Created: June 10, 2026
High-Performance Residential Network
Goals
Build a fast, reliable home network that feels effortless for everyone else but gives me (WFH engineer) low-latency, high‑throughput wired access. It should handle multiple 4K streams, Plex, security camera recording, and sensors. It should also reach the front gate 1000ft away, all without turning into a science experiment.
What This Network Should Do
- Use the 1 Gbps fiber connection efficiently (near line‑rate on wired devices).
- Keep the office as the "core" so my workstation path to the internet is as short and clean as possible.
- Let two (or more) rooms stream 4K simultaneously with no buffering.
- Serve Plex locally over LAN without hairpinning through the ISP.
- Provide strong Wi‑Fi 6/6E coverage inside the house and usable spillover in the yard.
- Reach the gate 1000ft away for: camera, mailbox sensor, guest Wi‑Fi.
Constraints & Preferences
- Use a prosumer gateway + access points (UniFi) that stays family-transparent: the family experience is just an SSID and password; nobody touches the router.
- Hardwire (Ethernet backhaul) the access points and stationary entertainment gear as each room gets cabling.
- Keep guest and IoT devices isolated from the work laptop, NAS, and internal services using real VLANs, while still letting Home Assistant reach IoT.
- Avoid over-complicating with enterprise-only features unless they solve a real pain.
- Keep all gear removable/portable (no permanent mods), so it can move to a future home or be handed off cleanly.
Nice-to-Haves (If Time/Budget Allows)
- Latency monitoring dashboard (continuous pings + jitter graphs).
- Automatic outage alerts (simple script or lightweight service).
- Per-room throughput snapshots after each cabling upgrade.
- Energy usage visibility for always-on gear (UPS telemetry or smart plug data).
Non-Goals (What I'm Not Doing Yet)
- Full zero-trust segmentation for every individual IoT device.
- Multi-WAN failover (single ISP for now).
- Dedicated VLAN per media device category (a small set of purpose VLANs is enough).
- Complex external SDN controller (the UniFi controller on the gateway is enough).
Success Markers
- Wired workstation sustains ≈940 Mbps down/up and low (<5 ms) local latency.
- Two simultaneous 4K streams + a large file transfer + a video call all succeed gracefully.
- Gate camera feed is stable with acceptable latency and no random drops.
- Guest Wi‑Fi can’t reach NAS / Plex admin / workstation services.
- Plex library scans and streams without stutter; no WAN hairpin routing.
- Wi‑Fi roaming between rooms feels seamless; no dead zones in normal living areas.
Open Questions (To Tackle Later)
- Do I need PoE expansion for future outdoor sensors beyond the gate camera?
- Does the co-op ONT support a bridged Ethernet handoff so the UniFi gateway can be the only router (avoid double-NAT)?
- Is fiber termination placement flexible if the office moves?
Resolved: "will VLAN complexity justify a managed router/firewall upgrade?" Yes. Moving to a UniFi gateway + managed switches delivers real VLANs (Main / IoT / Cameras / Guest), manual Wi-Fi channel control to deconflict 2.4 GHz from Zigbee/Thread, and router telemetry into Home Assistant. Google Nest could not do any of those.
Next Step From Here
Proceed with Phase 1 acquisition (UPS, managed switch, UniFi gateway + APs) and baseline measurements before pulling any cable.