What home improvement work did you do today?

Kind of.
Think if them like a more robust WiFi extender. They maintain the same wifi network ID but allow your devices to connect seamlessly to the one that offers the best performance. They talk to each other either wired or wirelessly (better bandwidth if you can wire them all).
But how you lay them out and connect them is still important. And that’s the piece I’m not familiar with regarding your fiber modern… right now I can only dream of getting fiber at my place.

My best guess, however, is that you’ll want to do things a bit different than you are thinking:

Get a mesh network kit - either two or three devices (depending on if there are other parts of your house that have lower connectivity). From your fiber modem, you will connect the first mesh router and put it out in your garage by the modern. This router will be your gateway (primary connection). Then, out of that gateway unit you will connect the current CAT cable that you have going into the house. Inside the house will go the second mesh router. This creates a wired backhaul between the two devices back to your modem, with the gateway taking over all of the traffic/firewall/address assignment tasks.

At that point you are done, unless you opted for a third mesh router. If you did, then you can either extend a new CAT drop to wherever you place that third one (best option) or set it up in the software to use a wireless backhaul (which then uses one of the WiFi channels to send data between it and the nearest wired router).

My house is set up similarly… I have CAT5e cable routed throughout the house with a gigabit switch in my basement where they all terminate. My StarLink router is in my garage (I only use it as a modem) and that “modem” is connected to an Eero router acting as the gateway. From the gateway router, I use the CAT line to the basement switch to feed wired internet to the main system and as the primary backhaul feed. Then, I have an Eero router in the basement, another at the opposite end of the main floor, and yet another upstairs in one of the bedrooms that are all connected to the CAT lines that come off the switch. And with those I have seamless WiFi connection everywhere in the house (and most of the top acre of my property) without knowing out really caring which actual one I’m connected to.

 

That's awesome, sounds a lot like what I need.
Thanks for taking the time

 

I'm not a network guy, but I have a few-year old Orbi mesh setup, and it's great for connectivity throughout the house. I'm not going to technically explain it correctly, so somebody help me...

The one issue I ran into is that IOT devices use a lower level standard, and if your network doesn't have the ability to broadcast that separately, you *might* have to do setup things to get these devices to find your network and setup.
Like, my vacuum and Hot Water heater, I had to drop my network on my phone, change a setting on the router, find the network (now lower setting), install/connect the device, restore the network setting...hassle!

 

I'm on the Asus AiMesh, I have no problems with it. I got 4 nodes in a house that's 130 years old with thick wood/plaster walls. I have a node out in the shed which is about 30 yards from the house and do wireless back haul.

I can't say one system is better than the other because I don't really get into tech reviews. Do your research and pick a system to go with, I'm not a fan of TPLink but that's a personal call.

BTW, Wireless IT professional here. I held Cisco CCNA Wireless cert and I design wireless networks for a living.

 

That looks like your providers ONT (Optical Network Terminal). If you plugged in there you might or might not get an IP, depends on if they provider has that interface turned up. I'd call the ISP and see what they say. I suspect they would turn it up for you if you show them the money.

 

Connect you laptop to it with an Ethernet cable and see if it has internet connectivity. My guess as Moon Pup points out, it won’t be active unless your paying for the second IP address.

 

Or it could be open and the ISP is just clueless. I think you pointed out earlier it would be a different network segment and unless you got some mad internet routing skills your clients in your house will not talk to each other, but if they all just need internet it's no big deal.

I'd stick to the Mesh idea over the one circuit you got.

https://www.wired.com/story/best-mesh-wifi-routers/

Good primer to read.

 

Made myself a pair of automatic gates to keep the dogs at home. Still working on creating posts to cover the steel posts and replacing the current fence

 

Nice looking gates. With that long cantilever how do you keep them from sagging

 

Thanks for the help guys, I'll try to plug into that port just to see if it's active. That would be cool to get that little freebie

 

Love your house, it's really pretty!!

 

Keeping the weight down was a foremost consideration. Each gate leaf is 11' 8", 3" thick, 4' tall at the center and just under 6' tall at the post ends. They weigh around 150lbs ea. I used a lamination, "sandwich" type of construction to create overlapping joints that provide the sheer strength to eliminate sag. The curved rails straddle the "pickets" and the 4 vertical stiles to create a sort of semi hollow truss. The bottom rail too is semi hollow. All hollow areas are vented (just an inconspicuous hole drilled) to prevent a pressure build up on hot sunny days.
Here's a pic of the "sandwich."

 

THIS would be one reason to run a second router off the modem (at least in my mind). Not only do many IOT devices have lower settings for security, but they also likely only support older/slower WiFi hardware standards. “Dumbing” down the security or available throughput of your main network isn’t ideal.

Most “consumer” mesh systems are set up to easily provide two networks - a primary and a “guest” network. Inherently, that guest network is blocked from seeing devices on your primary network, so that “guests” can’t access files, servers, printers, etc. that might be hacked. You could set up IOT devices on that network, but that depends on how often you have guests (as the parent of teens/young adults, there is constant activity on my guest network).

More “pro” grade mesh systems allow for you to create more network IDs, but have more complicated setup. So there’s the trade off of simple setup/use vs more robust function.

of course, back to the second router - you’re still going to end up with those devices on a separate network that cannot be seen by the main network. As long as all the IOT things are truly accessed via internet and not local network connections, that’s OK.

 

Nice work.

 

That would work, I wouldn't mind if the Tesla was the only thing on that network

 

Beautiful work on those gates 831Tun, very nice style

 

Made the mistake and asked my wife if she wanted me to make this an accent wall in our living room. Of course she said yes so I was busy for a few days.

 

I was digging up my clogged septic field this morning, but now it's raining. Going to have to trench a new field since the old line is bad.

 

Good god, that's my worst nightmare for my house!!! Didn't know you could replace your own leach field!! Good luck!

 

Lots of people with frozen furnace drains. I had a rock on a water diverting plate to keep the wind from blowing it off, I went and checked to see if my furnace drain to the outside was icing up. The water almost completed a frozen path to the pipe. Water was still flowing out a side area. I was gone all day so I was out there at night 14 degrees. Used a rock to knock the ice and remove the frozen rock/diverter. I put some pipe insulation around the drain pipe. Looked ok this morning but will check again today when I get back tonight.

 

HVAC guy for annual check was 'pretty good sized', and broke my attic ladder. Have the new ladder in place (aluminum, rated for 375 lbs!)...just need to adjust the feet, trim any shims needed, a few more lag bolts, and put the molding back on.

 

Shouldn't be too bad. The ground here in Florida is pretty soft and i only have one bathroom to dig for. Only thing i'm not looking forward to is backfilling the trench with gravel. But if i move a bunch of crap out of the way i think i can get some delivered right next to the hole.

 

Finally got this done, no time to work on it otherwise. Was stumping over how I was going to rip 1/4" off a 2x4 to fill the void because I couldn't find a cabinet that was 18x24" for the 24.25" tall opening. Then I realized ... duh. The damn waferboard floor is 1/4" thick.

So circular saw set to shy of 1/4" depth to notch the floor out, then boxed it all in for cabinet support on the sides, on the rear, and for the little overhang of "shelf" on the left I'll do something with later...

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Cabinet slid right in. I rigged up a system to hold the cabinet in place using a 2x6 filler on the left there. and ran a 2x across the top to hold the cabinet down into the slot I built down there. End product, though I'll probably frame out the right-hand side pocket screwing in a 2x2 if I can find a scrap one that's not totally twisted. This isn't pretty by any stretch, but it's tock solid and what I could toss together with scrap wood ... and it serves the purpose.

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Ohhhhhhh Stainless!
Looks great/permanent to me And that thread identifier, reminded me I need one of those

 

This is basically the one I picked up. I think I may move the damn thing to sit above the drawers, since it's roughly the same width. Quality isn't bad. Is it really worth the $$? I dunno. I'd have been happier paying a little less for Chinesium and I couldn't find vintage American made, but it's done its job a 100x over so ...

$37 Retisee 28 Size 4'' x 20'' Bolt and Nut Identifier Gauge Nut Bolt Size and Thread Identifier Thread Pitch Gauge Standard Inch and Centimeter Ruler (Black,Classic)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BWYGNFFM/
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Damn stainless is all I could find! And the price was right, so ... to hell with it. I need to oil it up though, so it doesn't get fingerprints and grease all over it.

 

Right, for what your looking at it seems like they could pump those identifiers out for under $20 all day.
I joke about my stainless fetish, but Ive just gotten so sick of rusted fasteners/hardware I go for stainless whenever I can. One and Done. That cabinet is really nice

 

$160 too.

Looks nice. Metal is a bit thin, middle drawer open/close is really wonky. Slides are a bit cheap. I give 3.75 out of 5 stars. Clearly worth the money to have deep drawer storage. I’d definitely use it for outdoor kitchen/BBQ all day long.

 

They make grey switches, outlets, and covers that would be a pretty close match.

looks cool though.