WiFi Routers - is it worth upgrading?

Don't use extenders, they are a pain the arse, you end up with two different wifi signals in different locations with different SSIDs. They also introduce a tonne of latency. Mesh creates a single wireless network operating across multiple access points.

The only acceptable solution is chasing out all of your walls for Cat 7 cable.

Meep wrote:Don't use extenders, they are a pain the arse, you end up with two different wifi signals in different locations with different SSIDs. They also introduce a tonne of latency. Mesh creates a single wireless network operating across multiple access points.

Okay, didn't know it worked like that. It's only the bathroom we don't get signal in so we'll cope without!

But what will you do when you go for a gooseberry fool?

For that, you’ll need a Scat 7 cable.

Oh.

My.

God.

Mesh wifi :wub:

I'd recommend an external hard-drive.

Previously we'd have been lucky to get to get 15-20 mbps standing next to router and it would drop to sub 10 around most the house, at best.

Everywhere in the house is now 30-40 having setup Eero yesterday :wub:

Tomous wrote:Previously we'd have been lucky to get to get 15-20 mbps standing next to router and it would drop to sub 10 around most the house, at best.

Everywhere in the house is now 30-40 having setup Eero yesterday

Nice! They are very good, costly but when you have it running you can totaly see why. They get lots of updates too, every 2 or 3 weeks there is a notification to say that there has been an update to my system which is good.

Errkal wrote:
Tomous wrote:Previously we'd have been lucky to get to get 15-20 mbps standing next to router and it would drop to sub 10 around most the house, at best.

Everywhere in the house is now 30-40 having setup Eero yesterday

Nice! They are very good, costly but when you have it running you can totaly see why. They get lots of updates too, every 2 or 3 weeks there is a notification to say that there has been an update to my system which is good.

Yeah, I got the 3 pack from Amazon, which was £162 which isn't cheap but the difference is night and day. Really no point in paying what we were for 30-40mbps when weren't getting it anywhere in house. Wish I'd got it sooner really.

Meep wrote:Don't use extenders, they are a pain the arse, you end up with two different wifi signals in different locations with different SSIDs. They also introduce a tonne of latency. Mesh creates a single wireless network operating across multiple access points.

To be fair most decent extenders should let you either clone the SSID of the base network or at least manually configure it to be the same and then you effectively have the same situation as you describe - a single network with multiple access points. I've set this up in a few friends houses for them and it works perfectly fine for certain use cases where something like Mesh is overkill.

yes we got mesh and i went from struggling to get 6mbps to getting the full 50 or so :toot:

I reckon I’ll be switching to a mesh setup soon. I’ve been using a power line extender for the last few years, which is great speed-wise, but the connection drops all the time, just long enough for things to disconnect. It’s been frustrating, but now I’m permanently working from home it’s going to cause real issues.

I’m guessing it’s interference somewhere along the electrical circuit. I’ve just set up connection monitoring - one on the extender and one directly on the modem. If this proves it’s the extender that’s causing the drop-outs, I’ll invest in mesh.

We also have a Plusnet router and it is crap. Replacing it with any other router is probably the solution.

I used to have a £15 TP-Link router that was ace and had every possible option you could want. You could even boost the signal to get better wifi coverage.

I’ve got a pair of ASUS ZenWiFi AXs for my home mesh and they are absolutely god tier. Most cheap mesh setups use the same channel to communicate between the nodes that devices use to connect to them which means as more WiFi devices get added to the network the performance for the remote node goes to gooseberry fool because the channel to the router is congested.

These babies have a dedicated 1.2Gbps backhaul channel between the nodes so that’s not an issue, and when I placed them on opposite sides of the house, there wasn’t a single place I could find where I didn’t have at least 360Mbps download, no matter how many devices were connected. WiFi 6 and 2.4Gbps Ethernet out to the WAN too, so that’s future proofed for at least a decade. The only issue I have right now is that I’ve moved them extremely close together to bridge a gap that I can’t run a cable through so I can get the full gigabit speed of my internet through the remote node (which my PC and work machine are wired to), which means there’s a dead spot at the opposite end of my house now. Might buy a third.

One of the things I am looking forward too when I own my own place later this year (hopefully) is being able to run ethernet cable. I'm fine for most things being on wi-fi for convenience but I would really prefer a cable to my PC.

Meep wrote:One of the things I am looking forward too when I own my own place later this year (hopefully) is being able to run ethernet cable. I'm fine for most things being on wi-fi for convenience but I would really prefer a cable to my PC.

I moved into a new build last year and have cat6 ran throughout the house. Best option I paid for.
Currently have my gigabit BT (sadly the only option) coming in under the stairs. I replaced their BT gooseberry fool Hub with my own TP-Link router, and I feed the kitchen, living room, and office with that. In each of those rooms I have an AirPort Extreme creating one single WiFi network, but looking to upgrade those to something newer.
Preferably wifi6, something like Ubiquiti WiFi access points, or perhaps their Amplifi Alien.

rinks wrote:I reckon I’ll be switching to a mesh setup soon. I’ve been using a power line extender for the last few years, which is great speed-wise, but the connection drops all the time, just long enough for things to disconnect. It’s been frustrating, but now I’m permanently working from home it’s going to cause real issues.

I’m guessing it’s interference somewhere along the electrical circuit. I’ve just set up connection monitoring - one on the extender and one directly on the modem. If this proves it’s the extender that’s causing the drop-outs, I’ll invest in mesh.

Well that was a pretty conclusive test. Zero disconnects at the modem over 24 hours. Across the extender - 30 disconnects. Time to bin this power line kit and get a mesh set-up.

rinks wrote:
rinks wrote:I reckon I’ll be switching to a mesh setup soon. I’ve been using a power line extender for the last few years, which is great speed-wise, but the connection drops all the time, just long enough for things to disconnect. It’s been frustrating, but now I’m permanently working from home it’s going to cause real issues.

I’m guessing it’s interference somewhere along the electrical circuit. I’ve just set up connection monitoring - one on the extender and one directly on the modem. If this proves it’s the extender that’s causing the drop-outs, I’ll invest in mesh.

Well that was a pretty conclusive test. Zero disconnects at the modem over 24 hours. Across the extender - 30 disconnects. Time to bin this power line kit and get a mesh set-up.

Trust me. You're gonna love that sweet mesh goodness :wub:

WiFi Routers - is it worth upgrading?

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