Abu Fatira Villa: From 10+ Clashing Routers to One Wi-Fi 6 System in a Day

The family messaged us on WhatsApp: since their new fiber router from the internet provider was connected, the internet worked only on that router and the rest of the house network was cut off. They suspected an old switch. The house is a three-storey villa with a basement.

On the visit we found a different story. Two new mesh routers had been installed: one in the basement as the fiber uplink and one on the first floor as an extender, connected by cable. Mesh is meant to extend Wi-Fi where there are no cables, but this villa already had network cables in every corner of every floor, all running back to one cabinet.

More surprising, there were more than ten old TP-Link routers of different models, from the Archer AX10 to older ones, fixed around the house, each with its own DHCP server switched on. The old fiber router was also still handing out addresses. With that many devices giving out addresses on one network, devices kept getting the wrong settings and the network went down; adding the mesh units had made it worse.

On the first visit we brought the house back online: we reset the existing routers and turned each one into an access point with DHCP switched off, and removed the old fiber router, which was also giving out addresses. We then sent the owner a report of what we found and what we changed.

Before leaving we recommended a proper Wi-Fi system of access points with roaming, instead of a mix of routers. The owner asked for a quotation and approved it.

The installation took one day:

• Removed the two mesh units and all the old routers, and kept the best of them as the router on the fiber line
• Installed 12 Ruijie Reyee RG-RAP2266 Wi-Fi 6 ceiling access points across the basement and all three floors for full coverage, on the cables already in place, so no new cable runs were needed
• Rearranged all the cabling in the cabinet onto Ruijie Reyee smart switches
• Designed the radio plan: which frequency band and channel each access point uses, so neighbouring access points do not interfere with each other
• Made sure the full 200 Mbps of the fiber line, download and upload, reached every part of the house
• Handed the owner full cloud control of his Wi-Fi system in the Ruijie app

The project team: Eng. M. Ahmed led the visit and the installation, with Zayan K., Omar A. and Ahsan.

The villa now runs as one network with one source of addresses: one Wi-Fi name on every floor, roaming between access points, and the full 200 Mbps of the fiber line, download and upload, everywhere in the house.

The owner controls and monitors his Wi-Fi from his phone, and the whole upgrade was done in one day.

The full diagnosis, with the lessons for other villa owners, is in our blog post on this job.