This is egg on my face, but just wanted share this information for those who might be making the same mistake.
I have all Apple ecosystem except the DIY NUC ROCK. Even after the ROCK upgrade, I wasn’t too happy about sluggish loading and search. My Roon remote is a MacMini attached to the TV (for display) and the stereo system. The MacMini is connected to the subnet through the Airport Extreme router. Just yesterday the Airport was acting up interfering with the subnet communications so I removed it from the chain and the MacMini is plugged directly into the wall port, which goes to the house network switch shared by the ROCK in the other room. Voila!! Now all the sluggish processing problem is gone.
It is well known that Apple routers have many peculiar behaviors, which is probably why they stopped making them. Those who still use one of these routers the way I did, try to remove it from the chain.
Hi Daniel, thanks for the info. It says don’t use it but doesn’t explain why…
I never clearly understood the difference between Access Point and a regular router, especially when they are both connected to the wall by ethernet cables. Can any regular router be configured to work as an AP? What does it mean and how do I do that?
I live in a compound house where a dedicated network switch provides wall ports to all rooms, so the subnet is already set up, although I have no control over the specific network settings in the switch. Wifi is only needed for mobile devices to access the internet. The house is not big but the each floor needs separate wifi coverage. It would be ideal if I can use the same wifi SSID as I move from downstairs to upstairs.
Given the situation, what is your recommended best practice? Can I use two regular routers and configure them to use the same SSID? How do I do that? I would greatly appreciate your suggestion.
Not a good idea. Also the WiFi coverage would not be seamless as a device moving from one router to another has to completely let go of the wireless signal in order to join the other. The concept you are describing requires the WiFi access points to have a technology called mesh. A bunch of companies make them now.
If I’m reading what you described correctly, the Ethernet ports on all the floors are all in the same local network… is this correct? Does everyone access the same WiFi?
If so you could build a mesh setup and place the satellites on each floor making sure you create an overlap of coverage.
I’ve had the same problem in my house.
Installing WiFi mesh endpoints on each floor solved it all.
Mesh is like cellular network for WiFi - the units talk to each other and transfer the clients to the unit with the best reception.
I get above 300 Mbps BW on average on WiFi.
I have the TP-Link deco M5. You can get these devices from every brand.
@ffk Yes, that’s correct. The master network switch dedicated for the house provides two subnets, and I can choose the two routers to use the same subnet (simply by using the right ports). But I understand the concerns and I will look into the mesh setup.
