BT Complete WI-FI Disc - Good? Bad? Ugly?

[BatForcePC]

Hi,
We're about to sign up with BT Full Fibre 100 and I'm trying to decide whether to pay the extra £10 per month for the discs - for the 2 year contract that's £240, although they say that if you're not happy they will refund £100 - not clear whether they stop the £10 per month though..need to call them. Anyway our house has very thick stone walls and I'm not sure whether they will be able to deal with that - I have heard positive reviews though!

Does anyone have any experience with these and would my money be better spent on another type of mesh system?

Thanks in advance!

[Sonie]

We have them with a TalkTalk router. It gives decent signal throughout the house and I to the garden and it is easy to set up and manage.

As it is a mesh network it broadcasts the same name throughout the house, and if you need additional discs, you can get these easily.

I paid £140 from JL for 3 discs, look on Hotukdeals as they also come up there via BT shop.

[jesusbuiltmycar]

Had them until last year, eventually gave up and I bought a proper mesh system because they were unreliable and kept loosing connections to my Nest cameras.

At one point I had 4 discs live. This was after having BT out to ‘tune’ the system .

The house was built in the 80s so the walls aren’t particularly thick - the BT technician told me that the fridge (not particularly old) was incompatible with the discs and blocking the signal to that side of the house…

[ThunderSpook]

I have the Whole Home Wi-Fi which is the predecessor to that one I think. Works great, would recommend.

[NDA]

I have whole home too - I've had up to 6 discs running at one point.

I am not a techie, but I would describe the system as good if you leave it alone, and very fragile if you change anything.

I have put my system down to 3 discs and they're all now wired via home plugs (so they're access points, sort of). This completely defeats the object of having them to be honest, but it's very stable.

[Lucas Ayde]

NDA said:

I have whole home too - I've had up to 6 discs running at one point.

I am not a techie, but I would describe the system as good if you leave it alone, and very fragile if you change anything.

I have put my system down to 3 discs and they're all now wired via home plugs (so they're access points, sort of). This completely defeats the object of having them to be honest, but it's very stable.

Mesh is about more than relaying wifi signals from disc to disc - it's about presenting a unified network over the entirety of a building to provide good wireless signal everywhere.

Whether or not you are using wireless or wired links on the backhaul doesn't negate the concept. If wired backhaul is an option - great. If not, then linking the dishes wirelessly can produce very good results too.

Also if fewer discs can provide the sort of coverage you are looking for, then that's the way to go. More isn't always superior.

[Crasher242]

We have that system in our house.
Main router is in the front lounge (by the TV/DVD/Sat box etc) where the fibre comes in.
We then have 1 disc upstairs at the rear of the property and another disc in my man-shed/annex at the bottom of the garden (a good 30-40 metres away).

No issues at all, and seem to get really decent (and quick) WiFi throughout the house, garden and beyond.

I used the BT app to help me decide on best location to site each of the discs - our install only came with 1 disc, but i got onto BT to say about poor coverage at the 'rear' (not mentioning the annex as being separate to the main house) and they sent me another disc free.

Very happy with it all in.

[Ydnaroo]

I used the original BT Whole Home WiFi system {white disks) for a couple of years until a few months ago and they work very well. I changed to FTTP and used the Smart Hub 2 for a while with an additional disk (black disk) and they worked equally well. I wouldn't pay BT £10pm for the extra disk, you can pick brand new boxed disks up from a well known auction site for around £70 or decent used ones for around £50.The black and white disks are not interchangeable, make sure you get a black disk. (Check for part No 092822 for use with SH2.} If possible, arrange for wired backhaul - Cat5e or better from router to extra disk.