Question Alternatives to Mesh Wifi Systems

[dropshotsndonuts]

Hello all, I have a general question about alternatives to mesh wifi systems, and then I would appreciate any recommendations for my specific circumstances.

For the general question, I am seeing a lot of dislike for mesh wifi systems among the pros on this forum, but I am not exactly clear on what the alternative looks like.

• If I want a home wifi system with seamless transitions between nodes, what do you recommend instead of a mesh system?
• Does it differ in performance, or just setup?
• What would an alternative to mesh look like in terms of cost and setup?

With that said, here are a few specifics on my circumstances. Any recommendations on what to do, or how to configure the network, would be appreciated!

• I currently have two old routers (circa 2013 and 2015) connected via ethernet. The goal was to have them distribute a single wireless network in our two-story townhouse, but it does not hand off between routers nicely (perhaps a setup problem) and the networks fail sometimes (which I am guessing is a router problem). It feels like time to upgrade.
• The main router needs to be in a closet where the ONT and ethernet cables are, so signal strength is valuable
• Any secondary nodes would be on the second floor, connected via an ethernet backhaul. The second router would be at one end of the townhouse, so the signal has to go through a long hallway.
• If it matters, we are near a large apartment building and so there are lots of other networks around.
• I am looking to upgrade to get a stronger, seamless connection. Our current internet is 300mbps, so we do not need gigabit speeds today, but I am willing to pay for quality and signal strength. Futureproofing has some value for us.
• Expensive mesh systems (e.g. Asus ZenWifi) are well-reviewed and would probably solve all of the problems, but they may be overkill and, as asked above, there may be practical alternatives.

 

[bill001g]

Running ethernet connected wifi radios has been the industry standard method since day one of wifi.

Vendors of "mesh" equipment try to pretend this is something new. The only thing "new" is using wifi signals rather than ethernet for the backhaul. That has massive performance issue which is why larger enterprise installs still use ethernet conencted "AP".

You main problem is wifi was never designed for mobile use. Any kind of roaming is primarily controlled by the end device and because the end device has no good way to tell if there is a "better" signal they tend to stay connected to a poor signal rather than switch. You can change to a point how this works but then you run the risk of it hopping back and forth with small outages each time.
So why do you actually need "seamless" roaming. Years ago this was done when cell companies did not have unlimited plans and companies used wifi. What application do you have that you walk around and use....I hope you don't watch netflix while you fall down the stairs in your house. Then again lots of people walk into traffic doing the same with a cell system.

So the lazy way to get this to work is you the human just start and stop the wifi client and it will connect to the best source in most cases. The harder way is to try to help the end device out. You need to reduce the wifi power on your Routers/ap so they have less overlap. That way the signal level will drop low enough that the device will look for a new source. It is lots of trial an error to get the signal level optimum.

There is no such thing as "seamless" roaming you will always take a short drop but only something like a online video game would disconnect you.....and again I hope you are not walking around your house trying to play csgo.

No fancy mesh system will solve this problem. Only a change to the end devices will. Some commercial systems load software into the clients to they run more like a cell network where the network can control the end device and balance the systems. Even large businesses don't often buy this because of the massive support issues with all the end devices needed special software.

 

[gggplaya]

spam

Ubiquiti Unifi has some MESH nodes access points. I'd rather have ubiquiti instead of those cheaper mesh kits because you can have 8 SSID's per access point. I still like to use a unique SSID for each node for fixed devices that don't move such as TV streaming boxes, gaming consoles, security cameras, and even laptops that are mainly used as desktops. This is due to the possibility of latching onto a further node when I don't want to happens, happen's alot with 2.4ghz.

For mobile devices like smartphones. I have a roaming SSID for all access points, but for ubiquiti roaming to work, you have to run their unifi management software on a raspberry pi, a computer, or buy their router or cloudkey.

 

[axlrose]

Wondering what is current from ubiquiti? (If it's okay for me to hop on this post.). I have had my main router hardwired to two other ubiquiti ap's for years, and they are fairly good (my main complaint is that when there is any sort of issue with them, everyone that can help seems to be a tech expert and I can't follow any of their lingo or directions). I have one bedroom I have been unable to figure out now to get a hardwired line to (my house has no ethernet, but we ran cat 6e to two rooms for the ap's some years ago) and I'd love to get a solution for that bedroom if I still can't come up with a way to get a hardline to it.

 

[gggplaya]

Wondering what is current from ubiquiti? (If it's okay for me to hop on this post.). I have had my main router hardwired to two other ubiquiti ap's for years, and they are fairly good (my main complaint is that when there is any sort of issue with them, everyone that can help seems to be a tech expert and I can't follow any of their lingo or directions). I have one bedroom I have been unable to figure out now to get a hardwired line to (my house has no ethernet, but we ran cat 6e to two rooms for the ap's some years ago) and I'd love to get a solution for that bedroom if I still can't come up with a way to get a hardline to it.

If you have coax cable outlets(normally for TV), you can use MOCA adapters which are nearly as good as ethernet.