Sorting out my home network issues

[oli collett]

I've never really had my home network quite running as I'd like it and figured it's about time I sorted it

Current setup is as follows:
Asus RT-N56U Wireless Router broadcasting 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz
Devices hooked up both ethernet/wireless including unRAID server which I use to stream music/video/films

Netgear Sky modem/router - no wireless
Devices hooked up via ethernet

I'm running into an issue because i'm at the limit for wired devices so I could really do with adding a switch, but I also often run into problems with devices connected to the wireless sometimes not talking to those hooked up via ethernet on the netgear modem.

I've wondered if this is to do with my DHCP setup for IPs. At present, both routers can assign IPs. I didn't think this was right, but every time I've tried just setting up the Asus router to assign IPs, devices on the Netgear modem/router have ended up being unable to get an IP address!

Also, I've just upgraded the firmware on the Asus router, it changed a few settings and I've now set it so I believe I'm broadcasting both the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands to the same SSID - is this right? I was just going to use 5Ghz but I believe some of my devices would struggle, would I be better off using different SSIDs so I can manage traffic that way? I often have at least 6 devices connected via wireless

 

[!bluetonic!]

Only one router / switch should be provisioned as a DHCP server.

You may have to manually give the 'other' router a static IP address.

Using one SSID for both bands is fine.

 

[oli collett]

Only one router / switch should be provisioned as a DHCP server.

You may have to manually give the 'other' router a static IP address.

Using one SSID for both bands is fine.

Yeah that's how I thought, I expect a lot of issues come down to IP conflicts and whatnot. I'll have another go with running one DHCP server.