Mesh Wi-Fi with decent control

demonix · 8 Aug 2023 at 16:05

I've just found out recently that the wireless on the BT smart hub 2 is utter trash and has barely any options when it comes to changing wi-fi channels and no option to separate 2.4 and 5Ghz wireless bands, and since I'm planning on moving to aquiss once my contract is up I've decided to for the time being to just nuke the wi-fi on the BT smart hub for the time being and move that over to a mesh system that will become the permanent network once I switch over to aquiss (don't mention the whole I can just use it to replace the smart hub as I'm not mucking about with trying to get that set up when everything else is working).

The problem is that information on most mesh systems is rather limited where even the available manuals don't have much information on what does what plus there isn't much from known names in what I would consider affordable (that being some of the TP-Link Deco range, but I've heard that most of their mesh systems have no wi-fi channel selection options) which is why I'm asking if there are any decent and affordable mesh systems available.

Orcvader · 8 Aug 2023 at 16:21

What sort of budget do you have in mind? TP-Link doesn't have the channel selection either, which was why I moved away from it. Apparently Netgear's Orbi allows it but I haven't had a deep look into it.

Is running cables around the house to access points not an option?

Firegod · 8 Aug 2023 at 16:42

Available Asus options (taken from my XT12) to help give you an idea:

CaNsA · 8 Aug 2023 at 17:14

Another Asus mesh fanboi checking in.

Seriously though, I have a Asus XXt8 mesh.

Rock solid, decent level of control and administration.

demonix · 10 Aug 2023 at 15:13

Orcvader said:
What sort of budget do you have in mind? TP-Link doesn't have the channel selection either, which was why I moved away from it. Apparently Netgear's Orbi allows it but I haven't had a deep look into it.

Is running cables around the house to access points not an option?

Around £100 (for a single module), and I did look and the netgear orbi range and it's way too expensive

Also having wired access points isn't going to help since the problem is channel congestion (2.4Ghz is a lost cause considering the amount of access points I saw when I used a Wi-Fi analyser app) and this is an HMO and I don't think that the landlord would want to be drilling massive holes all over the place.

I did look at the asus range (when I was finally able to find them) and after looking at one of the manuals, it does look to be what I'm looking for when it comes to requirements.

Orcvader · 10 Aug 2023 at 15:30

demonix said:
Around £100 (for a single module), and I did look and the netgear orbi range and it's way too expensive

Also having wired access points isn't going to help since the problem is channel congestion (2.4Ghz is a lost cause considering the amount of access points I saw when I used a Wi-Fi analyser app) and this is an HMO and I don't think that the landlord would want to be drilling massive holes all over the place.

I did look at the asus range (when I was finally able to find them) and after looking at one of the manuals, it does look to be what I'm looking for when it comes to requirements.

Access points won't have any difference compared to mesh in terms of channel congestion. Don't forget each mesh node acts as an access point. With certain wired access points you can set them to the same channel as each other anyway and still have seamless roaming working with them. If anything mesh could be worse since it needs to use a separate hidden channel for the wireless backhaul (although most should be using 5GHz for that). But fair enough on the landlord possibly not allowing it, the Asus looks like a good shout.