Wifi mesh systems

Looking at picking up a 3 unit mesh system for the house (like the TENDA Nova MW5)

Over the last year, I would say there are 5 or 6 additional items connecting to the wifi and connectivity seems to be getting worse.

The current location of the modem and wifi router is in the utility room, which isn't in the best or easiest spot to get at quickly.

From the router, I have 4 wired points around the house which are going to office and a couple of TV's. So, my thoughts are

Keep existing router
Disable Wifi on it
Connect the mesh wifi router from within the upstairs office
Connect 2 remaining units ( 1 upstairs, 1 downstairs).

Thoughts?

I presume the mesh router will need to support some form of access point feature for this to work?

LowOdour wrote: »

Looking at picking up a 3 unit mesh system for the house (like the TENDA Nova MW5)

Over the last year, I would say there are 5 or 6 additional items connecting to the wifi and connectivity seems to be getting worse.

The current location of the modem and wifi router is in the utility room, which isn't in the best or easiest spot to get at quickly.

From the router, I have 4 wired points around the house which are going to office and a couple of TV's. So, my thoughts are

Keep existing router
Disable Wifi on it
Connect the mesh wifi router from within the upstairs office
Connect 2 remaining units ( 1 upstairs, 1 downstairs).

Thoughts?

I presume the mesh router will need to support some form of access point feature for this to work?

You don't need another router. Just add mesh devices and set them up in "Access Point" mode. You can use your wiring to connect the additional access points back to your existing router. Yes - disable WiFi on your existing router (unless it is a brand that supports Mesh units eg Eir F3000, in which case you should stick with your ISP branded mesh) Since you have wiring, you should also consider Ubiquiti Unifi access points. These can be powered over your Ethernet cabling, so you won't need power at each access point. They work in tandem with each other to provide seamless WiFi coverage, just like other Mesh systems.

afatbollix wrote: »

Need some advice,

I just moved my office in my house, I had powerlines and it was great, Plugged into the wall and was getting good figures.

In the new room and the powerlines barely get 5Mbps.

I'm now looking at wifi mesh but I need to get an ethernet out of it to go into a router on my desk for some bits of equipment which doesn't have any wifi. Anyone know a bit of kit that would do that?

Literally two posts up. DOCO M5

RangeR wrote: »

I've been following this thread for months, often contributing. I've come to the decision that I've outgrown my Google Wifi x 3. They are fantastic devices and do what they do excellently and are extremely easy to use.... However, I consider myself a power user. I want them to do more but they are not willing.

With a lot of the great feedback here, I've decided to dump them onto adverts.ie and get myself a 3 x DOCO M5's instead. I was considering the M9 but I don't need ZigBee. This would give me greater flexibility in my network and remove one more router from my, already, complicated mix.

Is Zigbee the only main difference between the M5 and M9? It's the only tech different I could find, other than maybe a little extra range.

Are the docos that much more advanced than the Google system? Would unifi not be the next step?

afatbollix wrote: »

Ah thanks,

What would the difference be with the s4 v the m5?

Same price at the mo.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Deco-S4-3-pack-Beamforming/dp/B0851D6MXY/ref=psdc_949408031_t2_B07GFNXBDT?th=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Deco-S4-3-pack-Beamforming/dp/B07FG569ZN/ref=bmx_4?pd_rd_w=r5STi&pf_rd_p=4d4e5756-1083-42de-b0b8-9248b5ab1c47&pf_rd_r=Z24EERXJC5WB02GVV4TB&pd_rd_r=1580b4c8-10ba-47f4-9b2b-89e454d5a533&pd_rd_wg=abuvB&pd_rd_i=B0851D6MXY&th=1

M5 hands down over the S4. The M5 is a neater design and not as bulky. It also has a stronger antenna so can cover more area. Your links are the same price but you are only getting 2xM5 but 3xS4's. Both will do a good job, I would reckon.

For the non-tecnhies amongst us, what is the difference in these 3. Presumably all can link into PC via ethernet cable too (which I see google nest wifi no longer does)? deco s4, m4, m5

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/compare/?typeId=5700&productIds=38653%2C35616%2C35611

poker--addict wrote: »

there is an e4 too. Is amazon the best bet?

E4 is only 100Mb ethernet ports so you wont get full benefit if your ISP does higher speeds (or for local network traffic).

Thank you. Will avoid E4, sounds like for most users the other 3 are basically the same unless someone is fussy about their size or look.

Just want to offer some feedback that might help others.



Over the past year i smartified my house(standard 3 bed semi). With 50+ devices now. I had virgin media hub 3.0 router upstairs and a TP link access point(AC1750/RE450) downstairs but directly wired to the router upstairs. I experienced sparadic issues constantly like wireless light switches dropping out, firesticks buffering while streaming some apps, Echo studio sound dropping out while watching TV.



I concluded the virgin media router was just not up to the task of 50+ devices so i bought a wifi6 router, TP Link Archer AX50. I got rid of the acess point downstairs. This wifi6 router is now running everything perfectly with super fast wifi all over the house and no more issues with anything its a great solution imho.

RangeR wrote: »

Good stuff.


Did you bridge your VM router? This may cause double NAT [you generally don't want this] if you have two routers on the same network. It may also cause DHCP issues if you have both devices issuing IP addresses to devices. Might not be an issue now but may become an issue when you try to talk between devices.

Do you have the VM WIFI still on? This may cause interference with the TPLink WIFI, unless on different channels.

I have the virgin media router in modem mode.
The tp link ax50 connected to it in bedroom upstairs. Attic is converted so router serves the whole house. The speeds are excellent everywhere. A modern phone with WiFi 5 getting 180mb minimum(usually 240mb+) downstairs from a 250mb max. in the future when all devices are WiFi 6 it can only be better..

The main thing I have learned is the WiFi 6 router has a powerful CPU which manages and controls the internet way better that the virgin media router and access point (even without WiFi 6 devices)(. I did not realise how badly controlled my internet was previously. It's a huge eye-opener.

ablelocks wrote: »

i have a google mesh network - 1 primary, connected to the vodafone ftth router and 5 wifi points (1st gen, not the newer Nest version)

(the only devices that use the vodafone router are wired to it via ethernet cable / switch boxes).

All wifi devices are connected to the google mesh.

when we had eir, there were no issues but over the last few months, there's been the occasional loss of wifi connection on a variety of devices

I'm wondering should i change the vodafone router for something better - or are there settings in the vodafone router or google mesh that need to be changed?

I don't like to badmouth providers but I have little love for Vodafone. Just nothing but problems with their vDSL service over multiple sites.


To resolve your issues and as mentioned many times here....
1. Is your Vodafone set to modem/bridge mode or router? It should be bridge/modem and only your primary google wifi router connected to any of the vodafone LAN ports.

2. Is your Vodafone router WIFI disabled? It must be disabled.

ablelocks wrote: »

will try that.

but if i set it to modem/bridge mode, does that affect the devices connected by ethernet - 1 wfh laptop, 11 tv/streaming/console devices

Nothing should be connected to the Vodafone modem when it's set to bridge more EXCEPT the one google wifi router. The Voda bridged modem is now unsecure. Google Wifi will now be providing all security to your LAN.



The Vodafone modem in bridged mode is simply just providing unrestricted internet to the google wifi router. ALL of your devices should then be connected to the google wifi or one ethernet port. If you have multiple hard wired devices, purchase a cheep gigabit switch.


All of this has been mentioned before to similar setups. Just read over the previous 4 or 5 pages.

Got the 3 pack S4s, turned WiFi off on ISP, all ethernets remain connected to the ISP (Hue, etc).

I notice both other device connect back to the “main” hub, when it would seem that the one furthest away should use the middle one as it’s signal source.

I also feel like I need to turn off the 2.4G signal to ensure my phones and other devices avail of the 5G. Thoughts?

Can you explain that further for the uneducated amongst us?