I'm going to preface the following with 'I work in IT, but software, not hardware, and definitely not infrastructure...'
We live in a mid 19th century L shaped cottage. Thick brick walls, lined with foil backed insulating plasterboard in places. As a result, WiFi coverage isn't great at the extremes of the 'legs'. I've got OK coverage with what was at the time a reasonable router (TP Link Arch C9) and it's been mostly OK. On top of this it's got a really odd shaped garden with 2 outbuildings (one about 50m away as the crow flies, the other about 100, neither have line of sight). Everywhere is covered by Ethernet cable - the house has a couple of runs to every room and I painstakingly dug a trench and filled it with Cat6 for the outbuildings. These now both have an old router with DHCP off acting as an access point.
The main problem now is that both my wife and I are WFH, and one of us is at the end of one of the building 'legs' where there's no Wifi coverage.
I've played around with adding access points in there before, using both the same SSIDs as the main network (on different channels), and using a different one. Using the same had all sorts of issues with the devices not choosing the best network.
So, basically I'm trying to find a solution for the above where I can use a single SSID for everything, and transition between the access points will go unnoticed. For various work related reasons both of us often need to move around the house.
Mesh is sold as the 'new, better than anything' magic bullet for this, but if I get a mesh setup with ethernet backhaul, isn't this just a bit like getting a load of good quality wireless access points? Can they both provide the transition from one to another that I'm after? Or is this, as I suspect, partly down to the client?
Help!
I don't want to spend thousands, but a few hundred is fine if needed. However, it does need to be relatively simple to set up - like I say, not a network person, and spend all day making computers do things they don't want to, don't want to do it at home as well...
Can they provide the transition from one to another that I’m after
Yes, IME. We've got a Tenda mesh system with 3 nodes and devices move seamlessly between them. It's loads better than the router+range extender setup that we had before where a device would desperately cling on to a terrible signal from the router before moving to the extender (or vice versa).
@bails has it - another Tenda mesh user, great signal all over the house, garage and garden. Totally seamless. I changed the router SSID to something new, set the Tenda up with the old SSID and password so didn't even have to touch the iPads, phones, WiFi plugs, Fire stick etc
I have a tenda mw5 (version from Curry's with the plug in nodes (without a cable)). It has made a big difference with speed and coverage. Sometimes though my phone occasionally holds on to the previous node, this might be because there isn't a sufficient distance between nodes on different floors? Otherwise they are better than the range extenders that I used to use with limited success.
Interesting, cheers all - looks like the Tenda system may be cheaper and more idiot friendly than something like Ubiquiti APs that I'd been looking at, as well as the TP link solution.
@bails and @Murray - which models are you using? MW5 or MW6? @retrorick - cheers, that's another option as well as the above!
Probably not relevant to you, but with a mesh system you don't need the Ethernet backhaul (though you could if you wanted). The first unit needs to be wired then after that you just need Wi-Fi "line of site" to another mesh unit. Then switch off wireless on the router or use it as 'guest Wi-Fi'.
I've got an MW6 system, it's fine but not perfect. It does need the occasional reboot, probably once or twice a month (on top of the scheduled reboots it does once a week by itself).
@cougar - my understanding is that the 'line of sight' could well be an issue for me. The router position isn't really movable (it's connected to a 24 port gigabit switch and the phone line) and the extremes of the house definitely aren't line of sight. So I may have trouble getting the signal from one node to another wirelessly to strengthen it at the extremes - likewise the outbuildings need to be hardwired as they almost certainly won't be able to reach another unit.
My understanding is almost certainly a misunderstanding though...
I just set up a TP link deco system for daughter in a granite student flat in Edinburgh.
£90 or so from Argos for a pair of units plus £35 for a third plug in type one for the hallway.
I ran a 8m cat6 cable between the first unit.
Works really well.
my understanding is that the ‘line of sight’ could well be an issue for me.
Yeah, by that I meant in range of each other rather than physical sight.
My understanding is that the mesh signals are more betterer than regular APs but I'll defer to real-world experience here, I don't (yet) own any but have been looking into it for when I move house.
my understanding is that the ‘line of sight’ could well be an issue for me.
It doesn't need to be direct line of sight, just close enough to pick up a decent signal from at least one of the other boxes.
I have 6 Tenda MW3 el-cheapo boxes which provide full coverage in my solid walled Victorian house.
None of them have line of sight to any others and none of them are wired (apart frrm the master box which is wired to the Sky router)
It absolutely pisses all over the previous access point arrangements.
Tenda Nova MW6 - 2 boxes for me, WiFi backhaul rather than cable.
Ubiquiti Unifi APs are great, super easy to set up. You don't need the software running unless you do things like have a kids SSID that switches off at certain times, just have it installed somewhere for when you make changes. A few of the £80 UAP-AC-LITE and you're sorted.
As you've got ethernet all over the place it makes way more sense than mesh and you'll get better throughput when lots is going on in different places.
+ 1 for Unifi setup and the AC lites.
Plus if you ever want e.g. outdoor wifi, easy to add an outdoor AP to the same system.
Interesting on the AP Lites. I'd been half looking at those.
Would I be correct in thinking that i'd still run the current router as the main point? How well do they handle transition between APs?
One of the advantages of the Deco units I was looking at was that it would force the client to the best AP as opposed to leaving it to the client.
Just switched from cheap and cheerful Tenda units (dual band) after one failed within 9 months to the more spendy netgear orbi (tri band) system. I did read you needed tri band in order to get good backhaul performance that didn't use up a proportion of the available download bandwidth.
V pleased with the performance so far.
Looking at the Unifi AP Lites, it seems like in order to get proper roaming, I'd need to turn off the Wifi function of my router and run an AP in it's place, to get proper roaming between the devices. Looking at the costs it seems like when I get to that sort of point then the TP Link Deco M5s may provide a better solution, bearing in mind flat out speed isn't really an issue?
I have Tenda MW6s - three nodes in the house, all wireless backhaul. It works far better than the last setup, which was powerlines from the router into a wireless access point at the rear of the house.
One thing I have noted though is that the overall speed is relatively low at the farthest reaches, which I understand is as a consequence of the fact that they route through each other - so the one at the back of the house routes through the one in the middle of the house, which connects to the main one at the router. Someone posted on another thread that each additional node the signal passes through effectively halves the speed. Probably worth bearing in mind when siting etc.
It still copes with video conferencing etc and handoff across nodes is largely seamless.
We have a Deco M4 3 node system in our house, replacing TPLink AV600 AP's. Night and day difference, even with the AV600 using powerline to ethernet switches in a couple of rooms.
My old router now has Wifi turned off situated in the conservatory, ethernet through the wall to the primary node in a room in the middle of the house via 6mtrs cat6 cable (ground floor) with the same SSID as the old network. One node in the living room, through what was once an external end wall and the other node on the other side of the house upstairs. two nodes have ethernet out to network switches (with TV, games consoles, NAS, printer, Hive etc) and the signal is frankly amazing compared to the old setup.
I can consistently get 50meg down via wifi to my phone and stream from my NAS drive watching a film no problem all around the house. We also now have signal out to the garden and to the garage (30mtrs away) as well.
I think it does help that the primary node is in the middle of the house and each other one connects to that, rather than daisy-chain, so i would position the wired node at the elbow of the L if at all possible in your case OP.
I've recently gone from multiple access points connected via powerline adapters to a mesh system.
The previous system working nicely 99% of the time, but was occasionally very irritating.
Went for a Plume mesh system (with the all important tri-band), and it is definitely an improvement. Haven't had any glitches and I get much snappier performance for instance when I hit play on my phone to wifi speakers.
The Plume set up has some really cool features but the annual subscription model will probably put some people off.
BT mesh user here after yearts of APing. It's ace. Went for the basic version as have ethernet for backhaul. It just works.
i've got 2 Unifi lite access points, one at wither end of our long/thin house (one upstaors and one down). It's been seemless in the year we've had them. You can switch of the wifi on your router (cant remember if we did or not...our router is in the under stair cupboard so not much use anyway!).
Before installing them i did try the BT mesh system. 3 units didn't give me great coverage and they seemed quite power hungry hence i researched some more and ended up with unifi access points instead.
I've never had any major issues with dropping connections when i walk around the house...though can't say i do that often tbh.
I even get a decent wifi connection down in the greenhouse about 40m from the house. I've not doubt an external wap would boost it up significantly, not that we ever need it any better.
We're an Orbi household. Stupidly easy to set up and works very well. Need to force a reboot every 6 months or so. We plug our Virgin Hub into it, turn off the Virgin Wi-Fi network and connect everything to the Orbi network. As I'm slightly nerd'ish I do spend a few hours every so often checking on it, but that is my choice not because I have to. I get 200 Mbit to my PC from the internet using the Virgin Hub -> Main Node -> Satellite Node -> PC link.
@djambo or any unifi ap users
I have the ubiquiti AMPLIFI system that I’d like to extend into the garden
Can I add a Unifi AP Lite without problem using Ethernet and power supply?
Confused re Infiniti integration with other systems
Thanks in advance
Cheers
I was Just about to pull the trigger on a power line extension When I saw this thread. for my work laptop- that I’ll plug in rather than WiFi. Is a mesh system via WiFi likely to give a better connection? I’ve no Ethernet cable running around the house so the back haul will be via the units.
Would a Powerline set up give better back haul than the mesh units doing it themselves?