Mesh WIFI 6 or WIFI 5
- Thread starter Mark Hodson
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Is the last bit an industry joke. I get that, but isn't that just the whole point in these domestic systems no wires.....
The whole wired Back haul nonsense inc aswell.
Unless I'm gripping no stick, not even the wrong end of the stick
If you have the ability to run wires then .yes obviously...
I guess I'm not understanding I hope.
Yeah the Orbi stuff does seem overly expensive. I got mine when they had a sale on - £400 inc. VAT. So still pricey, but no where near as bad as full RRP. Coverage is good. Even with 2.4GHz set to 50% power, I can pick up a workable signal at the shed outside some 60ft away. And thankfully the latest beta FW seems to have fixed the previous buggy release. I also renewed the bitdefender armour security on sale for 20 quid for the year, which also then allows you to install the AV client on any devices you want for free on top. Which is a nice bonus.
Just a heads up on the X60. I have these and tried using it as a router too but I had reliability issues with it. Stuck it in AP mode and got my Asus serving as a router again and no longer have any issues. Speed and coverage wise the X60 does perform really well, and I have ethernet backhaul for all units.
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Thanks for the heads up.
Stupid question, but can I just switch off the wifi on Asus router and then just use the X60 as an AP for wifi? Or is that what you are saying?
Yes, it's how I have mine set up. Been running like this for a few months and no problems.
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Perfect, thanks
Wifi 5 or 6? Wifi 6. Not for the speed, but for the lower latency and how it handles multiple devices in a much better way.. I just upgraded to WiFi 6 of wireless streaming to the Oculus Quest 2 and it's been excellent with zero issues in bandwidth and stability..
Overall, the other option might be to look at the TP-Link Omada series. (entry enterprise level)
Like Ubiquiti, having more 'enterprise' grade APs tend to work more reliably, made for handling lots of connections and to provide good stability/uptime.
If just starting out, I'd recommend
OC200 Controller £50 - although if you have a raspberry Pi or a server you can install their controller software on, save £50 and just run it on your own hardware,
Then, I'd start with 2 EAPs, since they are larger units, they cover (IME) a larger area and having more is not always better, as they can conflict with each other..
EAP225 (AC1350) - £59ea
EAP245 (AC1750) - £87ea
EAP610HD (AX1800 Wifi 6) - £119ea
You can use them standalone and just login to each APs web ui, but the controller (like Unifi) is so slick and makes life so easy, it's worth running on a server or buying the OC200 as this will work if you ever upgrade your other network stuff to Omada compatible items (Great if you want VLANs and all that!)
I ran 3 x EAP225v1's running their free controller software on a Raspberry Pi for 3 years and it was flawless, never a single issue, great roaming and honestly never needed more, I only needed 2 APs for the house, the third was to get good coverage at the bottom of the garden!
I have just upgraded to the newer Omada stuff (Went in whole hog to allow proper segregation of all my IoT Stuff) the EAP610/620HD's are actually really good, I connect at 900-1300mbps in most places and that's 3 times more than I need to max out my internet! Wifi6 is much better from a latency point of view and offer all the better features to allow more devices to 'share' the bandwidth so probably worth spending more on those to start with!
Overall, the other option might be to look at the TP-Link Omada series. (entry enterprise level)
Like Ubiquiti, having more 'enterprise' grade APs tend to work more reliably, made for handling lots of connections and to provide good stability/uptime.
If just starting out, I'd recommend
OC200 Controller £50 - although if you have a raspberry Pi or a server you can install their controller software on, save £50 and just run it on your own hardware,
Then, I'd start with 2 EAPs, since they are larger units, they cover (IME) a larger area and having more is not always better, as they can conflict with each other..
EAP225 (AC1350) - £59ea
EAP245 (AC1750) - £87ea
EAP610HD (AX1800 Wifi 6) - £119ea
You can use them standalone and just login to each APs web ui, but the controller (like Unifi) is so slick and makes life so easy, it's worth running on a server or buying the OC200 as this will work if you ever upgrade your other network stuff to Omada compatible items (Great if you want VLANs and all that!)
I ran 3 x EAP225v1's running their free controller software on a Raspberry Pi for 3 years and it was flawless, never a single issue, great roaming and honestly never needed more, I only needed 2 APs for the house, the third was to get good coverage at the bottom of the garden!
I have just upgraded to the newer Omada stuff (Went in whole hog to allow proper segregation of all my IoT Stuff) the EAP610/620HD's are actually really good, I connect at 900-1300mbps in most places and that's 3 times more than I need to max out my internet! Wifi6 is much better from a latency point of view and offer all the better features to allow more devices to 'share' the bandwidth so probably worth spending more on those to start with!
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How are you measuring this? What clients do you have that are cable of >1Gbps wirelessly?
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Thanks for the info - definitely worth looking into.
Problem with those APs are similar to mine, despite a report of a 1.9-2.1 Gbps connection they are being fed by 1Gb ethernet so that is as fast as they'll go, I max out that Gb port on the AP with Wifi all the time, PITA, need better APs with 2.5G/10G ports.
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I'd recommend a set of Deco M5's. The M5's come with HomeCare (parental controls, QOS, virus scanning etc) for free. The newer models you have to pay a subscription for these features (called HomeShield).
I upgraded my main M5 to an X20 without knowing this, and ended up returning it. The features were much worse than what I've got on the M5s.
I upgraded my main M5 to an X20 without knowing this, and ended up returning it. The features were much worse than what I've got on the M5s.
Yes, you can walk around the house using deco M5s and it'll just stay connected.
I'd have to say that actually TPLink have not fallen for this.
The EAP610/620HD has a max connection rate @ 5Ghz of 1201mbps, which perfectly suits their 1gbps ethernet port. Whilst I do fleetingly see a 1.2gbps wireless connection rate, 90% of the time it's 900mbps or less. I'd say those products are designed correctly.
The EAP660HD which is their AX3600 unit that can get well over 1gbps @ 5ghz has a 2.5gbe port as you'd expect.. I have one of these, but don't have any 2.5gbe switches yet (will do at some point), I bought it just for the 4x4 arrangement and wanted max stability/connection rates for my oculus quest 2, which only streams at 100mbps from my PC but the quality of connection is of more concern, I was OK on my standard 802.11ac 5ghz kit, but since I was upgrading I thought going for a wifi6 with a 4x4 arrangement would set me up for the future.
I believe it's the Unifi 6LR AP that is a bit lob sided in having the ability to connect to clients at much higher than 1gbps but is limited by it's 1gbe port..
Most of this years phones in the house have WiFi6 (e.g. Samsung S21U), my Quest2 has Wifi6, My Daughters new laptop (Yoga 9i) has Wifi6
The phones put a little '6' in the WiFi icon, and under WiFi settings show their connection speed (or you can use WiFi Analyzer or other apps).. The other way is just to use the AP's information:
e.g. Here's some of clients connected currently to my Omada kit (courtesy of their free cloud service), there are 2 802.11axa connections (WiFi 6) currently connected..
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As far as I can tell X60 (3Pack) has Homecare, which is free and for the lifetime of the product. To be honest, the only thing that looks of interest is the Anti-virus feature, other than that, I am not interested in the other features.
Another vote for WiFi 6 and TP-Link Omada EAP660 APs. I just recently upgraded about a week ago from a similar situation as to you OP (75Mbps internet / WiFi devices' slowdowns) and the difference is substantial, especially coming from a single DD-WRT AP to 2x EAP660 HDs.
Coverage is dense and WiFi experience with NAS access times and general browsing is a lot better. I have the Omada Controller running on a Pi, its quite informative and gives a lot of options, similar to Unifi stuff I guess but I'm just this in a fairly standard configuration.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you are looking into Unifi WiFi 6 APs, the U6-Lite and U6-LR models only support WiFi 6 on the 5Ghz channel so devices connecting on the 2.4Ghz channels won't get WiFi 6. U6-Pro and these TP-Link ones support Wifi 6 on both channels.
Coverage is dense and WiFi experience with NAS access times and general browsing is a lot better. I have the Omada Controller running on a Pi, its quite informative and gives a lot of options, similar to Unifi stuff I guess but I'm just this in a fairly standard configuration.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you are looking into Unifi WiFi 6 APs, the U6-Lite and U6-LR models only support WiFi 6 on the 5Ghz channel so devices connecting on the 2.4Ghz channels won't get WiFi 6. U6-Pro and these TP-Link ones support Wifi 6 on both channels.
Bizarre how some TP-Link models come with HomeCare and some with HomeShield. Yes, looks like those are HomeCare which is the version you want.
I'm not sure you'll see an extra £200 in performance between those and the M5s, but they'll do the job. It's your money
I'm not sure you'll see an extra £200 in performance between those and the M5s, but they'll do the job. It's your money
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Bizarre how some TP-Link models come with HomeCare and some with HomeShield. Yes, looks like those are HomeCare which is the version you want.
I'm not sure you'll see an extra £200 in performance between those and the M5s, but they'll do the job. It's your money
Probably not, but M5 is only Wifi 5 and the X60 is Wifi 6. As others have said Wifi 6 has lower latency and is better at handling multiple devices. i like to think it is slightly better at future-proofing...
Not sure Wifi6 is going to future proof anything, it's still 5ghz. Once Wifi6e is mainstream the marketing will try to convince you that everything before it is obsolete.
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Fair comment. However, why invest in 8-year-old tech, when a later version has been around for 3 years?
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