Question Planning to set up a mesh network with FIOS , Iooking for advice on a few concerns

[job_van_dam]

Bought my in-law's house last year and inherited their FIOS setup. I'm having trouble getting a good signal throughout the house due to its size (roughly 2700 sq ft). I pay for 1GB speed which is great on the hardwired devices and those close to the router, but in other parts of the house not so much. This wasn't a significant problem that needed addressing until my son arrived, now we need good wifi throughout the house to ensure the baby cameras are always reliably connected.

The FIOS setup is in the basement (G3100) with a Verizon brand extender (E3200) directly above it in the family room (pictures). The extender is plugged in via coax, which I admittedly don't understand the purpose of (not a network guy), and if I unplug it the one and only TV with a Verizon box drops out for some reason. My primary concern is replacing this extender and ensuring our TV box continues to work properly, so I'm hoping someone can give me some insight on what may be happening there. I imagine trying to use a Verizon extender with a mesh network will not result in a good experience, which is why I want to replace that, but please correct me if I'm mistaken.

I'm planning to get a three-device mesh set up and have been looking at Orbi, TP-Link, and eero. I plan to have one unit replace the extender, a second unit in the middle of the house, and the third in my office, where there's an ethernet port that my office computer is currently plugged into (this is the only room in the house that I was able to run a cable to from the basement). My son's nursery is next to my office, so having a unit in this area is extremely important.

 

[bill001g]

Do not get snowed by the marketing. Mesh is you very worst option for fixing this problem. You want to choose this as a option when you have nothing left. In addition you can't buy the cheap mesh systems the are just repeater renamed you need the units that have dedicated backhaul radios. This greatly increases the price, in fact it increases it so far that you might be able to pay someone to run ethernet cables.

You are very lucky in some ways verizon their latest offerings perform very well and they have their own "mesh" system built in. What they actually have is MoCA support in the units. This was mostly done so their tv boxes could get internet access but they are using standard moca.

Moca in effect is a ethernet cable run over coax cables. So any room you have coax in you can just put a moca box in and get ethernet out. The lazy way to do this would be to buy verizon "extenders" and put them in the remote rooms to provide wifi and ethernet. Since they are standard you could buy standard moca boxes and if you need wifi you could use cheap router to act as a AP in the remote room.

Moca is going to be massively supperior to any form of wifi or mesh system. Although I don't think the verizon ones support it you can actually get 2.5gbit over moca. With even the very best mesh systems you are not going to see much over 300-400mbps with lots of variations in the latency. The moca system will greatly outperform this.

So if you have more coax jacks and are lazy just call verizon and ask them what they can sell you. Otherwise look up how moca works. It will likely be cheaper, verizon like to charge a premium for their stuff.

 

[USAFRet]

It will likely be cheaper, verizon like to charge a premium for their stuff.

When I had FiOS reinstalled in this house, the tech gave me a MOCA for free.
(just because I'm a nice guy)
Only needed the one, because the Verizon G1100 handles the other half.

Works perfectly, provides a rock solid connection for upstairs.

 

[job_van_dam]

Do not get snowed by the marketing. Mesh is you very worst option for fixing this problem. You want to choose this as a option when you have nothing left. In addition you can't buy the cheap mesh systems the are just repeater renamed you need the units that have dedicated backhaul radios. This greatly increases the price, in fact it increases it so far that you might be able to pay someone to run ethernet cables.

You are very lucky in some ways verizon their latest offerings perform very well and they have their own "mesh" system built in. What they actually have is MoCA support in the units. This was mostly done so their tv boxes could get internet access but they are using standard moca.

Moca in effect is a ethernet cable run over coax cables. So any room you have coax in you can just put a moca box in and get ethernet out. The lazy way to do this would be to buy verizon "extenders" and put them in the remote rooms to provide wifi and ethernet. Since they are standard you could buy standard moca boxes and if you need wifi you could use cheap router to act as a AP in the remote room.

Moca is going to be massively supperior to any form of wifi or mesh system. Although I don't think the verizon ones support it you can actually get 2.5gbit over moca. With even the very best mesh systems you are not going to see much over 300-400mbps with lots of variations in the latency. The moca system will greatly outperform this.

So if you have more coax jacks and are lazy just call verizon and ask them what they can sell you. Otherwise look up how moca works. It will likely be cheaper, verizon like to charge a premium for their stuff.

Thank you for this! I'll look into MoCA.