Home LAN and WiFi

Is it even worth messing with the AirPort system anymore

NO!..

The current direction for home networks is mesh.

Apple got out of the business almost 4 years ago now.. but it is 2013 since a new product landed.. so as Tesserax has pointed out you need to move to new 3rd party equipment regardless. Everything you have from Apple now is several generations out of date. However you can still use the Express. As long as they are still good they have a remarkably long lifespan and airplay is what they do best. So you can build a system out of more recent equipment, and keep the Airport Express just for audio use where you have older equipment that still serves well.

just accept radio broadcast from the Verizon gateway as my only wifi network?

NO!! At least not if you live in a house with more than 2 rooms.

Single point wifi is NOT up to the task of covering a whole house. Not with the multiplication of devices using wifi and the increasing data rates.

Mesh is neat because you can add a separate wireless network which connects back to the Verizon gateway via a single ethernet cable.. BUT choose well. Many mesh systems will require the main unit to act as router. Assuming the Verizon cannot be bridged, then you MUST buy mesh that operates purely as Access Points.

Let me double up on Tesserax's advice and say.. if possible install some ethernet wiring. Whilst mesh works much much better than the old apple routers extend wireless concept, using wireless as the backbone of the network is still the weakest link. Ethernet is fast, rock solid reliable, and allows you to use a far greater range of equipment from different sources and price points. You also have much better control. The extra cost of ethernet will amortise over time into reliable stable operation that beats wireless mesh systems hands down.

To cover most houses 3 AP are usually adequate. If the house is solid concrete and brick then more might be needed.. steel in any form is great blocker.. your current system will be a good indicator of what is needed.

Start with 3 points and run double ethernet cables to each one. More if you have office or other areas where you need reliable service. Connect everything that doesn't move by ethernet. That is the solid network. Reserve wifi for the gear you carry around.

I think your best starting point is to read a good reviewer..

https://dongknows.com/mesh-wi-fi-system-explained/

He has lots of reviews of mesh systems.. their issues with setup over phone apps

https://dongknows.com/web-interface-vs-mobile-app/

Read around and ask questions.. happy to give more specifics.

mikegaulco wrote:

A hard wired amp plumbed to speakers everywhere would be amazing! What amp do you recommend?

I suggest starting with this Crutchfield article to give you an idea on what options are available based on how many rooms you want to add audio to. In my case, I went with a separate Denon amp and a Denon AV receiver, with the latter configured for the five zones I wanted covered. There are many other players in this field besides Denon, but that's what worked best for me based on my goals.

Also, do you mind telling me more about your Ubiquiti set up? Do you have multiple access points? Have you established any sort or LAN to make connection across a larger area efficient?

I went with the Ubiquiti UniFi line to replace my aging Apple equipment. I would consider Ubiquiti as either business or prosumer-grade equipment. It takes a bit more to setup, but once configured, it's light-years ahead of most consumer-grade stuff. As such, it provides me with much greater control of what I want my network to do.

In my network setup, my home is pre-wired throughout with Ethernet, with all the Ethernet runs terminating at one end in a networking "closet," and each run terminating at the other ends with Ethernet wall plates. This makes adding additional networking hardware (switches, access points, etc.) a snap. UniFi relies on a central administrator app, called the Network Console. This console can be hosted on a dedicate hardware device, called a Cloud Key, or hosted on a computer or smartphone. This app is not required to run the network, but just to set it up or to make changes to it. You can also remotely access this app, if needed, when you're away from home.

Finally, I have set up my network to operate with multiple VLANs to separate communications and provide better overall bandwidth performance. I have configured VLANs for: Default devices, IoT devices, media devices, and game consoles. Although I don't have a need to create a Guest network, I have the option to do so.

My overall approach was to swap out the Apple equipment, one-by-one, and replace them with UniFi devices, starting with the wireless access points and Ethernet switches (to replace the base stations), then with the UniFi Security Gateway (to replace my "main" AirPort), and finally, moving the Network app from one of my Mac to a Cloud Key. This will make more sense once you have an opportunity to read up a bit. Ubiquiti also has a support forum, similar to Apple's where you will get both the "good" and "bad," just like you do here. ;)

I didn't know the name, mesh, but that is roughly what I have been trying to set up and maintain. My TimeCapsule as the router, and and all the other AirEx and AirPorts as hard wired APs.

Not a big deal, but Apple never offered a "mesh" design.

A setup where the main router and other access points all connect together using Ethernet is known as a "roaming network". It was....and still is.....probably the best way to go in terms of performance unless the mesh system offers an option for the mesh devices to connect using Ethernet.

Very few do, so if you are beginning to look at mesh networks, you would want to take advantage of your existing wired Ethernet "backbone" for best performance. I'm sure there are more, but off hand I can only think of a few mesh networks that offer a wired Ethernet option.....Netgear and Eero. It's worth investigating on any others that you might be looking at.

I have been setting them up, each broadcasting their own network, all the with same name, which your articles advise against....

You must have misunderstood, because this is not true. Apple's support document on extended networks makes it very clear that in a "roaming network", all of the Apple routers are connected using Ethernet and set up to broadcast a wireless signal using the same wireless network name, same wireless security and same password.

More details in this Apple Support document, if you are interested.........https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202056

In effect, this creates one "big" network. What you would want to avoid in this type of setup though.......is having two AirPorts in close proximity to each other.....because WiFi devices will be confused about which AirPort to connect to.

Mesh systems also attempt to create one "big" network. But almost all of them use wireless connections between the various access points.......and lose a significant amount of performance in the process, despite all the fancy pictures and advertising claims.

From your perspective, I can still use a backbone Ethernet connected “roaming network” with my existing apple routers and achieve a wide area high (relative to my ISP speed) performance network on par with a newer mesh system?

Unless your ISP is delivering a 300+ Mbps connection, the AirPorts.......(with the exception of the AirPort Express)...... will work just fine as far as speed performance. But, WiFi security wise, the AirPorts are already "long in the tooth", so it really is time to start thinking seriously about your next system.

If I’m going to try to reestablish this wired roaming network, what steps must I take with my time capsule and air exes? Must I hard reset each of them, and then one at a time program them each to broadcast the same network?

When you are making changes or trying to troubleshoot an issue, the best course of action is always to reset the AirPorts and then set them up again.

So, if the Time Capsule is going to be your "main" router, you would power off all the other AirPorts, reset the Time Capsule and then set it up again to create a wireless network using the wireless network name and password that you want to use. You know that the AirPort Utility setup "wizard" will walk you through the setup, so things are very easy. You enter a name for the wireless network, enter a name for the Time Capsule, and enter a password and confirm. That's it.

Once the Time Capsule is up and running, check to make sure that everything is working correctly.......before......you power up and set up the next AirPort.

Reset the next AirPort, establish the Ethernet connection and set it up using the AirPort Utility setup "wizard". There is practically nothing that you need to do manually for this setup, the wizard will automatically configure the AirPort to "extend using Ethernet" to use the same wireless network name, security and password. It's amazingly simple. Just follow the prompts.

Set up other AirPorts one at a time the same way.

Keep in mind that the AirPort Express is only capable of 100 Mbps speeds, so you would want to avoid using it to provide a WiFi signal if your Internet connection speed is 100 Mbps +. Use AirPort Extremes as much as possible. If you need to use the AirPort Express for AirPlay, turn off the WiFi on the AirPort manually using AirPort Utility after it is set up, so it won't drag down the WiFi performance of the network.

If you are still having trouble, get the Time Capsule set up and working and then post back and we'll add the next AirPort.

Probably not the direction you want to go, but one option is to consider going with an AV receiver/amp system that is AirPlay-Ready. The key for whole-house, would be adding the necessary speaker wiring/speakers in the rooms that you want to receive audio. This is something I did years ago, even before there were any AV receivers that were AirPlay-Ready. For that I used an AirPort Express to provide audio input to the receiver. However, this would be a considerable investment. All I can say, is with the right equipment, the sound quality would be amazing.

Staying with your Apple hardware. At some point, you will not find any replacement devices. In my case, I replaced my all Apple networking ecosystem with those from Ubiquiti. Of course, there are numerous other choices out there. I am in a remote location, so similar to you, my Internet choices are limited. Basically, DSL or Satellite. As such, my media sources are primarily LAN-based ... especially video.