On 6/1/21 20:36, Jim Troutman wrote:

I also believe that ISPs need to manage the customer’s WiFi most of the time, because it is a is huge part of the end-user’s quality of experience. WiFi 6E will go a long way towards reducing interference and channel congestion and making “auto channel” actually work, but will still be another 2-3 years before it is really common.

IME, the biggest problem with home networks is not how they are managed, but how they are built.

ISP's will stick a router/AP at the demarc. point, and run off. Home owners will mesh and boost all over the place, and run off. Basically, what can either do to get things up and running quickly for the lowest time and money spent.

When I've built home networks for my mates, I've always guaranteed them that any problem they have with the Internet service will NEVER be because of their LAN or WLAN. So far, that has been 100% true across all of them, myself included.

Wireless meshing, wireless boosting, ignoring the layout of walls and reflective surfaces, no channel or frequency planning, mis-aligned encryption schemes across AP's, running all AP's as NAT'ing routers, the list is endless. All of these will make that 10Gbps FTTH Active-E service from the ISP up the road feel like road-kill.

A well-built home network is, generally, maintenance- and management-free. At my house, the only things that have broken are Ethernet cables that we ran with subpar insulation years back, and the elements finally killed them. In replacing them, I also fixed the insulation. I'll probably die before I ever have to touch those again.

Also, as we keep using higher and higher frequencies for wi-fi, the range will keep on getting smaller and smaller. So designing a good WLAN for the home will be even more key.

Fiber optic networks operated in a competent way are always going to win compared to any other technology. It is just a matter of time.

As my Afrikaans friend would say, "Finish & klarr".

Mark.