WIFI Mesh Networks

donheff

donheff

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
Feb 20, 2006
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11,331
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Washington, DC
I have a Comcast modem/router with an extender to serve my three story townhouse. The router is in the basement and the extender in the living room. WIFI is OK but I still have a couple of weak spots in far flung corners where I occasionally like to use my phone or tablet. I am waiting for FIOS to arrive so I can ditch Comcast (because of TV problems not Internet). But I worry about whether I could have even more WIFI problems when I make the switch.

Enter Mesh Networks like Eero and Google WIFI. I have read that they are superior to the regular setup with extenders. Have any of you technically inclined members tried one? What results did you get?
 
I have tried Google WiFi, Linksys Velop, and the AmpliFi Router. AmpliFi is the way to go. Easy set-up, good range, no drop-outs.

I could only get two of three nodes on the Velop to run, and it had terrible latency and drop-outs and a laughably bad app.

Google had poor range and I don't like that they collect information on your WiFi activity.
 
Thanks 45th. I didn’t find a specs page on the Amplifi in my brief search. Does the base station have an Ethernet port? I keep one box hard wired and would prefer it to be on the same subnet as my wireless devices.
 
Eero has had good ratings also. There was a thread talking about them within the last year, so you should be able to find that with a search.
 
I've been happy with Google Wifi, and I've found their tech support to be very responsive the couple of times I had some issues. I have a three story house with concrete between each floor, so even with 3 nodes I still don't have complete coverage, but very close. I heard that Google is close to coming out with a V2 version of Google Wifi, but no specifics on what they are changing.
 
donheff said:
I have a Comcast modem/router with an extender to serve my three story townhouse. The router is in the basement and the extender in the living room. WIFI is OK but I still have a couple of weak spots in far flung corners where I occasionally like to use my phone or tablet. I am waiting for FIOS to arrive so I can ditch Comcast (because of TV problems not Internet). But I worry about whether I could have even more WIFI problems when I make the switch.

Enter Mesh Networks like Eero and Google WIFI. I have read that they are superior to the regular setup with extenders. Have any of you technically inclined members tried one? What results did you get?
Click to expand...

I replaced our Comcast modem with Arris one. Works good with my Netgear router which used to be near top of the line. A Netgear n300 extender completes the network.

The Netgear WiFi analytics app for a smartphone works good to quantify the signal level. It will show the signal level in dvm.
 
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Comcast cable goes into basement, and meets the Surfboard Modem and Netgear router. A CAT5e cable goes from the basement center into the attic, and down into a central bedroom on the 2nd floor, where it meets another wireless router. The CAT5e cable was installed at least 10 years ago, and was one heckuva investment of time and material.
 
I installed the Linksys Velona and I am very pleased. I have 21 devices connected to the network including a device streaming over the air television from a n antenna in the attic to Apple TVs attached to each television. Add computers, cell phones, iPads, smart thermostats, and other smart devices. House is 2 stories with basement plus outside screen porches and deck. Cable modem attached to network. After 6 weeks of operation not one glitch plus no dead spots in the house. Speed is great, even when streaming video to 3-4 TVs and computers. I actually like the app. I am very happy I moved to the mesh network.
 
target2019 said:
Comcast cable goes into basement, and meets the Surfboard Modem and Netgear router. A CAT5e cable goes from the basement center into the attic, and down into a central bedroom on the 2nd floor, where it meets another wireless router. The CAT5e cable was installed at least 10 years ago, and was one heckuva investment of time and material.
Click to expand...

When we built our house 17 years ago we had cat 5 (ethernet) cable installed. There's a run from the utility room to every room in the house. No need for mesh in our house. We do use WiFi for all the portable devices, but ethernet is nice for the desktops and TV streaming devices.

Yes, it's been a very good investment. Even with today's excellent wireless technologies, I'd install wired networking in a new house today.
 
DFW_M5 said:
Have you considered power line ethernet? My neighbor is an electrical engineering professor and uses this to get internet to some rooms in his home vs wi-fi:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/everything-you-need-to-know-about-powerline-networking/
Click to expand...
My son has it and it works well for the most part but doesn’t cross over to an add on section of his home wiring. I have a similar situation with an addition to the house. Also, I have Ethernet cable running to my desktop now. What I want to improve is wifi for phones and tablets. I also use it for TVs and that is working fine.
 
We use two ASUS wifi routers connected by powerline ethernet. One router is configured normally and the other is configured as an access point. One is upstairs on the east end of the house and the other is downstairs on the west end. This has worked well for us.

I have been keeping track of the mesh technology but haven't really come up with a need for it yet.
 
NC 57 said:
I installed the Linksys Velona and I am very pleased. I have 21 devices connected to the network including a device streaming over the air television from a n antenna in the attic to Apple TVs attached to each television. Add computers, cell phones, iPads, smart thermostats, and other smart devices. House is 2 stories with basement plus outside screen porches and deck. Cable modem attached to network. After 6 weeks of operation not one glitch plus no dead spots in the house. Speed is great, even when streaming video to 3-4 TVs and computers. I actually like the app. I am very happy I moved to the mesh network.
Click to expand...

What is your streaming device, if you don't mind? I have a Tablo with Roku's at each TV.
 
I have been beta testing Eero 2 generation (main + 2 beacons) for awhile.
In general it's not bad. Good coverage, stable signal for complex house configuration. I have 1 Gb fiber and from a beacon Eero I never can get more then 120 mbps , which maybe unimportant to most people. However for a simple house it might be overpriced.
 
Just wondering what choice (if any) donheff has made to deal with his NW needs.

The Wirecutter likes the Orbi, followed by Eero. I spent some time on websites or both, and found them to be remarkably unhelpful. Overloaded with marketing material and no straightforward presentation of tech info on the products. Also very fuzzy on how to configure a network. Their "solution tools" are really just configurations for generic models of coverage, not much help for real world needs.

My problem is not distance from router or sq feet, in our house all the walls are stucco and all the windows have metallic shielding. A very inhospitable environment for both cell and wifi. I have ethernet cable to most rooms, but many devices now are wifi only.
 
I haven’t chosen one. I am getting by with an extender now but expect to switch to FIOS when they get here ( promised soon). When I do that I will decide whether I need to get set up a mesh.
 
Your house must be so big!

I have a NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1750 Smart Dual Band WiFi Router (R6700), and F can pick up my wireless network fairly easily from his 1600 sf house which is next door to my 1500 sf house. I can pick up his wireless network too. No need for any extender for us, and neither router is on the near side of the house. Both houses are standard brick 1960's houses on slabs.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nigh...&qid=1511821686&sr=8-2&keywords=netgear+r6700

I know nothing about mesh networks, but wonder if you would get better coverage with a different router.
 
donheff said:
I haven’t chosen one. I am getting by with an extender now but expect to switch to FIOS when they get here ( promised soon). When I do that I will decide whether I need to get set up a mesh.
Click to expand...
If I put one in, which is looking likely, I'll post my thoughts here.

W2R said:
Your house must be so big!

I have a NETGEAR Nighthawk AC1750 Smart Dual Band WiFi Router (R6700), and F can pick up my wireless network fairly easily from his 1600 sf house which is next door to my 1500 sf house. I can pick up his wireless network too. No need for any extender for us, and neither router is on the near side of the house. Both houses are standard brick 1960's houses on slabs.

https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nigh...&qid=1511821686&sr=8-2&keywords=netgear+r6700

I know nothing about mesh networks, but wonder if you would get better coverage with a different router.
Click to expand...
It's probably building materials, not size / distance. In donheff's case it's a townhouse, so the signal needs to go through floors, which often have materials that block the signal. In my case the inside walls are stucco, which have a wire mesh that impede the signal, and the outside is cement block with stucco, which lets very little signal through. It also has metallic film on the windows, which block most wireless and cell signals. I've been through multiple iterations of powerline and wi-fi extenders, but nothing has worked so far. I'm thinking now that a combination of powerline adaptors AV2 in the attic and some mesh units around the house may work. That, and lots of ethernet cable that's already in place. I need more robust wi-fi at home because our indoor cell strength is very poor and cell over wifi is a real must.
 
MichaelB said:
If I put one in, which is looking likely, I'll post my thoughts here.


It's probably building materials, not size / distance. In donheff's case it's a townhouse, so the signal needs to go through floors, which often have materials that block the signal. In my case the inside walls are stucco, which have a wire mesh that impede the signal, and the outside is cement block with stucco, which lets very little signal through. It also has metallic film on the windows, which block most wireless and cell signals. I've been through multiple iterations of powerline and wi-fi extenders, but nothing has worked so far. I'm thinking now that a combination of powerline adaptors AV2 in the attic and some mesh units around the house may work. That, and lots of ethernet cable that's already in place. I need more robust wi-fi at home because our indoor cell strength is very poor and cell over wifi is a real must.
Click to expand...
Sounds dreadful! I love the look of stucco houses, and in fact had one in San Diego back in the early 1980's. But back then, technology was so primitive that the wire mesh within stucco wasn't really an issue.
 
I just installed the Orbi. A snap to install. Previously my WiFi was very spotty, even with a WiFi extender.
 
MichaelB said:
A very inhospitable environment for both cell and wifi. I have ethernet cable to most rooms, but many devices now are wifi only.
Click to expand...

If you have ethernet running to most room you might consider placing inexpensive WiFi routers in each room - or at least in every as many rooms needed to get coverage. Set them up using the same SSID and you should be fine.

My home WiFI network has three Apple Airports that form a single WiFI network. Each router is connected to house ethernet network.

This should work better than a mesh setup with devices having to communicate with each other over WiFi.
 
If you have ethernet running to most room you might consider placing inexpensive WiFi routers in each room - or at least in every as many rooms needed to get coverage. Set them up using the same SSID and you should be fine.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you would need to set one up as a router and the others up as access points.
 
misanman said:
I'm pretty sure you would need to set one up as a router and the others up as access points.
Click to expand...

Right. When they are turned on, tell them to use "Bridge mode" or "Wireless Bridge" or whatever it call it. Basically, it just passes packets instead of acting as a router.

You pick one as the primary device. Typically it talks to the cable mode or whatever provides your internet access. The others are just located on our home's network (LAN) and pass packets to/from the ethernet from/to WiFi.

It's really quite easy to setup (on the WiFI devices I've used).
 
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