Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

[sparkyhx]

dmsims said:

boxst said:

I have just moved into quite a large house and a randomly put WiFi points around but they suffer from devices holding onto the last access point even though another one is a few feet away.

Based on the comments above, I should just get a mesh system it seems (although there are ethernet cables everywhere). They are new to me, so I switch the WiFi off on my router (Asus RT-5300), put the controller in a central location (via ethernet) and then put two other access points around the house? There is a huge difference in price between the Tenda and Orbi, is it worth it?

Thanks.

Try the Tenda MW6 (you have some time to send it back)

Edited by dmsims on Thursday 10th January 21:27

I'd say the Orbi is overkill for most people, also heard horror stories with regular software updates screwing things up.

[sparkyhx]

DoubleSix said:

AJB88 said:

I'm having a slight issue with my Google WIFI.

If I connect wireless to my old EE router or if I use 4G I can open my swann CCTV app and it works, if I connect to Google WIFI it just comes up and says cant connect to server.

The CCTV is ethernet connected to my EE router/modem. The app uses an DNS address to connect to the CCTV.

Any advice?

Why are you connected to the EE router? That should be redundant/in modem only mode.

A switch from the main Google WiFi point will give you multiple ethernet connection points.

Think I just remembered why I didnt choose the Google - my router is incapable of going into modem only so I would have ended up with 2 unconnected networks or a 'sh*t load of fiddling to get it working.
- as per my warning earlier on router based mesh, as opposed to the BT which is mesh only.

[seveb]

dmsims said:

Unifi:

2.4 Ghz performance is also rather ste (throughput and attentuation)

Non adherence to standards

Needs to be hard wired (AC-Pro)

Tedious setup

we are talking about a domestic environment because that's what the OP asked about

Domestic is even worse for 160MHz, it's a non-starter for 99.9% of people. Waste of time.

You seem to dislike Unifi, do you sell a competitor product ?

Unifi is a great product - if you don't understand it watch a free YouTube video first - very easy and shows you all you need for a domestic install. Smashes the arse out of any domestic product, but does require 10 mins of your time to install. Not much to ask is it ?

[boxst]

I got the great news this morning that FTTP is live finally so just ordered that. Which means I need decent mesh speed to take advantage of that glorious 300 down and 50 up.

I will have two FritzBoxes (will get another one with the new connection) that apparently work in mesh mode so I may try that first before investing in Orbi.

[dmsims]

seveb said:

You seem to dislike Unifi, do you sell a competitor product ?

Nope I've installed Unifi in some industrial buildings (single story with few internal walls)

seveb said:

Smashes the arse out of any domestic product, but does require 10 mins of your time to install. Not much to ask is it ?

ah the myth that keeps getting repeated over and over and over, you need to get up to speed.

[sparkyhx]

dmsims said:

seveb said:

You seem to dislike Unifi, do you sell a competitor product ?

Nope I've installed Unifi in some industrial buildings (single story with few internal walls)

seveb said:

Smashes the arse out of any domestic product, but does require 10 mins of your time to install. Not much to ask is it ?

ah the myth that keeps getting repeated over and over and over, you need to get up to speed.

whats the myth? - smashes the 'arse' or easy set up?

[Alucidnation]

We also still find the current Unifi AP's quite poor, and that's after not fitting them for a few years and trying them again.

Then again, they are cheap so for a for 1 or 2 unit deployment in an easy domestic environment they might be ok.

[seveb]

sparkyhx said:

dmsims said:

seveb said:

You seem to dislike Unifi, do you sell a competitor product ?

Nope I've installed Unifi in some industrial buildings (single story with few internal walls)

seveb said:

Smashes the arse out of any domestic product, but does require 10 mins of your time to install. Not much to ask is it ?

ah the myth that keeps getting repeated over and over and over, you need to get up to speed.

whats the myth? - smashes the 'arse' or easy set up?

It's not easy to set up, at least not as easy as a domestic router which you usually just plug in and go. But the free routers are free for a reason - they're usually rubbish, even from Virgin and BT.

Not sure what myth she's referring to, there is a lot of negative marketing about Unifi especially from the likes of Rukus who are having their market share eroded by a much cheaper product which for most installations, does just what the customer needs.

[Dr_Rick]

So, back on topic...

I've ordered a triple pack of Tenda Nova MW6, should be arriving tomorrow.
My Plusnet Technicolor modem/router will stay, but have the wifi turned off. Currently it has 3 network ports in use: Hive, NAS and Devolo power line.

The last one will go as that's the reason for the change to mesh. What's the best option for the other two?

A) Leave them where they are?
B) Get a small switch and connect them to the first MW6 box with the cable between the modem and the MW6?

Asking for a newbie.

[essayer]

Leave the NAS+Hive on the router and connect the MW6 to the other port.
The MW6 also has a LAN port if you need a fourth.

[Alucidnation]

i'd also be tempted to bin the router and replace it.

[Dr_Rick]

Alucidnation said:

i'd also be tempted to bin the router and replace it.

With......?

[Alucidnation]

Depends how much you want to spend.

Any of the Asus range are good.

Just disable the wifi as you were going to do with the PN supplied unit.

[DoubleSix]

If one is using the router in modem mode only, is there anything to be gained from ditching the crappy ones we get from Virgin et al?

[dmsims]

Dr_Rick said:

Alucidnation said:

i'd also be tempted to bin the router and replace it.

With......?

Do you have Fibre or ADSL?

[otolith]

Alucidnation said:

i'd also be tempted to bin the router and replace it.

I've got the PlusNet ADSL router, and in my opinion it's a piece of crap - but I've not had time to figure out why I couldn't get my Draytek to work, so I'm still using it.

I've at least now got decent wifi coverage from Orbi.

[Superleg48]

Just to offer a viewpoint from my own experience. Our house is 7200 square feet and L shaped configuration. We are in a rural setting, with only standard copper wire broadband. We are set up as a Spa B&B, so decent Broadband is a fundamental requirement. We were getting between 0.5 and at best 11 mbps via the copper wire route, which was utter rubbish. Upload was no better than 1 mbps most of the time.

We tried 4G routers (We have excellent 4G with a mast about 500m away), we tried contacting BT and Openreach about FTTP - planned but no one could tell us when. We ended up going the Lease Line route and installed 30/100 on a guaranteed dedicated fibre line. We have 30 mbps up and down with no contention and fully managed. Our fail over is configured to the original copper wire ADSL connection.

Having resolved the inbound quality, we then needed to ensure reliable and fast access through the property, including the Patio, the Conservatory at the far end of the tail of the L and also some 50m to the front of the property for the Gate intercom system, which connects via WiFi.

We have the Lease Line provider’s primary equipment into the property, that then connects to an Enterprise Firewall unit and then into a Draytek Router. This in turn feeds into 2 Ubiquity Managed Toughswitch Pro 8 port units, one downstairs and one upstairs and are hardwired to the Router.

We then have 5 Ubiquiti Unifi AP Pros. One in the lounge downstairs, one upstairs at the opposite end of the house and three at various points in the loft. These are all hardwired to the Toughswitch Pros, which are both managed via a Cloud Controller. The other ports in the switches are connected to various bits of AV kit around the house with the rest of the AV stuff, phones, iPads etc etc connected wirelessly.

This set up is utterly brilliant. We have WiFi speeds measured throughout the house running north of 28mbps up and down, so minimal loss from the core inbound speed and no black spots anywhere. We get no less than 70% signal strength at the front gates and I can get WiFi at no less than 60% at the bottom of the back garden, about 100m from the back of the House.

We get zero drop out with mobile devices moving around the house as they jump from one AP to another. No buffering either, anywhere. Which given the uncontested speeds I would not expect.

Previously we had Luxul kit, which was utterly rubbish, despite apparently being higher end. So from my perspective, I rate Ubiquity extremely highly.

[Alucidnation]

otolith said:

Alucidnation said:

i'd also be tempted to bin the router and replace it.

I've got the PlusNet ADSL router, and in my opinion it's a piece of crap - but I've not had time to figure out why I couldn't get my Draytek to work, so I'm still using it.

I've at least now got decent wifi coverage from Orbi.

Which Draytek have you got? Vigor 130?

anyway, make sure you have the latest firmware ending in BT.

https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/downloads/vigor-...

This is designed to be plug and play with BT/Plusnet FTTC, and all you have to do is put in your Plusnet username and password to access the internet.

Edited by Alucidnation on Sunday 13th January 23:05

[Dr_Rick]

dmsims said:

Do you have Fibre or ADSL?

We have their common or garden (up to) 38meg ADSL.

Line tests from a number of web pages suggested the best I can expect is upper 20s to low 30s. We're in the West end of Edinburgh, 1.5km from the exchange so come evening time, lots of people jump on tinternet.

[bodhi]

Just a heads up for any of you using Sky Q - we tried to get ours to use the Netgear Nighthawk for WiFi rather than the Sky Q Hub with no joy - would only connect to the Sky Wi-Fi itself. Sky advertise Q as working with anyone's Broadband so I don;t see why this should be a requirement, but may be one to consider.

We've got the Sky Wi-Fi working alongside the Netgear one - means we have 2 Wireless Networks but seems to work well - the Q boxes connect to Sky, everything else to the Nighthawk and SSID Broadcast turned off on the Sky Q Hub.