Question How to set up wifi pods at home with an existing router?

[Sneaky666]

I have a bell home hub 2000, and I want to connect wifi pods to it. I wanted to know what is the best way to set it up.

The pods I'm looking at now is this one https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09VVV18D9/ref=emc_b_5_t

Some questions I have is?

1. Is tri band better than dual band if only phones and maybe 1-2 laptops will ever be connected?
2. Should I make it an AP mode for the pods, or disable the bell HH2000 wifi and set up a new wifi from the pods? I guess if I leave the bell wifi on, would it interfere with the pod wifi or somehow work together to make it better?
3. Would these pods work with the bell hub 2000, or am I only limited to the bell pods itself?
4. Can a switch be connected to a pod for additional LAN ports?

Ideally looking to set it up like this:

Thanks

 

[bill001g]

There is no reason to spend extra money for a fancy/expensive mesh system when you are just going to use them as AP.

You can not cable it the way you show since these units only have 2 ethernet ports and you show #2 with 3 cables.

Why do you have pod1 near the router do you need better wifi coverage.

What will be cheaper to do is just buy some inexpensive routers with a number 1200-1450 and use them as AP.

Pretty much these unit will match the vast majority of wifi devices. Almost all portable devices only have 2 antnnea so you will not be able to use fancy stuff like 3x3 or 4x4 mimo. In addition unless you have a wifi6 device it also will not benefit to have a wifi6 radio unit.

The other problem with wifi6 is the key way it gets a faster speed is with 160mhz radio channels. These have issues because of government restrictions on weather radar interference. Because of this very few end devices even if they are wifi6 support 160mhz. In addition you are going to be lucky to get 1 single 160mhz radio band, you will not get 3 or even 2. What people have found is because of this issue wifi6 does not run faster than 802.11ac (wifi5) for most people.

If you are going to chase expensive equipment look at wifi6e, there is much more radio bandwidth on the 6g radio channels. End devices are just starting to be more common that support wifi6e

 

[Sneaky666]

"There is no reason to spend extra money for a fancy/expensive mesh system when you are just going to use them as AP. "
I would be connecting phones and laptops wirelessly to them. And TV's and desktops wired to them. My home has terrible walling and flooring+ceiling, they really limit the wifi, so thats why 1 wifi AP even at the center of the house, is not good enough, still get bad speeds.

"You can not cable it the way you show since these units only have 2 ethernet ports and you show #2 with 3 cables. "
I see that the pods have 3 ports each actually. But even if it were 2, couldn't I just attach a switch on one of them, then connect the next pod from the switch, and add more devices on the switch?

"Why do you have pod1 near the router do you need better wifi coverage. "
I plan to keep pod 1 near the bell HH2000 router because I'm disabling the wifi on the bell HH 2000 router, to not cause interference with the pod wifi waves. They won't work together as a mesh anyways so why keep it on right?

"What will be cheaper to do is just buy some inexpensive routers with a number 1200-1450 and use them as AP. "
I considered that but routers wifi waves will interfere with each other, and not auto switch when a person walks from room to room, on their phone. It either won't switch or it will take much longer to switch. Or it just stays connected even if its at 1% connection (that is if it switches only when its completely out of range).

Good catch, I didn't know about wifi6 vs wifi6E. 6E will definitely be better for future so will consider that.

 

[Sneaky666]

In terms of the 4 questions above initial post, do you know the answer to those as well?

 

[bill001g]

What do you think "mesh" is. Using a ethernet cable to remote AP is the way it has been done since the begining of wifi to increase coverage. It is all still a single network. Large corporation do it this way they do not use silly wireless repeaters/mesh.

First why do you actually need roaming. I hope you are not one of those people who watches netflix while he falls down the stairs in his house.

In any case the roaming is done by the end device not the network no matter what the mesh people pretend. Key to making roaming work is proper placement of the wifi units and adjusting the radio power so you get as little overlap as possible but still have good coverage.
No system will get so called seamless roaming you will always take some glitch but if you set it up properly by the time you walk from one room to the other the device will figure it out. If it doesn't you just stop and start the wifi client, Its not likely you are running back and forth between the rooms. All some mesh systems do is maybe try to force the device off the network and hope if picks a better radio to connect to but since the it has no way to tell what the radio signals the end device actually sees it may connect right back to the same node. Unlike cell networks the end devcie is not controlled by the network.

Do not let the marketing guys scam you mesh is purely a way to get people to spend more money, people have learned that "new and Improved" means nothing so now they put "mesh" on the box.

I would use the bell router as your main router and then buy 2 other routers to use in the remote rooms as AP. Since most routers have 4 lan ports you maybe able to not buy a extra switch.

When I looked the specs up on you unit they said they only had 2 ports but you can use a switch to add more.....I think some mesh units restrict things to force you to buy more equipment from them. This is the added advantage of doing it yourself with small ap/routers, everything pretty much will function together no matter the brand.

If you were actually using the wifi repeater function rather than ethernet cables then you might consider mesh system. The better mesh systems will work better than the older simple repeaters. Still using ethernet cable for the backhaul to the main router is always the best option and you should never use a wifi repeater unless you have no other option.