Router + extender or mesh?

[hans gruber]

I live in a 4 bedroom house approx. 114m2 according to EPC.

We recently had FTTP 900Mbs installed and I'm using the plusnet hub2. I briefly had a beryl ax in extender mode to connect my upstairs PC. I was pulling around 3-400Mbs down with this. I no longer have the beryl ax and have been using an AX1200 TP link extender to connect my PC, but this is limited as it only has a 100 LAN.

I was looking at WiFi 6 /7 routers. The TP link BE9300 was on offer at Argos for £249 recently, and my thoughts were to get another extender, maybe another beryl ax. My other option is something like the TP link Deco's, possibly the x50 or x60? The problem is for each device I read several poor reviews. I don't know if some of these product have inherent issues, or if people just struggle to set them up correctly.

Can anyone help with options and what would be best? I cannot run ethernet cable as an alternative or backhaul, at least not yet, but I am going to ask about this in a separate post.

 

[radderfire]

Generally speaking the TP Link Deco's do get recommended here for WiFi around large houses (if ethernet, or ethernet + access points is not possible).

 

[Hellsmk2]

I bought the BE11000 (BE65) and sent them back within a few days. I also tried the XE75's. In total I've used four different deco models from the cheapest up to thebmid range and my honest opinion is that they are pure trash. Here's a few reasons why I sent the last lot back:

- Shockingly poor signal. With a single device placed next to my current Amplifi HD I would get no signal in the next room (5m away, stud wall). Amplifi got full signal.

- Speed drop off. I had to be literally sat next to the unit to get anywhere near advertised speeds. Speeds would drop by up to 90% walking away.

- Unstable speeds. Graphs monitoring speed are like a rollercoaster. Compare to my amplifi which is solid as a rock and flat. Granted for most people they'd never notice, but to me that's unforgivable. (Wired or wireless 6ghz backhaul).

- Lack of features. They are Noddy Noddy Noddy devices built for those with no knowledge at all. There's nothing other than ssid and a couple of pointless features that could be changed.

- In-built DHCP server that cannot be disabled. Seriously. Who thought this was a good idea?

- Three floor house with one device on each floor had dead spots. Two amplifi HD's covered the entire house, garage, and garden without skipping a beat for the past 5 years.

- MLO - box the Be65's came in shows MLO on all three bands. Reality is it can only use 5/6ghz.

For the lowest range ones, I've installed two deco's at the MIL's. Her internet is only 30mb and she's on her own, so thankfully it is good enough for her.

I've just helped another friend with theirs this weekend too. Three wifi6 deco's (forget the model) that have full line of site together but won't stay connected over a wireless backhaul - ended up going wired, which is always better, but kind of defeats the object of these devices.

Seriously, there's better solutions out there for the price. Unifi is where I'm going next (cloud gateway max & 2 u7 pro's - fingers crossed they're as good as their amplifi range). I absolutely would have gone amplifi mesh if they had a 6e/7 option. If you're not bothered about 6e, then I'd look at the amplifi alien routers - should be a step up from my HD's and will be rock solid.

The reviews and ratings out there are generally glowing for deco and I just don't get it. I'm assuming this is folk who don't know how to properly test that they're getting what tplink claim, or know what a good stable network should look like. With lower internet speeds, the deco's aren't a bottleneck. With proper fibre, they are through dog turd stability. Avoid avoid avoid.

 

[Hellsmk2]

Can anyone help with options and what would be best? I cannot run ethernet cable as an alternative or backhaul, at least not yet, but I am going to ask about this in a separate post.

For this, if your home is wired with coax you could look at Moca adapters to allow it to pass ethernet traffic.

Just today I've wired in two screen beam MoCA 2.5 adapters to get things ready for the unifi kit. It took 10 mins to install and has given the amplifi routers a full wired backhaul. So far, so good - getting full speed out of them wherever I am in the house (minus the usual overheads). Ask me again in a few weeks, but right now they've saved a job of running cat cable everywhere.

The coax was completely unused in this house though, so very straightforward to deploy. If you've got cable TV /anything else using it, you will need to factor in some splitters. Should still be a doddle though.