Hi Guys,

Seek some opinion.

I'm currently designing my home networking for renovation. I'm planning to deploy OMADA in my home network which can manage network devices in 1 interface, setting vlans for different purposes and etc.

I know Ubiquiti have similar solution as OMADA, but i think OMADA cost wise is cheaper than Ubiquiti. Not sure Mikrotik have similar solution or not as not familiar with their product.

My house is double storey terrace house and will be using CAT6A cables and 2 multi mode LC fiber optic between store room to my study room as I will having more devices and some home lab in my study room.

Below is my draft networking diagram.



I'm thinking whether to put a switch in my study room instead of pulling all cables into Store Room in order ease the wiring job.

Planning to get 1Gbps/2Gbps internet in future, wondering between network rack 1 to network rack 2 if I would want to pull a fiber optic, should I use single mode or multi mode fiber optic? Not sure any fiber modem can direct connect with switches with multi mode fiber?

go with omada for simplified,easy to use and better iphone apps,

go with mikrotik if u are expert and require customization especially on traffic engineering

for fiber, multimode is cheaper but shorter distance, but for household should be good enough, heck even cat6 is good enough

however if u plan to bring fiber modem to rack 2, then Single Mode is a must, price not much different

This post has been edited by amirsubhi: Sep 25 2023, 08:33 PM

If you are newly reno, you might want to consider

1. router with at least 2x 2.5G ports.

2. instead of 16 ports non PoE switch, maybe a 8 ports 2.5G switch + 8 ports gigabit switch. if you are running nvr for your ip cam, remember plug your nvr to the same PoE switch as well so that router offline nvr continue to record too.

3. ground floor ap that ethernet port maybe put near the kitchen or dining room there if u have plenty of smart home appliances. if you still have tons of IoT devices using wifi b/g/n, spare a ethernet port for old wifi router. wifi 6 router sometimes got weird compatiblity issue with those old devices using wifi b/g/n.

4. for more pleasant wifi usage, i recommend each room has 1 mesh router instead of 1 AP cover the whole floor. wifi is 2-way communication, your AP signal is strong but your handphone send back signal not as strong, you will feel "lag".

5. yea, put another 2.5G switch for study room and entertainment room is better than having 4 lan cables, 2 lan cables are enough.


extra tip for new reno: don't forget to plan make a box with cctv monitoring to receive parcel when you are not around.

Not sure mikrotik have any solution like OMADA.

As for fiber, currently there is underground fiber done by developer from outside to the store room. If I plan to move fiber modem to rack 2, I have to buy the single mode fiber to connect the existing fiber(no termination yet)?


Plan to get TP-link TL-SG3210XHP-M2 Jetstream switch as seem like only this got 2.5G port which would be my primary switch. As for router, i shall getting ER707-M2 which have 2 x 2.5G WAN/LAN port.

As for wifi, will try 2 unit EAP670 and see the performance how it go.

For my study and entertainment, will try yr suggestion. May try cheap unmanaged 2.5G switch, since managed switch 2.5G seem no available for OMADA one.

This post has been edited by cyclone2: Sep 26 2023, 01:09 AM

Cat 8 cable for to the future. If you house have frequent lightning. Please take that into consideration. Fried all your lan cable.

Find where the best LTE signal place for backup incase your main ISP is down.

This post has been edited by OlgaC4: Sep 26 2023, 09:45 AM

CAT8 is too expensive..... out of my budget....

Not sure about lightning area the area, but so far nvr heard neighbors said lightning fried their appliances. Touch wood......

You will stay the house 20-30years. Some place is good to have cat8 for future proof. Buy ready made like evergeen. cheap lah

Ya, but I have tight budget now. May consider upgrade it in future when time is come... haha.....

Anyway, thanks for your advice. appreciate it.

Cannot upgrade already cos conceal in the wall. Happened to me on cat5

Yup my current house is conceal also. So learnt from this, I had told the guy who did the Lan cable put all the piping for me, so later if i wan to add new cable or change new cable, I can do it myself without hacking...

Plan to try use this cable puller see it can work, as still under reno...hahaa

CAT 6A seems fine enough for future proofing, CAT 8 seems overkill, at that point might as well consider fiber as well

Mikrotik isnt really known for their wireless stuff, so I woulnd't go for them for that, but their routers are rock solid

for other wireless providers, consider Ruckus Networks or Aruba Networks
Both are not cheap at all though (but still cheaper than cisco)
Or Ubiquiti can be considered but their software is rough around the edges

it's about how the reno works to conceal the conduit

use bended conduit vs using L-connector



This post has been edited by BOTAK_WAI: Sep 26 2023, 08:24 PM

even CAT 6 is enough if he plan to conceal the fiber as well.

CAT6A also harder for termination job.

Just my two cents on your AP choices, currently I'm running two of EAP670. They are brought from Singapore and they're v1.0 US version. They originally were running 1.0.9 firmware out of the box and the 2.4GHz performance was terrible, we're talking about 20-30mbps to a LOCAL speedtest server. Had to email TP-Link manually to get a beta firmware from them (1.0.11).

After the 1.0.11 update it can reach up to 200-300mbps to a REMOTE server. But do note that you will have to request as the general public are not allowed to share the firmware around.

Also another quirk with the EAP670, the 2.4GHz wifi takes a bit to properly connect and negotiate a link with my router. Not sure if it's a device issue or EAP issue but just something you should keep in mind of. My 5GHz connects and negotiate a link with my router in less than 1-2s but 2.4GHz would just display no internet and will take up to 10s before it gets a link.

I have a total of 4 SSIDs running, which for a hardware of this scale shouldn't be happening but all my main/high performance devices are on 5GHz now, just IOT and older stuff is running on the 2.4GHz or the legacy SSID.

Take what you will from that info, maybe try and score an AP from Ruckus or Aruba if you're willing to drop a bit more cash on it, Ruckus especially since I've heard lots of good things about it. I recommend trying to score a second hand AP from eBay as quite some APs are really cheap on there since lots of enterprises is probably just starting to retire their existing AP for WiFi 7(BE), that is if you don't mind used ofc

This post has been edited by yenchenje: Sep 26 2023, 10:35 PM

thanks for info, will inform the guy doing LAN cable for me.

Currently I only lay 2 fiber option for now between upstair and downstair.

yup, CAT6A cable is too thick compare to CAT6..... the keystone also expensive......

Would it be difficult to handle the AP if not using the OMADA APs? U have experienced on EAP 660HD? I still have 1 old ASUS router if really needed, may use it or IoT devices.

I was viewing some Youtube review on EAP 670, performance seem Ok.

Will try review other brand APs. Thanks for your info.

Define difficult in this context, weight wise? They're quite a bit more heavy than the EAP650 (I have the Chinese version of it) due to it having more antennas, but configuration wise? Quite simple, it's basically just TP-Link's web UI in an AP, with a bit more enterprise settings, such as VLAN isolation, L3 management etc

But if you want to run them in mesh, you will need Omada SDN, you can either go the OC200 route or software SDN. Currently I'm running Omada SDN in docker on my Xpenology NAS as mesh, otherwise they will have no way to talk to each other, and they will have different SSIDs

But it's quite friendly UI wise so if you don't want to complicate your GUI setup, I'd say go for it

I have 1 unused unit Raspberry Pi 4, plan to use it as the OMADA SDN.

So currently your EAP670 is working fine now? I just checked the pricing of Aruba APs, is more expensive.

This post has been edited by cyclone2: Sep 27 2023, 03:39 PM

i have used tplink vigi before, and the interface is really lacking compared to unifi. i feel like motion, face and most tracking is just a gimmick

on the other hand, your 3 poe camera setup seems perfect for unifi protect.

i also wanted to go with omada vs my current ubiquiti system, but the dealbreaker for me was the firewalls could barely support any vpn services because of their cpu, i wanted all my iot devices to be routed to vpn, and my apple tv to uk vpn

I don't really using VPN to oversea.... all my streaming services still local contents.

In fact, I was thinking go for unifi at 1st...... i'm more gearing to tplink for now because of cost factor.......

i understand

this would fix a lot of issue for you

but it is expensive

https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/udw

Yes it's working just fine now. Like I said, 2.4GHz is still a bit shot but your high bandwidth devices are all gonna be on 5GHz anyway, it won't really affect you since as long as the devices, such as IoT or low bandwidth devices won't frequently drop and needs to be reconnected, it's fine. Keep in mind that TP-Link might have already fixed the issue with another revision of the hardware, currently there's V1, V1.2 and V1.26. I don't know how TP-Link distribute their hardware but the newer revision might be more stable when compared to V1, and since I have the V1, I can't help much on that anymore, so just remember to try and get a firmware from TP-Link if the performance is sub par.

Also if you want to get the EAP670 at a bit of a cheaper price, try and score it during deals. I got one of mine during holiday deals from SG for RM661 converted, so keep a close eye on shopee etc and see if it'll go on sale or not

Yeah, really expensive, after convert more than RM3k, my home minister will kill me

maybe in future....... haha

Wahhh RM661 is cheap, u bought from Singapore?

I just saw viewnet in lazada bout RM 683. Noted on the hardware version.

Ya it was on SG national day sale from my supplier at work. So got it to replace my existing APs.

Viewnet one should be on sale also, since MSRP is a lot higher than that. Also I spend most of my time on shopee so I don't really know the market on Lazada

But interesting to see Viewnet doing it at that price

cyclone2 from your diagram, since are you planning to connect the Living Room TV & TV Box directly to the ISP Modem/Router, does it mean that you are using the ISP Modem/Router as main router?
If so, i think it would be a waste to the new network and features that you are planning to setup, coz i don't think the ISP Modem/Router is powerful enough to handle this kind of network.

This post has been edited by soohoe84: Sep 27 2023, 07:08 PM

Not sure what hardware version they r selling. I'm asking the selling, most of time I'm using lazada, selling on shopee... haha....

Who know when you place order that time, they will tell u OOS....

Most probably I will put another 5 port switch in the rack 1 if I'm going to use back the existing LAN cable from developer. I'm not sure the existing cable is what category and still can be use or not as the house been empty since 2015. Also the termination of the cable is terrible.

Don't think i will change the fiber modem for now until I upgrade to 1 Gbps/2Gbps, I still have 1 old Netgear Nighthawk X6 R8000 router could be use as main router.

Thanks for reminder

The ISP Modem/Router is always recommended to be converted into bridge mode, then the only device connected to it will be the main router, and only then all other switches or devices to the main router.

The main objective of your new network is to manage the whole network in one interface via Mikrotik or OMADA. So if you use the old Netgear as main router, it would defeat the purpose as they are different systems.

From my understanding of your diagram, i think the sequence should be:
1) ISP Modem/Router (Bridge Mode)

*Networking devices here onwards are recommended to be of same brand (be it Mikrotik or TP-Link) to suit your objective.
2) Main Router (PPPOE, VLAN, DHCP, Firewall, and other necessary settings)

3) 8-Port POE and 16-Port Non-POE Switches (Unmanaged or managed by the main router)

4) APs connected to the switches

*Devices of other brands.
5) And finally all the CCTVs, IoT devices, NAS, etc., connected to either the APs or switches.

Noted, will look into it again. thanks.