want to redo my home network.

[Dirdie]

This is probably not the best forum for this but i figured i would give it a shot anyway. Sorry this is probably a long post, I'm not the greatest at this networking stuff so please bare with me.

I want to redo my entire home network. I have a large home one part is 2500 sq ft, and then a shop/apartment that is not connected to the house and it is 2300 sq ft. I'm running a modem/router in my main home now from my ISP (rogers Canada)then i have a cat 5 cable running out of that to the shop/apartment to a Belkin router acting as a range extender. on the network we have 6 Iphones, 2 ipads, 3 apple TVs (two in the main house, one in the shop/apartment.) 2 laptops, 1 pc desktop, 1 Imac. I want to be able to stream to every apple TV from every PC or mac, I want to be able to access and transfer files from Shop/apartment computers to the main home. I would also like to have a wireless hard drive to back up all these computers on.

I know I am going to need multiply devices to accomplish all this, and that is fine. I just need to know what products are the best to try and help me accomplish what i would like to accomplish.

[Iamanerd]

Well first off you will need some new gear for the setup and for the best results it might be better to run some CAT5 for all the computers as you will have better file transfer speeds/streaming that way. If you go the wired way just get a nice switch hub which will run you around $200-$300. If you go wireless you will need a good router for your house then a few good signal boosters in your apartment/shop. Look at the new Asus Router the RT-AC66U or even Netgears new router AC1900 looks solid. As for signal boosters there's a few nice Cisco one's or just get a second Router wired out to your shop and use that to piggyback off your first Router that's hooked up to your modem.

If I was in your position I'd go wired, you won't regret it, it'll be a lot work but worth it in the end.

[Dirdie]

Thanks for the reply and the info. I should of mentioned this but the main house is completely wired in Cat5 cable. Now the shop/apartment are not, it has the one cat5 coming from the main house to a router acting as a access point. Wired isn't even a option for the shop/apartment. I think i have the main house part sorted out my biggest concern is finding a decent product to act as the access point giving decent WiFi to the shop/apartment while still being on the same connection and SSID.

[Iamanerd]

Ahh alright then, I'd go with the Asus Router or the Netgear one I previously mentioned and you should be all set. Just set up a NAS drive so you can stream movies/music/photos to where ever you want.