I bought the tenda mw5c with 2 nodes and I’m happy with it. The hub which connects to the router is better than the talk talk router, I then only turn on the nodes when necessary as my house ain’t that big but the internal walls are brick.

Has anyone got a Tenda MW6 system with 5 or 6 units happily working? I need to get something fairly cheap for an old house (3 floors and thick internal walls) so I can’t see a 3-unit pack cutting it (although will try that first). Assuming I do need to buy a second 3-pack I just want to be sure it will play nicely (it seems that up to 9 are supported but most people only seem to run a max of 3 or 4).

Also – are you better off setting them all up next to the unit connected to the ISPs router (and then moving them to where you need them) or trying to set them up in situ (I’m assuming they’re intelligent enough to relearn what their closest neighbour is rather than trying to keep connecting to whatever it connected with if set up with them all in close proximity to each other).

Just today received a twin pack of Deco M4, put my Virgin Router in Modem mode, downloaded TP Link app and ran through the wizard, must of took around 10 minutes from start to finish.

Ditched my old Powerline adapters, works a treat and been great all day. Only time will tell but happy so far. I found with the Powerline adapters they worked fine for around 30 hours, then I’d have to reboot them.

@FuzzyWuzzy
I have 5 Tenda units working fine – but they’re MW3s & 5s. Added the 2x MW5s without a hitch. Set them up in situ too – with one in a cold damp garage for Zwifting duties.

@fuzzywuzzy I gave up on 4 tenda MW6s in our victorian house – the ground floor suffered because there was 3 in the chain so the end was quite slow / unreliable (alexa wasn’t happy enough to stream 6 music)

Swapped to TP link x20 with only 3 units and wifi now much improved across the house

StuF
Full Member

@fuzzywuzzy I gave up on 4 tenda MW6s in our victorian house – the ground floor suffered because there was 3 in the chain so the end was quite slow / unreliable (alexa wasn’t happy enough to stream 6 music)

Swapped to TP link x20 with only 3 units and wifi now much improved across the house

I had similar, I used a powerline adapter and let them do wired backhaul instead of multiple hops over wireless. Works pretty well.

Interesting – I was looking at hybrid powerline/mesh but a lot of reviews are pretty negative. Not sure if it was the TP-Link ones but a few people were complaining you couldn’t specify to use powerline for the backhaul so there’s kept switching to trying to use the mesh and that led to drop outs.

After some recent wi-fi cut-outs in my garage, I figure I should finally get round to buying a mesh system.

I could do with some help/advice on exactly what I need!

Current set-up is a Plusnet Hub One which is a combined modem-router I believe.
I’ve got a powerline adaptor plugged into that, which runs to the upstairs office and my work computer is plugged in via ethernet to that. That is generally rock-solid.
I’ve also got a wi-fi extender plugged in under the stairs on the wall adjacent to the garage which I connect to when Zwifting in the garage. But, that has recently been a bit crap.

Most set-up guides say to put your ISP provided device into modem mode but looking online, it appears that I can’t set my router up in modem only mode, although I can turn off both wi-fi channels.

From what I have seen, plenty of people have still been able to get this working with mesh boxes like the TP-Link S4/M4 etc. but does that mean there is some lost functionality from the mesh boxes themselves like parental controls, setting up guest networks etc.

The more I look into it, the more confusing it seems to get. I could buy something, try it & return it if it’s not correct. But, i’d rather get it right from the start.
If it means spending a bit more & buying a router at the same time (presumably I could get the details needed from Plusnet to set this up) to gain the full functionality I would rather do that.
Or would I be better going for a system that has built in modem functionality & ditching the separate router entirely (whether Plusnet or A N Other).

I’m probably over-thinking it and making it more complicated than it needs to be, but I don’t really understand any of this networking stuff. Modem, router, bridge, access point – I hear the words, but don’t really know what they mean and how they affect what I’m trying to do.
Ta in advance!

Current set-up is a Plusnet Hub One which is a combined modem-router I believe.

Correct.

But, that has recently been a bit crap.

This is the main problem with domestic Wifi kit, it doesn’t tell you what is actually happening so you can’t easily fix it. Eg has it lost signal to your Plusnex box or is it struggling to connect to your garage? Had a neighbours system changed channel and now causing interference etc.

Without knowing what is happening under the hood, it’s very hard to suggest a fix.

Although I did notice that the Plusnet box (which we have) has a weaker wifi signal than the previous Virgin media box. I fixed our coverege problems by just moving it to a more prominent position…

Also, everytime I take up floorboards etc I run cat-5 to the room so I can just plug things in direct in the furure, or plug another Access Point in.

I’ve got the same router and I’ve just turned off wifi. I’m only running 2 mesh nodes, both are hardwired into the router, everything currently connects via the mesh nodes – nodes have 2 cable sockets so you can plug e.g. your NAS, TV box or PC etc into mesh node via a cable, even when that mesh node is connected to cable. what I think you CAN’T do is connect nodes via powerline extensions so you would need to either have a node near your PC and wire it in, or get a wifi card for your PC

Cheers.

Footflaps, that has always been my bugbear with network problems around the house – how do I tell which bit is causing the problem? The wi-fi extender was fine to start with, but I find myself re-booting the router & extender more & more frequently as I get drop-outs on Zwift while in the garage. This morning I ended up swapping to the wifi hotspot on my phone as the signal died 2 mins before a group ride.
The wi-fi extender has always seemed like a fudge & the mesh systems are more affordable now, so it seems like a sensible time to get one sorted.

nbt, yeah once I get it up & running I will likely be plugging my NAS drive into one of the ethernet ports.
The powerline adaptor for the work computer is really because the wi-fi receiver in that device (it’s a laptop) seems absolutely dire and I kept struggling with drop-outs (while my own laptop sat next to it works fine on the wi-fi….!). I assumed that if I improve the wi-fi signal over the whole house I might not need the Powerline adaptor anymore.
If I did need it, could I not just plug it into the ethernet on the back of the first node (the one connected to the router) and the other end would go into the laptop as it currently does?
Or if I am only turning the wi-fi off on the plusnet box, would it not still provide internet signal down the ethernet to the powerline adaptor? It wouldn’t matter if all my domestic devices are connected over the wi-fi mesh while the work computer is connected over the Plusnet router, as they don’t need to interact. (I have no idea if that would work in real life, but in my head it should).