Mesh WiFi

[the0ni0nking]

Hi,

In my property in the UK, I have Sky Broadband (which has atrocious speeds relative to others when I check around me on https://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk ... -area.html) but will be kept for various other reasons.

My house is three storeys and it is also reasonably long as it has a 2 storey extension to the rear. My home office occasionally suffered from really bad lag and even slower speeds located as it was at rear end of the house so I could at least look at some greenery while getting annoyed with my work colleagues!

I therefore invested in what was a relatively cheap Mesh WiFi to see if that produced better results than the simple WiFi Repeater I was using and the results have been satisfactory to good. (I bought this product - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QN4GLRG .

Tomorrow, I fly out to Spain and my property there has a similar issue in that it is long (as it has front and back terraces) albeit only over 2 storeys. I have previously also used a WiFi Booster for the upstairs as the fibre input was on the ground floor front room. The performance upstairs has been poor but because my office is downstairs, I've never done anything more about it.

I'm now thinking of putting in a mesh system in to that property and wonder what thoughts anyone may have as to a cheap and cheerful system that is pretty much "plug and play" given I'm not really much of a techie.

The same product as I bought in the UK is available on Amazon.es (but could equally be Amazon.de as that generally has a wider selection of products) as that is likely where I'll purchase anything from so as to avoid any possible import tax issues if shipped from the UK. (http://www.amazon.es/dp/B07KJ2TDMR) so I could go for that but welcome to other recommendations.

Cheers

[BullDog]

Personally, I'd steer clear of cheap and cheerful in this space. It usually, in my experience, means cheap and troublesome. I whole heartedly recommend looking at Devolo powerline adapters both LAN and WiFi enabled. The newer ones can be configured as a mesh network. I have had mine running without a hitch for a couple or three years now. Not the cheapest by any means but probably the best and most reliable.

Edited to add, definitely buy them where they're going to be used since they plug directly into a mains outlet you want them to fit properly and be earthed correctly.

[Gerry557]

Most mesh systems are easy and as you have experience with deco why not stick with them.

Obviously they do various models and some are interchangeable. I bought the xe75 Pro but the x3 nodes wouldn't cover the area I wanted so we're returned. Now I have x6 nodes that do cover the area. I think x60s

If you buy a multi pack you might be able to use the extra one in the UK property to give extra coverage

[ayshfm1]

YMMV

I do not recommend Devolo adapters. The signal goes over the power line and when noisy appliances start up the performance drops markedly and they may well drop the connection, which if VPN's are involved is very disruptive. Noisy appliances are washers, dryers, microwaves, etc. You can also get into corner cases where you have more than one ring.

Mesh system are orders of magnitude better imho, I use cheap and cheerful Tenda ones, I have two sets one I use at home and one I take on holiday. They have been very good (the requirement at the holiday destination is a free ethernet socket on the router).

[BullDog]

YMMV

I do not recommend Devolo adapters. The signal goes over the power line and when noisy appliances start up the performance drops markedly and they may well drop the connection, which if VPN's are involved is very disruptive. Noisy appliances are washers, dryers, microwaves, etc. You can also get into corner cases where you have more than one ring.

Mesh system are orders of magnitude better imho, I use cheap and cheerful Tenda ones, I have two sets one I use at home and one I take on holiday. They have been very good (the requirement at the holiday destination is a free ethernet socket on the router).

Nope. None of that happens here. I've used Devolo adapters for probably ~15 years without a single isue. About three years ago I upgraded to the latest MESH enabled adapters. The latest Devolo adapters are orders of magnitude quicker than previous generations. However, nothing in life is perfect and I suppose somebody somewhere might experience issues like that.

My own experience here and elsewhere suggests cheaper brands like TP Link and others work fine for a while. Until they don't. On balance, it's one thing I wouldn't compromise on.

Others mileage of course, will vary. Hope that helps.

[Infrasonic]

I had a look at the Devolo powerline site and they now do a consumer unit add on that gives you better control/throughput to all the sockets...https://www.devolo.co.uk/magic-2-lan-dinrail

[BullDog]

I had a look at the Devolo powerline site and they now do a consumer unit add on that gives you better control/throughput to all the sockets...https://www.devolo.co.uk/magic-2-lan-dinrail

Very interesting that. Not cheap but definitely high quality kit.

[stewamax]

I also use Devolo.
The fastest domestic system is probably Netgear's Orbi 960 that supports WiFi 6E, but a kit is well over £1000, and your devices (laptops, phones,...) probably only support WiFi 6 anyway.

[scrumpyjack]

I use BT Mesh which is fine, but as our house is very long I have put an ethernet cable from one end of the house to the other to give a hard wired link between two of the Mesh units. It all works fine.

[Infrasonic]

I use BT Mesh which is fine, but as our house is very long I have put an ethernet cable from one end of the house to the other to give a hard wired link between two of the Mesh units. It all works fine.

If you can this is the way to go, ethernet cables will always be far more stable than wireless for backhaul.
You can get flat ethernet cables in white to run along the top of skirting boards to keep the significant other happy if in wall or under floorboard runs are out of the question...

[stewamax]

... as our house is very long I have put an ethernet cable from one end of the house to the other to give a hard wired link between two of the Mesh units. It all works fine.

I also have a looonng house and ran Cat6 Ethernet the full length. But given our concrete flooring, I simply ran it round the outside of the house between the two courses of DPC blue brick where it is more or less invisible.