Looking for Advice Please on Best Mesh Wi-Fi Set up for Home

theclearout on 31/12/2017 - 18:43

I am looking for a Mesh WiFi solution for my home, well I think Mesh is the solution that I need.
Current situation; Telstra NBN connection with Frontier Gateway modem/router. This gives fair enough coverage considering I am constrained where I have located it (when located in other areas of my home it does give far superior coverage but unfortunately it needs to stay where it is currently).
I then have 2 other routers (cat 6 back to Modem/Router) to provide WiFi coverage to all other areas. These 2 routers have different SSIDs, so essentially I have 3 SSIDs available in my home.
At various times and depending on the device that one uses all 3 SSIDs are visible from different locations. It obviously isn't a matter of setting up the same SSID on each of the 3 routers - I would assume. I've tried that anyway and let's leave that there…

So, what I want is to have a single network (wireless and wired) throughout my home that allows mobile devices to seamlessly switch between the nodes (remote stations).
I have extensive ethernet cabling throughout my home and it isn't an issue to run more if need be, however I'm confident that cabling exists to anywhere that a remote node would need to be located.

Price isn't really a huge factor. Budget is $500 - $600 (based purely on quick searches of popular 3 node set ups). Could go higher but would need to be convinced that it was a top-notch solution that exceeded my needs.
Wired connection to remote nodes is a MUST (I'm old school).

Also happy to go open-source. I have 2 routers that can be flashed to dd-wrt.

I have read quite a few reviews but I have to admit that I am confused. Anyone out there with first-hand experience of Mesh set-ups?

TLDR: Need 3 node MESH Wifi setup for home that allows device to seamlessly move from node to node.

Internet

Comments

  • snowcold on 31/12/2017 - 21:09
    +2

    Google Wifi? Got decent reviews, easy to use and cheaper compared to the competition.

  • Diji1 on 31/12/2017 - 21:17
    +1

    Netgear Orbi.

  • OldSchoolHarry on 31/12/2017 - 21:25
    +1

    Have checked out Ubiquiti Unifi APs? They have a great management software and offer robust, enterprise level performance.

  • marklar on 31/12/2017 - 21:41
    +1

    TP-Link APs can be set up in a mesh. Pretty good bang-for-buck AP and the management software is free: http://www.tp-link.com.au/common/Spotlight/EAP_controller.ht…

  • anthonyw on 31/12/2017 - 21:47
    +1

    Check out Ubiquiti Amplifi. Super easy to use. Grab 3 of the boxes and use them as mesh points. This lets you do wired backhaul and gives Ethernet points from each cube. Management is easy and you can grab them in an eBay 20% off sale from someone like wireless 1 for well within budget.

  • Gareth on 01/01/2018 - 04:17
    +1

    The Mesh devices (almost) everyone mention above get up-link via wireless. ie. Mesh devices generally have one device connected by wire and then the others essentially receive their connection to the base over WiFi. The Google units, Orbi and Amplifi are all true mesh setups.

    The UniFi APs can do this all with wired uplinks as you've specified, with a single SSID (up to four spread across all your APs) - however they're not working as a mesh. The -LITE model APs are probably sufficient if you're going to have a few and coverage area isn't excessive. Alternatively 3 of the AC-PROs would fit comfortably under your budget too. (Avoid the -LR (long-range) units, they generally don't work much better than the others)

    The TP-Link units appear to be aping what Ubiquiti (who make the Unifi range) have been doing for some time - probably because they're getting pretty popular. Have no experience with them though.

    • theclearout on 01/01/2018 - 10:29

      Hi Gareth, thank you for the detailed information. I have a question though if you have time.
      When you say that the UniFi set-up would not be working as a mesh does that mean that any mobile wifi devices would reconnect to the various APs - hope my question makes sense.
      What I really want to avoid is a situation where a device would be constantly disconnecting/reconnecting (going through its training process) thereby actually losing connection.
      I'm making an assumption that a Mesh network avoids that scenario, or am I working on an incorrect assumption about Mesh networks. Thanks again Gareth.

  • echocae on 01/01/2018 - 08:55
    +1

    Harvey Norman has Linksys Velop on Special $478 Down from $798 and I was using AMEX ($378) <— exp on 31/12/17… cheaper than google wifi…and it was recommended by PCmag (https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/350795/the-best-wi-fi-mesh-net…)

    https://www.harveynorman.com.au/linksys-velop-3-pack-wifi-me…

    I bought my self.. there is a few quirk compare other brand.. but this is give you the "fastest" (my own opinion) LAN speed as I always transferring a lot of data within my LAN compare any other mesh system namely google wifi or tplink Deco as I try both of these before returning it, as I found is too slow

    but If u want a Usable parental control… I recommend Google Wifi… is flawless but as for speed Linksys Velop is great

    As for setup with Telstra is very easy… i got Telstra Gateway Max 2 (similar to frontier), and is very easy, but bare in mind that all of the mesh system has a limited amount of port so what you need is

    MODEM/ROUTER ——> Mesh ——> Switch ——> other ethernet devices
    Mesh (WIFI)
    Mesh (WIFI)

    PS: ——> : Ethernet cable

    • theclearout on 01/01/2018 - 10:36

      Thanks echocae. Eventhough my speed requirements aren't huge I would definitely want the network to be as fast as possible. I do have some security cameras (the Telstra Home set-up) and eventhough I have run ethernet cables to them response times are fairly slow - the Telstra Home Hub is wireless only and I can't get a straight answer anywhere if, eventhough the cameras are wired, if the Zigbee protocol that it runs, runs only on wifi (i.e., backhaul from the cameras is ethernet but control traffic is wireless).

  • alvian on 01/01/2018 - 15:00

    So you want seamless Wi-Fi handoff/roaming by changing to a mesh system? Have you seen this answer which is specifically about Netgear's Orbi (not strictly a mesh sytem) but is also applicable to Wi-Fi in general? https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Big-Problems-with-Orbi…

    There is no 'seamless handoff' with any consumer wifi, regardless of marketing hype. In fact, true seamless handoff requires implementation of two protocols that are so new that there's only one chipset in the world that currently supports them (and it isn't in the Orbi).

    Client handoff with current implementations require intelligence on the part of the client to understand there's a stronger signal [available]

    • theclearout on 01/01/2018 - 19:30

      Thanks alvian, that is what I wanted to know before I fork out cash. I was wondering where the client piece fitted in - it wasn't making sense to me as to how, say a mobile phone moving from one part of my home to another, would switch to from one of the mesh nodes to another without experiencing an actual drop-out if it had to 'connect' to another node.
      I may just stick with my current set-up and change the second of my remote routers to dhcp forward so that even if devices are connected to different SSIDs that they are at least on the same network IP range.
      I did some reading into the TP-Link suggestion from marklar above. The devices themselves look fairly nifty - I like the idea of ceiling-mounted devices.

      • alvian on 01/01/2018 - 20:44

        The orthodox way to help Wi-Fi clients roam between access points (or in your case routers):

        1. connect the two routers to Telstra Gateway via Ethernet LAN ports,
        2. turn off DHCP / NAT / firewall / DNS forwarding on the two routers,
        3. set your routers to use different, non-overlapping radio channels,
        4. reduce radio power on all the routers,
        5. set all routers to the same SSID and the same security key,
        6. for dual band routers you can choice to use the same or different SSIDs on each radio band.

        You may want to temporary set the routers to different SSIDs to help you map radio signal strength. You want to reduce radio powers so that at the location of one of the routers, your clients see as little signal as possible from the routers farther away.

        Cisco's Wi-Fi roaming experiment. Watch the video to see the relationship between radio signal strength, pattern, and Wi-Fi roaming.

        Fast roaming info and test on Ubitquiti UniFi APs.

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