Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

[megaphone]

Northernboy said:

ecs0set said:

I surrender!

You think that this undermines the point of a mesh system, or makes it less able to function?

What then would you recommend for my situation, where I struggle to get modes working on some floors?

I've read some of your posts. If your house has an ethernet infrastructure then you would be better off going for a proper controlled system like Unifi. The adhoc mix of mesh you have at the moment will never work properly and never be 'weapons-grade'. Obviously you will need to invest some money, maybe £1000 to get a good system.

[ecs0set]

Northernboy said:

You think that this undermines the point of a mesh system, or makes it less able to function?

What then would you recommend for my situation, where I struggle to get modes working on some floors?

As per previous posts, in my view hardwiring access points back to a central switch gives you a star network not a mesh network. I find it very confusing when people mix the two but seemingly, I am on my own so don't worry about that bit.

Ignoring network topology for a second, both wired and wireless connectivity between access points or even a hybrid of the two should work fine so long as any wireless links are within range.

As you are lucky enough to have Ethernet throughout with a rack and central switch, I don't see why you would not use wired connectivity for the access points, especially with substantial floors. The only suggestion I can offer is, if you are using a Linksys "mesh" system and a Linksys router with inbuilt WiFi, if the Linksys router is NOT part of the mesh system then I'd suggest turning OFF the WiFi on the Linksys router.

If you get "you are not connected to the internet" when sitting near a single access point which is hard wired to the router (turn the other's off to test), then your issue is likely to be with device or access point config rather than range/throughput.

[Northernboy]

ecs0set said:

As per previous posts, in my view hardwiring access points back to a central switch gives you a star network not a mesh network. I find it very confusing when people mix the two but seemingly, I am on my own so don't worry about that bit.

Ignoring network topology for a second, both wired and wireless connectivity between access points or even a hybrid of the two should work fine so long as any wireless links are within range.

As you are lucky enough to have Ethernet throughout with a rack and central switch, I don't see why you would not use wired connectivity for the access points, especially with substantial floors. The only suggestion I can offer is, if you are using a Linksys "mesh" system and a Linksys router with inbuilt WiFi, if the Linksys router is NOT part of the mesh system then I'd suggest turning OFF the WiFi on the Linksys router.

If you get "you are not connected to the internet" when sitting near a single access point which is hard wired to the router (turn the other's off to test), then your issue is likely to be with device or access point config rather than range/throughput.

Thanks.

I’ve just spent an hour setting up the mesh from scratch, and after making sure that each link was getting a good signal strength , and after half an hour all four mesh units have decided to disconnect.

Next step is to kill the mesh, and wire a completely separate network on each floor, wired back to the modem, which I will take out of Bridge mode and have it connect to my ISP directly.

[dmsims]

garylythgoe

Your speed is OK! but what happens if you ping an outside site continuously?

[BigTZ4M]

@northernboy - I have to echo the sentiments others have said.

Mesh networking was designed to solve a problem you don't have - namely not being able to run wired ethernet around your house (and back to a central location). You'd be far better off investing in a good set of plain old access points to solve your WiFi coverage. I favour ubiquiti UAPs as do many but there's kit from Meraki, Cisco and TP-Link that offer what I'd call prosumer levels of Access Points as well. Stability, inter-operability, centralised control - that sort of thing comes with the right kit.

A common mistake with Access Points is not mounting them in the correct manner. No matter what they proclaim they all have to follow the laws of physics so planning and understanding that is important or you'll be disappointed. Talking of Ubiquiti kit specifically, if you're going to put an AP that's designed to be ceiling mounted on a shelf then it isn't going to yield good results. You'd be better at looking at an omni directional free standing unit or perhaps replace your ethernet wall sockets with an in-wall AP.

Once you've decided where you can place things, I generally advise to start small, see how you get on and then expand. So first up I'd go to the top of the house centrally. Temporarily place your AP of whichever design you favour there and see how acceptable coverage is on the same floor. If coverage doesn't cover it enough I'd get another AP and instead of one centrally, have the two equi distant apart wherever convenient. Then check coverage on the same floor again. If still no good then go to three equi-distant etc.

Once you're happy the top floor has good coverage then go down. At this point many people (particularly if using ceiling mounted APs that radiate the signal down in a donut shape) find the floor below now also has adequate coverage. If not then start adding APs as you did in the top floor. Rinse and repeat until your whole house has coverage.

[garylythgoe]

dmsims said:

garylythgoe

Your speed is OK! but what happens if you ping an outside site continuously?

I just tried it and its very consistent. General within ~5-8ms

[dmsims]

@northernboy

Have you established exactly why you are being disconnected?

[paralla]

Northernboy said:

Thanks.

I’ve just spent an hour setting up the mesh from scratch, and after making sure that each link was getting a good signal strength , and after half an hour all four mesh units have decided to disconnect.

Next step is to kill the mesh, and wire a completely separate network on each floor, wired back to the modem, which I will take out of Bridge mode and have it connect to my ISP directly.

If you connect the satellites all together at the switch using your existing ethernet cables you don't need to check the signal strength.

If you are struggling with a mesh system that's aimed at the consumer market it might be better to get someone in to install wired access points.

[Northernboy]

BigTZ4M said:

@northernboy - I have to echo the sentiments others have said.

Mesh networking was designed to solve a problem you don't have - namely not being able to run wired ethernet around your house (and back to a central location). You'd be far better off investing in a good set of plain old access points to solve your WiFi coverage. I favour ubiquiti UAPs as do many but there's kit from Meraki, Cisco and TP-Link that offer what I'd call prosumer levels of Access Points as well. Stability, inter-operability, centralised control - that sort of thing comes with the right kit.

A common mistake with Access Points is not mounting them in the correct manner. No matter what they proclaim they all have to follow the laws of physics so planning and understanding that is important or you'll be disappointed. Talking of Ubiquiti kit specifically, if you're going to put an AP that's designed to be ceiling mounted on a shelf then it isn't going to yield good results. You'd be better at looking at an omni directional free standing unit or perhaps replace your ethernet wall sockets with an in-wall AP.

Once you've decided where you can place things, I generally advise to start small, see how you get on and then expand. So first up I'd go to the top of the house centrally. Temporarily place your AP of whichever design you favour there and see how acceptable coverage is on the same floor. If coverage doesn't cover it enough I'd get another AP and instead of one centrally, have the two equi distant apart wherever convenient. Then check coverage on the same floor again. If still no good then go to three equi-distant etc.

Once you're happy the top floor has good coverage then go down. At this point many people (particularly if using ceiling mounted APs that radiate the signal down in a donut shape) find the floor below now also has adequate coverage. If not then start adding APs as you did in the top floor. Rinse and repeat until your whole house has coverage.

Thanks for the detailed response.

I think that this is exactly the setup that the previous owners had, which I threw I the bin when I moved in.

Any particular model I should look to buy? It pains me to pay for something I binned, but it really is time that I did this properly.

[xeny]

garylythgoe said:

Live in a 3-storey house, and hub/ONT modem is on the ground floor.
Xbox/Work PC/Study is on the middle floor. Black wifi BT disc installed on middle floor.
Master bedroom with speaker/Sky Q/TV apps etc on the top floor.

Can you get the ground floor equipment anywhere near the staircase? Wifi goes up stairwells hugely better than it goes through floors.

[xeny]

ecs0set said:

As per previous posts, in my view hardwiring access points back to a central switch gives you a star network not a mesh network. I find it very confusing when people mix the two but seemingly, I am on my own so don't worry about that bit.

Even in "mesh" mode, most units only connect to the next node in the string. I've not encountered many mesh systems where the units have connections to more than one "upstream" AP to get a connection to the router.

If one of your upstream connections is flaky then everything downstream of that is going to have a bad experience.

[Northernboy]

dmsims said:

@northernboy

Have you established exactly why you are being disconnected?

I suspect that one of the myriad setups I had, likely the one with different, independent base stations each with the same network name and password, had me connecting to a base unit that wasn’t talking to the router.

It was intermittent as most of the time I was connecting to another one of the units that was connected properly.

Because the networks all had the same name I wasn’t noticing when that particular unit was involved.

[megaphone]

Nothernboy. Here is what you would likely need for a Unifi set-up, based on 5 APs, 1 per floor. Unifi UAP-Lites will probabley be suitable, however if you have budgest thenNano HD's are good. There are some WiFi 6 versions just available however they are difficult to get, might be worth the wait.

5 pack of UAP Lite £335.00 https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/23884-ubiq...

Or newer U6-Lite if you can get them https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/39176-ubiq...


Unifi Switch with PoE £275.00 https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/25545-ubiq...

or

Switch lite is cheaper £200.00 https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/40060-ubiq...

Unifi Cloudkey for control. £160.00 (can do set-up without) https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/32786-ubiq...

That will get you a good system, can be made cheaper but if you're spending may as well do it properly.

[xeny]

For that few devices, isn't an 8 port switch going to be enough, something like https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/39624-ubiq... for £112?

[Northernboy]

megaphone said:

Nothernboy. Here is what you would likely need for a Unifi set-up, based on 5 APs, 1 per floor. Unifi UAP-Lites will probabley be suitable, however if you have budgest thenNano HD's are good. There are some WiFi 6 versions just available however they are difficult to get, might be worth the wait.

5 pack of UAP Lite £335.00 https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/23884-ubiq...

Or newer U6-Lite if you can get them https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/39176-ubiq...


Unifi Switch with PoE £275.00 https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/25545-ubiq...

or

Switch lite is cheaper £200.00 https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/40060-ubiq...

Unifi Cloudkey for control. £160.00 (can do set-up without) https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/32786-ubiq...

That will get you a good system, can be made cheaper but if you're spending may as well do it properly.

Thanks.

My big Ethernet switch that attaches to all the cables running to each room has power over Ethernet from every port, does that mean that I don’t need another switch, just the units?

[BigTZ4M]

Northernboy said:

Thanks for the detailed response.

I think that this is exactly the setup that the previous owners had, which I threw I the bin when I moved in.

Any particular model I should look to buy? It pains me to pay for something I binned, but it really is time that I did this properly.

Megaphone’s shopping list is sound, provided you can ceiling mount the APs properly. I’m personally of the opinion that if you need to move around data fast then you always wire it in, particularly if you have the physical infrastructure in place as you have. Thus the biggest strain I put on WiFi is streaming and so provided it’ll do 50Mbps consistently everywhere I’m happy. If you’re similarly minded then the AC Lites will be more than up to the job. If you have greater expectations then I’d also recommend spending the extra on the NanoHDs. They are 4x4 Mu-mimo which, without going all technical, means it won’t slow down your very capable WiFi clients when a slow WiFi device also connects. Think your shiny new MacBook Pro not downloading as fast as it can do because there’s a cheap WiFi enabled Chinese light bulb in your house - that’s what happens with lesser 2x2 access points like the AC lite.

[BigTZ4M]

Northernboy said:

Thanks.

My big Ethernet switch that attaches to all the cables running to each room has power over Ethernet from every port, does that mean that I don’t need another switch, just the units?

Provided it supports the 802.3af standard (likely) OR passive 24v PoE (less likely) then yes they will work with your existing switch.

[Northernboy]

One more question, do I set up each access point to produce a network with a different name, or all the same?

[xeny]

Northernboy said:

One more question, do I set up each access point to produce a network with a different name, or all the same?

All the same, and start with medium or low power.

[megaphone]

xeny said:

For that few devices, isn't an 8 port switch going to be enough, something like https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/39624-ubiq... for £112?

It only has 4 PoE ports, could make it work but would need other PoE injectors.