Help me upgrade my home network

Hello. Thanks in advance for any help that you can provide.

Here is my situation..... we have Verizon FIOS internet service. I believe that our speed is 50/15. We use the Verizon provided Actiontec router. It has 4 physical ports, I think.

We have tons of Wifi capable devices in our home. Sometimes as many as 20 at a time(tablets, smart phones, DVR's, wireless printers, laptops, etc etc).

Here are a few things that I would like to accomplish, listed most important to least

1 - I need more physical ports. A total of at least 8

2 - better network performance..... the network seems to get bogged down when too many devices are connected. Sometimes new devices are not able to connect wirelessly. I think that the current Verizon Actiontec router cannot handle the high number of wireless devices.

3 - I would like to have a stronger wifi signal with better range. Right now I get 25 feet. If possible, I would like to double that.

4- I have a hard drive enclosure with multiple hard drives. It currently connected to my PC with a USB cable. It is NOT a NAS device. I would luke to configure this device so that it can be accessed by other devices on my LAN

5 - I would like the ability to VPN into my home network remotely. I want to connect with a remote device and "trick" my home network to think that I am within my residence and connected to my LAN.

6 - the ability to set up a "guest network" would be nice.

Should I get a switch? Or should I get a different router?

Thoughts, ideas, opinions?

TC

 

You're going to have to upgrade the router for bandwith purposes (forget about range extenders), you will be hard pressed to find an affordable one with more than four RJ-45 ports, and any remote access is usually done via software, not hardware.

You are most likely looking at a router, a switch to add ports, and if you want to add drives to an enclosure as you describe, you may as well put a server in the house.

Just a quick overview opinion...