which mesh wifi with vodafone broadband

[petemurphy]

friend has vodafone broadband and the signal is weak mainly in an outbuilding 4 metres from the house made of stone. thinking mesh is best? whats best - nest/bt/tplink etc? should he replace the router with it or just add the discs? thanks

[Sy1441]

I quite like the BT wholehome I have. Keep the router, add the disks, turn off the wi-fi network on the original router.

[RizzoTheRat]

2 ways to set it up:

• Turn off the wifi and connect a separate wifi access points or non routering mesh system to the router via Ethernet.
• Set the Vodafone router in Bridge mode so it only acts as a modem, and then add your own router or mesh setup. Check your router can do this first, most can but not all.

A decent router will likely have way better wifi coverage than the basic Vodafone one so might be fine, but mesh is pretty cheap these days. After looking at several different systems I went for a TP Link Deco P9, which gives me 3 units, each with wifi and 2 Ethernet ports, and talk to each other through powerline as well as wifi so great with thick walls or long distances. As they only have 2 Ethernet ports I also got a 5 port gigabit switch so my main PC and NAS are on a wired connection. The Ethernet ports on each units also mean I can connect stuff that don't have wifi, so my Playstation and Pi are wired to one of the units in a different room from the modem.

[jimmsy]

Sy1441 said:

I quite like the BT wholehome I have. Keep the router, add the disks, turn off the wi-fi network on the original router.

I've just changed to Vodafone fiber and use BT wholehome, it works perfectly. Plug the router in, connect one disk, go to admin panel and disable wifi (one button click), connect the other disks following the BT app, and full signal throughout the house. The wholehome doesn't care whos broadband is coming in, as long as it gets connected over ethernet it'll be happy.

[Lazadude]

My vote for mesh is always Unifi APs if you can. (Dependant on if you have POE Switches [doesn't have to be Unifi] etc already, or would buy one)

Up time and all the other bits is second to not a lot, plus its really easy to set up.

[petemurphy]

thanks all - v useful

[272BHP]

Did the OP get this sorted? I would be interested in finding out what solution you found.

I have Vodafone broadband and we are trying to share a 35Mbps/6Mps feed between 2 home offices and multiple other devices and while we are always going to struggle with that setup it would be good to get a mesh router with better coverage and also the ability to prioritise devices for important calls etc

From what I have read so far the best option would be a separate modem and mesh router combination. I have seen reports that it is not a good idea to use the Vodafone router as a modem for some reason.

[Captain_Morgan]

272BHP said:

Did the OP get this sorted? I would be interested in finding out what solution you found.

I have Vodafone broadband and we are trying to share a 35Mbps/6Mps feed between 2 home offices and multiple other devices and while we are always going to struggle with that setup it would be good to get a mesh router with better coverage and also the ability to prioritise devices for important calls etc

From what I have read so far the best option would be a separate modem and mesh router combination. I have seen reports that it is not a good idea to use the Vodafone router as a modem for some reason.

This advice I gave elsewhere on mesh & Vodafone

CM said:

Vodafone are another bunch of……

But for this I’m assuming you have a fttc service not a fttp one, in other words the cable thing coming out the wall is copper not a fibre optic cable.

First and cheapest is to move router into a more central position and see if you get coverage then if not then you can look at a mesh system.

If you care about speed then you would look at a tri-band system this means you have a wifi band dedicated to the connection between the nodes and better performance but more cost, the second option is a dual band where you’ll see a lower but still more than adequate for your oven to tell you dinners ready ??

Tri-band I like the Linksys veloop WHW0302 or TP-Link deco m9 plus
Dual-band Linksys veloop WHW0102 or TP-Link deco m5

Lots of folk on here seem to like the tenda but I’ve not used them so can’t say.

Vodafone are one of those crap providers that try and force you to use their hardware which is often carp so you either turn off the wifi on their unit and set your mesh system up as access points only.

The downside of this is you’ll lose some advanced features like parental controls, firewalls etc, this may not be a issue to you.

The other option is to contact Vodafone support & insist they give you your broadband username/password buy a cheap bt vdsl modem (search “VDSL Fibre Modem” on eBay) junk the Vodafone pos box, set the mesh system up as a router and put in the username/password into the pppoe field in the mesh configuration app.

Simple eh

Edit: When I said junk I meant store safely as if you have line faults at some point Vodafone will make you reinstall the pos box to troubleshoot

[272BHP]

Thanks for the reply I will check out those equipment recommendations

After another hours googling I think a mesh system will help but is never going to be a complete solution as our base feed is relatively poor for our particular use case. A typical week day afternoon could have both me and wife on zoom calls and the kids streaming/downloading at the same time - not good.

35Mb is the best that is available in my area for the forseeable future (no fibre to home or Starlink availability) I am looking for possible solutions:

- Getting a second line and bonding (not sure if this is doable)
- Bonding with a 4g personal hotspot (as above)

[petemurphy]

272BHP said:

Did the OP get this sorted? I would be interested in finding out what solution you found.

I have Vodafone broadband and we are trying to share a 35Mbps/6Mps feed between 2 home offices and multiple other devices and while we are always going to struggle with that setup it would be good to get a mesh router with better coverage and also the ability to prioritise devices for important calls etc

From what I have read so far the best option would be a separate modem and mesh router combination. I have seen reports that it is not a good idea to use the Vodafone router as a modem for some reason.

the chum i was looking at this for just got some wky booster i think after all that! hes not a heavy user though

[Captain_Morgan]

272BHP said:

Thanks for the reply I will check out those equipment recommendations

After another hours googling I think a mesh system will help but is never going to be a complete solution as our base feed is relatively poor for our particular use case. A typical week day afternoon could have both me and wife on zoom calls and the kids streaming/downloading at the same time - not good.

35Mb is the best that is available in my area for the forseeable future (no fibre to home or Starlink availability) I am looking for possible solutions:

- Getting a second line and bonding (not sure if this is doable)
- Bonding with a 4g personal hotspot (as above)

Definitely possible but I suspect it will be beyond most domestic or even small office firewall/routers

I suspect you will need to look at more commercial solutions, take a look at pfsense you can ether buy a unit direct from netgate or build one yourself on pc hardware obviously do your own due diligence about what hardware in needed for multi wan etc…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sFOS-6GFrs0

Personally I’d see how quick a 4/5G connection I could get first before trying to run in a hot/hot configuration perhaps you’ll get by with that and a external aerial

If 4/5G doesn’t cut it and multi wan on pfsense isn’t for you then another option to consider is running two completely separate networks one for work and one for home

[272BHP]

5G not available and 4G poor so we will probably look at a second line.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/second-line

Will have a look at equipment and I guess some sort of load balancing is probably the way forward for us.

[Captain_Morgan]

272BHP said:

5G not available and 4G poor so we will probably look at a second line.

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/second-line

Will have a look at equipment and I guess some sort of load balancing is probably the way forward for us.

Another possibility might be checking out the speeds that a&a believe you can get at your property, they are a provided that specialises in getting poor performing lines up to snuff.

You might be able to move to them and get a uptick and save the work in second lines and loadbalancing etc

https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/

Edit: I forgot to say a&a also do bonded vdsl2 lines so you could have more than one line with them too, might be useful depending how Vodafone present there dual line

Edited by Captain_Morgan on Sunday 12th December 10:44

[272BHP]

a&a bonded lines appear to be 200 a month so that is out of our price range.

We have had a couple of engineers out checking our entire line and we only get 40Mb max to the house so not sure they could do anything there.

[Captain_Morgan]

272BHP said:

a&a bonded lines appear to be 200 a month so that is out of our price range.

We have had a couple of engineers out checking our entire line and we only get 40Mb max to the house so not sure they could do anything there.

That is the office:1 commercial option it is also available on the soho:1 option.

What speed did a&a advise on there availability checker?

While Vodafone / openreach are telling you 40Mbit is the max that may or not be true

[272BHP]

The checker stated 40Mb as well.

Not sure if we are locked into Vodafone for awhile but it won't harm I guess to make an enquiry to a&a

[Sy1441]

Update from me, upgraded to the Vodafone Pro broadband and replaced the BT hubs with Vodafone ones, it’s going great guns and has stopped the random interference I had with the sky Q booster.

[Captain_Morgan]

272BHP said:

The checker stated 40Mb as well.

Not sure if we are locked into Vodafone for awhile but it won't harm I guess to make an enquiry to a&a

I’d say unlikely if they state the same

I’ve not had any experience of Vodafone with multiple lines and loadbalancing so I’d be interested in your experience if you go ahead