Home mesh system while limited to 51Mbps download speed

[Daftbrown]

Hi

I recently moved to a 4 bed house in an area where download speeds are limited to a paltry 51Mbps. Wifi range is proving to be an issue so I'm looking at mesh kits.

With such limited speed would it be a waste of money to buy some of the latest Wifi 6 AX gear such as the Deco X55 as I would see no gain over, for example, the AC1300 Deco M5?

Also, these products have Ethernet ports. I used to be able to connect my PC by cable directly to the router in my old house but now the router and PCs are on separate floors. With mesh might I be able to connect to one of the mesh units by cable and see little drop in max speeds relative to connecting directly to router? Answering my own question perhaps, I guess that depends on physical distance and any signal obstructions.

I'm not dedicated to buying TP Link products, just using Deco as the given examples.

Thanks for any assistance given.

 

[Orcvader]

"Paltry"... I've been stuck around those speed for years .

If you don't do anything that requires fast internal speeds (eg transferring files over network, Steam Link, etc) then the M5 will do, but it wouldn't hurt to future proof with the X55 (could even just go with the X20).

Yes, you can use the ethernet to connect the deco unit to the PC. As for speeds/latency, it will rely heavily on where you place the the unit and if they have a strong signal to the main unit. You'll just have to experiment with it.

I'm guessing running proper cables around the house is not an option?

 

[Daftbrown]

Thanks.

I say paltry as the wife had Virgin running at I don't know what when I moved in to hers so it's a bit of a decline but it should be fine for our uses, at least until the kids grow old enough to start using (and abusing) the bandwidth.

I'd rather not run cable around the house and my wife would almost certainly oppose it.

I'll take a look at the X20. Cheers.

 

[Simon42]

I'd rather not run cable around the house and my wife would almost certainly oppose it.

I had to smile at that comment, which is quite common around here. I've run nearly 500m of CAT6 around my house (so far) and you cannot see it so mine doesn't oppose, not that she would if there was really no other choice as local network, cctv and internet connectivity are all important to us.

However there is always a way to run cables out of sight, whether that be under floors, in lofts, in cupboards/stud walls, behind dot and dab plasterboard, under carpets, in cavities (filled or not) or external. Whether you can do it yourself of have to pay someone its a good investment as cable is king.

 

[Bazza]

Just finished installing cat6 cable around our house for my AiMesh system and it is all tucked away and invisible which keeps the wife off my back. I made my own cables up and the difference to the network is amazing.

 

[Avalon]

I get about 700mbit node to node using x20’s on different floors (3 floor property, main node on middle floor, second node on floor above) and decent coverage on all floors even with just a single node. I would never suggest they are a replacement for a wired connection, but we were having the ground floor renovated and changing the layout, so my top to ground floor links were removed, modem shifted and it’ll be weeks before I have a wired backhaul without resorting to dropping cables out of windows etc. - now that would really annoy the wife

You can connect switches or devices to the RJ45 ports and the x20’s can be run in router mode or mesh only. With only 50Mbit WAN it’s probably less of a concern, but a wired backhaul (running a cable) is the best option for each node. It’s quite easy to hide cable either under the edge of a carpet/skirting or using a flat cable (technically unlikely to comply with cable certification, but will work). Externally running behind drain pipes or similar works well, but use external rated cable, in simple terms there is almost always a way and it doesn’t have to be visible.