Need a new home WiFi set up.

just moved to BRSK, broadband is  fine going from 30 meg to 900 meg, router however seems a bit rubbish. Range is les than the old Plusnet one and im not have problems with devices staying connected, had to forget the network a couple of time on my tablet and all the Tapo smart plugs have stopped working with Alexa.

Anyway thinking about bypassing the router and going down the mesh route. Any recommendations and how does a mesh system operate. I take it the mesh replaces the BRSK network? Do the nodes need to be hardwired or do they piggy back off the WiFi signal?

Any simple advice appreciated, really had enough of flaky technology, especially the so called smart plugs which worked fine for a week and then fell over completely.

Where is your router positioned?

I was previously with Sky and the router was in the cupboard under the stairs as that’s where our Openreach box is. Never had any issues with speed.

Changed to Talk Talk and put the Eero router they provided exactly where the Sky one was. Despite the line speed being about 5 times higher than the old Sky package, I was getting terrible WiFi coverage around the house

Relocated the router outside the cupboard and mounted it on a wall in the hall and it transformed the WiFi strength all over the house with the Eero router which by all accounts is much fancier than my old Sky one

You plug the master node of the mesh into the router and then the rest of the nodes will like to that master node, either by wifi or hard wired if you have that capability.

I’ve just replaced my Tenda Nova MW6 four node system with a 3 node Deco setup, all with a hard wired backbone as the house is wired up. The Tenda supports a hard wired backbone.

You can have it for the cost of shipping if you want – one white node is slightly nmiscoloured as the sun must have got to it through the window. Quick though as I am on a house tidying mission at the moment and so it will be going somewhere by Tuesday!

Tenda:

Deco :

Mesh system:

One unit hard wired to your router (which has had the WiFi switched off), you can then place the other unit/s anywhere in the house and they will connect wirelessly to the base unit.

You can hardwire (backhaul) some makes back to the base unit but TBH I’ve never had an issue with speed. Some people have an exaggerated opinion of what speed 98% of us actually need …. This also goes for the fibre connection.

(Once your up and running take a look at the data utilisation and you’ll be surprised at what the number actually is!

I have been using an old school Google WiFi system which has basically been faultless in something like 6 years.

Other makes are available!

Thanks all, router is where the Plusnet one was, open in the living room. Gravedigger may take you up on that offer, very generous, thank you, will PM you later today if I do.

Careful if you take the offer of the Tenda units. The ones I had were only 100meg on the ethernet ports so would throttle your broadband connection. @gravedigger may have new units tho!

We use DECO’s – combination of X55s and XE75s.  All wireless except an ethernet link to the big shed where I work.  Plug the main one directly into the ethernet that is currently plugged into your BRSK router for internet connectivity. You might want to use the same network name (SSID) and password so you don’t need to re-athenticate all your wifi devices.

We can’t hardwire ours together and the DECOs don’t have a dedicated backhaul like some other more expensive ones, but off my iPhone I get 650meg from anywhere in the house and 900 if I connect to the one plugged into the internet. 650 is way more than I need for anything.

They are the Tenda MW-6 – I must remember to not put raw Amazon links in my posts !

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077HTZ4TT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looks like they might be faster than 100 but definitely speed restricted compared to other models.

I have gone FTTP and have about 400Mbps in the office, so would have hit the speed limits, but when I was using them was on a legacy openreach connection of 70Mbps so didn’t notice the limits.

Am hardwired because the house is 1889 and built of stone so curtails the wifi signal significantly.

if you’re with Brsk, you can swap out their supplied router for anything which will accept WAN via Ethernet. It should just work.

Careful if you take the offer of the Tenda units.

… because they’re dogshit.

Deco here. The other option with them is linking them up over the mains in the same way as homeplug so you don’t need in-house ethernet and in my case (very thick walls) that is a lot better than connecting via WiFi.

Unless you live in a huge house or have very thick walls you shouldn’t be having range issues. Can you not request a replacement router rather than looking at mesh as you didn’t need it for plus-net? Also have you tried changing channel?

BRSK offer a better wifi service for £10 a month that adds a mesh network to the router. I might be cynical in thinking the free router they supply may not be great to help persuade more people to go down the add-on path.

The Deco X10 system is currently £140 on Amazon (I just picked this at random as an example as its the “best choice” recommendation) so the better wifi service is expensive and a recurring cost, but if you’re not tech literate and can afford it will probably be an easier option as it will be BRSK’s problem to sort out if you have issues as they come and install it at your house and they “own” the whole setup.

When I was idly looking a few weeks ago the Asus Zen Wifi mesh system seemed to get good reviews, but didn’t have any ethernet ports to hard wire devices into it, which was a problem for me but may be OK for you. I’ve stuck with my old Netgear orbi system that’s been rock solid for many years as I realised that a higher speed wifi was unlikely to make much difference even though in theory my broadband connection is now faster than my wifi.

The Wifi is struggling to reach the garage, Ok in the house. Soumds like Deco might be the way to go, im reasonably techinically literate so could probably set up the mesh. I’m also wondering how bad the BRSK router is as my tablet has lost connection twice which it didn’t do before and as I said I’m having problems with t the Tapo plugs which may or not be related.

@gravedigger thanks for the offer but seems a bit daft to throttle the WiFi with a 900 Mb connection, even my older devices are running at 200 Mb and my phone is over 500 Mb on the WiFi.

Got a 2 node deco mesh here with wired backhaul, and a small switch behind the tv (where the fibre comes in) handling all the bits and pieces that live there. Absolutely rock solid and very straightforward to setup (especially if you’re doing stuff with smart plugs), technology you can ignore in the best possible way.

Tp deco here. Don’t regret swapping to it from tenda. The deco has been faultless, it just works, even with Victorian solid walls

i bought a 3 node deco, always got by with 2 in our house. since getting fibre, i moved the line in in anticipation of future porch works. this eliminated the slow spot with only 2 nodes. 70s 3 bed Wimpey house.

i’d recommend the Decos based on my experience

The Tenda served me fairly well for a few years, plus it allowed an ethernet backbone which many do not, but it is off to the dump it goes then !

I know have the Deco M9 – 3 node

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07WRDR22H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Do you still have your plusnet router? If so you should be able to use that either to replace the one from your ISP, or connect it to the ISP router via the wan port and use that for WiFi alone.

Mesh solution will probably be better though

The usual answer here from most folk with normal houses and normal networks is to go with deco and generally that tenda is a bit pants (which it is – I used to have one)

but as you mentioned smart plugs I’ll chime in with my tuppence

basically number of clients connecting to your network is important when you’re using either the kit your ISP provides or budget mesh setups – all down to the processing power of the devices themselves. They’ll mostly be fine for a family with 4 phones, a laptop,  games console and a fire stick – but once you get to the number for devices 4 teenagers can use simultaneously, a smart fridge and a bunch of wifi enabled lightbulbs, they’ll all start to struggle to keep up. Some of those smart devices can be very noisy on a network too – it’s not just about how much data they download.

so – if your needs are more like mine, look at ubiquit UniFi kit – it looks a bit spendy but you only buy what you need and it will be rock solid.
It also makes it easy to separate your smart devices onto a vlan to protect the rest of your network from dodgy devices snooping on you – but that’s another thread entirely!

You plug the master node of the mesh into the router and then the rest of the nodes will like to that master node, either by wifi or hard wired if you have that capability.

no. With BRSK you unplug their router from the power and the Ethernet cable coming from the ONT box. Then you plug that Ethernet cable into the WAN port of your new, primary, router. Give it a few minutes to grab an IP address from the ONT. Done!

also, hope you didn’t go through the rigmarole of changing the network your devices connect to with the new BRSK router. Lots of people seem to do this. Much easier to just admin into the router and change the SSID and password to what you are used to. Do the same with your new MESH system.

All of what he just said. ^

Also, the supplied router remains Brsk property. I contacted them telling them I didn’t need it and that I wasn’t particularly enamoured with the notion of storing a box the size of Switzerland* for the duration of my contract. They sent a man in a little van round to collect it.

(* – seriously, I think they have a new black router now which I know nothing about so that may be different, but the white one was an absolute unit of a thing, I’ve seen smaller commercial Cisco routers.)

I think standard STW answer is TP Deco. I had similar issues when changing from BT to Go Fibre. The internet is great but their hardware was terrible. TP Deco plugged into the router and then router wifi turned off. Its been flawless. Added benefit is that if I change router again I won’t need to reconnect everything with new password.

Deco, you pretty much just plug them in and let them get on with it.

I’d second Ubiquiti UniFi as a recommendation. They’re what I eventually got after so many disappointments with the usual brands.

Thank you all, I’m pretty sure the (black) router they have given me is garbage. I’ve had a lot of devices lose internet connectivity when using WiFi even though they have a connection, happening on devices that were rock solid on Plusnet. Sometimes telling them to forget and then reconnect to the network solves it, other times not.

Yes I did reconfigure the new router SSID to the old Plusnet router. That’s in the garage at the moment, using it as a node with an amended SSID, might try bringing that back into the house then this evening, be a good test anyway.

Also having problems with wired connections dropping and then reconnecting, same cables that were with the Plusnet router.#

I know I have to leave it for up to ten minutes after plugging the old router back in for it to connect due to the BRSK 10-minute DHCP lease time.

Right off to Amazon to look at Deco and Ubiquiti mesh systems, I like tech but I can’t stand unreliable tech.

Edit: just looked at the Ubiquiti kit, my IT team have just installed them in our German office.

Ordered a Deco X55 AX3000 3 node set, hope it sorts the issues.

Funny how everyone says the Tenda is sh1t, I got it from some recommendations on a thread from here!

It might be that it was OK for me as it had hardwired backhaul links?

In a couple of years time the forum will reckon the TP Decos are junk as well 🙂

Anyway, I’m off to the dump with it now…

I swapped from BT to sky (sky hub is crap btw) and as well as changing the SSID of the sky hub to match the old BT hub I had to change the new routers IP address as it was using a different default to the old BT hub, not really an issue for devices using dynamic IP address, but I’d set up a bunch of things with proper Static IP addresses and they couldn’t find a gateway.

its worth keeping the router the ISP left (even if you’re completely replacing it) as if the connection has issues later on and you’re on your own kit, its the first thing they’ll blame. Being able to swap back to their box proves its not your shiney kit having an issue.

Funny how everyone says the Tenda is sh1t, I got it from some recommendations on a thread from here!

STW lemming mode – someone recommends something and a couple of people get it, they then recommend it, more people get it, rinse and repeat.

It’s very likely there’s a number of mesh systems that would be perfectly fine but ‘recommend what ya got’ is strong.

Petrieboy / Zomg. May I ask your advice? I currently have a Ubiquiti AmpliFi Mesh system which works very well. But since its purchase we’ve moved to a bigger house and the Mesh is struggling to reach all corners. Rather than pay for an upgrade of a dated system I was considering upgrading to UniFi. It’s obviously geared toward the commercial sector and their web site reflects this. I go to the build design site and it provides me with products that would service a shopping centre! I need something for a four bedroom house. What do you have to make up a package? Any advice?

I have just installed a TP-link Deco mesh system and a TP-link router/modem, it all works a treat. Its the triple pack XE75. That was after another thread on here about mesh systems. It was really easy to set-up and so far has been great.

The Modem/router was the cheap one off Amazon btw, about £20-£30

I got on a 6 month free trial when we got FTTP in the street, 900Mbps was same free-ness as the 150 and the 300, so I went for that.  The Plume router was annoying and rubbish, and it turns out increasing wifi speed does nothing to overcome range issues.  It’s not a massive house, but long and thin, and I work in a shed in the garden.

I ended up wiring the house with Cat6 to the main points of use – garden shed with office and TV, Living room TV spare room/office. 5-port switches at the end of the 3 points to allow multiple connections.  Wifi access points in the spare room/office and an extender in the living room. I dropped speed after free period to 150 and have a better experience wired with 150 than with wifi and range extenders at 900.  Very, very rarely have an issue now, but constantly had issues before on wifi with various routers from different suppliers. Very annoying if you’re trying to work, or trying to relax but your telly’s spinning balls.

TP link ER605 router at modem, Switches are TL -SG105S, wifi access point (and switch) is Archer AX80

yosemitepaulFull Member
Petrieboy / Zomg. May I ask your advice? I currently have a Ubiquiti AmpliFi Mesh system which works very well. But since its purchase we’ve moved to a bigger house and the Mesh is struggling to reach all corners. Rather than pay for an upgrade of a dated system I was considering upgrading to UniFi. It’s obviously geared toward the commercial sector and their web site reflects this. I go to the build design site and it provides me with products that would service a shopping centre! I need something for a four bedroom house. What do you have to make up a package? Any advice

so my recommendation would be buy the minimum and try it out adding more APs as required. UniFi has a survey tool so you walk around the house with a phone connected and it gives you a heat map of radio strength. There’s also a planing tool where you draw the floor plan, tell it about wall construction and it lets you shift AP placement and it estimates radio strength and produces a heat map. Obviously a load of assumptions going on but it’ll give you something to start from

for my place, 3000sq foot 90s detached house I’ve got green signal strength everywhere other than my study from just a u6pro in the loft mounted high up and quite centrally and another u6pro on the ceiling of the living room which is also fairly central.
my office and 2 bedrooms are in an extension  so there’s the former external wall between that and the rest of the house and a carpark worth of RSJs in the construction – signal was amber in there and in practice perfectly fine, but as I’d run cat6 editing construction I added a u6lite in there – but really that was just me getting over excited!
routing I’ve got a cloud gateway ultra which is awesome – really responsive when you’re in the console and you can manage it from the web via a browser as easily as whilst on the network.
I’ve also got a lite16poe switch because the house has quite a bit of cat6 in it already so it felt worthwhile to use that.

so Ive probably gone a bit overboard but it doesn’t hurt to suck it and see – I believe used UniFi kit always sells well on eBay – it’s like the islabikes of tech

depends on your house and where you can get cables to to place them optimally, but I’d start with either cloud gateway ultra and a single AP or if you can get one, just a dream router on its own, test it and go from there

turns out increasing wifi speed does nothing to overcome range issues

The faster WiFi bands operate at frequencies that do not penetrate as far.

@yosemitepaul A single Long Range Wifi 6 AP may be sufficient and possibly cheaper than putting lots of smaller access points throughout the house. I have one that is due to be fitted to allow for wifi in the garage and most of the garden (L-shaped house with Dream Router covering most of it very adequately but poor signal. outside for security cameras and lights).

Five Deco M5s here. Had them for years, and they’ve been faultless. Impressed also how proactive TPLINK seem to be with updates. Even though they are now quite old, they are still regularly getting updates with new features.

As others have said, your main unit WAN port can plug straight into your fibre box, no need for their box.

I’m starting to think about adding some WiFi 6 or 7 units. Seems you can mix and match, so upgrade slowly rather than doing the whole lot.

there’s currently a “holiday sale” at the Unifi store. I think it’s just a continuation of their Black Friday sale, i.e. clearing out the old stuff (a lot of WiFi 5 APs reduced!) although there may be some items of interest, including the Unifi Express router, which is their lowest cost one. The Pro doorbell is also reduced (to less than the non-pro!) so I’m probably going to get one of these to replace my current smart doorbell. Their camera system is IMO the best & easiest to use on the market, not the cheapest (although offset by no subscription costs).

I really rate Unifi and have it both at home & at work (their “site magic” VPN solution is awesome!) although you’re possibly paying for a lot of features a casual user might not make use of. But if your networking needs are more complex and/or you’re into home automation etc then they’re very useful as everything is so simple to set up. They’re also adding new features all the time.

They’re also adding new features all the time.

A blessing but also a curse as the online information provided by the community can go out of date very quickly. It can require some digging to find out how instructions from 3 years ago translate to today’s console.

The Deco X55s turned up this evening, took a bit of faffing and not overly impressed with the range of individual units but got there in the end and now all seems to be working.  Managed to stuff up my TP-Link account and that caused some issues with Alexa but got that sorted and Alexa is now behaving with the Tapo smart plugs. Main unit is plugged straight into the BRSK wall box and their router is now in storage. Other units are in the garage and at the top of the stairs, ended up hardwiring them as the cables were already sort of there (spent Saturday afternoon running a cat 5 cable in conduit around the outside of the house to the garage). They seemed to struggle linking wirelessly, even the one at the top of the stair which is no more than 8m from the main unit with one plasterboard wall in the way.

Anyway all good now and all 3 units are acting as one seamless network and each have different devices linked to them, time will tell but it’s all working a lot better than the BRSK unit was. As long as things don’t start to randomly disconnect like they did with BRSK I’ll be happy. Lots of people are connecting to BRSK locally as they’ve just finished installing the pipes, lots of grumbling about the router though.

lots of grumbling about the router though.

My exes parents opted for the ISP providers router/wifi, it was locked down (little to no options to tweak settings/change SSID/Password etc) and fairly poor speeds despite them being on a 100/100 service with minimal ping when wired.

Found the same model on line for about £6ea, minimum order quantity of 1000 units. Absolute piece of garbage.

I eventually replaced it with a fairly basic Asus router/wifi for about £35 and *everything* was better. Got Asus as i’m familiar with it and use their mesh set up with a combination of 2.4/5 and WiFi6 to get maximum speed where i need it and also maximum range where i need it…

(The ISP tried to bill them £50 when they left their contract as they hadn’t returned the 6 quid router within 10 days.)