Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

[troc]

I’ve had Fritzboxes with previous internet setups and always been impressed with their stability, functionality and reliability. Pretty sure they are standard issue with most German providers.

[page3]

Quite impressed with the uptime of my ISP provided router-



(although I do use Opnsense behind it, along with some Omada access points)

[megaphone]

KobayashiMaru86 said:

Gone to FTTP last week but they reused the Home Hub which is coming up to 5yrs old and doesn't seem much faster. The test to the hub says it is over the 500mb I'm supposed to get but Wifi is barely 100mb when I'm in the same room. I either replace the router for a better one or go for a full mesh setup. TP-Link seem OK and am using them for Powerline currently which works fine. Was recommended one of the Archer models for the router or go Deco XE75 for the mesh.

You need to ensure you're connecting to 5Ghz (ac 'wifi 5') and you'll probably need to increase the bandwidth of the wifi to 80mhz if you can. That said you'll struggle to get 500mbs on ac.

Edited by megaphone on Friday 13th June 17:29

[gangzoom]

KobayashiMaru86 said:

Gone to FTTP last week but they reused the Home Hub which is coming up to 5yrs old and doesn't seem much faster. The test to the hub says it is over the 500mb I'm supposed to get but Wifi is barely 100mb when I'm in the same room. I either replace the router for a better one or go for a full mesh setup. TP-Link seem OK and am using them for Powerline currently which works fine. Was recommended one of the Archer models for the router or go Deco XE75 for the mesh.

What's the signal strength like around the rest of the house? I spent yesterday evening moving every device from the old AC/WiFi 5 mesh to the WiFi 6 setup. For the very small cost you can get WiFi6 mesh setups now, under £100 for 3 nodes on eBay, and how much modern homes runs off WiFi (we have around 30 connected devices), if you are asking the question I think the answer is pretty straightforwards .

[KobayashiMaru86]

I was more thinking do I change the hub first or just get a mesh setup anyway. If meshes are that cheap I may as well. Ideally one I can make separate wifi networks so stick all the IoT stuff on one and everything else on the main.

[simonwhite2000]

Always had wifi issues in our house (ground and 2 upper floors 4 bed so not huge) and tried provider supplied routers with their own extenders and currently using Linksys Atlas Pro 6 AX5400 with 3 nodes in total. In the upper floor master room we are getting less than 40 on a 900 speed package. Of course wifi will always be a lot slower but surely I should be expecting more?

Feeling at a bit of a crossroads - do I give Vodafone's new hub a try with their own extenders, do I try a better mesh system or look at access points?

Wife works at home, I game on the PC and Sky Q in the top room loses connection a few times a week so feeling a bit done with it all! Any advice appreciated as I want to nail this issue for good this time.

[xeny]

What are the house internal walls and floors made out of? Can you easily run a network cable to the top floor to hand an access point off?

[simonwhite2000]

xeny said:

What are the house internal walls and floors made out of? Can you easily run a network cable to the top floor to hand an access point off?

Yes I could run a network cable to the top floor via an external wall and in where one of the CCTV cameras wiring goes in to the top loft and out behind the TV in the top bedroom.

Walls wise I believe.....
External - brick cavity insulation and blockwork
Internal - mix of block work and board and board on stud depending on location
Its a 2004 house so the above seems logical.

Edit:

I have been quoted the following;
CAT6 Cable Full Copper Outdoor Grade - 500ft
Unifi 7 Lite Wireless Access Point x 4
8 Port PoE Gigabit Ethernet Switch
Installation and Termination of cabling

Total: £1,346

Edited by simonwhite2000 on Thursday 4th September 12:34

[Captain_Morgan]

simonwhite2000 said:

Always had wifi issues in our house (ground and 2 upper floors 4 bed so not huge) and tried provider supplied routers with their own extenders and currently using Linksys Atlas Pro 6 AX5400 with 3 nodes in total. In the upper floor master room we are getting less than 40 on a 900 speed package. Of course wifi will always be a lot slower but surely I should be expecting more?

Feeling at a bit of a crossroads - do I give Vodafone's new hub a try with their own extenders, do I try a better mesh system or look at access points?

Wife works at home, I game on the PC and Sky Q in the top room loses connection a few times a week so feeling a bit done with it all! Any advice appreciated as I want to nail this issue for good this time.

Given you have a number of systems with either mesh or extenders it could eithe be the building or you placement.

I’d suggest,
1) look at your current system and work out if it’s a dual or tri band system - if it’s a dual band system then it will reduce your throughput by ~50% on each hop, so by 2 or 3 hops it could be quite low.

2) if your client device can still connect to say the master unit (assuming this is on the gf) from the top floor this could result in the speeds - mesh systems don’t really control what connects to them, the clients do & will often keep connected to a weak connection over a node on the same level.

3) the nodes should have good connectivity to each other, if they have a weak connection then they’ll perform poorly.

I’d go back leave only your master device turned on and see what your connectivity is throughout your home. It will help you understand if it’s devices connected to the master over multiple floors or not.

Then try introducing a second node, try to avoid placing it directly over the master unit but a level above, the aim is kind of diagonally above, but still with a high to med signal strength.

See how that performs and then do the same with any additional nodes one at a time.

If that make no difference then it’s likely it’s a environmental challenge and you’ll need to consider hardwiring your devices.

[CubanPete]

We have a Deco P9 mesh system, it is unusual as it links via both WiFi signal and the powerline.

Old house, so lots of thick walls, and the router is at one end of it.

Works well for our use, and has been reliable

[RizzoTheRat]

To add to Captain Morgans points, your Atlas nodes have ethernet ports on them and can use ethernet as backhaul instead of WiFi, so if you're able to cable even one of them it will make a big difference

[simonwhite2000]

simonwhite2000 said:

xeny said:

What are the house internal walls and floors made out of? Can you easily run a network cable to the top floor to hand an access point off?

Yes I could run a network cable to the top floor via an external wall and in where one of the CCTV cameras wiring goes in to the top loft and out behind the TV in the top bedroom.

Walls wise I believe.....
External - brick cavity insulation and blockwork
Internal - mix of block work and board and board on stud depending on location
Its a 2004 house so the above seems logical.

Edit:

I have been quoted the following;
CAT6 Cable Full Copper Outdoor Grade - 500ft
Unifi 7 Lite Wireless Access Point x 4
8 Port PoE Gigabit Ethernet Switch
Installation and Termination of cabling

Total: £1,346

Edited by simonwhite2000 on Thursday 4th September 12:34

See above edits

[Accelebrate]

simonwhite2000 said:

simonwhite2000 said:

xeny said:

What are the house internal walls and floors made out of? Can you easily run a network cable to the top floor to hand an access point off?

Yes I could run a network cable to the top floor via an external wall and in where one of the CCTV cameras wiring goes in to the top loft and out behind the TV in the top bedroom.

Walls wise I believe.....
External - brick cavity insulation and blockwork
Internal - mix of block work and board and board on stud depending on location
Its a 2004 house so the above seems logical.

Edit:

I have been quoted the following;
CAT6 Cable Full Copper Outdoor Grade - 500ft
Unifi 7 Lite Wireless Access Point x 4
8 Port PoE Gigabit Ethernet Switch
Installation and Termination of cabling

Total: £1,346

Edited by simonwhite2000 on Thursday 4th September 12:34

See above edits

Where are they intending to host the UniFi controller software?

There's about £400 of hardware and materials there, £950ish to run four ethernet cables on external walls seems a bit high to me, but maybe the runs are more complicated than they sound.

[xeny]

You could plausibly do 4 APs on the poster's phone, its hardly going to be a complext config.

[Accelebrate]

I'd forgotten you can do standalone config through the app

[Captain_Morgan]

It does seem strange to include ap but no unifi router/controller

It could be to minimise cost but that seems strange given the costs, perhaps the service provider doesn’t allow him to provide his own router, among some other possibility’s

[dmsims]

Or for a ~£250 quid you could buy a mesh system from Amazon and try it without financial risk

[xeny]

dmsims said:

Or for a ~£250 quid you could buy a mesh system from Amazon and try it without financial risk

Doesn't the OP have a mesh system at present?

[simonwhite2000]

xeny said:

dmsims said:

Or for a ~£250 quid you could buy a mesh system from Amazon and try it without financial risk

Doesn't the OP have a mesh system at present?

Currently using Linksys Atlas Pro 6 AX5400 with 3 nodes in total. My understanding though is the Wi-Fi signal gets inherently weaker the more nodes it goes through.

I am not technical in anyway so more than happy to be corrected on my thoughts and/or terminology.

[simonwhite2000]

Accelebrate said:

simonwhite2000 said:

simonwhite2000 said:

xeny said:

What are the house internal walls and floors made out of? Can you easily run a network cable to the top floor to hand an access point off?

Yes I could run a network cable to the top floor via an external wall and in where one of the CCTV cameras wiring goes in to the top loft and out behind the TV in the top bedroom.

Walls wise I believe.....
External - brick cavity insulation and blockwork
Internal - mix of block work and board and board on stud depending on location
Its a 2004 house so the above seems logical.

Edit:

I have been quoted the following;
CAT6 Cable Full Copper Outdoor Grade - 500ft
Unifi 7 Lite Wireless Access Point x 4
8 Port PoE Gigabit Ethernet Switch
Installation and Termination of cabling

Total: £1,346

Edited by simonwhite2000 on Thursday 4th September 12:34

See above edits

Where are they intending to host the UniFi controller software?

There's about £400 of hardware and materials there, £950ish to run four ethernet cables on external walls seems a bit high to me, but maybe the runs are more complicated than they sound.

This was the message received with the quote.......
I have sent a quotation based on 4 Access Points powered Via PoE Switch, if you would like a quotation for a managed system with a cloud controller ill get one sent over.