Forum Topic

Mesh wifi

Hi, does anyone use mesh wifi in their house and what are your opinions on it?

David Powers ● 348d11 Comments

Thank you

David Powers ● 343d

Thanks Tim, will look into it.

David Powers ● 343d

After years struggling with poor signal in a 200 year old cottage with 2ft thick walls, we finally purchased a mesh extender set. Bingo. Easy to install, wifi signal now great everywhere. Highly recommend. We got this one from John Lewis, they had it on offer recently £40;discount  https://www.johnlewis.com/tp-link-deco-m4-whole-home-mesh-wi-fi-system-ac1200-pack-of-3/p5381792

K. Gdaniec ● 343d

We have a TP-Link m3 setup which I've used for 5+ years and it's great and still getting updates. I notice the newer models like the S4 get great reviews and are often on sale in the £100 range .  The experts all seem to recommend Ubiquity kit, which us more expensive and professional but I've found the deco's to be great. 

Tim Mackinnon ● 343d

I just about followed that and think i have tried part of it. I'll have a read through again and try to get my head round it. Thanks

David Powers ● 347d

That sounds great, thanks i'll look into it.

David Powers ● 347d

I can recommend Linksys, We have one in the basement, two on the ground floor, one on the middle floor and one on the top floor. Took a bit of experimenting to find the right spot but no problems once sorted.

Chris Blackwell ● 348d

I have always found ASUS routers to be ultra reliable.  Never the fastest, never the cheapest but absolutely rock solid.If you wanting to run a mesh wifi system and you have a really large house with thick walls or solid concrete floors for example between a ground floor and a basement then if possible you need to run a wired backhaul between the main mesh router and each satellite router.  That is just techspeak for saying you need to connect them up using ethernet cable (cat 6 for preference).  Do that, then you need to dive into the settings for the mesh to enable wired backhaul (might be called ethernet backhaul) and you should get full speed throughout the house.  Inevitably the process of diving through the settings will be more complicated than it needs to be.One other thought if you are investing in a mesh system check to see if it allows you to enable a separate guest network in addition to your main network.  If you have kids who invite their friends over or you have friends over a lot a separate guest network which gives them access to the internet but not much else is a good idea

Justin Stephenson ● 348d

If you live in a house like mine where the front half of the house and the rear are separated by thick walls the type of wi-fi extender that uses the edge of one wi-fi zone to create a second zone is problematic.I found a very cost-effective solution that gets you through the walls. A pair of "powerline" devices on either side of the wall do the trick. These look a bit like standard 13 amp plug adaptors and connect using a standard ethernet cable to a wi-fi router at each end.The mains circuit in the house carries the ethernet signal.One end is plugged into the router supplied by your broadband provider - the other end is plugged into a second basic wi-fi router.The total cost - £49 for a completely reliable and very fast wi-fi signal on both sides of the thick wall.Powerline ethernet through the mains £31https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-PA4022PKIT-2-Ports-Passthrough-Powerline/dp/B07J652QRY/ref=asc_df_B07J652QRY/Basic wi-fi router £18https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001FWYGJS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_asin_title

Will Watson ● 348d

Thanks Nik, we currently have ASUS routers but it’s a big old house with thick walls so the signal doesn’t get through. The XD5 was one I was looking at. Cheers

David Powers ● 348d

I just got the ASUS XD5 (2 pack).  It is a game changer in my house.  I used to have a Sky with a SKY wifi extender on each floor and they were flaky as.  Highly recommend the ASUS range(they do others)  They look great, small and so easy to set-up.

Nik Solomon ● 348d