Wifi mesh systems

Bluefoam · 09-01-2021 11:24pm

Redordeadqwwer wrote: »

Alright so I’ve got it all set up. Everything appears to be working well but then occasionally the connection will drop altogether and I can’t access anything on any device. It will come back after a while then.

Right beside the main node I get 450mb but then when it drops out I can’t even load a google page.

Is there any reason for this loss of service? It comes back all of a sudden then after a while.

Have you disabled WiFi on the modem? Set it up as a bridge.

DrPhilG · 09-01-2021 11:26pm

Gooey Looey wrote: »

5ghz doesn't penetrate well you will only get high speeds in the room it's in!

Thank God for bungalows!

I've got pretty much 350mb minimum throughout the house now.

And in the garage. Just switched out for AC-AP-M for another LITE instead.

Leftwaffe · 09-01-2021 11:39pm

Bluefoam wrote: »

Have you disabled WiFi on the modem? Set it up as a bridge.

I have disabled WiFi on the modem yes. Turned off both 2.4 and 5ghz. What do you mean set it up as a bridge? Sorry, new to this. I just followed the instructions on the app to be honest.

Bluefoam · 09-01-2021 11:48pm

Redordeadqwwer wrote: »

I have disabled WiFi on the modem yes. Turned off both 2.4 and 5ghz. What do you mean set it up as a bridge? Sorry, new to this. I just followed the instructions on the app to be honest.

You need 2.4 and 5 on... They are the two bands that supply the WiFi connection. 2.4 for slower speed requirements, but stronger signal. 5 for faster devices such as phones.

A setting the modem as a bridge allows the signals to pass through, allows ethernet access to the interweb and your new mesh runs the WiFi.

Leftwaffe · 09-01-2021 11:53pm

Bluefoam wrote: »

You need 2.4 and 5 on... They are the two bands that supply the WiFi connection. 2.4 for slower speed requirements, but stronger signal. 5 for faster devices such as phones.

A setting the modem as a bridge allows the signals to pass through, allows ethernet access to the interweb and your new mesh runs the WiFi.

Sorry I meant I have the original 2.4 & 5ghz networks turned off on my Eir router. I now only have the Deco M4 network. Everything is working apart from the occasional drop out.

I’ll look into setting it up as a bridge. I think that may already be done in the initial setup.

Gooey Looey · 10-01-2021 9:07am

Redordeadqwwer wrote: »

Sorry I meant I have the original 2.4 & 5ghz networks turned off on my Eir router. I now only have the Deco M4 network. Everything is working apart from the occasional drop out.

I’ll look into setting it up as a bridge. I think that may already be done in the initial setup.

Without bridging your modem or running your mesh in ap mode you will be running double NAT which is not ideal. Instead of extending your existing private network you will have created a second private network. Thich means two firewalls, which means plug and play won't work and causes problems for many things.
Better explained here
https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT

Irish Gunner · 11-01-2021 12:08pm

If the wifi is only not great in one room(office) but I have so many wifi enabled devices Alexa(4), Hue(over 20 bulbs possible adding more), ring door and phones on wifi general use. Is it worth getting a mesh?

Have PC and Nvidia Shield hardwired but office room has wifi but ok and can drop. Looking at putting second TV and another shield in office and cannot hardwire it at the moment.

Router is bridged and using a TP Link Archer C8 so looking at getting a wifi extender TP-Link AC1750 for the office.

I think mesh might be overkill but with so many wifi devices and possible new ones getting added is it worth going the mesh route? No issues yet with them but not sure if there will be if I add more Hue or Ring items

TP-Link AC1750 short term solution so as to keep wifi good and not drop but still looking at reviews on it. Then look at wifi mesh in the future

Thoughts?

Gregor Samsa · 11-01-2021 12:33pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

If the wifi is only not great in one room(office) but I have so many wifi enabled devices Alexa(4), Hue(over 20 bulbs possible adding more), ring door and phones on wifi general use. Is it worth getting a mesh?

[...]

Thoughts?

First up, your Hue devices aren't using WiFi. They use either Bluetooth or Zigbee, depending on how you have them set up (I assume if you have over 20, you've got a Hue hub - which is wired to your router, in which case the devices themselves will be using Zigbee to communicate with it). So you can count them out of this discussion.

It's very doubtful that you're anywhere near maxing out your router with the number of WiFI devices you have. Obviously if you had them all at full tilt downloading at the same time, you may to run into bandwidth problems, but that will be as much true of your internet connection as your wifi one. In reality, you'll probable only have a maximum of 3 or 4 devices doing any significant network activity at any given time. I wouldn't see the number of devices as being a reason to use a mesh system in itself. I wouldn't be worried about the number of wifi devices unless you were getting into the hundreds. From a purely physical point of view of assigning IP addresses, if your router's subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 (usually the default), then in theory you have 255 IP addresses to assign to devices. In practice, it's a little less, because the router needs one, and some are used in other areas of network upkeep. But it's still about 250 devices. Some routers my put lower limits in place.

Just checking my network now - I've got 24 WiFi devices online. Two of us on laptops on Boards working from home, one kid on a laptop doing home-school work, an Apple TV streaming YouTube, and the usual traffic from phones, tablets, hubs, Echos, Ring Cameras and other devices. Total network traffic at the moment is about 7Mbps. That's on a 500Mbps line. That number of devices is no-where near troubling the network. If a few of those devices were streaming 4k Netflix at the same time, you'd certainly see an increase, but I doubt either the Internet connection nor the wifi bandwidth would get maxed out.

For me, mesh (Deco M9 plus) was a gamechanger - not necessarily in terms of download speed or even reach (although it did improve those), but in terms of network stability. It's been absolutely rock solid for the 4 months or so that I've had it, which was not the case at all with my ISP's modem/router.

I had a Netgear extender before for the home office (like you, the room in the house with the worst wifi reception). It worked, in that it was better than not having it, but the network was unstable (mainly the fault of the IPS router). If your wifi is otherwise fine, an extender might be enough to do the trick. A good mesh system, however, will be a general upgrade for your wifi experience.

Irish Gunner · 11-01-2021 1:07pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

First up, your Hue devices aren't using WiFi. They use either Bluetooth or Zigbee, depending on how you have them set up (I assume if you have over 20, you've got a Hue hub - which is wired to your router, in which case the devices themselves will be using Zigbee to communicate with it). So you can count them out of this discussion.

It's very doubtful that you're anywhere near maxing out your router with the number of WiFI devices you have. Obviously if you had them all at full tilt downloading at the same time, you may to run into bandwidth problems, but that will be as much true of your internet connection as your wifi one. In reality, you'll probable only have a maximum of 3 or 4 devices doing any significant network activity at any given time. I wouldn't see the number of devices as being a reason to use a mesh system in itself. I wouldn't be worried about the number of wifi devices unless you were getting into the hundreds. From a purely physical point of view of assigning IP addresses, if your router's subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 (usually the default), then in theory you have 255 IP addresses to assign to devices. In practice, it's a little less, because the router needs one, and some are used in other areas of network upkeep. But it's still about 250 devices. Some routers my put lower limits in place.

Just checking my network now - I've got 24 WiFi devices online. Two of us on laptops on Boards working from home, one kid on a laptop doing home-school work, an Apple TV streaming YouTube, and the usual traffic from phones, tablets, hubs, Echos, Ring Cameras and other devices. Total network traffic at the moment is about 7Mbps. That's on a 500Mbps line. That number of devices is no-where near troubling the network. If a few of those devices were streaming 4k Netflix at the same time, you'd certainly see an increase, but I doubt either the Internet connection nor the wifi bandwidth would get maxed out.

For me, mesh (Deco M9 plus) was a gamechanger - not necessarily in terms of download speed or even reach (although it did improve those), but in terms of network stability. It's been absolutely rock solid for the 4 months or so that I've had it, which was not the case at all with my ISP's modem/router.

I had a Netgear extender before for the home office (like you, the room in the house with the worst wifi reception). It worked, in that it was better than not having it, but the network was unstable (mainly the fault of the IPS router). If your wifi is otherwise fine, an extender might be enough to do the trick. A good mesh system, however, will be a general upgrade for your wifi experience.

Cheers

No gamers in the house so thats good . On the virgin 500mb so working fine and not going to upgrade to higher speed

Just did speed check on 5gh in office and getting 117 download and 51 upload which is ok but only 4 download on 2.4ghz and this is the one wifi keeps defaulting to this wave in the office

So anyway of wifi in office picking 5gh or will the extender default to this as want to be able to watch streaming in office on tv using wifi?

DeadSkin · 11-01-2021 1:10pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

A good mesh system, however, will be a general upgrade for your wifi experience.

Agree with this, since getting the M4 wifi has been solid, I have a crap router my ISP provided.

The wifi extender the OP referenced is about 70 Euro, for the extra 30-50 quid you'd get a double pack/triple pack M4.

Irish Gunner · 11-01-2021 1:34pm

DeadSkin wrote: »

Agree with this, since getting the M4 wifi has been solid, I have a crap router my ISP provided.

The wifi extender the OP referenced is about 70 Euro, for the extra 30-50 quid you'd get a double pack/triple pack M4.

Agree but the Archer C8 that I have has a couple of ethernet ports and I am currently using 3 of them

Seems most wifi meshes have less than this???

Or am ai missing something?

Gregor Samsa · 11-01-2021 1:48pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Agree but the Archer C8 that I have has a couple of ethernet ports and I am currently using 3 of them

Seems most wifi meshes have less than this???

Or am ai missing something?

yeah, the Deco M9 plus only has 2 (the base station needs one to plug into the modem). I think some other mesh systems have 3, but I didn't come across any with more than that.

Easy solution though: an inexpensive network switch. I got a 5 port one (which takes 4 devices, as one port will connect to your mesh unit):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-LS105G-Desktop-Wallmount-Ethernet/dp/B07RQHL251

but you can easily get ones with 8 ports or more for not much more.

Confused11811 · 12-01-2021 9:03pm

I took the plunge on a wifi mesh system just before Christmas and only got around to settings it up last week. I got a used Orbi RBK53 (1 router and 2 satellite's) on eBay UK for just over €220 delivered. I'm currently using just one of the satellite's and the results have been absolutely amazing.

I'm on Virgins 250 broadband package and I've full download and upload speeds through out my house, absolutely no drop in speed. It's a large 70's 4 bed house with garage conversion and office in the attic, each room now with perfect wifi. I regret not getting a wifi mesh years ago, it's a big initial cost but to me it's worth it. The router and AV plugs it replaced where expensive too and the setup looks much neater and there is no constant messing around trying to fix internet issues

RangeR · 13-01-2021 10:24am

Confused11811 wrote: »

I took the plunge on a wifi mesh system just before Christmas and only got around to settings it up last week. I got a used Orbi RBK53 (1 router and 2 satellite's) on eBay UK for just over €220 delivered. I'm currently using just one of the satellite's and the results have been absolutely amazing.

I'm on Virgins 250 broadband package and I've full download and upload speeds through out my house, absolutely no drop in speed. It's a large 70's 4 bed house with garage conversion and office in the attic, each room now with perfect wifi. I regret not getting a wifi mesh years ago, it's a big initial cost but to me it's worth it. The router and AV plugs it replaced where expensive too and the setup looks much neater and there is no constant messing around trying to fix internet issues

Nice. Are the satellites wired or wireless back to the router?

Irish Gunner · 13-01-2021 4:34pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

yeah, the Deco M9 plus only has 2 (the base station needs one to plug into the modem). I think some other mesh systems have 3, but I didn't come across any with more than that.

Easy solution though: an inexpensive network switch. I got a 5 port one (which takes 4 devices, as one port will connect to your mesh unit):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-LS105G-Desktop-Wallmount-Ethernet/dp/B07RQHL251

but you can easily get ones with 8 ports or more for not much more.

Cheers

Wonder if I can get network switch and use the current hard wire line I have into the office ? Put that into the switch and then feed off that into PC and TV and Android box in Office.

Would the speed decrease due to this?

Main issue is that the 5ghz is ok around the house but you sometimes have to manually select it esp in the office it always seems to default to 2.4ghz and this speed on this is woeful in places

So would the mesh sort this out and default to the 5ghz or does it depend on where the mesh are placed around the house

Cyrus · 13-01-2021 4:36pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Cheers

Wonder if I can get network switch and use the current hard wire line I have into the office ? Put that into the switch and then feed off that into PC and TV and Android box in Office.

Would the speed decrease due to this?

Main issue is that the 5ghz is ok around the house but you sometimes have to manually select it esp in the office it always seems to default to 2.4ghz and this speed on this is woeful in places

So would the mesh sort this out and default to the 5ghz or does it depend on where the mesh are placed around the house

speed wont decrease with a decent switch,

if you want 5ghz just have a seperate 5ghz network, connect to that and forget the old 2.4one that way itll only connect to 5ghz

Irish Gunner · 13-01-2021 4:41pm

Cyrus wrote: »

speed wont decrease with a decent switch,

if you want 5ghz just have a separate 5ghz network, connect to that and forget the old 2.4one that way itll only connect to 5ghz

Might look at switch option for office will have a look at TP-Link LS105G 5-Port

I think that certain items in the house can only connect to 2.4ghz might be the TP link plugs or something not sure

Thus the reason I keep it open

Still need to sort out the wifi in the office just need it for phone as it keeps defaulting to 2.4gh and drops outs randomly during the day

Cyrus · 13-01-2021 5:29pm

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Might look at switch option for office will have a look at TP-Link LS105G 5-Port

I think that certain items in the house can only connect to 2.4ghz might be the TP link plugs or something not sure

Thus the reason I keep it open

Still need to sort out the wifi in the office just need it for phone as it keeps defaulting to 2.4gh and drops outs randomly during the day

its no issue keeping it open but forget it as a network on devices that you dont want connecting to it.

Leftwaffe · 13-01-2021 7:33pm

I’m still having some connectivity issues with my Deco M4 mesh setup. WiFi stops working for a few minutes every hour or 2. When right beside the main node I normally get 450. Then even loading google searches stalls for a couple of mins every now and then.

I’m not technically minded enough to figure out the issue is, could anyone help? Here’s a couple of images of my setup currently. I just plugged it all in and followed the app for initial setup. Maybe I have something wrong.

degsie · 13-01-2021 7:38pm

Redordeadqwwer wrote: »

I’m still having some connectivity issues with my Deco M4 mesh setup. WiFi stops working for a few minutes every hour or 2. When right beside the main node I normally get 450. Then even loading google searches stalls for a couple of mins every now and then.

I’m not technically minded enough to figure out the issue is, could anyone help? Here’s a couple of images of my setup currently. I just plugged it all in and followed the app for initial setup. Maybe I have something wrong.

Did you configure the main M4 node as a router or as an access point (AP)?

Leftwaffe · 13-01-2021 7:41pm

degsie wrote: »

Did you configure the main M4 node as a router or as an access point (AP)?

I actually have no idea. I just followed the setup. I don’t recall it asking me to choose between an AP or a router although it could have. Could that be the issue??

Just from a bit of research there it looks to be in access point mode judging by the options available to me in the app.

Edit: I think I’ve figured out how to set my Eir modem/router to bridge mode. Would this help?

degsie · 13-01-2021 7:51pm

Redordeadqwwer wrote: »

I actually have no idea. I just followed the setup. I don’t recall it asking me to choose between an AP or a router although it could have. Could that be the issue??

Just from a bit of research there it looks to be in access point mode judging by the options available to me in the app.

Edit: I think I’ve figured out how to set my Eir modem/router to bridge mode. Would this help?

from the app, tap on the 'more' option (bottom right, 9 dots) then on 'advanced' and you should see operating mode

Leftwaffe · 13-01-2021 7:55pm

degsie wrote: »

from the app, tap on the 'more' option (bottom right, 9 dots) then on 'advanced' and you should see operating mode

I stand corrected. It’s in router mode. Here’s my settings. Thanks for the help btw.

degsie · 13-01-2021 7:58pm

You have a router hanging off another router therefore 'double NAT' may be your issue.

Two choices:
(1) Bridge the eir router
(b) Change the M4 mode to Access Point

Leftwaffe · 13-01-2021 8:01pm

degsie wrote: »

You have a router hanging off another router therefore 'double NAT' may be your issue.

Two choices:
(1) Bridge the eir router
(b) Change the M4 mode to Access Point

That’s great, I know how to do both of those!!! Which would you recommend?

degsie · 13-01-2021 8:07pm

Redordeadqwwer wrote: »

That’s great, I know how to do both of those!!! Which would you recommend?

You could try both I suppose and see which one you get best performance with.

Note that if you bridge the eir modem you would have to move your TV ethernet connection to the M4 side.

Personally I have my M4 set as an AP, happy enough with it.

Edit: If changing the M4 to AP, turn off WiFi on the eir router to avoid interference.

Leftwaffe · 13-01-2021 8:48pm

degsie wrote: »

You could try both I suppose and see which one you get best performance with.

Note that if you bridge the eir modem you would have to move your TV ethernet connection to the M4 side.

Personally I have my M4 set as an AP, happy enough with it.

Edit: If changing the M4 to AP, turn off WiFi on the eir router to avoid interference.

Does the mesh system work fine in AP mode?

I think I’m going to try AP mode as I need the extra Ethernet ports on the Eir router/modem for TV and a Raspberry Pi I’m setting up. The main M4 only has one extra Ethernet port.

I have the WiFi off on the Eir router already. Solely operating off the M4 at the moment.

Thanks again.

Shedite27 · 13-01-2021 9:34pm

How do people find the wifi speed on Virgin 3.0 Hub V Google Mesh. I did a before and after test....
with Virgin Setup - 244 MBPS download
with Google Mesh - 210 MBPS download

Is it right that I should be sacrificing a bit of speed for the benefits of the extra footprint that the Mesh gives me? Or should I be able to get same speed from the Mesh?

(both speeds taken 5m from router, same traffic load etc)

Confused11811 · 13-01-2021 9:45pm

RangeR wrote: »

Nice. Are the satellites wired or wireless back to the router?

The Satellite is wirelessly connected. I didn't think it was possible to get the performance I'm getting without a wired connection. I was expecting a good performance but nothing like what I'm getting currently. It's far exceeded anything I thought possible on a wireless network, basically it's wired network performance with zero installation hassle.

Leftwaffe · 14-01-2021 12:06am

Sorted. No issues since with my setup. Thanks for the help degsie

Wifi mesh systems

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