Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions
Discussion
vladcjelli said:
Xbox (wired through powerline) shows:
Down - 2.41
Up - 0.99
Latency - 48ms
Pkt loss - 1%
Xbox (unplugged through wifi):
Down - 17.44
Up - 4.82
Latency - 33ms
0% pkt loss
First time I've thought to compare the two, will I see much of an improvement with a mesh?
You have a a fairly small amount upstream bandwidthDown - 2.41
Up - 0.99
Latency - 48ms
Pkt loss - 1%
Xbox (unplugged through wifi):
Down - 17.44
Up - 4.82
Latency - 33ms
0% pkt loss
First time I've thought to compare the two, will I see much of an improvement with a mesh?
Your issue might be that it is becoming saturated and you need QOS
vladcjelli said:
Since posting earlier, I've been looking into the options, and like the look of the velop gear.
Do you have the tri band or dual band ones?
The dual bands look like a really good price, but I'm wondering if that's for a reason...
I have dual band and couldn't think why I would need triband for my house hold of I'm honest. Do you have the tri band or dual band ones?
The dual bands look like a really good price, but I'm wondering if that's for a reason...
The set up was so easy, turn ISP router into modem mode, plug one velop in, let it auto set up, plug another one in somewhere else, follow app instructions, done. Took 15 mins.
Also has parental controls so you can just turn the xbox off or schedule Internet access times so they make sure they do their homework but can prioritise 3 devices that will always get Internet so you and 2 others can have access. Also can be all done remotely too so can be turned on and off at will.
Highly impressed with it.
I'm a little confused here, I thought the mesh systems were just a decent set of matched signal boosters all passing the signal from the base station.
I have just rewired and put in cat6 points throughout that all terminate in a cabinet in the loft. I would rather have the satellites hard wired back to the base station (presumably this should provide the satellites with the best performance)
Is this an option with the mesh systems or do the all have to link back to the base via Wi-Fi?
I have just rewired and put in cat6 points throughout that all terminate in a cabinet in the loft. I would rather have the satellites hard wired back to the base station (presumably this should provide the satellites with the best performance)
Is this an option with the mesh systems or do the all have to link back to the base via Wi-Fi?
I had the Linksys velop ac3600 dual band, I live in an average size 4 bed, with the main node in the front room the 2nd one in the dining room but had to have it right by the adjoining wall to get it to connect only about 18 feet even then every other time I checked it it was offline same with the one upstairs.
When they did work I got no better speed than with my Talktalk router and I only have 40meg connection.
This has gone back to Amazon.
Probably the next one will be the Netgear Orbi this is tri band with the dedicated backhaul.
When they did work I got no better speed than with my Talktalk router and I only have 40meg connection.
This has gone back to Amazon.
Probably the next one will be the Netgear Orbi this is tri band with the dedicated backhaul.
If you can run UTP cabling around the house and have a suitable point for terminating it all the the UniFi stuff is great IME. I'm not sure why you would buy a mesh system and then use wired infrastructure to connect it up? The point of the mesh would appear to be avoiding the pain of the cabling installation.
DoubleSix said:
a7x88 said:
For best performance you will want to run cat 5e/6a to various points around the house and use access points like Unifi or similar. Mesh systems work but you are sacrificing bandwidth to allow the mesh devices to communicate with each other.
I ran drops to ceiling when we put cat6 into the house and have mounted Cisco 3802i APs up there - managed by a vWLC. WiFi has never been better. I can max my 350mbps connection from anywhere in the house and get a solid 930mbps from 802.3ac devices on an iperf back to my server (this is around the limit of gigE ports)
Not if the mesh units are hard wired.I ran drops to ceiling when we put cat6 into the house and have mounted Cisco 3802i APs up there - managed by a vWLC. WiFi has never been better. I can max my 350mbps connection from anywhere in the house and get a solid 930mbps from 802.3ac devices on an iperf back to my server (this is around the limit of gigE ports)
If they are hard wired it's just a managed WLAN with multiple AP's (as I have and have described above). A mesh network will use a wireless protocol for at least one of the APs to communicate back with the controller and rest of the LAN/WAN. In an enterprise network featuring a mesh design hardwired AP's are referred to as Root AP's and any using a wireless backhaul referred to as Mesh AP's
If none are using wireless backhaul it's not a mesh.
ffc said:
If you can run UTP cabling around the house and have a suitable point for terminating it all the the UniFi stuff is great IME. I'm not sure why you would buy a mesh system and then use wired infrastructure to connect it up? The point of the mesh would appear to be avoiding the pain of the cabling installation.
The bottom line is that hardwire beats ANY wireless system currently available.One of the main benefit of mesh systems is the seemless handoff of devices throughout a single network.
As already explained on this thread, using multiple APs without mesh will result in devices doggedly ‘hanging on’ to a week signal as you move away from the AP.
As such combining the benefits of mesh device handling and reliability and speed offered by hardwire transmission is the “weapons grade” solution the op was after.
DoubleSix said:
The bottom line is that hardwire beats ANY wireless system currently available.
One of the main benefit of mesh systems is the seemless handoff of devices throughout a single network.
As already explained on this thread, using multiple APs without mesh will result in devices doggedly ‘hanging on’ to a week signal as you move away from the AP.
As such combining the benefits of mesh device handling and reliability and speed offered by hardwire transmission is the “weapons grade” solution the op was after.
That’s the issue I’m having; I hardwired an access point into the upstairs ceiling but occasionally have issues with devices hanging on to the downstairs wireless router. One of the main benefit of mesh systems is the seemless handoff of devices throughout a single network.
As already explained on this thread, using multiple APs without mesh will result in devices doggedly ‘hanging on’ to a week signal as you move away from the AP.
As such combining the benefits of mesh device handling and reliability and speed offered by hardwire transmission is the “weapons grade” solution the op was after.
peterperkins said:
techiedave said:
Ethernet throughout and Putting wireless access points at required areas
Agreed. You can't beat a hard wired connection.. (Well not very often)For example it will happily sit there buffering iPlayer every second then switching to some 240p super low res stream rather than roam to the access point it is sitting literally right next to.
They have identical SSID and authentication settings, and are on different channels. Is there anything else you have to do?
edit: just seen DoubleSix's post about this above, so it sounds like mesh is the solution thanks
Edited by budgie smuggler on Wednesday 2nd January 10:12
+1 to the orbi.
Seamless and the extra ports on the back mean you dont need another switch nearby. I set up my dad with the same system but he used the wireless backhaul. I was very impressed at the speed compared to other repeaters I've used in the past.
The bt system, on the other hand, is w
k. Lower speed than the orbi and it has major issues if you want to use wired backhaul through a switch.
Seamless and the extra ports on the back mean you dont need another switch nearby. I set up my dad with the same system but he used the wireless backhaul. I was very impressed at the speed compared to other repeaters I've used in the past.
The bt system, on the other hand, is w
k. Lower speed than the orbi and it has major issues if you want to use wired backhaul through a switch. My wifi has been rock solid since moving to Orbi a couple of years ago. I chose it over the competition because I can hard wire the PC to the repeater for WoL purposes, I don't think the competition (Google etc) offered that at the time.
At home I had previously used a variety, including Ubiquiti, without a great deal of success.
I have extensive experience in enterprise WiFi, having PoC'd and subsequently implemented solutions with thousands of access points over hundreds of sites, and I still think for home use Orbi is brilliant.
At home I had previously used a variety, including Ubiquiti, without a great deal of success.
I have extensive experience in enterprise WiFi, having PoC'd and subsequently implemented solutions with thousands of access points over hundreds of sites, and I still think for home use Orbi is brilliant.
DoubleSix said:
The bottom line is that hardwire beats ANY wireless system currently available.
One of the main benefit of mesh systems is the seemless handoff of devices throughout a single network.
As already explained on this thread, using multiple APs without mesh will result in devices doggedly ‘hanging on’ to a week signal as you move away from the AP.
As such combining the benefits of mesh device handling and reliability and speed offered by hardwire transmission is the “weapons grade” solution the op was after.
I am unsure why a controller based system such as the UniFi set-up will be worse at handoff than a mesh system?One of the main benefit of mesh systems is the seemless handoff of devices throughout a single network.
As already explained on this thread, using multiple APs without mesh will result in devices doggedly ‘hanging on’ to a week signal as you move away from the AP.
As such combining the benefits of mesh device handling and reliability and speed offered by hardwire transmission is the “weapons grade” solution the op was after.
I'd thoroughly recommend the Tenda Nova MW3, currently under £80 on Amazon
I've not got five stories, but our internet comes in on the ground floor in a single storey extension, and my home office is in a loft conversion, so the signal is pretty much having to make it up through three storeys of walls and floors.
Prior to getting the Tenda boxes, I had Powerline adapters. These dropped from 76 meg on the router downstairs to around 20 meg upstairs, and wireless there was bloody hopeless!
I'm now getting 45 Meg on wifi upstairs, despite the fact that I'm also streaming Spotify whilst measuring it, plus I've a wife and three kids elsewhere in the building also consuming it.
Coverage drop outs are a thing of the past, and I can stream Netflix or use WebEx anywhere in the house with no buffering or quality drop, even with the whole family online. Yes, there may be applications that require quicker speed, but I've yet to discover them!
I've not got five stories, but our internet comes in on the ground floor in a single storey extension, and my home office is in a loft conversion, so the signal is pretty much having to make it up through three storeys of walls and floors.
Prior to getting the Tenda boxes, I had Powerline adapters. These dropped from 76 meg on the router downstairs to around 20 meg upstairs, and wireless there was bloody hopeless!
I'm now getting 45 Meg on wifi upstairs, despite the fact that I'm also streaming Spotify whilst measuring it, plus I've a wife and three kids elsewhere in the building also consuming it.
Coverage drop outs are a thing of the past, and I can stream Netflix or use WebEx anywhere in the house with no buffering or quality drop, even with the whole family online. Yes, there may be applications that require quicker speed, but I've yet to discover them!
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