Mesh wifi

[Eric Olthwaite]

We have a big house, with thick limestone walls. Wifi coverage is a real issue, and over the years we have built up a number of extenders/repeaters, homeplugs, etc. So now we have coverage almost everywhere, but have to keep manually switching to the nearest wifi spot on our devices (which will hang on to an existing connection as long as it is maintained, even if a stronger one is available).

From the reading I have done, it's not easy or even possible to get devices to seamlessly switch to the strongest connection when you move around. Then I read about mesh wifi systems, which supposedly make all that irrelevant by doing the job for your behind the wifi door, as it were - your device just sees a single network.

But, the kit will probably cost £400 or so (4-5 units probably), so I am hesitant. Does anybody have experience of them - in general and in a house with thick stone walls?

 

[fossyant]

You can get them for around £100-£150. I'd backbone them off Cat5 or powerline extenders in your particular house.

I'm BT and just phoned up for the extra extender discs. No switching networks, even moving the laptop around., or phones !

I have the garage disc backboned off a powerline extender - the extender was there for wifi originally, but disabled that, and use cat5 from the extender to both the disc and the Zwift PC. That extends excellent wifi out to my shed where I am working. One disc at the other end of the lounge, to give garden coverage, and another upstairs.

Works well. I do know when one has been knocked off by the cats - wifi is a bit 'iffy' - seems to work as a system once discs are added.

 

[BoldonLad]

I cannot match your situation with thick limestone walls, but....

We have a modern (35 years old). detached house, with garden front and rear (each about 15-20 metres long).

My router is upstairs at front of the house.

I had continual problems with ares of poor reception for WiFi, particularly with respect to our Sonus Wifi Speakers.

I installed a Tenda Nova MW5 Mesh system (PC World). It cost approximately £70 and consists of three units. The base unit is beside router (still upstairs front), a second unit, downstairs front, and, the third unit in Conservatory (downstairs rear).

Installation was totally painless and took about 15 minutes.

I now have excellent signal throughout the house, and, front and rear garden area, and, the Sonus speakers work even at the extreme end of the garden, as do laptops and tablets.

Moving from one "zone" to the other is seamless.

With the Tenda unit, you can name the network (SSID and Password) as you wish, I named mine, same as the router SSID, which meant I did not even have to reconnect devices, they just picked up the network automatically, on installation.

 

[Milkfloat]

I replaced my Tenda MW3 system with a Deco S4 because the Tenda kept dropping a couple of devices. You can easily add individual units to a system, so start with 3 and see how you get on. Mine S4 system was £100.

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

I got a Tenda 3 system for about 60 notes. Easy to set up. Works a treat. We gave brick internals and garage is some way from router but all works well.

 

[Alberto Balsam]

I've also got a Deco set up. I bought it as a set of three M5s from Amazon. Dead easy to set up - you can buy extra units if required (I didn't need any more) As it says in the blurb "Paint your home in Wi-Fi" and to be fair, it does exactly that.

 

[fossyant]

That's it, Tenda or Deco are the ones.

You need a fiddle with your router apparently, but easy. I just opened the BT app and added the discs to my router, but the third party option is cheaper and works.

 

[Darius_Jedburgh]

With Tenda I just plugged one unit into my router. That's all the mechanicing needed. Then used the app on phone to set up further units. Even for a dedicated non techy like me it was a doddle. Surprised me how easy it was.

 

[Tenacious Sloth]

I cannot match your situation with thick limestone walls, but....

We have a modern (35 years old). detached house, with garden front and rear (each about 15-20 metres long).

My router is upstairs at front of the house.

I had continual problems with ares of poor reception for WiFi, particularly with respect to our Sonus Wifi Speakers.

I installed a Tenda Nova Mesh system (PC World). It cost approximately £70 and consists of three units. The base unit is beside router (still upstairs front), a second unit, downstairs front, and, the third unit in Conservatory (downstairs rear).

Installation was totally painless and took about 15 minutes.

I now have excellent signal throughout the house, and, front and rear garden area, and, the Sonus speakers work even at the extreme end of the garden, as do laptops and tablets.

Moving from one "zone" to the other is seamless.

With the Tenda unit, you can name the network (SSID and Password) as you wish, I named mine, same as the router SSID, which meant I did not even have to reconnect devices, they just picked up the network automatically, on installation.

I thought Sonos uses it’s own wifi network?

 

[BoldonLad]

I thought Sonos uses it’s own wifi network?

Beyond my knowledge, but, it attaches to the same SSID, and my music library is on an NAS drive on my network. I believe you can have two networks running on same router(?), but, that sort of stuff is beyond my knowledge

 

[Buck]

I thought Sonos uses it’s own wifi network?

if you have one of the Amps or speakers connected to your router it will create it’s own MESH network which is excellent. Otherwise it relies on your WiFi.

 

[BoldonLad]

if you have one of the Amps or speakers connected to your router it will create it’s own MESH network which is excellent. Otherwise it relies on your WiFi.

I don’t have that now. I used to have a Sonus bridge, attached to router, but, since latest release of software that is redundant and all speakers are via wifi.

 

[Buck]

We have a big house, with thick limestone walls. Wifi coverage is a real issue, and over the years we have built up a number of extenders/repeaters, homeplugs, etc. So now we have coverage almost everywhere, but have to keep manually switching to the nearest wifi spot on our devices (which will hang on to an existing connection as long as it is maintained, even if a stronger one is available).

From the reading I have done, it's not easy or even possible to get devices to seamlessly switch to the strongest connection when you move around. Then I read about mesh wifi systems, which supposedly make all that irrelevant by doing the job for your behind the wifi door, as it were - your device just sees a single network.

But, the kit will probably cost £400 or so (4-5 units probably), so I am hesitant. Does anybody have experience of them - in general and in a house with thick stone walls?

When you say extenders, have you tried Access Points such as Unifi Access Point Lite? You can set these up and name them the same as your main router and your devices will follow the signal strength. We have two of these to cover previous dead spots and work really well (for us)

 

[Buck]

I don’t have that now. I used to have a Sonus bridge, attached to router, but, since latest release of software that is redundant and all speakers are via wifi.

I’ve kept one Sonos Amp connected to my router as hardwired in the Study and that keeps the MESH going. I find it better for stability of signal. If Sonos works on your WiFi then all good 👍🏻

 

[MrGrumpy]

Have a SONOS network of speakers along with Deco M5 MESH units dotted around the house . Sorted out all my WiFi issues after putting up with the Virgin Home Hub