Best "true" WiFi mesh system

T1M · 1 Mar 2019 at 08:08

Hi all,

I am looking to get a home based WiFi mesh system.
Initially I looked at Google WiFi but after doing some research it's speed seems disappointing and I stopped there.
My next candidate was the Netgear Orbit but it turns out it's not a true mesh system.
By true mesh I mean that the satellites are also able to talk to oneanoone and hence send data from one satellite over another back to the router.

I would appreciate any suggestions and experiences you guys have had.

Thanks in advance

Tim

Yaayuh! · 1 Mar 2019 at 08:21

You may be better off asking that question here: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/forums/networks-internet-connectivity.6/

However, as a fan of Ubiquiti, i would start here: https://unifi-mesh.ui.com/#products

T1M · 1 Mar 2019 at 08:23

Thanks Rossi, I didn't find this. Still fairly new here, only posted once.
I'll try toove or re-post.

Thanks

Pants · 1 Mar 2019 at 09:03

I recently got 3 BT Whole Home Wi-Fi Disks.

It's a bit different in that each disk is exactly the same with no master or DCHP server. The routing duties are left you your existing router/modem.

The topology of my PC connecting to my virgin hub is in a line.

Virgin Hub <lan> BT Disk <wifi> BT Disk <wifi> BT Disk <lan> PC

So I have quite an indirect connection but I can still download at 27.2MB/s (218Mbps) and have an 8ms ping on SpeedTest which is maxing my Virgin subscription. I also like that I don't need a Wi-Fi card for my PC.

Copying files I get around 100MB/s from disk 1 to 3 (via 2 in the middle) from a Macbook over Wi-Fi and the PC on gigabit LAN, which is almost saturated.

I can't comment on other systems but this fit the bill for me for £182.

-BA- · 1 Mar 2019 at 10:12

Second vote for BT Whole Home WiFi here. I had some Devolo powerline plugs and my standard 2.4/5GHz serving much of my house. I was using the powerline plugs in my office where my laptop and main pc reside. When they started to get flaky of late I moved my main PC onto the MESH by plugging into the back of one of the discs. 10MB/s download consistently; before it had dropped to 3 over the powerlines. Great kit; very pleased and no WiFi dropouts in my house anymore. Worth every penny.

Altaz · 1 Mar 2019 at 10:57

And another vote for BT Whole Home WiFi, while its not as configurable as some others mesh, once it's setup it just works. There are also regular firmware updates with new features being added all the time.

T1M · 1 Mar 2019 at 14:47

Thanks to all who have already replied.
Sounds like the by disks are liked by many...

Anyone have any other suggestions?
I mean can it be true bt makes the best mesh system?

Steveocee · 2 Mar 2019 at 05:57

If you care about performance then you shouldn't care much about mesh.
It will always fall over as throughput increases, there is no way it can't. The more hops you have in your network then the worse it becomes.
You will find use cases where it works and you will find a lot where it doesn't.
I always chuckle at fixing WiFi coverage issues by using WiFi.

If you mush go mesh then the Ubiquiti AmpliFi home could be a contender but I think cost is higher than the BT solution so that may rule it out from the start. Nice app though.

T1M · 2 Mar 2019 at 08:06

Steveocee said:
If you care about performance then you shouldn't care much about mesh.
It will always fall over as throughput increases, there is no way it can't. The more hops you have in your network then the worse it becomes.
You will find use cases where it works and you will find a lot where it doesn't.
I always chuckle at fixing WiFi coverage issues by using WiFi.

If you mush go mesh then the Ubiquiti AmpliFi home could be a contender but I think cost is higher than the BT solution so that may rule it out from the start. Nice app though.

Thanks,

I am aware there will always be a performance hit when using a mesh system and I also looked at the amplifier home system from ubiquiti but I think they are also not able to pass through data from satellite to satellite (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Essentially I have an ethernet cable between the router and my desktop anyway but I would also like to be able to have WiFi around my home and in all corners for laptops and mobile devices.

Due to the thickness of the walls and the router location I will not be able to achieve coverage by only relying on router to satellite data transfer and I would need at least one or possibly 2 satellite to satellite transfers before it would reach the router in some places.
In those cases, I am happy to take the performance hit to get WiFi at all but would obviously still like to get the best speeds possible.

I have also been looking at the routes from Asus such as AC53000 (connected via ethernet cable) - a couple of them would be much more expensive and I'm not sure how well they would penetrate the old stone walls and at what performance hit.

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks

Psycho Sonny · 4 Mar 2019 at 16:38

T1M said:
Thanks,

I am aware there will always be a performance hit when using a mesh system and I also looked at the amplifier home system from ubiquiti but I think they are also not able to pass through data from satellite to satellite (please correct me if I'm wrong).
Essentially I have an ethernet cable between the router and my desktop anyway but I would also like to be able to have WiFi around my home and in all corners for laptops and mobile devices.

Due to the thickness of the walls and the router location I will not be able to achieve coverage by only relying on router to satellite data transfer and I would need at least one or possibly 2 satellite to satellite transfers before it would reach the router in some places.
In those cases, I am happy to take the performance hit to get WiFi at all but would obviously still like to get the best speeds possible.

I have also been looking at the routes from Asus such as AC53000 (connected via ethernet cable) - a couple of them would be much more expensive and I'm not sure how well they would penetrate the old stone walls and at what performance hit.

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks

why cant you just use home plugs with built in wi-fi hot spots?

so you connect one to your router - wired.

they then use your electrical wiring to wire themselves to the router. and then wi-fi to connect to your devices.

again it depends on the wiring of your home but it's the cheapest and easiest solution which will work in most cases.

the other option would be to run wires and use POE access points from ubiquiti as centrally and as high up as possible (ceilings and attic).

you will need to spend a minimum of £500 IMO if the homeplugs doesn't work and using mesh with thick walls is pointless.

WJA96 · 6 Mar 2019 at 05:54

T1M said:
Thanks to all who have already replied.
Sounds like the by disks are liked by many...

Anyone have any other suggestions?
I mean can it be true bt makes the best mesh system?

Well, you have already been suggested the high-end option (Rossi’s Unifi Mesh AP suggestion) and actually BT do supply one of the best freebie AC WiFi boxes so why wouldn’t they be able to source a decent mesh option?

I see this almost every day - people ask me to source some form of WiFi extender and I bring a selection of devices to their home and set them up and in the end most of them agree to let me drill holes and run cables outside and up the walls then back in again and fit wired access points.

Imagine you live in a part of the world where you can get 70Mbps VDSL. You’re quite happy with that. You can stream everything no problem. Then you plug in a couple of powerline adapters that are supposedly 500Mb or even faster but the wired connections are only 100Mbit and because of how they work you might get 25-50Mbps in actual performance at the remote RJ45 socket. But you then want to use WiFi at the far end and that’s going to be time-slicing your 50Mb connection and now you’re looking at 10Mbps if you’re lucky. Start streaming on 2 or 3 devices simultaneously and it will stutter. And it’s far from guaranteed that you won’t be affected by cabling and consumer-unit issues because you say your house has thick walls that would imply it’s old, so it may have old wiring.

By all means, try the mesh or powerline option but I bet you end up going with a cabled solution eventually.

iamtheoneneo · 7 Mar 2019 at 10:56

Mesh is trash, get some cat 5 out, wire your house and look into Unifi gear.

silent · 8 Mar 2019 at 19:06

i have the tenda mw6 mesh kit, got it today. awesome. no dead spots and easy to setup. 5 bars all over my 4 bed house and faster too. its connected to my tp link vdsl router modem. very pleased with it! i got the 3 box kit.

peige · 31 Mar 2019 at 20:38

I've not tried the others but do have the google mesh system with three nodes. Strong fast wifi all over the house and never a complaint for speed, attached hardware hops between the nodes and you have no idea.
Real world use of the system is entirely positive for me.

Phil2008 · 4 Sep 2020 at 17:41

We have just upgraded to sky q so all together we have 4 mesh systems(main q box, mini q box and 2 sky boosters) and even though the house is wifi covered now, its still not great, as the internet still goes off and slows every so often even though the internet doesn't disconnect from the router. Maybe static ip addresses might help?