Since I am moving to a new place I figured that this would be the best time to upgrade from my dinky all-in-one WIFI router to something more substantial, but I’m having trouble putting together a budget for it with all of the options available online. The new place has a gigabit fiber connection so the setup I’m foreseeing is router-POE Switch with ~6 ports and 2 APs. Moving is already a expensive process, so I don’t want to overspend on the most future proof equipment, just want to take advantage of the fiber connection on a budget. Can anyone help me figure out a realistic budget for this, or point me to a solid resource for budget friendly networking gear?
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This is highly dependent on your use case.
Do you want a decent plug and play consumer router and switch that you don’t need to finagle much or do you want something more enterprise grade?
Do you just want gigabit speeds for your LAN or do you want 2.5 or 10?
For a good consumer router with gigabit ports you’re looking at ~$200*. For something more enterprise with 2.5Gbps ports it’ll be closer to $800.
For a good PoE switch you’re looking at ~$150 at gigabit and ~$250 for 2.5Gbps. if you want a managed switch then that will also be closer to $300. Access points are similarly priced.
*Prices in CAD
I’m not OP, but I am also looking to install a wired network for reliability and speed, and I didn’t think I’d need all that.
Could I not just plug a 10-port gigabit switch into the router and run cable from that through my house? I only have a gigabit of internet bandwidth, so I don’t think I’ll need anything faster.
You absolutely could do that. That’s actually how my network looks save for an access point
Your Internet might only be gigabit, but if you have devices within your network that need to communicate, like a NAS for example then having 2.5 or 10 Gbps could be attractive.
And while you’re making a wired network, if you ever do want WiFi in the future then you’re also going to need access points