{"id":749,"date":"2020-11-25T17:58:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T21:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paulbegley.com\/?p=749"},"modified":"2020-11-25T18:01:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T22:01:44","slug":"home-network-recommendation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/?p=749","title":{"rendered":"Home Network Recommendation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I received an email from one of our neighbors, actually their son! He’s a gamer, super technical, and after replying, I thought it would be better to document my recommendations here and update based on feedback from Rob and others.
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First, determine whether you need to replace the cable modem.\u00a0 Once you know it needs to be replaced, I recommend buying separate devices for each layer of your home network – cable modem, security\u00a0device, then switch\/wireless.\u00a0 This lets you buy the most cost-effective device with exactly the features and performance you want for each layer of the network.
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Cable modem
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I like the Arris\/Motorola cable modems, reference link below for Wirecutter recommendations.\u00a0 I wouldn’t go crazy.\u00a0 I have an old\u00a0ARRIS SURFboard SB6183.\u00a0 It Just Works.\u00a0 Also, I have 100Mbps service and it’s not a bottleneck.\u00a0 It’s DOCSIS 3.0, but if you get a\u00a0new one,\u00a0make sure it supports\u00a0the\u00a0latest DOCSIS 3.1 standard.\u00a0 That’s all you need – match the rated performance of your cable modem with your Internet\u00a0connection speed.\u00a0 There’s no advantage to getting a 1Gbps cable modem for a 200 Mbps connection.\u00a0\u00a0
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Security
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I use a Meraki security appliance, but only because I got it free through a certification\u00a0program.\u00a0 When I replace it, I’ll probably buy a\u00a0Ubuquiti USG or similar.\u00a0 You would be appalled\u00a0at the stuff it blocks and attempted connections I see on a regular basis.\u00a0 Reference links below and note that you would buy the USG with a Cloud Key for management (detailed in how-to link below).
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Switch
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G<\/strong>et a good, 1Gbps switch with 8 or more ports to connect your laptop and other devices as needed.\u00a0 Make sure the switch does *not* have a fan, you want everything to use passive cooling and be silent.\u00a0 Early switches required fans, they all go bad, and they all make too much noise.
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Wireless
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I have a Google WiFi mesh which works well.\u00a0 I bought three access points, but only need two for our house (two story colonial with a basement).\u00a0 If you live in an apartment, I would just get a reliable access point and locate it to get the best coverage in the apartment.\u00a0 Make sure anything you buy supports WPA2\/3 and use a complex admin password to secure your AP.
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Bonus Tip<\/strong>
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If you don’t already have a spare Raspberry Pi, buy two or three and configure one to run PiHole. PiHole can provide DNS services, but more important is it is a very effective ad filter for your home network.\u00a0 You will notice it on your phone immediately and you also benefit from having a local DNS server that you control.\u00a0 On my network it’s filtering >30% of the DNS queries from our Roku TV to our phones and laptops. I’m using a Model 3B Raspberry Pi and be sure to buy a reliable power supply like the Anker Elite Dual Port 24W ($11 from Amazon!).
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Reference Links<\/strong><\/span>
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The Best Cable Modem
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https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/wirecutter\/reviews\/best-cable-modem\/<\/span><\/a>
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Ubuquiti USG security gateway –\u00a0<\/span>
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https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Security-Gateway-USG\/dp\/B00LV8YZLK<\/span><\/a>
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How To: Deploying a Ubiquiti UniFi Home Network including Multiple WiFi Access Points (Part 1) UPDATED<\/span>
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https:\/\/freetime.mikeconnelly.com\/archives\/6241<\/span><\/a>
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Pi-hole\u00ae – Network-wide Ad Blocking
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https:\/\/pi-hole.net\/<\/span><\/a>
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Dashboard from Paul’s PiHole<\/span>
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\"\"\/
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Today I received an email from one of our neighbors, actually their son! He’s a gamer, super technical, and after replying, I thought it would be better to document my recommendations here and update based on feedback from Rob and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6YWFc-c5","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.paulbegley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}