Nick, for almost all circumstances for home networks, you should only have ONE router on your LAN, and that is solely to connect your LAN to the internet. (Yes perhaps some use the term router in error meaning something else)
There seems to be more postings of people of trying to use multiple routers on their home network, and then not surprisingly running into trouble. Multiple routers require advanced configuration, and possibly the use of routing protocols, well beyond the scope of the average consumer. Many
The aim is to keep it simple.
ONE ROUTER, one or more switches, one or more wifi access points, your home network on a single subnet.
With wifi home mesh setups, the thing to look out for is the term used by the Wifi Alliance; Wifi Certified EasyMesh. Avoid anything else unless you are totally confident about it and you are just sticking with one wifi vendor as there are just too many risks with interoperability, and there is a good chance sooner or later you will run into issues causing frustration,
Of course for best performance then used wired cooperating access points providing a common WLAN with a common system manager, but that requires a little bit of know how. EasyMesh on the other hand is typically consumer plug and play albeit with usually only a small cost in performance, but more than adequate for regular home use and small offices.
If you are doing a DIY and adding composite / discrete access points that are not sold as a ‘mesh’ bundle … ensure they can work in a cooperating mode with each other and support at least 802.11k, 802.11v and 802.11r on a common WLAN, with the latter to be particularly important if not to have problems with reregistering and re discovery with the Naim app for example.
For most home users obtaining a package of pre integrated modes or access points is better as that assurance will have been done for you so you don’t need to understand the network technicalities.
I have 2 routers in my setup. The second one is an asus slaved to the primary one, the latter connected to the internet. The asus models allow for fairly advanced configuration, you just need to disable dhcp and set it to bridge mode and it then acts as a wap. I suspect that this is the configuration that Nick has enabled. I was considering a dual asus setup to use the aimesh capability but as Nick has had issues with it I think I’ll stick with what I have. It’s easy to end up with multiple routers if you switch provider, I now have a bt home hub, the freebie router from EE, an asus which I bought, and a fritz box provided by zen (our current broadband provider). I couldn’t get the home hub to work as an access point slaved from the fritz box but the asus appears to work. The downside is 2 separate ssid’s so I’m considering the whole home WiFi solution from bt, one to slave from the Fritz box and a second to replace the asus. If I set the asus and Fritz ssid’s to be the same, a wandering device doesn’t appear to auto switch to the nearest / best signal access point, which I believe a mesh system solves.
Yes that is not good from a user point of view, and that will ripple through into the Naim app etc, you really need cooperating access points or EasyMesh solution supporting 802.11v,k and r, for a transparent, seamless and performant user experience on a single WLAN.
Discrete boxes bolted together that are not designed as cooperating wifi access points are unlikely to offer this… it is a case of using the right tools for the job.
I am also with Zen as an ISP, and have their Fritzbox 7530. I have recently renewed my contract with Zen, and they told me of their “Every Room” service, which is basically a rental (7.99 per month) of the Fritz mesh repeaters. When I renewed they took £10 per month off my contract which allowed me to feel smug about upgrading to the Every Room service for a “saving” of £2 per month, (I know it is not strictly a saving, but in the world of hi-fi and road bikes, I sell such things to myself as a saving). Anyway, I have been impressed with the Every Room service and maybe it would help you out? The repeaters they provide are the Fritz!Repeater 3000 units. They will initially supply one, but if that is not enough to cover your property, they will provide another (I think they may even provide a third, but don’t quote me on that). I have 2 repeaters (large old cottage with v thick stone walls).
Simon, with regards to my situation am I right in assuming that I should plug by switch into the back of the BT disc that goes into my virgin super hub rather than having the switch directly into the hub?
Thanks for info, I didn’t know that was available from zen. I don’t use the fritz box for WiFi, I didn’t find the signal strong at all so that’s why I have a mixed setup with the asus and a tp link wap. With whatever box providing WiFi mounted centrally (the bt hub before, the asus, the fritz, the tp link, doesn’t matter) none of them can send a signal to 2 rooms beyond a thicker wall, hence the need for 2 WiFi capable units. It works but not ideal. I think a pair of the bt whole house WiFi units would work best (without spending £ on ubiquiti for example) as they will work in tandem and I can have them both wired to the main switch that hangs off the fritz, one in each part of the house. We have 5 rooms with wired connection, benefits of a bungalow.
Simon, if I am understanding correctly I plug the Wi-Fi disc into the switch (that houses my 272/core), and keep the switch connected directly to the hub. On that basis my 272 / core runs off Hub, whereas my muso, QB and iPad with app would run off the new wi fi address. Is that understanding correct or am I missing something?