Which Wi-Fi mesh?

[Eric The Viking]

I have other Ubiquiti kit doing my firewall/router (the telco's box works merely as a modem). Had I gone the whole Unifi route, it would indeed be in one graphical and rather cool interface, which I could even remotely manage if I chose. I keep the WiFi and firewall separate, but they cooperate to let me have guest WiFi etc. The security updates are regular (even though the router is getting on for five years old now it's still well supported, and the kit I have IS the proper PoE standard, as I'm powering some of it with a third-party hub.

I gave up on TP Link after recent Apple products kept crashing it. Not an issue with Android, just new-ish iOs. And it didn't get software/firmware updates at all, whereas the ones from Ubiquiti are probably quarterly, and extremely easy to install using the cloud key. The cloud key also lets you set up a 'commercial' guest network as you might find in a hotel, for example. I have played with that but don't really have a need.

 

[Sandyn]

I have a nightmare house for WiFi. Most parts are stone built it's a bit 'L' shaped and 33m from where the cable comes in, to the back of the house. It also has an upper floor on the front part. I also have foil lined insulation in some rooms. My router has 5GHz, but that is a complete waste of time, It works in the room where installed, but as soon as you leave the room, there is so much attenuation that it's useless.
I have cabled my house with Gb Ethernet as I tend to use desktop/laptop PC, so I just use all my old routers converted to access points and connect by Ethernet. Definitely not plug and play! and routers occasionally need a power cycle.

I also use PLC and PLC WAP's to get out to the garage. My house uses 3phase, so I use PLC's over two phases with surprisingly good results, also tried G.hn with surprisingly poor results.

I looked at a mesh system a while ago, but at the time, considering the cost, couldn't justify it for my usage. I would need too many nodes to get it working from front to back. I don't stream videos much, no 4K and don't play games, kids have flown the nest. I do have Amazon Echo throughout the house. I stream Spotify, but just use 4G for that.

When I planned my WiFi networks, I used inSSIDER to select channels and see signal strength. The lower SSID in the pic (VM6088397-5Gz)is 13m away from the laptop and -91dBm, which is unusable. I get about 15 to 20 dB attenuation through walls, so two walls and the distance will kill a signal.
I keep separate SSID's because I can see when my phone locks on to a weak signal. I typically get about 20 -40Mbps from my old routers, which is fine for what I do. I have squeezed two 1080 HD real time videos down a 10Mbps link before.
Next house, I'm looking for timber framed or brick!

 

[nickds1]

Another vote for Unifi. I have linked several buildings and a sauna (!) over a couple of acres using Ubiquiti nano station radio links where buried conduits not available and AP-AC-Lite access points with US-8-150W POE+ switches, a USG gateway and a raspberry pi running (amongst other things, e.g. Pi-hole) a Unifi controller. The controller on a Pi is free software and identical in operation to the Ubiquiti cloud key, so that saves a bit. (It's written in Java so can run on a Windows pc too).

Unifi is not for the faint hearted - it requires a reasonable amount of networking knowledge to set up, but is an excellent environment if you have the budget and know-how.

 

[NewbieRaf]

As im sure my fellow IT guys here will tell you, how on earth BT can get away with advertising “guaranteed whole house WiFi” is beyond me as anyone who knows The details of wifi protocols will call BT out on a massive BS. Frankly I’m surprised they haven’t been reported.

Anyhoo....rant over, just saying there is a reason why we call them OpenPoo/BT rubbish

Please don’t buy BT tat

 

[Artiglio]

Good day all.

Found this thread interesting but not conclusive. I’m wanting to sort the wifi out in my mums house. Welsh stone farmhouse , some internal walls 2’ thick. Got by with BT and powerline adapters for several years, but the BT broadband is at best politely described as very “rural”, experimenting with a mobile broadband router has given far faster and more reliable service.
However she also has a guest cottage and they have on occasion scoffed a months data in a couple of days.I’m not tech savvy but can read and follow instructions. Any suggestions as to the best / simplest way forward and kit to look at?
One supplier has suggested devolo power line adapters and uniquiti access points. The rooms themselves aren’t big and wifi power line adapters worked ok before is there a need for the access points rather than additional power line adapters?
Many thanks in advance

 

[niemeyjt]

I use three Netgear powerlines for the boys' gaming - (it is actually Ethernet over Power BTW - Power over Ethernet is something entirely different) - after all, you have to be really quick to shoot all those zombies. If you resynch them you can have more than two connected.

For the rest I use Zytel WiFi as supplied by my ISP.

 

[weirdbeardmt]

I've used Draytek routers for years and when they brought out their mesh, I went for it, to replace a Netgear Orbi system. The Orbi was mostly faultless and there was no good reason to switch. Draytek stuff is very unforgiving but finally after a few weeks of tweaking I've got it working well. So for a plug and go, it's probably not a good choice but if you desperately need to finetune the RSSI....

I've heard the new Google home stuff is very good for hassle free. TP-Link Deco also; and the Netgear stuff.

Main thing I've found with it all is to survey what's in the area and try and avoid congested channels (2.4ghz) and frequencies (5ghz); and don't be afraid of using powerline adaptors if your house electrics allow it - the more stuff you can take off your wifi, the better.