As per the title.

Is there any real difference, surely they do the same thing?

with a range extender / non mesh setup once a device connects to an access point it will keep using it until it is completely out of range, even if there is a closer ap with better signal. Mesh networks hand off seamlessly between access points so you get continus throughput speeds, higher end mesh networks will also have dedicated backhaul channels so they can get data to the router without channel congestion

Yes there’s a big difference, I don’t know the technical difference but I moved from a range extender to mesh and mesh is much better.

I think an extender acts like a new router whereas mesh acts like the same router

Very little is different. Mesh systems implement some combination of 802.11k, 802.11v and 802.11r protocols. Decision to roam is still largely up to the implementation in the client device. Some mesh systems have dedicated radios for backhaul, both are 98% marketing over actual engineering. Cables do the job better but are harder to sell.

I have the latest TalkTalk WiFi hub

https://accessories.talktalk.co.uk/productdescription/39

Any particular mesh system suggested fit this or should any work?

I need to cover a three story townhouse

Any mesh should work with the talk talk hub. The main thing to do is to setup the mesh as a different WiFi service (ideally switching off the talk talk one too) and use the talk talk hub as the broadband router, with the main mesh unit connected to the router via an Ethernet cable. For a three storey house the simplest solution is a three node mesh with one box on each floor.

Generally you get what you pay for with a mesh, the cheaper end of the market will give you slightly slower speeds or slightly less coverage than more expensive systems. If you are streaming lots of high quality video or playing fast moving online games you’ll want to spend a bit more than if it’s just general web surfing or audio download.

Thanks Stu

Just set up a mesh system tp link – much better than the previous range extender

Cables do the job better but are harder to sell.

Probably because so many devices no longer have cable ports e.g. phones, tablets, laptops, Sonos speakers, wireless speakers, TVs etc etc etc.

Plus being stuck to a cable is pretty hopeless for any portable device as a user experience.

So that’s probably why cables are so much harder to sell when most households only possess wireless devices nowadays.

Even office laptops are foregoing Ethernet ports, and the majority of larger (coroprate) offices I’ve visited appear to have gone wireless.

At the start of lockdown 1.0 I had to tack a couple of Ethernet cables upstairs for me and my wife to use. Our Virgin Media hub just didn’t have the range or got blocked by our brick internal walls.

Tried a few power line or range extenders, either massive lag on Teams or laughable speeds.

Last week I set up a TP-Link Deco M9 plus mesh network, it has made a huge difference. Actually faster than the wired connections. Not cheap but has made a massive difference.

At the start of lockdown 1.0 I had to tack a couple of Ethernet cables upstairs for me and my wife to use. Our Virgin Media hub just didn’t have the range or got blocked by our brick internal walls.

Tried a few power line or range extenders, either massive lag on Teams or laughable speeds.

Last week I set up a TP-Link Deco M9 plus mesh network, it has made a huge difference. Actually faster than the wired connections. Not cheap but has made a massive difference.

This is very similar to our experiences.

I tried a secondary router in AP mode + powerline adapter and it was ok but the mesh system seems to have eliminated all the glitches/network jumping. I did make some other small changes like putting the first (cable connected) MESH device on the centerline of the house instead of off to one side. Three gives us good coverage in a modest 4 bed house with a lot of internal brick walls.

I cheated and replicated the router’s SSID on the mesh system so I didn’t have to update the network settings on all the devices.

We had powerline, extenders, all sorts of different solutions but it was never reliable. Wasn’t a big issue until we switched to SIM based broadband and went from 10meg to 60meg! After lots of research, we went with Netgear Orbi. Not cheap and don’t quite have the advertised range. But our house is full of thick stone walls and it’s a bit of a funny shape as well.

One in the loft (where the antenna/router is), two downstairs at either end of the house. It’s useful they come with 4 gig wired ports as we have NAS, 3xIP phones, Rasp Pi etc plugged in.  They’ve been brilliant from the day they went in nearly two years ago. Reliable, fast, seamless.

Sadly the range wasn’t quite good enough to get into the big shed where my home office is. Ended up running a real cable out of one of the Orbi’s and creating a second SSID. Again rock solid performance using the Orbi in that mode.

I happily recycled all of our old wireless gear at the end of last year.

The problem I had with my sky router was that it couldn’t cope with the amount of devices attached to it and we got dropouts a lot especially on the mobile devices but it was affected my work laptop as well which could not be set up with a wired connection.
I got a Deco M4 3 mesh setup and haven’t had a single problem since. Perfect wifi everywhere in house which is a 3 storey Edwardian house with solid brick walls between every room.
No drop outs. No issues at all. £130 well spent !

Chalk and cheese – range extenders were a pain to set up and sometimes the only way to get a good signal on a device after moving rooms was was to turn tablet wifi off and then on again, hoping it would then connect to a different AP.

BT mesh (the cheaper one, so backhaul done over cables not separate wifi channel) works perfectly, and did so right out of the box. Now give it no thought at all except when I see a thread like this.

Just ace, a real step forward.