Expand WiFi throughout house and into garden ?

[Steve Campbell]

Hi all
The range of my WiFi isn’t great in the house. I bought one of these to enable me to plug in the TV lounge and to help get the signal to a Blink camera outside. It just about does the job but still not great.

I want to get a strong stable WiFi throughout and into the garden for those summer months
This is my current router (sent by TalkTalk).


I’m not really sure what I need / what to look for. What are my options and any good deals around ?
Thanks.

[cs174]

Assuming the Talk talk speed meets your needs, it sounds like you need a mesh system like Netgear Orbi or Google WiFi.

I have the Orbi and it works great.

[Steve Campbell]

Thanks.....yes I’m ok with current internet speeds ~ mid 30’s Mbps........
...so this is what I’m looking for ?


Does it just plug into the current TalkTalk router ? It says “separate modem or gateway required” ..... not sure what that is ?

What’s the difference between the above and something like Tenda Nova MW6-3 which I also found on Amazon at half the price ?

Edited by Steve Campbell on Sunday 29th November 12:32

[camel_landy]

Netgear Orbi gets my vote.

I won't bore with the details but they are well worth the money.

M

[clockworks]

I've had the BT Wholehome mesh setup for about 3 years now. Apart from a dodgy software update shortly after I bought it, it's been rock solid.

I've got one of the 3 "discs" plugged into the router via ethernet in the hallway, one in the kitchen to extend wifi out into the garden, and one in the downstairs bedroom which gets the signal into the garage, and has a BT TV box plugged into it as well.

[Amateurish]

I use tplink deco mesh which is very effective

[smn159]

I've got three Google wifi nodes and it's been loads of trouble. The third node loses connection regularly and restarts itself for no apparent reason - regardless of where it is placed or whether it's wired or wireless. A long evening on IM to the Helpdesk concluded that there was a hardware fault so I ended up buying a new one and that's just the same.

[Sonie]

Talk talk router here with BT discs.
I would 100% recommend it.

What I did was turned off the router Wi-Fi, so it doesn’t broadcast, then plugged in the bt discs. I renamed the Talktalk router and labelled the BT discs to the same name the TT was. This meant I didn’t have to setup every device again.

I also have a guest Wi-Fi that I can turn on and off and change the password to.

[dave_s13]

Tenda nova mesh thingies

I've got these...work a treat.

[h0b0]

smn159 said:

I've got three Google wifi nodes and it's been loads of trouble. The third node loses connection regularly and restarts itself for no apparent reason - regardless of where it is placed or whether it's wired or wireless. A long evening on IM to the Helpdesk concluded that there was a hardware fault so I ended up buying a new one and that's just the same.

I have had google WiFi from when it was first released. The only issues I have had were all caused by double NAT. If you have two devices generating i.p. Addresses then it causes chaos for google WiFi including connectivity issues you have described. The mesh goes weak and picks go off line. You can go for months thinking you are OK and then it starts again. All issues resolved when the other router is in bridge mode. The moment I sorted the NAT issue I went to full strength and rock solid.

I’m running 5 pucks so I can have one on each floor and I am able to position them one next to each PC as we are now all spread around the house.


Eta, google WiFi has now been replaced by nest WiFi. I’m not going to recommend either though because I’m not current on the latest technology. Also, I’m not sure mesh WiFi alone will resolve your garden coverage if you have a larger garden. Mine is fine for my approximately half acre though.

Edited by h0b0 on Monday 30th November 12:53

[wong]

Generally, any MESH system, should be fine and give you a decent connection. Each have their own pros and cons.
I inherited a Deco5 system when I bought my house. It allows parental controls over the kids access which is great if you have kids, or until they work out how to rename their devices.

[sparkyhx]

I can recommend the BT disks - Half my street can see my Wifi I get it in garage and summer house in a 4 storey stone terrace.
Siumple plug and play set up, very stable, but I think they are ugly.

There are various types of mesh kit
1. replace your router/modem completely,
2. replace the router part of the router and you need to put your existing router into 'modem only' mode,
3. use your existing router and modem and have the first mesh node plugged into the router. Generally you turn off your router wifi

The BT is the latter.and I chose it cos my router at the time couldnt be put into modem only mode.

[smn159]

h0b0 said:

I have had google WiFi from when it was first released. The only issues I have had were all caused by double NAT. If you have two devices generating i.p. Addresses then it causes chaos for google WiFi including connectivity issues you have described. The mesh goes weak and picks go off line. You can go for months thinking you are OK and then it starts again. All issues resolved when the other router is in bridge mode. The moment I sorted the NAT issue I went to full strength and rock solid.

Edited by h0b0 on Monday 30th November 12:53

Thanks - I've had another poke around on my network and in Google as a result of your post and while my Virgin Media Superb 3.0 is indeed in modem mode, it appears that it can still provide NAT under some circumstances... will investigate further!

[sparkyhx]

smn159 said:

h0b0 said:

I have had google WiFi from when it was first released. The only issues I have had were all caused by double NAT. If you have two devices generating i.p. Addresses then it causes chaos for google WiFi including connectivity issues you have described. The mesh goes weak and picks go off line. You can go for months thinking you are OK and then it starts again. All issues resolved when the other router is in bridge mode. The moment I sorted the NAT issue I went to full strength and rock solid.

Edited by h0b0 on Monday 30th November 12:53

Thanks - I've had another poke around on my network and in Google as a result of your post and while my Virgin Media Superb 3.0 is indeed in modem mode, it appears that it can still provide NAT under some circumstances... will investigate further!

and therein lies the reason I didnt go Google - no way of putting my existing router at the time into modem only

[Steve Campbell]

Ok so reading between the lines of the technical talk....the cheaper Tenda Nova should work fine for me, I just need to work out how to switch my current router to a modem only setting...and it’s more or less plug and play ?.....is this simple to do ?

Can you get the satellite things to have the same name as the current network so you don’t have to re program everything ?

[dave_s13]

You don't need to do anything with your router apart from plug one of the tenda nova nodes onto a spare Lan port.

Then download the app, link to the node and off it goes. Adding extra ones are as simple as just plugging them in and using the app to set up.

[pdV6]

Linksys Velop mesh here for several years. Bombproof & great coverage except when kids decide to unplug a node to nick the power socket...

The tri-band units linked above are a better bet than the cheaper dual-band versions if you have a lot of devices streaming bulk data (kids on Netflix again?) as they dedicate a channel to backhaul everything to the root node that's plugged into the modem.

Also note that it's probably best to disable the inbuilt WiFi on your router/modem combo to avoid trouble. 'bin said already

[sparkyhx]

Steve Campbell said:

Ok so reading between the lines of the technical talk....the cheaper Tenda Nova should work fine for me, I just need to work out how to switch my current router to a modem only setting...and it’s more or less plug and play ?.....is this simple to do ?

Can you get the satellite things to have the same name as the current network so you don’t have to re program everything ?

Heard a lot of good things about the Tenda ones on threads like these, but no personal knowledge. Also a lot nicer form factor than the BT discs I have. I now have my 'own' router so could look at one of the router replacement device sets loike the tenda or google, but TBH the BT ones have been great so why fix something that aint broke.

[Steve Campbell]

Arrived today. Just need to install and try, probably at the weekend.

[dave_s13]

Cool... hope it works out ok.