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Ask HN: What is your home networking setup?

37 points by gmemstr ↗ HN
I'm currently in the market for home networking equipment but having a bit of a hard time narrowing down what I want to opt for. Rather than take suggestions directly, I'd love to know what's working for HN readers so I have more things to research!

110 comments

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nmeofthestate
The broadband router provided by my internet service has WiFi - I use that.
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cmg
I'm glad to see this answer. I'm in the same situation - my ISP sent me a modem/router. I use that. Don't need much else. It's even got a guest network (not that we've had many untrustworthy visitors in the past couple years).

But I'm also glad to see the other answers here because we recently moved the home office to another room slightly further away and we're going to need to throw some WiFi boosters/repeaters in here.

dijonman2
My local ISP’s hardware shares my bandwidth with others - something I won’t tolerate. God forbid egress addresses are shared and I get accused of something.
bazzargh
Same. I found that my neighbours were swamping my signal in the outer rooms of my (small) flat and did the booster thing, a couple of ethernet-over-power wifi routers: TP-Link TL-WPA8631Ps

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/powerline/tl-wpa8...

They were a breeze to set up, pushbutton if you just want to use the same SSID/password as your ISP router. I have this set up to serve the 5GHz on a different SSID tho - that stops my laptop switching to 2.4 and terrible performance. I'd have done this on the ISP's router (a BT homehub) and just pushed the buttons, but since a recent firmware update, the homehub goes into a crashloop if you try this.

cmg
Thanks for this! I have doubts about our old building's power being able to support PoE properly but I might give them a shot and see how it goes.
failingslowly
If it's any help, I used to use Devolo EoP devices, but I'm stopping. My 1930s house has crummy wiring and I was frequently having to power cycle them to get anything to work.

I've switched to using a TP-Link Deco M5 wi-fi mesh (and I've disabled the wi-fi on the router my internet provider supplied).

So far, no problems at all. They're much cheaper also.

orev
If you have coax wired through the house, I strongly recommend MoCa instead of powerline Ethernet. It works very well and doesn’t turn your house into a shortwave radio noise generator.
CodeGlitch
> PoE

Do you mean powerline? PoE is power provided over Ethernet... Typically for ip cameras.

cmg
Yes, thank you - I did mean powerline. My fault.
senectus1
pretty much the same, though i bumped it with a mesh network. consumer grade. I occasionally get twinges of guilt for being so lazy about it.

but after a day of IT related work i dont want to do more and more at home :-/

t3rabytes
Eero Pro 6 because I don’t want to deal with technology after 5pm.
joezydeco
Same here. It's not the greatest software but it's worked better than other consumer routers/APs at this price level. The parental controls have been improving.
leavenotracks
See /r/homelab for inspiration (or possibly confusion!)
cplli
I've got my ISP router (because it needs to decode the fibre-optic), but that's bridged directly into a TP Link C6U router that handles PPPoE. It runs OpenWRT with most of the default packages, I've only installed some monitoring/stats graphs and all packages needed to setup DNS over TLS (via Cloudflare).

The home network is fully wireless (wiring is pretty old and sockets are in some unfortunate places). There are both 4GHz and 5GHz wifi networks.

All my personal devices have static 'leases' to my "dev" subnet, which has no restrictions, port forwarding for certain services, multiple split VPNs with different routes.

My significant other has her devices on a "trusted home" subnet (with static leases).

All other home devices that may need an internet connection (eg: Homepod), live on a restricted (firewall) subnet (with static leases).

Any new device gets leased an IP on a "guest" subnet, that can only communicate on that subnet, and to the internet unrestricted.

izacus
MikroTik for router (which I hate) and UniFi APs for WiFi (which I love).

They route 1Gbit fiber just fine though.

elp
If you do a fair bit of router work as part of $dayjob then Mikrotiks are awesome. If you don't they are way more trouble than they are worth.

Mine has a permanent VPN to the office with a router protocol so only office traffic goes down the vpn and I use the built in DDNS and the wireguard server so that when we are visiting family my daughter can still watch her favorite videos.

Standard disclaimer: Office has additional firewalling and protection in place to limit damage my network can cause. Daughter has Down syndrome and this is a lot easier for her once she's played out and bored by all the talking. All stunts are by a trained internet idiot and don't try this at home.

EKSolutions
ISP Router in modem mode

pfSense router

24 port PoE Managed Switch

This then splits off to my homelab, Ruckus & Unifi APs for WiFi and a few other switches around the house for the office, TV and bedrooms.

sgt
That's a good setup, pfSense is actually pretty sweet.
hestefisk
Can highly recommend opnSense, a fork with no tracking.
sgt
pfSense tracks users? Source?
bibaheu
ISP fibre -> ISP fibre terminating box -> Router Netgear R6220 running OpenWRT.

My home server and several machines are directly connected to the router via ethernet, and it also offers WiFi in the house. The router offers regular IPv4 NAT in a /24, and passes down GUA and ULA /64s. It also runs a wireguard VPN, DNS and DDNS, and acts as firewall.

My home server runs Ubuntu and runs a lot of stuff, like storage, Nextcloud instance, torrent, internet radio, UPNP media share to the TV, and more. Mostly docker containers and traefik for HTTP, managed with ansible playbooks.

Considering I got both of those devices from the recycle bin, I'm very happy how they work.

sgt
ISP fiber box is some kind of a Mikrotik, feeds into my own Mikrotik firewall. From there on I have two gigabit switches, connected to e.g ethernet outlets around the house and anything else that needs Ethernet like the Ubiquiti mesh WiFi endpoints and TV's, computers. It is housed in a rack cabinet inside a cupboard, and I also have a few Raspberry Pi's, external disks, MacBook Pro 2016 model that has been turned into a Linux server since I have a newer Mac now. Also, there's a UPS with a 100Ah external battery in the same cupboard on the floor. So a pretty minimal homelab overall.
thedanbob
Aside from my modem (Netgear CM1000) I have all UniFi equipment: a USG, couple of switches, couple of access points, and two mesh antennas to join the house and shop networks. Overall it works great, although with the direction the company has been headed recently I don’t think I could recommend building such a setup today.

I also run my own DNS: two pi-hole docker instances running on Linux servers, backed by unbound. That I can recommend wholeheartedly.

2OEH8eoCRo0
Synology NAS. 11 year old laptop as a home server. Linksys router. The server runs Plex, Valheim, transmission, irssi, and Adguard containers.

Before the NAS I just plugged in multiple USB HDDs in a "poor man's home server" setup.

Works well for me.

tycoon177
As much fun as it was to tinker with all of the networking gear in years past, I have settled on using a google wifi mesh system for the time being at home.

If I could do it over again, I think that I would have opted for something a bit more "pro-sumer", perhaps ubiquiti's mesh system. For what it is, the google system works well enough, but there are a few annoyances that make it less than ideal for the average hacker news reader. An example of this is that you DO NOT get a web interface. Everything must be done with their mobile app.

The best part about the google system is that they intend for the routers to be setup and managed by an average person, which in my experience has lead to a very stable system. I couldn't tell you the last time I had to reboot any of the hubs and the family hasn't had any complaints. A close second is that the hubs each have an ethernet jack on them, allowing my desktop to be "hard wired" into the network and still get fiber-like speeds despite the fiber drop not being near the desktop computer.

Even in my small-to-mid sized home in suburbia seems to benefit from the mesh system and I won't be going back! The benefits are real.

hestefisk
I have the Google Wifi mesh as well. It works well for a set and forget setup. Only downside is the mesh cannot bridge to a wired network, it has to use NAT, unless you disable the mesh functionality.
wccrawford
I was fairly happy with my Google Mesh routers until the main one just died randomly after about a year, and now I don't trust the other 2.

I bought a Deco x60 to replace them, but I've found that if you reboot it without an internet connection, it won't provide DHCP (and possibly anything else) for the rest of the network, and so you're screwed until the internet comes back, even for stuff that is just local. So I'm not happy with them, either.

wepple
+1 I like the set & forget nature of google WiFi, but at times I do wish I could run an IDS or other analytic system in between the WiFi clients & the NAT.
WelcomeShorty
Switched to the Google WiFi about 2 years ago and I love it. It just works. The mesh is 4 large, provides WiFi / Internet for 3 households (7 people, about 30 devices, iPhones, iPads, Chromecasts, PS4, Smart TVs, printers & iMacs) and takes absolutely zero maintenance.

Only thing I have to when adding an old new device (printers!) is set the WPA to 2 when adding it, then switching back to WPA3.

aladac
- Cat6 copper and multiple sockets in every room

- 19" Mini rack to hold patch panel and the rest of stuff

- ISP provided cable model/router set in bridge mode

- Mikrotik RB2011 as the main router / fw / wifi

- Synology DS211j as NAS with two 2TB disks in mirror

- Raspberry PI 2 to handle all stuff that's supposed to be running constantly

- PXE boot for multiple OS'es from router / NAS config

Most of the setup was done a long time ago hence some dated equipment but it works for me

tcmb
FRITZ!Box 7530 on a 100/50 MBit/s DSL line. 5GHz Wifi. Fritz!Phone app on iPhone for landline calls instead of a DECT handset.

I'm the only user, with 6-8 WiFi devices, so bandwidth is not an issue.

There's also a QNAP NAS and a gaming PC connected via LAN, everything else is WiFi only.

I used to have a FRITZ! repeater as well, but in the new flat it's not necessary anymore.

lnsru
Thanks for sharing. Have identical setup except NAS brand. WiFi is turned for the night off.
phor
FttH with Ubiquity Unifi USG Pro 4 router (fiber goes straight into my router, no provider equipment) connected to a Netgear MS510TX switch. I have two ubiquity access points and the controller runs on my NAS in a docker container.

If I were to build it again I'd have a look at the TP Link Omada gear, I hear good things about it.

Ologn
I had my machines on wireless ethernet, but it was too flaky in my circumstances, so my desktops and laptops use wired ethernet now. I still use wireless ethernet for my tablet.
Havoc
Both my desktop and server have a wifi hop in the loop.

Short, line of sight and 5ghz though. Perfectly stable.

So it can be fine…under ideal conditions

snsr
> Arris DOCSIS 3.1

> TekLager i5 w/ Untangle NG firewall

> UniFi managed switches

> UniFi POE APs

Looking to replace the Unifi gear time permitting.

Pxtl
ISP router into an Asus rt-68u with cable connection to 2 other asus routers on other floors of the house. Uses Asus proprietary aiMesh tech to configure them as one.

They work well-enough, but some of the advanced features of their firmware like QoS and NAS are garbage so I run vanilla settings.

I also have a pi4 for NAS and Minecraft world, and a 4 port tp-link switch my entertainment unit so all the hardware there is wired.

flatiron
Fios -> ONT outside my house -> cat5e -> tp link router.

Works very well. Router was from Costco.

radiowave
Mikrotik HAP AC2 as router and wifi, with HAP AC providing extra access point. Fiddly to set up, but solid and trouble-free since.

Used to use Ubiquiti Edgerouter, until it failed. The Smart QOS feature was pretty good. Used to use Unifi for wifi, but always struggled with clients getting stuck communicating with the most distant access point.

(Edit: In case it's relevant for some, I should also list: a Draytek 130 to adapt perculiar UK PPPoA broadband to PPPoE.)

efxhoy
- Cat-5 in my apartment wall from my ISP.

- ISP provided router that splits out IPTV into my TV box and has one port as passthrough to my pfsense box. It should be possible to do this splitting in pfsense but I never managed.

- The pfsense box is a passive ITX machine with a Celeron N3350 and two intel NICs.

- A dumb gigabit switch is connected to the LAN side of the pfsense box.

- I run ethernet to my stationary machines.

- A Ubiquiti access point feeds the wifi.

This setup has worked pretty much flawlessly for two years.

If I was goinig to do it again I would install OpenBSD instead of pfsense on the box. I didn't like the political drama around pfsense the last few years and I hardly use any of the features. I just want something that never breaks and has few foot-guns.

readingnews
Much like aladac, I ran copper. I move large files, and find that wireless is painful. I also know how to terminate fiber, so I have a few fiber runs.

I also use much older gear that I can get on the cheap.

  - Cat 6 to multiple drops in each room
  - Server closet that houses patch panel, switches, battery backup, cable modem
  - WAP in closet, it is not doing DHCP, its an apple extreme (latest ver)
  - Linux server for NAS and DHCP/DNS and Cameras (motion)
      - server has multiple nics (1G/10G) and multiple vlans
  - 10G fiber to server and my personal box
  - 48pt POE switch in switch closet, patches to patch panel
  - running VLANs, one for normal users, one for NAS, one for cameras
I will admit, I have several PIs all over doing temp/env monitoring and audio streaming in rooms (e.g. spa music in the bathroom when you walk in and turn on the light), so I need a fair number of ports.

I am very tempted to get a 24pt 10G switch and run fiber to each machine. It is not that I need 10G, but after you get a taste for a very low latency network like all 10G fiber, it is very tempting. Now with 40G/100G, the prices of those switches are nothing (I can get them for $200 from server supply) and the nics are hovering around $35-$50 each. At that point, it is almost worth it to go 10G for the low latency and jumbo frames.

Again, I used to do installs, so running cable is not a big deal. Once you start moving a lot of data, it is worth it to have a wired network. Having Linux do dhcp/dns (pihole type setup)/NFS is super handy.

rufugee
I used to have a number of tp-link access points running OpenWRT, a few netgear switches, and a protectli minipc running at first pfsense, then untangle. Nothing super fancy...I have a few vlans but that setup supported it well.

It was great, except I longed for a single pane of glass to manage it...especially for vlan configuration. Librenms at least provided visibility into the vlans across devices and ports, but not management. And upgrade time, especially on the openwrt front, was stressful, as I have had updates render a router unbootable.

I switched to Unifi products around 1.5 years ago, and now everything just works. I have a Unifi Dream Machine Pro, 2 16 port Unifi Switch Lites, and 3 Unifi access points. It's been pretty flawless, and the interface is extremely nice.

It was pricey, but now I get to focus on solving problems that add value rather than constant tinkering. Don't get me wrong...tinkering is great, but you reach a point where you'd rather not have to.

sztanko
TP-Link Deco E4 Whole Home Mesh Wi-Fi System.

Pack of 3 works well enough to cover the whole house + shed located in the far end of the garden.

Also cheaper then google mesh.

alexghr
I've been running the (relatively) well known EdgeRouter-X (aka ERX) + Unifi AC Lite setup for a couple of years at this point and I haven't had any issues with it.

The ERX is tiny, sips power and can route traffic with QoS turned on at ~100-120Mbps (without QoS it routes at 1Gbps). The wireless access point provides good 5Ghz coverage for an average two bedroom flat (placed centrally in the flat).

Both devices support Ubiquiti's old PoE standard and the ERX has a PoE passthrough port so I power both with a single PoE injector.

The QoS feature of the ERX was a life saver in our old flat where the best connection we could get was DSL (~16Mbps). Without it we couldn't have worked from home during lockdown (two developers constantly in meetings and pulling/pushing Docker images and npm packages :)

Now we've got fibre but I'm still running the same setup because it worked so well in the past (with the ISP's fibre modem in front of the ERX).