If you’re interested in improving your home network and want to learn some networking skills along the way, we’ve recently identified some compelling devices to consider. These devices are great, especially if you’ve got a reasonably fast internet connection from your ISP or want a long range wireless access point – this may be something to consider the next time you want to upgrade your router.

Note, these do not replace your modem. Many ISP modems also contain a router and a switch. You often can configure them to pass through your connection to your own router via a DMZ or other settings.

I’ll be talking about 3 separate pieces of equipment to improve on the combo modem/router/wireless access point and switch that comes from your ISP. We’ll still be using the combo device as a modem. This configuration is only interesting if you’re considering a high end router combo anyway, say at $200-$300 range, you want something much more capable for the same amount of money, and are not just willing but interested in doing some configuration. Maybe you’re interested in sending Wi-Fi 600 ft. to a barn, maybe you need to prioritize Netflix over Steam game updates or installs. Maybe you’re just interested in learning about devices that don’t make all the decisions for you…

What Devices?

So what are the devices that are so interesting and within the purchasing power of an individual?

Router: Ubiquity EdgeMax Lite 3 port at ~$99

Switch: 8 port HP 1810-8G v2 Switch (J9802A) at ~$60

Wireless access point: Ubiquity Picostation M2 at ~ $75

Router

Ubiquity EdgeMax Lite 3 is a million packet per second capable router running EdgeOS, which is an updated fork of VyattaOS – a major routing OS now owned by Brocade. It has a web based setup, optionally you can use a serial console port or SSH. For most users the web configuration will be easiest and most familiar, but the console via SSH provides additional features and configuration. Firmware updates are simple to install, you download them on your computer and upload them to the device. It supports a downloadable configuration back-up so you can save a working configuration before trying changes, though you might have to reset to default to restore your previous config.

There is a simple wizard to set up traditional NAT, but you can get as complicated as you want with IP Tables based firewall and forwarding rules. The performance at this price cannot be beat, and it is equivalent in options (perhaps via the CLI) to any competitor be it DD-WRT, Open-WRT, Tomato or PFSense. You just get great hardware bundled with the EdgeOS software. Note that I’m not saying this is as easy to set up as some of the competitors, just that it can do everything I’m aware they can do. If you are going to plug in more than two devices to this router in addition to the ISP Modem, you’ll need to use a switch.

Switch

The HP (Hewlett-Packard) 1810-8G v2 Switch (J9802A) is a web managed gigabit switch with a lifetime warranty. At the current prices on Amazon, it’s a great deal. It’s going to perform very close to line speed, while letting you use VLANS, turn on and off switch ports and, as you can see, should last forever or close to it with the warranty. It gives you 8 ports, of which one is the uplink to the router. You will then have 7 plugs for additional Ethernet devices. You don’t have to configure this one at all, but if you do, log in to the web interface and set an IP address. You can do the above and enable SNMP if you want to play with some software that can get throughput and other metrics from the switch. You can know what the performance and throughput is. With VLANs you can have this switch (and the router if you like) pretend to be several switches in one box. This can be useful if you want to isolate your console or TV from your computers or want to have an untrusted network that can only access the internet and not other devices on your home network.

Wireless

The Ubiquity Picostation M2 is an outdoor rated PoE (Power-over-Ethernet) powered access point. It can also be a router, though only for wireless devices, to the ISP Modem. If placed outdoors with the handy mounting bracket that comes with it, you can get up to 500 feet of range to other devices like smartphones. If you use two of them, one on each end, you can get up to 500 meters of range. This will accept multiple antennas, though the 5db Omni one it comes with will work for most home uses, and should fill an entire house in most cases for wireless access. It supports b/g/n networking. You’ll need to provide your own Ethernet cable.

Putting it together

Each of these devices can be purchased separately and used individually or in any combination with each other. Maybe you just need more Ethernet plugs – buy the switch and use it by itself. Maybe you just need to get a wireless access point that can get to every room in your house or that you want to install outdoors – buy the wireless device, plug it in and configure it to be an Access Point / Bridge. Anything connected to that will be on the same network as your existing switches. Maybe you just need a higher performing router or want to have more complex firewall rules. You can just buy the router.

You can also buy all three for about $225 and plug them together, have high performance and functionality across your home network, and have a good “home lab” to learn about VLANs, QoS, NAT, Routing, Switching and Wireless. These are devices that you can install, configure and forget – no more restarting the router because its firmware locked up (Linksys). No more horrible wireless coverage (most ISP wireless routers). And no more 10/100 Mbit switches slowing down internal network transfers.