Question What mesh networking devices?

[Scouse]

Need to put something together for my sister's gaff. It's a pretty big house - they've got shite internet from Sky and are reliant on a single Sky box to push Wi-Fi around the house, which is, predicably, a pile of wank.

I use the google mesh network in my gaff. I think it's pretty good - but they want to get a signal way into the garden too (so they can run a sky box in their summer house).

No cabling (frankly, if I'd have done their garden renovations I'd have thought of putting ethernet underground at the same time as they put the power in (but I wasn't there to advise them as it was all done under covid lockdown)).


So - something powerful, something easy to extend, something that you reckon spares might be available further down the line, something very very simple to setup and maintain (although I suspect that'll be me).

I was going to do the google thing - but it's just yet another tech that they add to their mish-mash of a poorly-thought-out technology landscape that includes bose, apple, android, windows, all sorts of "I was in the shops and thought this was brilliant" shitshow of devices that don't talk to each other properly, by design.

 

[Raven]

Plug in wifi boosters. My mum, who lives next door thieves my internet with one, and it works fine.

If they want it down the bottom of the garden then they might as well just throw in some CAT5, 1 foot below ground, will be fine, an afternoons works.

 

[Scouse]

Plug in wifi boosters. My mum, who lives next door thieves my internet with one, and it works fine.

If they want it down the bottom of the garden then they might as well just throw in some CAT5, 1 foot below ground, will be fine, an afternoons works.

Garden construction isn't straightforward for them (not all grass, some paved, different levels).

By the sounds of it they've had someone in to lay ethernet in a complicated fashion around the garden, so bin off the wifi suggestions - was worth a try, but it seems they've already moved on stuff that I wouldn't do anyway, again

Got him to order a switch so they can wang that into their shitty wifi hub.

 

[Embattle]

I use Netgear Orbi's which work well but due to insulation they won't reach far out into our garden, other factors would be neighbours wifi and the fact that they would probably only be able to get the low bands depending on distance so the cable option is easily the best option they could of got.

 

[smurkin]

I use 2x CPE510 from TP-Link point to point to beam into my office (has a range of several miles apparently) and then a Ubiquiti LR AP in the loft to get down to the bottom pond which is about 50m. The bottom of the 50m stretch is pretty weak and a bit unreliable. The weakness is in the clients which are far less powerful that the access point.
I'm going to upgrade the CPE510s soon as they are capped at 10/100. Still, they are good enough to play Doom Eternal on Stadia which uses perhaps 40 mbps at 4K resolution. None of this was particularly easy to set-up.

They could use a Ubiquiti LR AP connected to their ethernet cable to get decent wifi coverage. Needs to inject PoE though.

 

[Overdriven]

Budget?

Ubiquiti Store

Rethinking IT

www.ui.com

 

[Bodhi]

We've got a similar issue with Sky - great Broadband but the standard router is gash and struggles to get signal upstairs properly. We're in a 3 storey townhouse so it's quite big inside, not the world's thickest walls however.

I've turned the Sky Wifi off and am using a Netgear Nighthawk AP - think it's an AC7900 but I don't remember the exact model, it's about 4 years old now. We have good Wifi all over the house and in both front and back gardens now.

Possibly looking at Mesh for the new house if we ever get in there, was looking at the Netgear Orbi and Google Stuff.

 

[Wij]

We've got a similar issue with Sky - great Broadband but the standard router is gash and struggles to get signal upstairs properly. We're in a 3 storey townhouse so it's quite big inside, not the world's thickest walls however.

I've turned the Sky Wifi off and am using a Netgear Nighthawk AP - think it's an AC7900 but I don't remember the exact model, it's about 4 years old now. We have good Wifi all over the house and in both front and back gardens now.

Possibly looking at Mesh for the new house if we ever get in there, was looking at the Netgear Orbi and Google Stuff.

I also didn't bother with mesh and just bought a £400 Asus router instead which covers my whole house fine.

Won't work for everyone obvs.

 

[DaGaffer]

Budget?

Ubiquiti Store

Rethinking IT

www.ui.com

I use their Amplifi Mesh system; its great. My modem is still the shitty Virgin one though so I still get connection issues.

 

[Bodhi]

I also didn't bother with mesh and just bought a £400 Asus router instead which covers my whole house fine.

Won't work for everyone obvs.

Dug out the model number of mine - it's the EX7000.

Nighthawk EX7000 – AC1900 Dual-band WiFi Mesh Extender | NETGEAR

Discover Nighthawk EX7000 Dual-band WiFi extender, boost the range of your WiFi network to every corner of your home for maximum WiFi performance. Buy now!

www.netgear.com

Am getting pretty much the full 80/20Mbit from Sky downstairs on the 5Ghz network.

 

[Aoami]

Dug out the model number of mine - it's the EX7000.

Nighthawk EX7000 – AC1900 Dual-band WiFi Mesh Extender | NETGEAR

Discover Nighthawk EX7000 Dual-band WiFi extender, boost the range of your WiFi network to every corner of your home for maximum WiFi performance. Buy now!

www.netgear.com

Am getting pretty much the full 80/20Mbit from Sky downstairs on the 5Ghz network.

Do you just plug this into the sky box, or does it replace it? I've been thinking about getting something similar.

 

[Bodhi]

Do you just plug this into the sky box, or does it replace it? I've been thinking about getting something similar.

Sadly with Sky if you want to access their BB you generally have to use the Sky Hub, so the Netgear hub is connected to one of the LAN ports on the back. I've then used a 25m Cat5 cable to put it on the other side of the room, so it's effectively smack bang in the middle of the house. Turns out when installing it I have terrible cable management skills and the wife is constantly unhappy with my half assed job to hide the cable, however it works, which is the main concern.

We have had issues with the 2.4Ghz band in the past on both the Netgear and Sky, however we have a house share next door and their kitchen is the other side of the wall from the router, so we suspect a dodgy microwave or some other device over there. 5Ghz works beautifully however.

 

[Moriath]

Sadly with Sky if you want to access their BB you generally have to use the Sky Hub, so the Netgear hub is connected to one of the LAN ports on the back. I've then used a 25m Cat5 cable to put it on the other side of the room, so it's effectively smack bang in the middle of the house. Turns out when installing it I have terrible cable management skills and the wife is constantly unhappy with my half assed job to hide the cable, however it works, which is the main concern.

We have had issues with the 2.4Ghz band in the past on both the Netgear and Sky, however we have a house share next door and their kitchen is the other side of the wall from the router, so we suspect a dodgy microwave or some other device over there. 5Ghz works beautifully however.

With virgin i use the virgin hub in modem mode. And have a rp8000 night hawk from a port on the virgin hub. Sounds like you done similar.

its wifi is so much better than the virgin hubs.

 

[Hawkwind]

Need to put something together for my sister's gaff. It's a pretty big house - they've got shite internet from Sky and are reliant on a single Sky box to push Wi-Fi around the house, which is, predicably, a pile of wank.

I use the google mesh network in my gaff. I think it's pretty good - but they want to get a signal way into the garden too (so they can run a sky box in their summer house).

No cabling (frankly, if I'd have done their garden renovations I'd have thought of putting ethernet underground at the same time as they put the power in (but I wasn't there to advise them as it was all done under covid lockdown)).


So - something powerful, something easy to extend, something that you reckon spares might be available further down the line, something very very simple to setup and maintain (although I suspect that'll be me).

I was going to do the google thing - but it's just yet another tech that they add to their mish-mash of a poorly-thought-out technology landscape that includes bose, apple, android, windows, all sorts of "I was in the shops and thought this was brilliant" shitshow of devices that don't talk to each other properly, by design.

I do exactly that with summerhouse being my office. I use the Linksys ones. No issues in 2 years so far.

 

[Embattle]

Tomorrow I'll be changing to a pair of Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8).

Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8)

Whole-home Wi-Fi mesh system with robust software controls

uk.pcmag.com

 

[Aoami]

Anyone got experience of the sky router, mesh and double NAT?

 

[old.Osy]

Budget?

Ubiquiti Store

Rethinking IT

www.ui.com

Ubiquity is anything _but_ budget

 

[old.Osy]

Do you just plug this into the sky box, or does it replace it? I've been thinking about getting something similar.

Don't buy NetGear. While some models may work fine, they're pretty crap when it comes to firmware / software, with poor support.

Asus is the way for home. Their AiMesh system works great and is mostly plug and play. Main router (choose your AC or AX flavour, then RP-AC55 or RP-AX56 as APs for mesh nodes)

 

[MYstIC G]

Tomorrow I'll be changing to a pair of Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8).

Asus ZenWiFi AX (XT8)

Whole-home Wi-Fi mesh system with robust software controls

uk.pcmag.com

How'd you get on?

 

[Embattle]

How'd you get on?

The system is going well now, at first there seemed to be a niggle that the nodes would occasionally drop the connection between each other which was very annoying but that has been fixed via a firmware update. I also recently did another change, in essence I was running the system in AP mode behind a Vodafone Router but this means you lose a lot of functions in AP mode plus quite frankly the Vodafone router like most routers provided are shit. We had to use it originally since you have to use the TEL sockets on the router to get the home telephone to work, I've changed this and redirected any home calls to my mobile and thus was able to remove the Vodafone router and put the ASUS system into Router mode.

 

[Aoami]

Don't buy NetGear. While some models may work fine, they're pretty crap when it comes to firmware / software, with poor support.

Asus is the way for home. Their AiMesh system works great and is mostly plug and play. Main router (choose your AC or AX flavour, then RP-AC55 or RP-AX56 as APs for mesh nodes)

I want to get google mesh as we already have a fair bit of google kit, so might as well stick with what i know. I currently have Sky broadband, and it seems the "hub" is not compatible. I'm assuming the best way to go is to get a new provider, buy a separate modem and hook that up to the google router?

What's a good brand for modems?

edit - or find a provider whose hub you can just use as a modem?

 

[old.Osy]

I want to get google mesh as we already have a fair bit of google kit, so might as well stick with what i know. I currently have Sky broadband, and it seems the "hub" is not compatible. I'm assuming the best way to go is to get a new provider, buy a separate modem and hook that up to the google router?

What's a good brand for modems?

edit - or find a provider whose hub you can just use as a modem?

I'm afraid I know next to nothing about Sky and what devices they present to the user depending on the connection / contract type. You would have to elaborate here.

The Sky Hub, is that a allinone type of ONT device that provides TV, Phone and Internet services? Or is it specific to the internet service?

If the latter, we'll need to know how the connection is provided - is it DHCP, static IP, PPPOE? Can the Sky Hub just be bridged so you can use your own router for internal LAN DHCP and routing? Esentially, you'd ask Sky to put their device in bridge mode, so that you can use your own router for your home.

 

[Aoami]

It's specific to the internet, just a modem & router "hub".

DHCP Option 61

I don't think it can be bridged, i've read a bit about it. Sounds like you need to have a "double NAT", so you have internet on the sky router and the google one, which sounds like a nightmare.

 

[old.Osy]

See if this helps:


View: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/comments/k5u2nj/dhcp_options_60_and_61/

 

[Embattle]

Never been with Sky and never going to with the annoying router requirement, in essence use theirs.

 

[Bodhi]

We're with Sky and have a Deco M5 setup, and in all honesty it was a piece of piss to get working. Set them up in AP mode and let the Sky Hub handle DHCP etc, leave the Sky WiFi on for the Q boxes but hide the SSID. Get the full stonking 40MBit our line can provide all through the house and up to the shed - not the best these days but more than enough for our uses.

Doubt this set up is Deco specific, just put the Mesh in AP mode and forget about it.

Sky have also got a little bit more reasonable about using your own modem, but only seems to work with certain set ups, so we've gone for the easy life.