“What’s the best setup for running the house and apartment on the same wifi system?”

“Dear PoPville,

We recently bought a rowhouse with a separate basement unit. The house is old, the walls are solid plaster. These are notorious for killing your wifi signal.

What’s the best setup for running the house and apartment on the same wifi system? We will be including Internet service in the monthly rent for the basement.

We are fortunate that the new house is on RCN and qualifies for their ultrafast Gigabit Internet.

I’m thinking that we purchase this modem for the main floor, which gets great reviews and is approved for RCN:
Next-Generation ARRIS SURFboard SB8200 DOCSIS 3.1 Cable Modem – Retail Packaging- White

Then I’m thinking I get a simple gigabit compatible Ethernet switch, with two separate wifi routers hard wired into the switch. I’d run cat5 wire down to the basement unit and hook them up to their own wifi router. I’d then have a separate wifi router that would cover the main floor and our bedrooms upstairs.

I’m thinking this wifi unit would work nicely, but I’m definitely open to other models that may work better:
Medialink AC1200 Wireless Gigabit Router – Gigabit (1000 Mbps) Wired Speed & AC 1200 Mbps Combined Wireless Speed (Part# MLWR-AC1200 )

Is this a good plan for ensuring Internet coverage throughout the home? I like the idea of the apartment and main home having separate password-protected networks, while still utilizing one modem and account with RCN that we control.

I’d love to hear any ideas from the PoPville crowd for a cost effective way to manage this.

Many thanks!”