Soldato
Hi all,
Currently in the process of getting fibre installed and really want to beef up the wifi signal everywhere at home. House is 15m x 7m but over three floors. Middle of the house and the stairs is sort of an open atrium so signal wont be boxed in as such. Modem point is in the living room at the front of the ground floor. Down there is a smart Tv used occasionally and an xbox that gathers dust. Middle floor is my office (I run a business from home) plus the bedrooms but no TV. Top floor has my main smart tv with the streaming apps plus my PS5 and Xbox and this is where we spend most of the time at weekends and evenings. I game online quite a bit. Current set up has modem in the middle floor and a set of three of the old style orbi mesh system. One plugged directly into the modem, one downstairs in the living room and one up top in the main room. All devices apart from a single sonos speaker are connected via wifi.
There is a noticeable drop in bandwidth when the PS or Xbox are downloading. I have gampass plus the existing games seem to need an update all the time so this is quite often the case.
Due to how the place is wired I cant utilise existing for the fibre - hence why new modem is going on the ground floor, new cables going in from the street. We had the entire place renovated two years ago and I naively didn't think about wiring in some data cables. Doing that now is an absolute non starter.
I want to get a new modem / router and a new mesh or networking system as the orbi is a few years old now and I'm not convinced on it's strength anyway. Feels a bit flakey at times. Due to how our tax rules work the new networking gear is a legit business expense so I can pay for it with income I haven't yet paid tax on and get the VAT back. Bonus. Therefore cost isn't really issue but I don't want to spend thousands needlessly. The orbi is also a bit confusing as it broadcasts 2.4 and 5. The router supplied by my provider (who I am happy with) does the same. So home network looks like this. Sometimes devices connect to either the guest or 5893 account which in itself isn't much of a problem but I run a Sonos system through the house some sometimes won't connect unless it's on the Orbi 99 so would also like to eliminate that and just have a single system.
I've been looking at the Nighthawk routers because they look so cool but are they worth the money? Offering ping improvements of up to 93%..
However one review of one of the cheaper ones reads:
"Great modem, but would be nice if netgear actually put a DSL port on this so customers with a FTTN connection could plug in without having to use another modem to piggy back off"
I'd like to avoid that.
Dlink Smart Mesh AX5400 is reviewing very well on my local retailers website. Has voice and Alexa control plus strong parental controls but I don't need any of that.
Two of us in the house, no kids. Usual phones, laptops and ipads connected. Mesh system will be on view so ideally needs to look good too and not be too difficult to get going as this is not one of my strong skills!
Any pointers or advice appreciated. Thanks!
Currently in the process of getting fibre installed and really want to beef up the wifi signal everywhere at home. House is 15m x 7m but over three floors. Middle of the house and the stairs is sort of an open atrium so signal wont be boxed in as such. Modem point is in the living room at the front of the ground floor. Down there is a smart Tv used occasionally and an xbox that gathers dust. Middle floor is my office (I run a business from home) plus the bedrooms but no TV. Top floor has my main smart tv with the streaming apps plus my PS5 and Xbox and this is where we spend most of the time at weekends and evenings. I game online quite a bit. Current set up has modem in the middle floor and a set of three of the old style orbi mesh system. One plugged directly into the modem, one downstairs in the living room and one up top in the main room. All devices apart from a single sonos speaker are connected via wifi.
There is a noticeable drop in bandwidth when the PS or Xbox are downloading. I have gampass plus the existing games seem to need an update all the time so this is quite often the case.
Due to how the place is wired I cant utilise existing for the fibre - hence why new modem is going on the ground floor, new cables going in from the street. We had the entire place renovated two years ago and I naively didn't think about wiring in some data cables. Doing that now is an absolute non starter.
I want to get a new modem / router and a new mesh or networking system as the orbi is a few years old now and I'm not convinced on it's strength anyway. Feels a bit flakey at times. Due to how our tax rules work the new networking gear is a legit business expense so I can pay for it with income I haven't yet paid tax on and get the VAT back. Bonus. Therefore cost isn't really issue but I don't want to spend thousands needlessly. The orbi is also a bit confusing as it broadcasts 2.4 and 5. The router supplied by my provider (who I am happy with) does the same. So home network looks like this. Sometimes devices connect to either the guest or 5893 account which in itself isn't much of a problem but I run a Sonos system through the house some sometimes won't connect unless it's on the Orbi 99 so would also like to eliminate that and just have a single system.
I've been looking at the Nighthawk routers because they look so cool but are they worth the money? Offering ping improvements of up to 93%..
However one review of one of the cheaper ones reads:
"Great modem, but would be nice if netgear actually put a DSL port on this so customers with a FTTN connection could plug in without having to use another modem to piggy back off"
I'd like to avoid that.
Dlink Smart Mesh AX5400 is reviewing very well on my local retailers website. Has voice and Alexa control plus strong parental controls but I don't need any of that.
Two of us in the house, no kids. Usual phones, laptops and ipads connected. Mesh system will be on view so ideally needs to look good too and not be too difficult to get going as this is not one of my strong skills!
Any pointers or advice appreciated. Thanks!
). Im going for the 1000/50 plan here 
