A mesh system that works and doesn't keep losing the signal?

[singlecoil]

As per title. Currently have a TP Link Deco system and it's st. Not only does it disconnect from time to time but the setup process is tedious and frequently fails.

Awkwardly shaped house with a couple of super thick walls make a mesh system necessary, so any advice gratefully received.

[paulrockliffe]

The best advice is to find a way to run wires between your mesh devices. If that's hard, consider where you can run wires and put more mesh access points in those locations so you get as big an area to hit from wireless APs.

I'm running Google Nest kit that must be getting on for 15 years old now and it has been faultless and more than fast enough, but all the APs are wired together. I can't imagine your much newer kit would perform any worse than what I have as I'm way behind on progress, it's bound to be the lack of wires that are your problem.

[singlecoil]

Thanks, I'd loved to have a wired network, unfortunately that's impractical unless I've exhausted all other possibilities.

[w1bbles]

I also have a house with thick stone walls and after battling various pure WiFi systems for 8 years or so, we eventually bit the bullet and ran a couple of Cat 6 cables from the central router to a couple of the more problematic areas. They were easy enough to put in (run in the loft and then rodded down through the lath and plaster wall cavities. That seemed to provide a backbone for two 'cornerstone' access points, which the rest of the mesh system could rely on. We now have a main router hardwired to two access points, with a further 3 WiFi mesh access points also part of the setup. This has been pretty reliable for the last 9 years but it's all Google Nest stuff, which is now very old tech.

TLDR - if you can be bothered, it's worth spending the time running a couple of cables to provide reliable network access to the harder-to-reach-by-WiFi zones.

P.S. I also battled with power line adapters for a while early on, but they were very unreliable and I binned them all (I had 6 at one point).

[suggest_me_a_name]

How big is your house, how many nodes does your current mesh have, can you add more?

[Alorotom]

I use Eero for mine and it’s been flawless for about 3yrs at least now.

I have 3 bases throughout the house and everything connects and works reliably / seamlessly

[Brainpox]

If it s losing connection because of your thick walls then you ll probably have the same problem with any wireless mesh system.

Can you try moving nodes closer together? Maybe you need more nodes to get full coverage.

By any chance do you have coax cable running through the walls? You can run internet through them up to 2.5Gb using MoCA adapters

Edited by Brainpox on Monday 22 December 19:45

[zalrak]

I have had a TP Deco system for about 6 months and it has been perfect. Very simple to set up too. Medium size 4 bedroom house with two units downstairs and one upstairs.

There must be some other fundamental issue going on with your setup. I’m no IT expert so I have no idea what that could be though.

[Megaflow]

We’ve got the BT Home Hub system, the round discs. Works great.

[MonkeyBusiness]

zalrak said:

I have had a TP Deco system for about 6 months and it has been perfect. Very simple to set up too. Medium size 4 bedroom house with two units downstairs and one upstairs.

There must be some other fundamental issue going on with your setup. I m no IT expert so I have no idea what that could be though.

Agree.
Deco system here for years and its been great. Absolutely faultless.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Properly deployed deco works well and has been reliable in the installations i look after.
I would work out what underlying issues you have before spending money on new kit.

[singlecoil]

The system has been working well for many months, but today two of the units lost their connection for no apparent reason ( definitely not the walls) and those units are unaware of the fact that the rest of the units are working correctly, despite my best efforts.

Before anybody says it’s my fault, it isn’t.

[Ranger 6]

Our TP-Link Deco has been running well for 7 years now, and my son's Uni set has also been integrated now. 6 Nodes, garage, patio etc.

I've had the occasional unit drop out, strangely the kitchen one, but a re-boot usually brings it back working.

When I saw the thread title I was going to recommend them.

[Alex_225]

I use a Deco Mesh system and have to say it worked great in our old house, we moved a couple of years ago to a bigger place and I just added an extra node. We have four across the ground floor and get great signal throughout.

The only thing to keep in mind is that the furthest node from the router will have the lowest speeds. Is it possible to add an additional node to improve coverage? I'm getting ~200mb on the first (via Starlink) but still getting 90-100mb at the furthers point which is through two walls and 35ft away.

[bobthemonkey]

There’s the Deco P series product that use Powerline networking for backhaul between nodes. Works well in a setup similar to the one you describe with awkward shapes and thick walls.

[Richtea1970]

Megaflow said:

We ve got the BT Home Hub system, the round discs. Works great.

Another vote for these, we've had them for 5 years plus and have never had an issue

[Brainpox]

singlecoil said:

The system has been working well for many months, but today two of the units lost their connection for no apparent reason ( definitely not the walls) and those units are unaware of the fact that the rest of the units are working correctly, despite my best efforts.

Before anybody says it s my fault, it isn t.

It’s a shame you didn’t have that info in the first post. OP suggests it’s always been st. Would have avoided people barking up the wrong tree

[king arthur]

Could you use a powerline adapter? I'm on Plusnet so the router is the same as a BT Homehub and the wifi signal does reach all of the house but in my office it's not strong enough to get a good speed, I tried a TP Link powerline adapter and it works perfectly.

[MM]

You can dance around difference systems but anything other than a wired backhaul is a compromise unfortunately.

Hardware wise unifi is about as good as it gets. People with tell you about this system and that system how it’s better or cheaper or how unifi is rubbished etc, but it’s still the go to system out there for people who take half an interest in the subject.

[carl_w]

king arthur said:

Could you use a powerline adapter? I'm on Plusnet so the router is the same as a BT Homehub and the wifi signal does reach all of the house but in my office it's not strong enough to get a good speed, I tried a TP Link powerline adapter and it works perfectly.

This is what we've done. Got a bunch of Devolo powerline adapters all of which act as wifi hotspots. Fast enough to run 4K TV over.