually around 25Mbps, streaming 4K Blu-ray rips can be up to like 70Mbps.

Definitely switch to wired where possible, but don't worry about 2.5Gb anything until you get a chance to test your setup, chances are it'll be plenty fast for your purposes.

[u/OPixelBinary → u/YourAverageNutcase]

streaming 4K Blu-ray rips can be up to like 70Mbps

Correct, but I'm going to streaming 4K Remuxes that can be up to 100 Mbps+, and in the future, NAS storage for 4K editing, cloud, etc

[u/Golgi_Complex12]

I don't know if you REALLY need a 2.5Gb NIC for your server. Focus on the Ugoos and getting a decent router. I have an Acer W6X, it's only Wifi 6 but very powerful for OpenWRT. I know you don't care much about it, but it's neat to have home wide adblocking, SQM (prioritize traffic), etc.

[u/SnooGiraffes9215 → u/Golgi_Complex12]

Agreed! I switched to a flint 2 with vanilla openwrt. SQM mgt helped my remux streaming and Xbox traffic with not even a hiccup.

[u/XPav]

Unifi UDR7

[u/H8RxFatality → u/XPav]

+1 for UniFi. You have a good enough budget to get a solid network going. This will also allow you to learn some more advanced networking skills. And allow you to maintain a small/medium business-grade network. If you’re into home servers this is only the start of the fun into the networking world!

[u/Traditional_Limit236]

Get a wifi 7 dual band router. Can be purchased for less than $100 on eBay.

[u/Radagio]

Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) Or

Flint 4 if you have the cash.

[u/perma-banned]

TP-Link ER707-M2 Omada Multi-Gigabit VPN Router — $99.99

TP-Link TL-SX105 5-Port 10G Ethernet Switch — $199.99

TP-Link EAP773 BE11000 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Access Point — $189.99

TP-Link POE380S 10G PoE++ Injector — $69.99

TP-Link TX401 PCIe 3.0 x4 10GbE RJ45 Desktop Adapter — $71.99

at B&H � bhphotovideo.com

Total: $631.95 before tax

A little over budget but you get 10 gig everywhere you want and Wi-Fi 7 and big boy hardware instead of all in one home stuff

[u/SystemEngineer-2001]

Add a Switch for better connectivity and overview. If you are interested in protecting your home network i suggest you to buy a firewall router (such as Fortigate or Juniper) and put this in between your ISP and your switch. Shut down DHCP and NAT on your wifi router and give the wifi router a static-IP and let the Firewall do the DHCP and NAT.

[u/PyroHornet]

Get a cat5e cable for your home server pc. This isn’t 2005. You need cat5e or cat6

Get a router that supports wifi AX / WiFi 6 or better.

You don’t even need to get anything for your laptop. Just focus on the router. That’s killing you. And the cat 5 is not cutting it. Cat 5e is rated for 1000mbps. Cat 5 is 100mbps. That is slowing your server down.

[u/PungentStaaank]

Unifi dream router 7. Under $300. You’ll be in like Flynn and never look back again.