Weapons-grade home WiFi suggestions

[ging84]

DuckSauce said:

Can you mix mesh systems? I have 2 Google WiFi points as my mesh setup. I've turned WiFi off on the sky router and only use the Google mesh. Could I use those and add another device, for example an Orbi?

Sadly no, that standards only cover access point and client interaction, how the aps talk to each other is not standardised yet.

[DoubleSix]

DuckSauce said:

Can you mix mesh systems? I have 2 Google WiFi points as my mesh setup. I've turned WiFi off on the sky router and only use the Google mesh. Could I use those and add another device, for example an Orbi?

What are you trying to achieve?

Either add more Google Wifi points or set up the guest network facility.

[thebraketester]

dmsims said:

Nope, not even close

You have completely missed out some salient points

AC pro cannot do higher than 80Ghz, wonder what that limits throughput to ?

AC pro 2.4Ghz performance is fairly poor

These are the real rate limiting factors (for Wifi)

But in a domestic situation where the internet is measured in 10's of Mbit's coverage is king

I can get 600-700Mbps on my acpro system. Obviously drops off at the end of its reach, I could do with one more ap

[a7x88]

thebraketester said:

I can get 600-700Mbps on my acpro system. Obviously drops off at the end of its reach, I could do with one more ap

Makes sense - that around 50-60% of the theoretical 1300

[Dr_Rick]

What would people recommend for a noob looking into improve the WiFi in a 1920s 5 bed detached house with a good number of connected units (2 TVs, fire stick, 3 iPads, 2 phones, 2 laptops, a printer, 4 WiFi sockets, Nintendo switch).

ISP is PlusNet on their 36Mb offering, do t have a speedtest reading to hand as everything is wireless.

Right now, I'm using some Devolo power line units, but they seem to be a bit flaky and possibly reaching the limit of the number of bits of kit making demands on them (but I could be wrong).

Would a mesh system simplify things and get me a more stable system?

Edumacate me, please!

[ffc]

Dr_Rick said:

What would people recommend for a noob looking into improve the WiFi in a 1920s 5 bed detached house with a good number of connected units (2 TVs, fire stick, 3 iPads, 2 phones, 2 laptops, a printer, 4 WiFi sockets, Nintendo switch).

ISP is PlusNet on their 36Mb offering, do t have a speedtest reading to hand as everything is wireless.

Right now, I'm using some Devolo power line units, but they seem to be a bit flaky and possibly reaching the limit of the number of bits of kit making demands on them (but I could be wrong).

Would a mesh system simplify things and get me a more stable system?

Edumacate me, please!

People seem happy with both Orbi and Google Wifi. Some have been happy with the BT Disc system but I have a friend who had a bad experience with it and went with Unifi Ubiquiti. They have a very large two storey place that covers a wide area and has thick walls everywhere so aren't a typical example.

Edited by ffc on Thursday 3rd January 20:12

[a7x88]

If you have network cabling already in place then I'd go for a managed WiFi with multiple AP's. If you don't and don't plan too then something like orbi or Google would be more than good enough - it should also outperform homeplugs but as with everything it depends on specs of both bits of kits and physical location factors like quality of wiring for homeplugs and wireless congestion / building construction etc.

[S6PNJ]

I'll leave this here: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/network-...

I'm considering the Tenda Nova MW3 myself!

[Deep Thought]

S6PNJ said:

I'll leave this here: https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/network-...

I'm considering the Tenda Nova MW3 myself!

We got the Tenda Nova MW3 after frankly years of wallying about with powerline adapters, network dropouts and stty speeds.

Absolutely stunned by the results! Not one single drop out since installing it, simple app on my phone which visualises the network and lets me see whats connecting to which unit, what speeds i'm getting and where, what devices are using bandwidth, etc. Fantastic, consistent speeds too and we covered a 4,000 sq ft house with 3 units which cost me £79.99.

[andyb]

ffc said:

Dr_Rick said:

What would people recommend for a noob looking into improve the WiFi in a 1920s 5 bed detached house with a good number of connected units (2 TVs, fire stick, 3 iPads, 2 phones, 2 laptops, a printer, 4 WiFi sockets, Nintendo switch).

ISP is PlusNet on their 36Mb offering, do t have a speedtest reading to hand as everything is wireless.

Right now, I'm using some Devolo power line units, but they seem to be a bit flaky and possibly reaching the limit of the number of bits of kit making demands on them (but I could be wrong).

Would a mesh system simplify things and get me a more stable system?

Edumacate me, please!

People seem happy with both Orbi and Google Wifi. Some have been happy with the BT Disc system but I have a friend who had a bad experience with it and went with Unifi Ubiquiti. They have a very large two storey place that covers a wide area and has thick walls everywhere so aren't a typical example.

Edited by ffc on Thursday 3rd January 20:12

With recent firmware updates the BT system has massively improved. Was very flaky, now (for us) rock solid.

Our house has a similar number of connected devices and more laptops / phones. Newer powerlines are a lot better - faster and don't seem to need re-starting occasionally. Solwise 1200 devices are notably quicker and more reliable than the old 500 ones. Those for all the static devices plus BT Homehub (with backhaul over powerline) gives 70+ Mbps both wifi and connected devices everywhere. Not cheap... but very reliable and fast.

[Dr_Rick]

So, this of you who have gone for the Tends Nova MW3, how have you faired with signal attenuation across internal walls? I have plaster-brick-plaster makeup for our internal walls and this is my only area of concern. I seem to be able to catch WiFi from a powerline WiFi point upstairs, through the floor/ceiling. But my first unit with the router would be in a back room off to the side, behind an old external cavity wall. I'm not convinced that the first WiFi signal would make it across that, plus another single skin brick wall to the hall where the second Tends unit would be.

Any thoughts?

[Deep Thought]

Dr_Rick said:

So, this of you who have gone for the Tends Nova MW3, how have you faired with signal attenuation across internal walls? I have plaster-brick-plaster makeup for our internal walls and this is my only area of concern. I seem to be able to catch WiFi from a powerline WiFi point upstairs, through the floor/ceiling. But my first unit with the router would be in a back room off to the side, behind an old external cavity wall. I'm not convinced that the first WiFi signal would make it across that, plus another single skin brick wall to the hall where the second Tends unit would be.

Any thoughts?

We have big thick block walls throughout the house and no stud walls anywhere. Our floors upstairs and downstairs are easily a couple of feet thick, concrete and have imbeded under floor heating pipes throughout. Our telephone socket is at one end of a very large L shape footprint and we have our first MW3 at that point. The next MW3 is in the main hallway mid house, so through 2 thick walls from the original one. We then have another at the back of the house at the other end of the L but the one i was most concerned with was the upstairs one in the main block which has to go up through one big thick wall and up through the floor from the one in the hall.

I was quite stunned that these MW3s did all this with absolutely no problems at all. The one upstairs is the one i use to access from the study and i can get 60mb/s up there now (our broadband is between 60-70mb/s). Previously with the powerlines i was getting 15mb/s up there with frequent drop outs.

I've no doubt there are "better" MESH systems out there but for price v performance these are hard to beat. Plus they are cheap, effective way of replacing powerlines with something that is exponentially better IMHO.

[sparkyhx]

3 disk BT works for me over 4 floors of a Victorian stone house and also outside into the garden summer house. It was working fine with just 2, but as I had 3 I set up all 3.

Careful with the system you choose - my ISP provided router does NOT go into modem only mode so I needed a non-router solution. (of course I could have bought modem as well, but then you loose ISP support which for some less technical people it could be a problem.

BT Home wifi setup was a doddle.

Edited by sparkyhx on Friday 4th January 15:16

[Deep Thought]

sparkyhx said:

3 disk BT works for me over 4 floors of a Victorian stone house and also outside into the garden summer house. It was working fine with just 2, but as I had 3 I set up all 3.

Careful with the system you choose - my ISP provided router does NOT go into modem only mode so I needed a non-router solution. (of course I could have bought modem as well, but then you loose ISP support which for some less technical people it could be a problem.

BT Home wifi setup was a doddle.

Edited by sparkyhx on Friday 4th January 15:16

Just relative to the question above relating to the Tenda MW3, it works with the BT router setup as your base MW3 just connects into a network port on the router. In effect setting up a second WiFi network. Our base MW3 just sits beside our BT router. I havent switched off the BT WiFi option but i could.

[ninepoint2]

Dr_Rick said:

ISP is PlusNet on their 36Mb offering

Most people on this thread seem to be missing the point I made earlier, no matter how good your wifi is, with only 36mb incoming, (which is probably a lot less than that in reality) that meagre amount of bandwidth is going to vanish very quickly with some of the user expectations on here TBH

[a7x88]

ninepoint2 said:

Most people on this thread seem to be missing the point I made earlier, no matter how good your wifi is, with only 36mb incoming, (which is probably a lot less than that in reality) that meagre amount of bandwidth is going to vanish very quickly with some of the user expectations on here TBH

Yup - but it does also depend on what else you are doing on the network. For example OP might enjoy photography and is regularly moving RAW files between a NAS and a desktop/laptop, may have a local streaming library etc

[DuckSauce]

DoubleSix said:

What are you trying to achieve?

Either add more Google Wifi points or set up the guest network facility.

Add more access points, I got a decent deal on the 2 I have, but looking at adding extra and they aren't so cheap now

[Order66]

DuckSauce said:

Add more access points, I got a decent deal on the 2 I have, but looking at adding extra and they aren't so cheap now

More access points is generally not the answer, too much overlap and this causes at least as many problems as weak signal. Make sure you've got your existing kit optimally sited first.

[sparkyhx]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

yes, but that's then not "plug and play" - that's the kind of point I was making, not everyone is a techie. The BT just plugs into the router and Robert is your fathers brother. No faff, not changing settings etc. The only thing I did was stop the routers wifi.

[Deep Thought]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I just plugged my Tenda in to the router via a network cable. That was it working. No setup other than telling the easy to use app that each new MW3 was added. No faffing about with IP ranges.

I havent even needed to switch off the routers wifi.