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Mesh Wifi Recommendations?

Daqueef

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I think it's time to upgrade my home wifi system and am considering moving from a router to mesh. The router has worked great but it's having some kind of sporadic issue where it drops my internet connection and I have to reboot it.



My only gripe with the router is that I have a big house and get slower than desirable speeds in some areas due to distance from the router. Mesh seems like the way to go but after reading some reviews, they all seem pretty much the same to me and I keep reading about failures to switch when you move from one node to another. That would annoy the crap out of me.



I don't need gaming features but I do need good bandwidth and speed for streaming things like Netflix and for video conferencing.



Any of you guys have mesh systems you really like and would recommend?
 



Is your house that big that a normal router can't handle it?
 

Best course of action is to run network (cat 5) cable to all rooms in the house and hard-wire into the internet to all devices, including your smart tv's. That's what we've done and it works out great.
 

I have two mesh systems that both work great. I bought them both together to test them individually, and after reading reviews that they tend to fail after ~1 year of use, I figured I would keep both to use one as a backup when the other fails. I have the Google Wi-Fi mesh currently running, and it has been up for about 14 months with no issues. The TP-Link Deco M5 Whole Home Mesh is my backup. I do recommend the set of three and not two for larger homes like ours (greater than 2000 square feet), and try to place them 10-15 feet apart for the best performance across the home. Our office Wi-Fi speeds went from 30% to 95% of the router speed with these units.

Google Wi-Fi 3-Pack (GA00158-US) with 3X Deco Gear WiFi Outlet Wall Mount White
TP-Link Deco Mesh WiFi System –Up to 5,500 sq. ft. Whole Home Coverage and 100+ Devices,WiFi Router/Extender Replacement, Parental Controls/Anitivirus, Seamless Roaming(Deco M5 3-Pack)
Koroao Wall Mount Holder Compatible with TP-Link Deco M5, TP-Link Deco P7 Whole Home Mesh WiFi System, Sturdy Wall Mount Bracket. (Single)
 
After setting up repeaters/extenders around the house, the type that you plug into your wall outlet; I realized that the results were mediocre at best. With 200Mbs provided, I was getting around 8, 10, 12 Mbps download.

Then I switched to Ubiquiti Networks; it was a game changer. I just did a quick test with my phone, and measured 121 Mbps download here in the house. I have two of them in the attic.

I measured 14 Mbps in my backyard shed, which is a little over 100 ft from the closest Ubiquiti antenna.
 
My router is on the east side in my house, my backyard is on the west side. No way I could get a WIFI signal to the west side of my house from the router, let alone to the backyard when that signal would have to go through 6-7 walls..

So I piggy back 2 5gHZ extenders. 1 is 1/2 way from the router to the west side, the other gets it's signal from the 1st extender and is right near the west side wall that faces my backyard.

I use to use one 2.4g extender, signal did reach the backyard but I lost a lot is speed.. Because 5ghz signal is much faster than 2.4 but it has piss poor range, so I needed 2 extenders..Using TWO 5ghz my 100 Mbps at the router I still get 15-25 Mbps in my backyard.. And that's plenty fast enough.

Long story short(too late right?) if your router does 5 ghz consider buying a couple of 5g extenders.. Good ones cost in the $35-$50 range. For under $100 you might be able to fix your problem.
 
swing_voter said:
Is your house that big that a normal router can't handle it?
Click to expand...

Which part of the following sentence was too difficult for you to understand?



"I have a big house and get slower than desirable speeds in some areas due to distance from the router."
 
swing_voter said:
Is your house that big that a normal router can't handle it?
Click to expand...

Even relatively small, 2 story, 3br, 1.5 bathroom homes can be "big enough" for wifi signals to weaken from the left upstairs side, to the downstairs living room. I had to help a client living in the home I just described, to figure out a solution to his inconsistent wifi signal, which eventually resulted in a wifi signal booster in the upstairs bathroom, just in front of the staircase. I've been in countless small fast food places with weak wifi in certain seating areas.
 
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I would upgrade my router.
 
Daqueef said:
Which part of the following sentence was too difficult for you to understand?



"I have a big house and get slower than desirable speeds in some areas due to distance from the router."
Click to expand...

Because precision is important, when you say "big house", do you mean its large, or sizable, or substantial, or maybe immense, colossal, huge, considerable, mammoth or do you mean its "considerably bigger than small, but not quite palatial"? Just kidding, I could help myself....
 
I still pick up my own wifi signal (2.4) across the street from my house at the community pool. Single router in house. Mesh works, if you know how to use it, including setting up and there are no problems, interference with any of the access points.

Honestly, you would likely be better off wiring in wherever possible. This reduces interference and potential for it. Also, location of router is important.

The only reason we are looking at increasing to 1G is we have 3 adults working from home and 2 children will soon also be going to school from home, at least parttime. Plus we game and stream.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 

Lan works best, but to be simple if you do not or can not run wires all over the house, simply using wifi extenders can do the trick.
 


Generally you want something that can do ethernet backhaul (or connect via ethernet cable if they are far apart) and anything with wifi 6 (or ax standard)

also any IOT stuff really should be on its own subnet (or just put them on the guest wifi) because they tend to be pieces of junk from a security standpoint

Advanced level is to set up your own unifi service on a home server and run access points as client devices -- Docker Hub
 
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There is a local handyman nearby who bought a wifi sniffer/strength tester just because phone and cable companies would slap in a router ensure it works and past that it is not their problem. He bought the device after he had an old widowed woman pay him to fix her wifi because her netflix was not working in her bedroom. He had to get wifi extenders due to the house size and guess until he got the optimal spots, but then she told all her friends all internet users all elderly and mostly no knowledge on internet other than I connect and it does things.

He considered it a good investment given the high number of retired vets and vet widows being near fort hood, he still today finds it an easy money maker, he can markup the repeater 20%, charge to find optimal locations and install, and still beat the crap out of the cable/phone companies and companies like geek squad in price.
 
I got a Deco brand mesh wifi. It's not all that great. Don't recommend.
 
Here's another question. What is the benefit to using an ethernet port.on the satellite unit? Even if you wire into the satellite, aren't you still then using wifi to send/receive between the satellite and the router?



I guess I can see see why that might be faster or more beneficial than just using wifi to connect to the satellite on a tri band Orbi with a dedicated backhaul but would I even notice the difference? And would it even matter at all on a Nest or Eero with no dedicated backhaul?
 

I've tried and used many routers and mesh systems, I recommend orbi with 2 satellites, hands down. Before I could only get 250M in the main room and a few rooms/walls away, I'd get near 30-50 wifi. My main system is very sealed off for security purposes. After Orbi, rock solid 250M everywhere. If the satellite receiving device is still a bit weak, connecting ethernet directly to a satellite port, gives you a cleaned up and resynchronized signal, just as if you were connecting to the main router. Directly connected via the wire ensures you get the optimal signal directly from the tranceiver, whereas rebroadcasting a wifi signal, even via some boosting, still suffers from local degredation of wireless signals.

For example, I connect streaming services, directly to the satellite rj45 port, and get optimal signal strength. Not all tranceivers have very good wireless receivers for wifi inside (e.g. kindle tv, samsung, etc). But, they generally all use equally good wired tranceivers inside, as it doesn't suffer as much from wifi impairments. If I connect the tv receiver directly to the satellite boosted wifi, it will not be as good as the satellite physical ethernet connection. I've seen this result empirically.
 
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I often use public wifi and do not forhet use different protective apps like vpn. Lately I try to use proxy app when can not get access to games. But yesterday I download
vpn app for windows because it is more convy than free vpn clients. Plus my vpn works perfect without glithces
 
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