Home network overhaul

Problem

I live in a 3-floor townhouse. We got set up when we moved in, with a simple ISP router (modem in the garage) and 2 wired jacks for home offices (top floor and basement). One router did next to nothing for the top/bottom floors since it lived on the main floor. So I moved to a Google Mesh Router setup (purchased 3). This was an improvement - but over time, it just became more and more flaky. So I explored other options and landed with UniFi. This would solve our flaky Wi-Fi problem, and give greater control over:

• having an accurate list of devices on the network, and how strong their signals were
• being able to split 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies
• supporting multiple VLANs
• fine tuning channels where there is a lot of network congestion

Approach

After going back and forth on equipment a lot, consulting discussion boards/Reddit - I landed on a simple setup - Gateway in front of the ISP modem, followed by PoE switch that would lead to the existing cables that went to the top/bottom floors - as well as adding a third jack on the main floor. Then 3 x U6+ Access Points mounted on walls on each floor.

Double NAT

I discovered with this approach, that I am getting double NAT with the ISP Modem and the Gateway - my plan is to have my ISP put the modem into bridge mode (or do it myself - tried once in the past but I ended up not fully understanding what I was doing). Seems stable for now, so I am not in a rush to fix this.

Outcome

1. Three access points that are fully wired in, strong signals covering the entire house. Not perfect, but so much more stable now.
2. Mobile app that shows network details at a glance, notifying me if something goes offline or looks suspicious.
3. Ability to further fine-tune the home network, and further expand/improve the home network in the future (homelabbing is on the todo list).