Goodbye Stone Age - Getting Cable Internet soon - How to implement?

[mfsoa]

Hi All,

After dealing with 5 Mbps down and 0.6 up for 20 years here in the wilds of NJ, we are weeks from getting hooked up to Comcast. Finally, I'll be able to use the Qobuz I pay for.

 

I am hoping I can get some advice for basic questions. This service will supply the whole house with internet access.

 

Do I want to purchase my own modem/router/wifi box?  I like the idea of not paying a monthly rental.

If so, what do I look for? Obviously Comcast compatible but do I get all-in-one modem/router/wifi box?

 

I have an EtherRegen and it would be nice to use the fiber input if I want-

 

Is there such a thing as a modem/multi-port router/wifi/SFP device?

 

At what point does it make sense to break apart and add a separate wifi box to maybe a Mikrotic SFP router? 

 

What's the logical way to consider this?  What's the audiophile way?😁

 

 

Thanks very much for any input.

-Mike

[jcbenten]

At the very least, use your router.  Only use the Comcast device as a modem/gateway.  Disable the wifi if Comcast supplies a combo unit.  As technology progresses just swap out the modem with Comcast.

 

Hardwire to your access points as much as possible.

 

When my  router gives out, I will replace it with a MikroTik/Ubiquiti/pFsense device which may require separate wifi access.

 

Sorry I have no experience with fiber.  But as far as I can tell, all you need is a short run as close as you can to your playback equipment.

 

[cjf]

12 hours ago, mfsoa said:

Hi All,

After dealing with 5 Mbps down and 0.6 up for 20 years here in the wilds of NJ, we are weeks from getting hooked up to Comcast. Finally, I'll be able to use the Qobuz I pay for.

 

I am hoping I can get some advice for basic questions. This service will supply the whole house with internet access.

 

Do I want to purchase my own modem/router/wifi box?  I like the idea of not paying a monthly rental.

If so, what do I look for? Obviously Comcast compatible but do I get all-in-one modem/router/wifi box?

 

I have an EtherRegen and it would be nice to use the fiber input if I want-

 

Is there such a thing as a modem/multi-port router/wifi/SFP device?

 

At what point does it make sense to break apart and add a separate wifi box to maybe a Mikrotic SFP router? 

 

What's the logical way to consider this?  What's the audiophile way?😁

 

 

Thanks very much for any input.

-Mike

I would say now is the best time to break out the wifi, router, firewall, switch components. This is one of those tasks that you want to do once, take the hit and endure the pain once, then forget about it for several years IMO.

 

The Ubiquiti Unifi switches and Wireless AP's are solid buys as well as PFSense Firewall devices. The only negative with the PFSense box is the learning curve. Very powerful unit in terms of its capabilities though. I use all three of these products myself at home. A negative with the Ubiquiti Unifi line is the need to run the Unifi software on some computer on your LAN in order to configure/manage it. You can however forget about it after everything is setup as long as you dont care about seeing all the metrics/charts..etc. It might make more sense to go all Ubiquiti across the board for many people if you are already using the Unifi software.

 

I would def recommend getting something that fully understands Trunk ports and VLAN tagging to allow for segmenting off different parts of your network and to reduce physical port count needs. Anything decent should have these capabilities already.

 

Most of the Ubiquiti switches have SFP Ports on them and some have multiple SFP Ports. You could utilize one of them for your Ethergen box.

 

I have cable Internet and bought a Netgear Nighthawk CM1200 modem. I dont trust the devices provided by the ISP's.

 

My setup before what I use today was as follows:

 

Purchased Cable Modem

Cisco ASA Firewall

Shibby Tomato Linux based wirelessAP/router

Ubiquiti Unifi switch/switches

Audio gear

 

You certainly dont need to break out all the various roles that much but the above list was to just show the separation of duties you could consider.

 

Lastly as an FYI, I saw an 8x increase in my Wireless network performance after I stripped the wireless duties off of the combo router/wireless AP device and moved those duties to a dedicated Ubiquiti Wireless AP. I now get 850mb wireless link speeds anywhere in the house. Some devices really shine when they are dedicated in other words.