Mess network with ethernet throughout house

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2005
Posts
4,955
Location
Widnes
Hi,

My home (3 bed, 2 story) has ethernet in every room. The network router is located in a cloak room surrounded by coats and I've noticed I struggle with signal in the bedroom and outside the house.

Is there a better solution than running a mesh network like Plume? A Superpod and addon would set me back £198... thinking there might be a cheaper solution that is just as good.

Thanks
 
Caporegime
Joined
19 Apr 2008
Posts
26,247
Location
Essex
If you have ethernet in every room just get a couple of cheap TP Link wireless access points, one for your bedroom and another wherever would be best for outside.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,175
As above, if the issue is Wi-Fi, add an AP - you have cable in place anyway from what you say. Unifi AP’s tend to get a lot of love round here because they are (generally) reasonably capable and priced with a reasonable central management function, but TP Link are the value option and much like the managed switches and routers, they tend to bring a lot of functionality at a price point you wouldn’t expect.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Nov 2005
Posts
4,955
Location
Widnes
Do they need a same branded router for primary WiFi or would I disable my Asus router WiFi and use two/three of these instead?
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
5,967
Location
N.Devon
Do they need a same branded router for primary WiFi or would I disable my Asus router WiFi and use two/three of these instead?
No they don't need to be the same brand. Using the the same brand can some times have benefits such as smoother roaming between access points though.

If you're living in a modern house though with stud walls and can mount a AP centrally you might get away with just one AP.
 
Associate
Joined
5 Mar 2009
Posts
1,137
Location
Essex
If you have an ASUS router, look into using an ASUS access point like the AC52 or AC1750. You can connect them with the LAN points in your room and depending on the the ASUS router model they will support roaming on WIFI which is a must in my opinion when setting up additional Wifi coverage. Alternatively, as others suggested you could go the Unifi AP route and turn off the ASUS wifi altogether (little tip, I bought TP link EAP225's instead of Unifi kit, exactly the same chipset only way cheaper and so far have been excellent).
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,175
If you have an ASUS router, look into using an ASUS access point like the AC52 or AC1750. You can connect them with the LAN points in your room and depending on the the ASUS router model they will support roaming on WIFI which is a must in my opinion when setting up additional Wifi coverage. Alternatively, as others suggested you could go the Unifi AP route and turn off the ASUS wifi altogether (little tip, I bought TP link EAP225's instead of Unifi kit, exactly the same chipset only way cheaper and so far have been excellent).

Given ASUS’s proven track record for making really poor networking products, I have to ask, has op done something nasty to you?

Roaming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be for a variety of reasons. The chipset point, while potentially correct isn’t quite that simple. Many routers, AP’s, motherboards etc. use the same core chipsets, they also vary significant in how they perform, that’s made up of the rest of the hardware design, physical build quality and design implementation combined with the firmware. I like TPLink, they have moved a lot of premium functionality into market price points it just wasn’t available in historically, but the EAP225 is up against the AC-lite, ironically the ac-lite is slightly cheaper - I know what I’d prefer to deploy/manage/support over its lifecycle, but YMMV.
 
Associate
Joined
5 Mar 2009
Posts
1,137
Location
Essex
Lol, I have no beef with the op. Just to flesh out my post given Avalons reply. I only suggested the ASUS kit as its cheaper (as requested by op) and is specifically what I had (ie I'm trying to help from personal experience). Whilst these are far from business grade solutions like the Unifi gear, for ~ £35 I found that for general home use they we pretty solid, not the quickest by any stretch but for the money, decent enough to extend wifi coverage. My router was too old to support the roaming feature offered by the AC APs however. As for the TP-link vs Unifi, not sure where the prices come from but but EAP225's are ~ £60 each, the AC-lites ~£75. I have no personal experience with the Unifi stuff but did lots of research, seems very good and I nearly bought this myself. The TP-link does the exactly same job for less money (assuming you aren't going to be spending your days micro managing your wifi network). For what its worth, I have found roaming a very useful feature, it works as expected, a noticeable improvement from the ASUS wifi setup I had prior. Btw I still use the ASUS for routing, mines been solid, never fallen over once (my only complaint, the VPN isn't the quickest, its processor limited)
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,175
Lol, I have no beef with the op. Just to flesh out my post given Avalons reply. I only suggested the ASUS kit as its cheaper (as requested by op) and is specifically what I had (ie I'm trying to help from personal experience). Whilst these are far from business grade solutions like the Unifi gear, for ~ £35 I found that for general home use they we pretty solid, not the quickest by any stretch but for the money, decent enough to extend wifi coverage. My router was too old to support the roaming feature offered by the AC APs however. As for the TP-link vs Unifi, not sure where the prices come from but but EAP225's are ~ £60 each, the AC-lites ~£75. I have no personal experience with the Unifi stuff but did lots of research, seems very good and I nearly bought this myself. The TP-link does the exactly same job for less money (assuming you aren't going to be spending your days micro managing your wifi network). For what its worth, I have found roaming a very useful feature, it works as expected, a noticeable improvement from the ASUS wifi setup I had prior. Btw I still use the ASUS for routing, mines been solid, never fallen over once (my only complaint, the VPN isn't the quickest, its processor limited)

Both are £60 +/- £2 inc. VAT delivered for brand new sealed units when I look in obvious places, as I say at the time the AC-Lite was cheaper than the EAP225. As to micro managing, you really don’t need to, but you have the option - both take all of 5 mins set-up and forget, but if you do want to drill down into details, the Unifi kit offers more control/reporting and for the most part, proven long term support (my original AP’s are still supported). I’m not knocking the EAP, it does what it does quite well, but when the Unifi AC-Lite does the job at least as well, and offers more functionality while costing less, painting the EAP as a cheap option isn’t accurate.

Oh and ASUS have a horrible history of security and hardware issues over multiple generations (5/6/8 series) with switches and AP’s dying and modem issues (5/6 series), unfortunately they don’t give a flying duck about resolving any of this in a timely or honest manner. They also faked FCC test data for certification and left known gaping security holes in play for years until a large multi-national retail partner threatened to drop them, they were eventually fined for both of the above in the US and ordered to agree to 20 years of external auditing. Recommending ASUS networking kit is the kind of thing you save for people you really, really don’t like :D
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Nov 2005
Posts
4,955
Location
Widnes
A bump to my old thread. Current setup:

Virgin Media hub (modem mode only) -> ASUS router with Wifi -> 8 port TP-link switch that the ethernet feeds into.

Would I be best doing:

Virgin Media hub (router enabled but disable WiFi) -> 8 port TP-Link switch & Unifi AP points (i.e. get rid of the ASUS router)?

It's a three bed new build but WiFi can be patchy at times. Thinking one AP in the living room and one upstairs.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,175
Surely the obvious question is what's stopped you from following any of the advice from last month? If you want/need/prefer to keep the ASUS, then that's your choice, but your wifi won't improve unless you do something and the advice given won't have changed in the weeks since you last asked.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Nov 2005
Posts
4,955
Location
Widnes
Surely the obvious question is what's stopped you from following any of the advice from last month? If you want/need/prefer to keep the ASUS, then that's your choice, but your wifi won't improve unless you do something and the advice given won't have changed in the weeks since you last asked.

Nothing, just figuring out setup now that I have the money for the APs. I know which to get now thanks to the advice on the thread, just wasn't sure of the best way to set them up. I suppose my question was actually - do I even need the ASUS router now if I have the APs seen as I would need to disable the WiFi on the ASUS router?
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Oct 2008
Posts
12,096
You won’t need the Asus. I’d try running the network with it removed and see how you get on.

The Asus probably has features the Virgin hub doesn’t but they’ll only matter if you’re using them. Only you can answer that.
 
Back
Top Bottom