Question Help me decide on mesh..

[agdodge4x4]

I currently have a broadband router that is connected to an ASUS Ac1900 RT-AC68U router. From there I have other routers in my house running DDWRT and bridging to the Asus so that my hardwired devices can still get to the main router wirelessly.

The system is OK, but the far reaches of the house have to connect to the closest router and sometimes that signal is mediocre and the speeds suck.

I feel like a mesh system would be better, but how do I accomodate my PC which is across the house and needs a hard wired connection? The main asus router supports AIMESH. So, do I just need a couple of nodes, or should I buy additional aimesh routers and place those in a couple of dead areas?

 

[bill001g]

Your problem is you think mesh is some magic thing.

What you currently have is a form of mesh. The only difference is idiots who are lucky if they can plug the power into the wall can setup a mesh repeater system.

It has all the same problem you are seeing. You are trading performance for coverage.

There are some slightly better mesh systems that have dedicated radio chips to talk back to the main router but of course that adds to the cost. It still has 2 signals that can get interfered with it just does not interfere with itself which is what stupid repeaters do.

I am not sure what you call a "wired" connection. Just because you hook a ethernet cable to device that then using wifi to talk to the main router that is not wired. It is not really any different than buy say a USB wifi nic card it is just using a different method to send the data between the device and the computer they still have the same bad wifi signals in the room.

So your best options if you can not use ethernet are first MoCA if you have coax cables in both rooms. This technology can get full gigabit speeds. The next would be powerline networks. This is a bit slower but all you need are electrical outlets. Powerline in some cases might be slower than wifi but it is much more stable.

If you can not use any of these I would then try to see if you can place your current ddwrt bridge devices in better locations. Key to any mesh/repeater is it must be able to hear the main router with a strong signal but still be able to provide signal to the remote rooms. When you are using the ddwrt router as a wifi nic card that makes it s little harder. I guess it depends on how far you can move the repeater box and still connect a ethernet cord to it.

 

[agdodge4x4]

Your problem is you think mesh is some magic thing.

What you currently have is a form of mesh. The only difference is idiots who are lucky if they can plug the power into the wall can setup a mesh repeater system.

It has all the same problem you are seeing. You are trading performance for coverage.

There are some slightly better mesh systems that have dedicated radio chips to talk back to the main router but of course that adds to the cost. It still has 2 signals that can get interfered with it just does not interfere with itself which is what stupid repeaters do.

I am not sure what you call a "wired" connection. Just because you hook a ethernet cable to device that then using wifi to talk to the main router that is not wired. It is not really any different than buy say a USB wifi nic card it is just using a different method to send the data between the device and the computer they still have the same bad wifi signals in the room.

So your best options if you can not use ethernet are first MoCA if you have coax cables in both rooms. This technology can get full gigabit speeds. The next would be powerline networks. This is a bit slower but all you need are electrical outlets. Powerline in some cases might be slower than wifi but it is much more stable.

If you can not use any of these I would then try to see if you can place your current ddwrt bridge devices in better locations. Key to any mesh/repeater is it must be able to hear the main router with a strong signal but still be able to provide signal to the remote rooms. When you are using the ddwrt router as a wifi nic card that makes it s little harder. I guess it depends on how far you can move the repeater box and still connect a ethernet cord to it.

Actually, a MOCA network would be beautiful but all the coax is tied up with dish network on the joeys.

Also, to clear up what I mean by 'hardwired', I mean exactly what you suspected. I have devices that do not have wifi capability and they are plugged into a router which then bridges to the main router over wifi. That's all.

 

[Oasis Curator]

And to be fair, some "mesh" networks are much better than what has preceeded them.

I had some awful powerlines by TP-Link. They were okay, but speeds were 4MB tops.
I upgraded to TP-Link Deco M4 mesh network and the downloads have jumped to 70MB.
My connection is 250MB and I get that when testing on a PC that is physsically plugged into the node that's next to the modem.

So in my experience, yes, mesh networking is some sort of magic thing that has massively improved my speeds. To say it's a load of marketing lark (like I have seen here before) is just flat our wrong in this comparison.

 

[Richj444]

And to be fair, some "mesh" networks are much better than what has preceeded them.
...
So in my experience, yes, mesh networking is some sort of magic thing that has massively improved my speeds. To say it's a load of marketing lark (like I have seen here before) is just flat our wrong in this comparison.

Totally agree. Wireless in my house was a nightmare until I bought an Orbi system. It is now rock solid throughout my 2700 sf 2 story home. Good speeds everywhere and no dropouts anywhere. Would I prefer ethernet everywhere? Sure, but that would require a huge investment of my time and effort, or my money. Since the mesh system is working so well there's no point in running ethernet.