Help me choose a router, I know nothing

Any advice appreciated…

Just moved into a new house, it’s big, cold and Victorian. We’re blending two families so have 3 teenagers.  Zzoomm are fitting fibre to the premises Internet next week.

We would like to have some controls on the router so screen time is limited.

I was thinking some kind of mesh system? Perhaps this? TP-Link Deco X50 AX3000 Dual Band Mesh Wifi Router – 3 Pack? 

Would that work? Should I get something else.

Clearly, implicit in my question, is the fact I’ll have to set it up and I’m not strong in this domain!

Thanks in advance.

ILF

I have Decos and they are fantastic.

I love my Makita

Sorry/not-sorry

You have 3 teenagers, know nothing about this sort of thing and think you can limit screen time with tech/routers? Probably not the way and only a minor challenge for the kids to overcome.

You have 3 teenagers, know nothing about this sort of thing and think you can limit screen time with tech/routers?

This.  In your scenario I would honestly be disappointed if they didn’t bypass whatever measures I put in place.  Back when I worked in an office, my apprentices asked me for the password to the lab Wi-Fi.  I said if they could crack it, they could keep it.  It’d fallen by the end of the day.  I (secretly ofc) couldn’t have been more proud.

That said.  Most higher-end routers will have some form of control over client access.  Much more than that I couldn’t recommend beyond “recommend what you have.”  Though consider, “control over screen time” on any router will go out of the window as soon as they switch off Wi-Fi or use someone else’s network unless you’ve happened to buy a big, cold, Victorian Faraday cage.

Ah, ok. Looks like I’m not being realistic. Back to old school parenting of shouting up the stairs and threats of no pudding!

We would like to have some controls on the router so screen time is limited.

PMSL. This is NOT a technology ‘problem’ it is a family values and action discussion.

If your teens cannot circumvent the router access rules you want to institute then you need better teens or you need to school them in tech a bit more.

As suggested, Deco seems to be the MESH router of choice on STW. I favor ASUS as that’s what I’ve settled on since Apple left the router game. Systems differ in UX, UI, and features but most do a fair job. Buy online, try them for a week. If they do the job for you keep them. If not, send them back.

Back to old school parenting of shouting up the stairs and threats of no pudding!

The app does allow you to set up parental controls and also see which devices are connected and using bandwidth. 

But that will not stop the kids downloading videos and watching them offline :)

Zzoomm are fitting fibre to the premises Internet next week.

Are they not supplying a router??

Are they not supplying a router??

Based on the OPs building description I’d say there is a fair chance it will struggle with signal attenuation at max distance from the router especially if the router is located at one end of the house and devices the other.

It might be worth seeing if the ISP router is up to the job before spending but I’m a big mesh/deco fan having done it a few years back.

I’m not denying that but I’d see what happens with the supplied router before buying another one.

He can go mesh as a 3rd party add-on to the supplied router.

This also gets around any potential customer support issue in the future as they will probably only support their own supplied hardware.

Use the supplied router for the actual connection and whatever you like for the internal LAN.

[Yak]

Yak

Full Member

You have 3 teenagers, know nothing about this sort of thing and think you can limit screen time with tech/routers? Probably not the way and only a minor challenge for the kids to overcome.

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Exactly right. Open the app on your phone, go to the “pause internet” option. Et voila. No internet. And screaming children who were “just in the middle of a game… Daaaaad!!!”     muhahahaa

I have a Dlink mesh and the app on my phone has a simple pause internet option. It ain’t la science de la rockette.

You have 3 teenagers, know nothing about this sort of thing and think you can limit screen time with tech/routers? Probably not the way and only a minor challenge for the kids to overcome.

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Exactly right. Open the app on your phone, go to the “pause internet” option. Et voila. No internet. And screaming children who were “just in the middle of a game… Daaaaad!!!”     muhahahaa

I have a Dlink mesh and the app on my phone has a simple pause internet option. It ain’t la science de la rockette.

I always recomend ubiquiti UniFi – a little bit more spendy than typical consumer mesh systems but so much more powerful and reliable. Similar use case to you – 4 teenagers (and our house is the principle hangout for all their pals) and a large house that’s been extended so all the shenanigans with external walls in the middle of the house and lots of steelwork making wireless signals challenging.

one of the best bits of UniFi is you can draw up a floor plan in the app, tell it what your wall construction is then place your access points and it’ll show any potential issues with your design. Then once you’ve installed  your kit, you can take a phone on a walk around the house and it’ll draw a heat map of WiFi quality so you can tweak AP placement. My first pic shows the ground floor hen I had a single AP placed in the corner near the router (just as a test) it “worked” everywhere but wasn’t perfect. I’ve since put the ground floor AP centrally on the ceiling (they’re power over Ethernet so you only need to get a network cable to them) and added a second high up in the loft. We’ve now got a very strong signal everywhere.

the UniFi manage,ent console is also very good and easy to use. I wouldn’t use it to limit access (although that’s perfectly possible) but I can see at a device level what web services are being used and when so if you see 30gig of Snapchat between 1am and 5am that can prompt a conversation. Blocking access is of course possible but you’re driving them to learn techniques to stay ahead of you.

If you have thick internal walls and can’t run Ethernet cable through them (or through floor/ceiling) I’d be prepared for 3 access points not being enough (but sensible to start with 3 and see how they go). As I said in another thread, with thick internal walls you’ll usually find the access points connect better through floor/ceiling than through the walls so you might need to factor that into their placement.

I am moving house at the end of this week as well and looking for a mesh solution for a larger new build. looking at the OP’s link the TP-Link Deco X4300 Pro get great reviews but are a bit expensive. does anyone have experience of the cheaper models in this range and what are the practical differences in them or it a case of you get what you pay for.

I changed broadband provider a while ago and the supplied router and extenders were absolute guff. I was going to change router but if you do that you pretty much lose and support from the provider and changing router actually looked quite tricky (for a non techie).

Following recommendation on here I went with TP-Link Deco M4. Its been flawless. Easy to set up, three units cover a large house (extended so external walls inside etc) and also covers garage and garden. Still got original router but Wi-Fi turned off, everything just goes through the mesh. Looks like my system is currently on Amazon for £99, I really can’t think of a good reason buy anything else.

I posted on another wifi thread at the weekend and got very little response so apologies for the duplication, but I’ll ask here too:

I’ve got Tenda Mesh 3 type that advice on here helped set up; i renamed network and gave it a new password, have 3 boxes and it works, but I’m not overwhelmed by performance and the youth says streaming is patchy (and as he’s laid up for 3 weeks in a post-op pit, this is an issue)

At the same time I have some Argos vouchers to use so was looking at the TP Link M4 3-pack, £110; or there’s an E4 for £20 less.

Questions:

Any preference, worth the £20 more (I don’t know it I want to go for £144, or up closer to £200)

And then for switch over, do i understand right?

1/ Log in to Tenda app and change password for the existing network

– do I also change network name, that doesn’t need to be secret does it? Not even sure it’s worth trying to resell the Tenda?

2/ Disconnect it all

3/ Plug in a box from the new system to the (Virgin) router via the cable

4/ Log in using the details with new set up

5/ Change details to the same as old one (Network name and password)

6/ Plug in the other boxes and do the magic connection thing

7/ and then all the devices will see the new network but as it has same name and PW then they’ll just connect automatically?

I’m not sure why you’d think the first step was necessary?  Just unplug it and throw it in the bin/recycling.  Can’t help you on TP-Link models, but I had the top end Tenda system and it was garbage.

> always recomend ubiquiti UniFi

ditto

ive been looking into this https://uk.store.ui.com/uk/en/category/wifi-flagship/products/u6-plus

Out of interest why would you want/need a ceiling mounted wifi system?  Seems like getting power and or POE there would be a right PITA.

(Very long time user of the original Google Mesh WiFi that’s been absolutely faultless)

I’m not sure why you’d think the first step was necessary?

Because considering reselling or freecycling and don’t want it out there with the same PW as a new one would have

TP Link M4 3-pack, £110; or there’s an E4 for £20 less.

E4 has a maximum speed of 100Mbps, I think.

If you’re not getting this to the house going faster will not help, but does future-proof you,

Out of interest why would you want/need a ceiling mounted wifi system?  Seems like getting power and or POE there would be a right PITA.

because the router + wifi coverage is a bit crap in the house. the wifi strength is poor. with this i only need 1 unit which will give better coverage and won’t need lots of mesh units. It’s an access point

I think if you know you’ll be chaining connections across multiple access points (and not using Ethernet for the backhaul) then mesh that has tri-band is worth it (as long as the 2nd 5GHz band can be set as a dedicated backhaul) otherwise the bandwidth degrades considerably by the last access point in a chain. This is more of an issue for deployments of 3+ access points with them chaining off each other (rather than all connecting back to the master access point) and you having devices connected that need a lot of bandwidth on the edge access points.

Because considering reselling or freecycling and don’t want it out there with the same PW as a new one would have

There’s probably a factory reset of some form, in that case.  Paperclip in a hole perhaps, or holding down a button for several seconds?  RTFM.

The new Unifi cloud gateways are nice, they have all the management software/interface on board so you don’t need another thing or to run it elsewhere. Picked up an ultra last week to replace a USG and it’s a nice bit of kit.

Get a cloud gateway express and it’s got its own access point, then install some more U6+ access points for better coverage as you need.

If you want to restrict wifi you can create a second/third network that the kids can know the password to and have times to disable it.

sharkbaitFree Member
Out of interest why would you want/need a ceiling mounted wifi system?  Seems like getting power and or POE there would be a right PITA.

(Very long time user of the original Google Mesh WiFi that’s been absolutely faultless)

i can answer this because ive played around with AP locations as part of my efforts – the short answer is placing the AP with lots of free air around it gives it the best chance of a clear signal – placing it on the ceiling rather than up against a wall or stuffed in a cupboard just makes it work better. and being PoE, rodding a Cat6 cable over a ceiling is about as easy as anything involving hidden cabling gets (assuming you’re lucky with joist direction)

I am moving house at the end of this week as well and looking for a mesh solution for a larger new build.

You might want to try and see how you get on without a mesh system before you splurge any money. Without the substantial walls of an older building to penetrate you might not need it.

Our Victorian stone hovel seems to suck the life out of Wi-Fi. We’ve gone deco x60 and it works really well. I’m slowly installing ethernet for back haul as we’ve some issues at the far end of the building, but generally it’s not necessary.

New houses can be as bad, some modern building materials like foil backed insulation, underlays etc can be very effective at stopping wifi.

We just have a single AP for a 1930s semi but it’s mounted on the ceiling in the downstairs hallway, it’s a spot that’s quite central and means nothing is too far from it, far better than by the front door where the old analogue line came in.

Was going to suggest Festool or an old Elu if you can find one.

Anyone find it really annoying that Septics can’t pronounce route properly?

Anyone find it really annoying that Septics can’t pronounce route properly?

I find it weirder that they don’t pronounce route correctly UNLESS they’re referencing Route 66.

I’m not generally one to act all superior over UK/US English differences unless it’s something plainly just wrong like “liter.”  But I took some Cisco training videos a while back and “rowter” really grated, that’s something you use to cut channels in wood.

Glad I’m not alone.