Any Mesh Wifi experts on the forum?

[Sillyoldman]

Just moved into a garden office from the house. Distance from Wifi router to office is about 25metres going through one block wall and then the garden office wood clad wall. Wifi does not reach. Tried Ethernet over power but the network speed can be really slow and is not consistent.

I can’t run a network cable without a lot of difficulty.

I have been looking at the mesh wifi systems. Does anyone have any experience and over what distances and building infrastructure?

Many thanks

 

[Markymark]

Just moved into a garden office from the house. Distance from Wifi router to office is about 25metres going through one block wall and then the garden office wood clad wall. Wifi does not reach. Tried Ethernet over power but the network speed can be really slow and is not consistent.

I can’t run a network cable without a lot of difficulty.

I have been looking at the mesh wifi systems. Does anyone have any experience and over what distances and building infrastructure?

Many thanks

Not an expert but I thought mesh was a mx of 2.4 and 5gzh. But it would only be the 2.4gzh which would reach that far so would suggest you try your closest WiFi on that band first?

Ps which isp and powerline adaptors are you usung because I had to go through a couple until I got decent speeds?

 

[amasidlover]

The stuff I've done is mostly out of date; however... I used a lot of stuff from these people and the modern stuff looks nice and not expensive either... www.solwise.co.uk

They will probably give you pretty good advice as well as being able to sell you stuff.

 

[Sillyoldman]

Not an expert but I thought mesh was a mx of 2.4 and 5gzh. But it would only be the 2.4gzh which would reach that far so would suggest you try your closest WiFi on that band first?

Ps which isp and powerline adaptors are you usung because I had to go through a couple until I got decent speeds?

My understanding is that you have one primary Wifi node and then position others to give the coverage you need. So it’s akin to setting up additional access points I guess but there seems to be clever stuff working with it as well such as beam forming technology to try ensure each devise gets the best signal. Thanks for the suggestion about the band, I have tried both unsuccesfully.

 

[Sillyoldman]

The stuff I've done is mostly out of date; however... I used a lot of stuff from these people and the modern stuff looks nice and not expensive either... www.solwise.co.uk

They will probably give you pretty good advice as well as being able to sell you stuff.

Thanks will give them a call

 

[midlife]

When I was looking to extend my wifi I looked at this company's kit ...Ubiquiti's UniFi

Not sure if they do anything you need but the reviews were good

 

[Inertia]

I have been looking as well; I haven't pushed the button yet. I found a decent roundup of them that may help.

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/network-wifi/best-mesh-wi-fi-network-kits-3661110/

 

[Markymark]

Are they like repeaters? If so, I tried that and they were awful. Connection took for ever. Moved into different rooms and took an age to connect. Who supplies your broadband and what sort of router do you have?

 

[Inertia]

Are they like repeaters? If so, I tried that and they were awful. Connection took for ever. Moved into different rooms and took an age to connect. Who supplies your broadband and what sort of router do you have?

They are meant to be better than repeaters, they are a smaller version of hardware that was used by business and military. They are getting cheaper but are still not as cheap as a repeater.

I think what you experience is because your phone may not always know which connection to use for the best signal. mesh routers work together to route the data more intelligently, and efficiently. At least that show it was explained to me

 

[Markymark]

They are meant to be better than repeaters, they are a smaller version of hardware that was used by business and military. They are getting cheaper but are still not as cheap as a repeater.

I think what you experience is because your phone may not always know which connection to use for the best signal. mesh routers work together to route the data more intelligently, and efficiently. At least that show it was explained to me

But what does it it do if it doesn't repeat? Device talks to black-box, black box talks to router?
I now have an array of powerline adaptors all using the same SSID and everything works seamlessly. Travelling between rooms it switches to the strongest signal and there's never an interruption.

The only change I made was to add a hub and everything go through that rather than the router

 

[Inertia]

But what does it it do if it doesn't repeat? Device talks to black-box, black box talks to router?
I now have an array of powerline adaptors all using the same SSID and everything works seamlessly. Travelling between rooms it switches to the strongest signal and there's never an interruption.

The only change I made was to add a hub and everything go through that rather than the router

It does repeat but it does it better than a regular repeater.

I don't have hands on experience with them though so maybe someone who has, can answer more fully.

 

[Deleted member 26715]

I use TP-Link stuff all with the same SSID & seem to be able to move around without difficulty, once thing I would also consider is putting WiFi Analyser app on your mobile, then look at which channel you are using & see what your neighbours are using & consider moving yours.

 

[Markymark]

I have Sky Q and used powerline adaptors and it was crap. They used to knock them off periodically or massively drop the bandwidth. The mistake was using the router as the hub. I bought a new hub and connected everything through that. I put a WAP on it and connected various poerwline adaptors - I bought the 1Gb devices. I put everything on the new network on the same SSID but keeping it separate form the sky router SSID meaning that I had 2 networks but in reality only used the new one. The Sky one is now kept exclusively for streaming sky TV over it.

I know have full coverage around the house. I also sometimes put a powerline in the garden room when I'm using my turbo. To be honest I've not checked the transfer speeds down there but it runs bkool quite happily.

 

[the_mikey]

I use TP-Link stuff all with the same SSID & seem to be able to move around without difficulty, once thing I would also consider is putting WiFi Analyser app on your mobile, then look at which channel you are using & see what your neighbours are using & consider moving yours.

Also Wireless ethernet printers can really stitch up your wireless connection by them communicating independently with your devices on the same channel as your wi-fi, their attempts to communicate effectively interfere with your wifi, as the printer broadcasts it's own SSID regardless, you can configure them to exclusively use your wifi-network wi-fi and prevent them from trying to connect independently. Wi-Fi analyser will show up a lot of these poorly configured printers in addition to numerous wi-fi routers if you're unlucky.

 

[Sillyoldman]

Inertia, I had a web chat with curry’s/pc world about the google system. If it does not work as you want it to they will take it back and refund you as long as it is in the original packaging and within 15 days.

Might give it a try and see.