Mesh wifi

[Jobbo]

It's 6 or 7 years since I bought our current Google Wifi mesh system and it's definitely no longer state of the art. And that's apparent in the prices of new mesh systems now; the state of the art seems to be expensive.

I'm going to upgrade ours and need at least 3 nodes for decent coverage (we have 4 Google Wifi nodes in our current house and that's not quite enough - I believe the range is better with the latest kit though). So, do I go for the Netgear Orbi (wifi 6 not 6E but always seems to get excellent reviews) for about £379 for a 3-pack currently, or the Amazon Eero 6E or maybe something from TP-Link or Linksys (both of whom seem to produce loads of very hard to distinguish systems)? Anyone had recent experience of a Wifi 6E or 6 system?

[MikeHunt]

I replaced the Ubiquiti AmpliFi HD with 2 mesh points after 6 years as the mesh points started to become unreliable.

I upgraded to the Ubiquiti AmpliFi Alien with an additional mesh point. It's £700 but my house has thick walls and 3 levels of solid floors, as as such I needed something with a bit of reach.

This is the before and after from a remote part of the house.

[Jobbo]

I’ll investigate that. I don’t want it to require an IT specialist to make it work though

[MikeHunt]

lol

It wasn’t quite plug n play, but was too difficult to set up.

[Matty]

I’ll investigate that. I don’t want it to require an IT specialist to make it work though

The range isn't really better with newer kit, just throughput...although you'll get better speeds along that same distance. It's more about the construction/antennas for range.

Difficulty with WiFi is a lot of the time you don't really know until you try it. Is it range that's the problem, or speed, or both?

I did an install at a house very much like yours, and it was a nightmare. Signal would just randomly drop off, blackspots everywhere. Ended up just scattergunning the place as they were more interested in coverage, rather than speed despite the massive signal overlaps.

[Jobbo]

Haven’t moved in yet Matt, but range looks like the main potential issue because the floor plan is sprawling. I’m tempted to get more nodes which are WiFi 6 rather than fewer which are 6E- I imagine a lot of our kit won’t benefit from the faster wifi though the mesh network itself surely will.

[IanF]

Hmmm.. I’d look at 6E to prevent a future bottleneck, but haven’t looked at comparative prices so not sure if they are still “too new” and so prohibitively expensive. More nodes on a mesh should work better currently but I’ve no idea how much more data will be needed over the next 7 or so years.. any tax rebates wrt work?

[Jobbo]

I could probably buy it through work but the price difference between a 6 and 6E system is probably 3x as much so tax saving would not be the major consideration

[IanF]

I could probably buy it through work but the price difference between a 6 and 6E system is probably 3x as much so tax saving would not be the major consideration

Gotcha. Probably just more nodes then

[Matty]

I mean, lets not get carried away though - WiFi 5 is more than enough for home use, WiFi 6, 6E, 7 and so on are just massive overkill unless you're planning to move multiple GB of data over the house. It'll be fine to view a 4K movie or browse a bit of FB

Obviously if you're buying new there's no reason not to get it, but it's still the equivalent of buying a Ferrari to drive down the road to the shops.

[Jobbo]

There is a reason not to get 6E - it’s vastly more expensive. I was hoping it meant better range or a more stable connection; I really don’t need it just for the speed improvement.

[Simon]

Matty is right - Wifi 5 is plenty fast enough for the end devices but I'm interested in whether these meshes use 6/6E/7 etc as the 'backhaul' between nodes - it would make sense if they separated radio duties like that (assuming that you don't have a hard-wired backhaul).

[Jobbo]

It is really quite hard to sift through the 'reviews' online for these things now - I miss the days of Tom's Hardware and Anandtech being independent and good. But it does appear they use it for backhaul and I won't be hard-wired; that's why I'm going for a mesh setup because there is no cabling.

[Matty]

Is cabling an option at all? Running some Cat5/6 through, especially now while I suspect you're renovating/decorating anyway pays off, especially as you can use it for so many things now (IoT, CCTV, video signals, etc)

[Jobbo]

We aren't decorating or renovating, and the building is so complicated I don't know how feasible it would be. Probably OK from a room to the next room, but not to the other end of the house which is what would be useful.

Anyway, I've ordered a Netgear Orbi system, Wifi 6 and reduced to £359 at Costco for the 3-pack (so I've signed up to Costco after avoiding it for years). The Orbi 6 is still tri-band and seems to get the same throughput as other manufacturers' Wifi 6E systems, gets wonderful reviews but was hideously expensive at full price. With a substantial discount I thought it was worth it. Might need to add another node or two of course, but I can do that and still come in at under £700 total.

[IanF]

We aren't decorating or renovating, and the building is so complicated I don't know how feasible it would be. Probably OK from a room to the next room, but not to the other end of the house which is what would be useful.

Anyway, I've ordered a Netgear Orbi system, Wifi 6 and reduced to £359 at Costco for the 3-pack (so I've signed up to Costco after avoiding it for years). The Orbi 6 is still tri-band and seems to get the same throughput as other manufacturers' Wifi 6E systems, gets wonderful reviews but was hideously expensive at full price. With a substantial discount I thought it was worth it. Might need to add another node or two of course, but I can do that and still come in at under £700 total.

All that garage space will be filled up in no time!

[Beany]

As I recall, the main advantage of Wifi 6 is that it uses fancier-pants beamforming for the radios, so the range is 'the same' (there's only so much RF you can legally pump out) but the signal tends to be cleaner at longer distance.

That's relevant for mesh as it can beamform it's backhaul and make the links between nodes stronger.

Broadly speaking for client devices, the 6E bits aren't that relevant - I mean, who needs 1gb on their phone, today? Fuckin' no-one. Might be more relevant in a few years time.

I'd try your Wifi 5 system at the new place if that's feasible, and if it's not satisfactory, see what wifi6 stuff (which will likely have a price cut as 6e/7 stuff becomes more prevelant) is available at decent prices with decent reviews.

As I think was stated earlier, the real problem is that no review can really cover *your* use case - one particularly heavy wall can cripple a wireless system, etc.

You could try seeing if you can get a system on Sale or Return from a local place 'for work' - I say 'for work' as they're more likely to do that for an established solicitors office than they are for Simon J Jobbo, Citizen. Or if you have an IT support contract for the offices, see if they can help out, maybe loan you some gear to test in exchange for a few boxes of nice biscuits. Don't knock it, worked for me/us back when I worked at a local repair shop

[Jobbo]

All that garage space will be filled up in no time!

Mentally I've already run out of space and am extending the garage That bloody Euromillions thread!

[IanF]

Costco are really good with returns.. try your old system, try Orbi, return if no significant difference?