Mesh WiFi setup

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thomp1983

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Hi all,

Moved to a new house and the WiFi is patchy, the sky router is in the front corner of the house and will be staying there as it's in the wife's office and she connects by ethernet and it saves hassle with phone lines.

I get very little WiFi in the garage or upstairs bedroom which are on the opposite side of the house, we are also having an extension built which will no doubt add to the issues.

From some research a wifi mesh system appears to be the way forward, probably with 3 nodes, 1 in extension, 1 upstairs and 1 close to garage.

What hardware are people recommending nowadays? All the posts I found are 12 months+ and technology moves on

Thanks
Chris
 
I'd like to hear how you get on Chris, I use a combo of Asus RT86u hung off our Sky router and tplink powerline plugs which are largely reliable.
 
I've got one of these upstairs to boost the signal a bit. They are going for £26 on Amazon. It will work with any make of router.
Why not just add one and see how it goes? You can always add another if you feel that you need it.
 
I have a similar issue here....

Main router in loft - loft, bedroom and garden coverage was mostly OK, but ground floor and garage was poor. I simply added a second router downstairs (an old spare one), linked to the main one via LAN cable, then used a wifi repeater in the hut, to get coverage to garage and rest of garden.

I also have a print server and three printers in a spare bedroom, that uses cabled LAN to main router - this part of setup is only powered on remotely when needed, by a Smart Plug.

It works absolutely fine, not sure whether Mesh might be any better?
 
Stivino said:
I've got one of these upstairs to boost the signal a bit. They are going for £26 on Amazon. It will work with any make of router.
Why not just add one and see how it goes? You can always add another if you feel that you need it.
Click to expand...

I still don't get the Mesh - My wifi repeater unit connects to my main router via either 2.4, or 5Ghz and repeats via 2.4 or 5Ghz, the Mesh unit seems to suggest it does the same.
 
Harry Bloomfield said:
I still don't get the Mesh - My wifi repeater unit connects to my main router via either 2.4, or 5Ghz and repeats via 2.4 or 5Ghz, the Mesh unit seems to suggest it does the same.
Click to expand...
They do. But there can be a lot of difference between a minimal implementation and a fancy one.

Good ones also add a little special sauce to make managing it easier or to boost speeds. One of the common features is to have a separate 'backhaul' such as Ethernet or another frequency to move the data from one node back to the master.

I went for a Netgear Orbi system and have a combination of Ethernet and wireless backhaul and also use the nodes as Ethernet switches. I did use multiple routers as boosters before but it's much more pleasant with the mesh system.
 
Thats interesting about having a ethernet cable install between them too, I can plan the cables in when wiring the extension and I can drop a spare cable down to the router tomorrow before the walls are plastered next week.
 
Forgot to come back to this, have had the velop kit fitted for awhile now but haven't fitted the extra ethernet cables yet.

They were easy to install and setup and so far I've seen no issues with good coverage across the whole house.
 
Mesh WiFi or Whole Home WiFi systems consist of a main router that connects directly to your modem here, and a series of satellite modules, or nodes, placed around your house for full WiFi coverage. They are all part of a single wireless network and share the same SSID and password, unlike traditional WiFi routers.
 
i have the Deco M5, having tried wifi repeaters and powerline adapters
the Kit with 3 units has changed the whole bungalow and garden , now i reliable pick up a signal anywhere in the house, conservatory and garden, all as fast as the main router
I even used the Guest account so now all the family / visitors just connect to that

made so much difference , i was a bit sceptical, and at £150 from johnlewis a lot of money ....

Also has 2 ethernet connections - so i have added devices that do NOT have wifi , TV & PVR to one unit
 
Harry Bloomfield said:
Nothing to stop you using the same SSID and password on a traditional wifi router
Click to expand...
Won't the experience be suboptimal? Your WiFi device won't connect to the different router/ssid based on signal strength that way.

So you connect your phone to wifi on router 1, full signal.

Go to other side of house, where there is barely any signal / bandwidth for router 1. Router 2 is there with full signal.

Your phone won't swap to router 2. You'll stay with poor signal on router 1.

That's why the mesh is preferable over different routers with same ssid/password.
 
jacko555 said:
Won't the experience be suboptimal? Your WiFi device won't connect to the different router/ssid based on signal strength that way.

So you connect your phone to wifi on router 1, full signal.

Go to other side of house, where there is barely any signal / bandwidth for router 1. Router 2 is there with full signal.

Your phone won't swap to router 2. You'll stay with poor signal on router 1.
Click to expand...

Yes, it will.
 
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